CLIFTON FORGE -- Louise Belmont is smitten with the mountain scenery in this small, former railroad town in the Alleghany Highlands.

"It seems to feed your soul," she said recently of the fall foliage as she crested the top of Jefferson Avenue in her Mercedes sport utility vehicle in the neighborhood called The Heights. "It just warms you up and makes you realize what life is all about."

Belmont is a great-grandmother who could live anywhere she wants. Her grandfather was the founder of Reynolds Metals Co., which is now Alcoa, the company that makes, among other things, Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil. She has lived in Kentucky, attended schools in Switzerland and New York, and raised thoroughbred race horses in Richmond.

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