It's hard to imagine a legal career with more dramatic shifts than Sam Garrison's.

In 1971, as Roanoke commonwealth's attorney, campaigning against alcohol in dance halls and winning a death penalty verdict against a 17-year-old.

In 1974, advising congressmen as chief Republican counsel during the Watergate impeachment inquiry.

In 1980, serving a prison term in Alabama for embezzlement.

In 1998, an activist for gay rights, demanding that arrests in Roanoke for gay cruising be declared unconstitutional.

Finally, this year, fighting a brave battle with leukemia. Garrison, 65, died Sunday, bringing a remarkable life story to a close.

Garrison spent the last three decades speaking out for civil rights, especially gay rights. "I think it was very courageous for him to stick his neck out when no one else would," said Mark Harris, Garrison's partner for 17 years.

Garrison's passion for civil rights came from his hope for the future, Harris said.

"I think what drove him was the hope of the day when sexual orientation was not the entire person but just a part of them," Harris said.

Garrison had a reputation as a brilliant legal mind. "His knowledge and understanding of the law was unbelievable," said Roanoke attorney David Lawrence. "He had a strong belief in his causes," whether they were a client's case or a civil rights issue.

As a boy in Roanoke, Garrison appeared earmarked for success, graduating as valedictorian of the Roanoke Catholic High School class of 1959. He was president of his fraternity at the University of Virginia, and found political activism in College Youths for Nixon.

At 27 years old, he won election as Roanoke commonwealth's attorney in 1970, the youngest ever to hold the office. He quickly established a reputation for being hard-nosed on crime. He pushed for expanding the police force and expressed satisfaction when a jury returned a death penalty verdict against a teenager convicted of murdering a pet store clerk.

But his term as Roanoke's top prosecutor was cut short in 1971 when his Republican connections helped him land a job in Washington, D.C., as counsel for the House Judiciary Committee. Just 16 months later, he joined the staff of newly elected Vice President Spiro Agnew.

Garrison came into the national spotlight in 1974, when he was appointed chief minority counsel for the presidential impeachment inquiry in the Watergate scandal, tasked with speaking in defense of President Nixon. In an interview with The Roanoke Times, Garrison recalled the stress of the job causing him to collapse from anxiety one morning, though he didn't tell his co-workers.

Garrison returned to Roanoke a star and went into private practice. But that practice ended in 1980 with a conviction for embezzling $46,000 from a bankruptcy account, which earned him 128 days in a federal prison. Garrison said he took the money to try to save a struggling restaurant business that he partly owned.

The crime didn't end his career. In fact, Garrison was under consideration for a staff position with the Republican Party in 1982 when he publicly revealed that he was gay. He went from a Hunting Hills house to an old Volkswagen and food stamps.

He suffered even worse things: His teenage daughter died from injuries in a car crash. His intimate partner died of cancer; his father died of complications from a stroke.

Garrison discussed his life in interviews with The Roanoke Times. Asked in 1982 if his life could be compared to a Greek tragedy, he replied, "I would like very much for that not to be the end of this story."

It wasn't. He became active in politics again, as a Democrat and as corresponding secretary for the Alliance of Lesbian and Gay Organizations of Western Virginia. He attended city council meetings to protest ordinances that he believed discriminated against gays.

In 1993, the Virginia Supreme Court restored Garrison's law license. Former Republican Rep. Caldwell Butler was among the attorneys who backed him. Garrison, who had been working as a paralegal for Richard Lawrence's law firm, established his own practice.

With his law career revived, Garrison came into the local spotlight for his opposition to Roanoke's anti-cruising laws.

He represented five men charged with seeking sex with other men -- who turned out to be police officers -- in Wasena Park.

Garrison said it was the police who approached the suspects and enticed them. The cases led to a high-profile but unsuccessful effort to get Virginia's sodomy law invalidated.

In 2000, Garrison filed a lawsuit on behalf of Lawrence intended to force safety improvements on Interstate 81.

The next year, as the Wasena Park cases ended, Garrison announced he was ending his active law practice. Later, he said the publicity from those cases hurt his business and led him to attempt a check-kiting scheme that caused the Virginia State Bar to disbar him in 2004.

Prior to the disbarment, he served on a federal hate crimes task force and on the Virginia Council on Human Rights.

Afterward, Garrison continued to be an activist, voicing his opposition to Virginia's marriage amendment, calling it "the fear amendment." He told The Roanoke Times, "The whole thing is about people being afraid for the new world."

Garrison had spoken about how even during his early success, his knowledge of his homosexuality and attitudes toward it made him see the world as oppressive.

After coming out, he gained real self-esteem, he said.

"To be quite honest, and I hope I don't step on too many toes, I do not believe the community understands what they are losing," Harris said. "He's been a valuable resource, not only in the gay and lesbian community, but in politics as well."

Five U.S. soldiers were killed when their Chinook helicopter was apparently shot down in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, a U.S. military official said. The Taliban claimed responsibility. Initial reports suggested the helicopter was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade.

More on this story on Page 7.

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