Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

Roanoke City Manager Darlene Burcham (center) hugs her grandson Robert Kreft, 8, during a multicultural worship service at a Juneteenth celebration in historic Gainsboro. Burcham attended the service with her daughter Ann Kreft (left) and grandson last month.

Darlene Burcham is known in Roanoke for her tenacity and determination to move the city into the future.

Less visible in her public persona, however, is the close relationship she shares with her daughters and grandchildren.

"The piece that people do not see is the absolute loving, doting, wonderful, supportive mother and grandmother she is," said former Councilwoman Linda Wyatt. "That's a big piece of Darlene Burcham, probably the biggest piece of Darlene Burcham."

It's not as if Burcham hides her affection. She has arranged her third-floor city hall office so that a visitor will see photographs of her smiling grandchildren, no matter where he or she sits.

"Some people will not allow you to be the mother or grandmother that you are, and only see you in the professional role that you hold," Burcham told a Roanoke Times reporter in 2005. "My role as mother and grandmother is just as important to me as the professional one."

But her two daughters appear to have closely watched and learned from that professional role. One is a Roanoke school principal, while the other has followed her mother's path even more closely, working as an assistant city manager in Hampton.

Burcham blazed a trail by taking an assertive stand as a female civic leader in Southwest Virginia, where -- according to former Mayor Nelson Harris -- "that's very threatening to some men."

Wyatt offered an even more blunt assessment: "You take the same skill set and apply them to a man, and he's innovative, he's a go-getter, he's strong, forceful, dynamic. You take that same set of skills, apply them to a woman, and you get the big 'B' word."

But Burcham said she's seen changes.

"I see my daughter coming up as an assistant city manager, and I do see her having a better opportunity to be accepted," Burcham said. "I see a lot of things that are positive about the next generation."