STAUNTON — Joseph White gave up a sports writer's dream, a life of covering the National Football League and the Olympics, for what many would consider a much simpler existence in Staunton.

To White that was fine. It's what he wanted.

He had grown up in Bertie County, North Carolina, where his mom ran a country store for more than two decades. So when White left his job as an Associated Press sports writer to buy Cranberry's in downtown Staunton in 2015, he was simply returning to his roots, to a lifestyle that he had known and loved as a child.

White has died at the age of 56. He was found unresponsive at his home early Saturday morning, according to his son, Harry White.

His brother, Allan Moye, said Saturday night that friends and family were still processing the news.

In late July, White had returned from hiking the Appalachian Trail. He didn't get to finish the trail after falling in New York and breaking his wrist on July 17. He had already hiked nearly 1,400 miles of the 2,220-mile trail and said in a recent interview that he would like to return in a year or two and complete the trail.

White, who was named the AP Sportswriter of the Year in 2005, was the Washington D.C. correspondent for the AP for two decades. He covered the NFL's Washington Redskins, as well as the other pro sports teams in town.

Before that he had worked in radio as both a DJ in North Carolina and for the AP. He was also a freelance reporter for the Voice of America in London according to his Facebook page.

But in 2015 he took a sabbatical from the AP and bought Cranberry's, a health-food grocery store and restaurant. He purchased the business from Kathleen Stinehart and Alan Christy, who had opened Cranberry's in 2003. Once his sabbatical ended, he decided to stay in Staunton and not return to his job as a writer.

In a News Leader story by Laura Peters about the purchase, White remembered his parents' store in North Carolina.

More:Staunton reacts to sudden death of popular downtown store owner, hiker, community service person

More:Joseph White remembered as unique individual by D.C. media colleagues

"We didn't have a living room. ... As a kid, I'd wake up and go to what was my living room, which was always filled with people," he said. "We'd sit around the wood burning stove and play checkers."

Coffman Funeral Home in Staunton will be handling the arrangements.

More:Washington Post profiles Joseph White, who covered the Redskins and now owns Cranberry's

Follow Patrick on Twitter @Patrick_Hite

Support community journalism by subscribing to The News Leader