leaving a legacy By Michelle Goff As Martha R. “Brownie” Plaster, of Shelby, N.C., discusses the philanthropic legacy of her parents, Lon and Mary Evelyn Rogers, she apologizes for a background noise. “That’s my nine o’clock bird,” she says, explaining that a cardinal announces the top of the hour on a bird clock her mother gave her 25 years ago. “Mother hoped it would educate me on birds. Mother was always trying to educate us.” According to Brownie, Lon Rogers shared his wife’s belief in the power of education as well as her belief in the biblical directive to bloom where you’re planted. Brownie and her siblings, Marylon R. “Meegie” Glass, of Memphis, Tenn., and Fon Rogers II, of Lexington, agree that supporting Pikeville College served as an obvious means for the couple to combine these two beliefs. “They were dedicated to the college because of its mission to provide an education to people with a Christian emphasis,” recalls Fon. “Dad had a fondness in his heart for the college because he and his sisters attended the Pikeville Collegiate Institute.”
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UPIKE MAGAZINE | SPRING/SUMMER 2019
