Fred B. Leggett Jr. died July 5, 2025 at his home in Danville, Virginia. He was eighty-eight years old and predeceased by his wife, Joan Allen Leggett, who died November17, 2024. He is survived by his children, Fred III, Will, Mike and Helen Reynolds.
Field Trialers will recall Fred’s long generous hosting of trials at his Cloverdale Farm on Route 58 east of Danville on a long northeastern curve of the Dan River. The Virginia Amateur ran there many years, and Fred’s daughter Helen Reynolds handled dogs and hosted trialers in the Gathering Place, the converted dairy barn-clubhouse there.
Decades earlier the farm was the running grounds for the Carolina-Virginia Field Trial Club which was a fixture on the spring east coast major all-age circuit. Hall-of-Famer Clarence Edwards of Chatham was active in the club and worked on the farm many puppy and derby prospects that went on to greatness in field trials.
Fred was an executive in the Belk-Leggett chain of department stores before its acquisition in 1996 by the Belk Organization, headquartered in North Carolina. Fred was a dedicated evangelical Christian and devoted to helping his fellow man.
Pro trainer-handler Jim Heckert trained on the farm winters when snow moved him from his native Pennsylvania. Jim and Fred and Fred’s lifelong friend Judge Bill Anderson enjoyed bird dogs together, including on summer trips to Jim’s training grounds in Montana.
Postscript:
For several years Fred invited the AKC to run championship trials on his farm on the Dan River east of Danville, Virginia. One year Jim Heckert was handling a female setter belonging to Fred. She was doing a nice job. Three quarters through the heat Fred rode to Jim and said, “Pick her up before she finishes.”
A little later Jim rode to a judge and advised him he would be picking up Fred’s dog before she finished. The judge protested, saying he was liking her performance.
Jim explained, “She belongs to Mr. Leggett. He does not think it would look right for the landowner’s dog to place.”
Jim Heckert