Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr. Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr. Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr. (August 13, 1860 – October 23, 1925) was a Virginia politician. He moved to Winchester Virginia from West Virginia in 1887 and became a wealthy apple grower in the Shenandoah Valley and published the Winchester Star newspaper. He represented Winchester in the Virginia House of Delegates, and served as that body's Speaker from 1908 until 1914. He was the United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia from 1914 until 1920. One of his sons, Richard, became famous as a naval aviator who led an expedition to the South Pole; another,
Harry F. Byrd Corotoman, and Pocahontas. One younger brother was Naval aviator and Polar explorer Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd (1888–1957). His other younger brother, Thomas Bolling Byrd (1890–1968) became an infantry captain during World War I. His uncle Henry De La Warr Flood served in the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress from Appomattox County, Virginia, (1901 to 1921). Another uncle from Appomattox County, Joel West Flood, served as that county's Commonwealth Attorney (1919 to 1932), in the U.S. Congress (beginning in 1932 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Henry St. George Tucker), as a Federal appellate Judge (of