Giving thanks

AAT THIS TIME OF YEAR, AS FAMILIES gather to give thanks, time is allowed to slow down, and memories of people and seasons past can bring meaning to the present. Here, three locals share some of their favorite anksgiving memories.

Saying grace by Leslie Logan, third generation member of the Logan’s Garden Shop family

The Logan anksgiving table was always full. Not just with food, but with people! Robert Logan Sr. and Helen Logan (Grandma and Paw Paw) had six children, all of whom grew up and had families of their own. When we came together, there was a pile of us. e food was always amazing, everything om Grandma’s turkey-and-dressing and Aunt Rita’s sweet potato casserole to Aunt Debby’s delicious new funky recipes she would add to the table each year om some fancy magazine. e atmosphere was loud – mostly because of the cackling laughter, and random singing, and detailed recollections of family gatherings past. At times it turned into a roar. But you could be assured that once “grace” was said, the room would go quiet – except of course for the “yum”s and “ooooo”s as we stu ed our bellies. A er the meal the boys would go throw the football, or maybe come back in later to watch football. And the cackling would resume. My favorite anksgiving memory with the Logan family is the last one where we were all together. ere were so many of us we could hardly fi t in one room for the blessing. So, we decided to make a circle around the perimeter of the room. We held hands as antsy little ones squirmed and begged to eat, and we took a moment to just be silent. Instead of a traditional “saying of grace” before the meal, we went around that huge circle and everyone shared something they were truly thankful for – even the little ones. What a beautiful blessing it was on that anksgiving Day. ere was so much gratefulness and so much fullness as we looked around the room at three generations of Logans. We mentioned the ones no longer with us, and how grateful we are for the years when they were there. Tears welled up; we were all moved by that moment of unifi ed gratitude for overwhelming grace that has been poured out on this family. To actually say grace, to speak of the power of it and acknowledge its truth in the faces of the ones you love, is to experience its presence fully and realize that grace is a person that has been holding hands with you all along the way. We’ve all grown up and now have our own tables to decorate. Some cousins are far away, and the whole lot of us aren’t able to be in one place and time anymore most holidays. But there can be no question that the “grace” we spoke of that day has followed us year a er year, om generation to generation. And the roots that have been established have held us strong toward the things that matter most. Because more than turkey dinners and yummy recipes, the love of a family and the chords of faith that bind us together are the things that truly fi ll our bellies and satis our souls.

Carrying on the tradition by L. Howard Brooks Jr.

Growing up in the South means family is important, and family traditions are even more important. I was lucky enough to have two, great extended families.

My mom’s family was from High Point, N.C., and we always celebrated Christmas in High Point. The Christmas celebration was always very nice and much more formal. My dad’s family was from Wilson, N.C., and we always celebrated Thanksgiving in Wilson. The Thanksgiving celebration was always more casual.

My dad died when I was five years old; however, my mom made a point of keeping us connected with my dad’s family. It was important for her to maintain those relationships, but more important to introduce my brother and me to the very special Brooks family.

My dad had 11 brothers and sisters. There were seven girls and five boys. They grew up in a small, two bedroom house on Gold Street in Wilson right next to Atlantic Christian College (now Barton College). As the story goes, they were the smartest kids in the school. They were all engaged: loved to spend time together and loved to debate anything from the best barbeque to the best sports team. Three of the four boys put themselves through Duke University and Duke University Law School, so their debating skills were sharp and their wits were quick. We always looked forward to our annual trip to Wilson.

As far back as I can remember, my mom, my brother, and I would set out for Wilson around 10 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning. It was never early enough. Some families gather for Christmas or Easter. Not the Brookses. It was always Thanksgiving. Rain or shine, it was always the most festive day of the year.

Turkey, country ham, lima beans, mashed potatoes, dressing, asparagus casserole, and tipsy cake. There was food everywhere, and tables and chairs in every room. I remember feeling so at home and so thankful. I can smell the food; I can hear the laughing; I can feel the love. We always have 50 - 70 people celebrating family, celebrating Thanksgiving, happy to be together.

I am 53 now. I have three kids and the Thanksgiving tradition continues: My Aunt Jack and Uncle Dick got too old to host our Thanksgiving celebration, so nine years ago my wife and I took over the tradition. My wife is from Wilson, so it was not hard to convince her that hosting 70 people on a Thursday afternoon was normal. We have moved it to Raleigh, but the tradition continues. We have added oysters, and my daughter makes sausage balls, but everything else is the same. We are older and move slower, but we still laugh, love, and are thankful for our family.

There is only one surviving sibling, but the cousins carry on the tradition. Over the years, the guest list has been extended to include neighbors and friends, which is the Brooks way: Everybody is welcome and included. After lunch we have the traditional family football game. Grown-ups versus kids. The grown-ups always win, but winning is not the point. Being together and celebrating family is Thanksgiving. I hope my kids will continue the tradition.

The Switch by Pamela D. Evans

In the ’70s, my next-door neighbor Ellie Doyle was frantically preparing for the arrival of her younger sister and her four children. Everything had to be perfect, for the “perfect” younger sister was arriving at RDU airport late that afternoon. Dinner was to be ready when they walked in the door.

Before Ellie left for the airport, she placed a 20-pound turkey, covered with a foil tent, in the oven. Her two young teenagers, Maura and Chipper, were instructed to baste that turkey every 15 minutes.

What she did not know was that I had asked Maura and Chipper to let me know when their mother cooked a turkey. I did not tell them the reason for this request. This was, after all, a top-secret mission, and the element of surprise was imperative to its success!

Ellie pulled out of the driveway heading to RDU, and I received the call to start the mission!

Our local grocer, Bobby Mears, had no Cornish hens, but he dug through the new arrival of chickens and found the “perfect” one-and-a-half-pound fryer. It looked like it had just hatched! I ran to Ellie’s with my little chicken and my roaster. I placed her turkey on my roaster and placed my chicken on her roaster, covered with her aluminum foil tent.

“Operation Switch” was on!

Back at home, I put Ellie’s 20-pound turkey in my oven and basted it every 15 minutes. After all, this had to be the “perfect” turkey.

My first hint of what happened next was when my kitchen door was flung open by two frantic teenagers yelling “Mrs. Evans, we need Mom’s turkey NOW!”

I grabbed it out of the oven and across the yard we ran. Ellie was standing in her kitchen and did not speak – or could not speak. I removed my shriveled-up fryer from her roaster, and replaced it with her 20-pound, perfectly basted turkey.

We did have a laugh about it … later. Ellie told me she’d run in her house ahead of her guests to check the turkey. When she removed it from the oven and looked under the foil tent, she could not breathe. She thought she had had a stroke. It just did not compute! Maura and Chipper were yelling, “Mom, we kept basting the turkey and it kept shrinking!”

The rest of the story: Four months later, on my birthday, I received a beautiful cake from the local bakery. There was no note included. When I called the bakery to inquire who had sent the lovely cake, they said they could not tell. I decided to cut myself a slice, but to my amazement the knife bounced back. It was not a cake, but a beautifully decorated block of foam rubber. Of course, I knew who sent it, but never told Ellie I had received the cake. Ellie never ’fessed up. We remained friends and had many laughs about the turkey – but never the cake.

Ellie and Dr. Ray Doyle are no longer with us. I cherish the memories of being a young mother and living next door to the Doyles. Thanksgiving is a time for enjoying friends and family. Enjoy sharing the memories, and who knows, you might experience “The Switch”!

ARTIST’S spotlight

courtesy Andrew Britt IF YOU CAN MAKE IT HERE…

RALEIGHITES ON BROADWAY

The Broadway marquee for Bright Star, an original musical set in North Carolina that Andrew Britt helped direct.

by MERRILL ROSE

IIf you can make it here, can you make it on Broadway?

For many young people whose dreams of a life in theatre are shaped by their time in Raleigh, the answer is a resounding yes.

They’re making it as actors, singers, dancers, designers, and directors. They credit their early successes to their access to the performing arts in Raleigh: music, dance, and drama in area schools, a network of theatres, and numerous community arts programs. Dedicated teachers and theatre professionals here recognized their talents, they say, nurtured their development, and introduced them to people who mattered.

And they have another built-in advantage competing on Broadway, one that goes beyond professional training: “If you’re from the South, you know you can go far by saying what you need to say with a smile on your face,” says director Andrew Britt.

Married couple Laurel Harris and Rob Marnell Laurel Harris as Elphaba in the touring production of Wicked

Rob Marnell (standing far right) in a production at Raleigh Little Theatre

Lighting designer Craig Stelzenmuller agrees. “You need to be part New Yorker and part Southerner,” he says. “The New Yorker comes in handy when you have to hustle for assignments, and the Southerner when you need to use a little charm to get things done.”

Meet a few of these multi-talented young theatre pros.

LAUREL HARRIS AND ROB MARNELL

Theirs was a fairy-tale romance. Literally. Laurel Harris and Rob Marnell, now in their early ’30s, met in high school when they were both cast in a Raleigh Little Theatre production of Cinderella. And though they performed in a singing quartet that opened the show (not as Cinderella and the Prince), the show ignited their passions for theatre – and for each other.

Both studied drama at separate high schools in Raleigh – Harris at Enloe and Marnell at Milbrook – but shared a voice teacher in Lisa Blair-Hawkins. She helped them develop their singing talents and introduced them to theatre professionals she brought down from New York to teach master classes. For his part, Marnell also performed with an improv troupe made up of students from area high schools. Rehearsing on Saturday mornings during the school year, he learned early on that performing entails sacrifices.

After high school, the couple went their separate ways for college and rekindled their relationship when they landed in New York after graduation. Soon, Marnell lured Harris back home for a visit and surprised her by proposing marriage in the rose garden at Raleigh Little Theatre. Although both had strong support from their families and felt well-prepared and confident in their prospects, they discovered that New York was filled with talented people competing for the very roles they coveted. So the two secured agents, auditioned for roles, and auditioned some more. And they found work they enjoyed. But one day in 2010, after a string of auditions that did not pan out, Harris found herself ready to quit the theatre business. Just one week later, she got the call that led to her big break. She was hired as a member of the ensemble and as an understudy for the role of Elphaba in the touring production of the Broadway show Wicked. And ultimately, she was tapped to play the role herself.

Her three-year journey with Wicked fulfilled a dream begun back in 2003 on a family trip to New York – the same year the musical opened on Broadway. The show was sold out, but Harris’s mother managed to snag the last remaining ticket for her. By intermission, Harris was in its spell. Frozen in her seat, waiting for the curtain to rise again, she called her mother and said, “I am going to be in this show one day.”

Meanwhile, Marnell spent ten years acting steadily in New York before landing his first Broadway role. The tall tenor whom a college professor once described as “a character actor inside a leading man’s body” is now performing as a “swing” actor in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. As a swing, he’s covering three leading roles and two ensemble roles.

And Harris is joining him. For a limited period, the two are working together – for the first time since they appeared in Cinderella in Raleigh – with Harris filling in on Beautiful as a swing actor covering three roles. As swings, they never know if they’ll

Jon Goldman (Craig at work); Curtis Scott Brown (A Chorus Line) Craig Stelzenmuller at work

be on stage in a particular performance, or what roles they’ll be playing. Meanwhile, they are running lines and hoping they’ll get the chance to perform together as singer-songwriter Carole King and her lyricist husband Gerry Goffin.

For this show and any others on Broadway, they’re ready for the leading roles.

For more on Beautiful: beautifulonbroadway.com

CRAIG STELZENMULLER

The show featured a little boy who did magic tricks with a girl his age as his lovely assistant. His mom handled the wardrobe, and his dad custom-made magic props in the same diminutive size as the show’s star, Craig Stelzenmuller.

Before long, the family converted a trailer into a circus wagon with a front and back stage, a fog machine for special effects, and “Magic by Craig” emblazoned on the side. For six years, he performed across the Raleigh area at parties, schools, churches, and festivals. By the time he was 12, Stelzenmuller had a regular magic segment on UNC-TV. And then he was ready to move on.

When Raleigh Little Theatre booked him to perform during the opening of the Gaddy-Goodwin Teaching Theatre, it was his first time on a real stage. The boy who specialized in illusions found himself fascinated by the stage lighting and the theatre’s computerized light board, and knew just what he wanted to do next. He convinced an associate technical di-

Stelzenmuller’s lighting for rector to let him try his hand at the A Chorus Line controls. While a student at Martin Middle School and Enloe High School, Stelzenmuller started working with North Carolina Theatre and its lighting director, David Neville. Though the work mostly involved typing lighting instructions as fast as he could, Stelzenmuller was enthralled. “I realized this could be a real job,” he says. He moved to New York after college, and continued to work on productions in Raleigh, including the all-county productions orchestrated by Elizabeth Grimes-Droessler, who was then directing arts programs for the Wake County Public School System. An early champion of his, she made it clear to Stelzenmuller that he needed to work in theatre for a living. It took about five years of doing what he calls “odd jobs” in lighting and sound before he met the theatre pros who would help him get to Broadway. First, Stelzenmuller got assignments supporting accomplished lighting directors. When he heard Tony Award-winning lighting designer Natasha Katz was looking for someone to assist her on a new Disney musical of The Little Mermaid, he let her know he was available, and he got the job. First, he had a six-month run in Denver to get the show ready. Stelzenmuller recalls it was no easy task: Singing and dancing fish were the least of the challenges. As he handled spotlights following the actors, he realized he had a great vantage point to observe the action both on- and off-stage. He

Andrew Britt with Sir Ian McKellen

ent kinds of directors, but they both made sure that everyone on stage looked like they knew what they were doing,” he recalls. “And Linda was especially good at making everyone feel like they were the most talented person in the room.” with William Ivey Long at ny every summer during college. e experiAndrew Britt helped ence gave him the confi dence to head to New York. direct The Present had opinions about many things he saw, but knew enough as a rookie to keep his focus and hold his tongue. Many more Broadway engagements followed, including one Stelzenmuller considers a highlight: A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. “It was the little show that could,” he says. “We knew it was fantastic but didn’t think anyone would come to see it.” When the show opened to strong reviews, though, the producers decided to give their all to get Tony Award voters to see it. ose e orts paid o when the show took home four Tonys, including Best Musical. For Stelzenmuller, “It was like winning the Super Bowl and the World Series at the same time.” It’s been years now since he le his own show behind, but Stelzenmuller is still creating magic. is time, it’s on Broadway. ARIANA DEBOSE

ANDREW BRITT

From the time he was ten, Andrew Britt performed as an actor in his hometown of Smithfi eld, N.C. He loved the theatre, yet wasn’t entirely comfortable on the stage. Still, when he fi nished Smithfi eld-Selma High School early, he jumped at the opportunity to spend his last semester working at Raleigh Little eatre. Watching and working with Haskell Fitz-Simons and Linda O’Day Young, he realized there was something he enjoyed more than acting. “I liked observing the whole thing and trying to make it right,” he says. He found his comfort zone directing. “Haskell and Linda were very di erent kinds of directors, but they both made sure that everyone on stage looked like they knew what they were doing,” he recalls. “And Linda was especially good at making everyone feel like they were the most talented person in the room.” His next master class came working with William Ivey Long at e Lost Colony every summer during college. e experience gave him the confi dence to head to New York. He admits he was “crazy lucky” to land his fi rst job assisting a director just seven days a er his parents dropped him o in the city with all the belongings he could fi t in the trunk of their Volkswagen Beetle. His fi rst gig on Broadway was as an assistant to director Sean Mathias of a play based on Truman Capote’s novel Breakf t at Ti any’s. e show’s run was brief and turbulent. Yet between all the rewrites, cuts, and other changes, Britt learned how a director tries to fi gure out what needs to be done to make a show work. His relationship with Mathias led Britt to his next position on Broadway, again as Mathias’ assistant, on the revival of Waiting for Godot and No Man’s Land starring the legendary British actors Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen. Britt’s role included seeing the show twice a week and giving notes to the cast to make sure everything was going as the director intended. One day well into the run, he went backstage to fi nd McKellen pacing the stage as he ran through lines he already knew inside and out. Britt realized then that actors performing live on stage feel their work is never done. at insight, he says, made it much easier for him to o er feedback to even the most seasoned pros. Britt’s most recent engagement made him nostalgic for home. As associate director on Bright Star, an original musical set in North Carolina, Britt worked with director Walter Bobbie and book, music, and lyric writers Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. Nominated for fi ve Tony awards, the show nonetheless did not fi nd its audience on Broadway. Britt is optimistic it will have a life on tour and could come to North Carolina. If it does, audiences will hear something this North Carolina native was pleased to clari for the production team: the proper way to pronounce “Zebulon.”

She’s a singer, a dancer, and an actor. But none of these labels alone suits Ariana DeBose. She prefers to be considered a storyteller. “I employ all those skills to tell stories,” she says. Growing up in Raleigh, she trained as a dancer at CC & Co. Dance Complex, and became immersed in the arts at West Millbrook Middle School and Wake Forest Rolesville High School, where she was involved in the marching band, concert band, chorus, and a er-school arts clubs. When she auditioned for an all-county production of Aida as a sophomore in high school, her ambition was modest. She hoped for a small part as a dancer. Produced by Wake County Public School System and Broadway Series South under the

Ariana DeBose at Hamilton’s opening night

guidance of WCPSS arts program director Elizabeth Grimes-Droessler, the show was DeBose’s big break. Broadway veteran Eric Sciotto, who was serving as the show’s director, cast her as the title character. “I knew then that I had more options than just moving to Los Angeles to be a backup dancer for another artist,” she says.

She went on to be involved in the next two WCPSS productions, Les Miserables directed by Terrence Mann, and A Chorus Line directed by Charlotte d’Amboise. These experiences gave her first-hand exposure to the theatre business and enabled her to form relationships that she credits with shaping her career. It was d’Amboise who urged her to head to New York to make a go of it. Her family was taken aback, yet her mom reassured her she could always come home. For DeBose, who had her sights set on Broadway, that wasn’t an option. “I was going to make New York work, come hell or high water,” she says.

She made her Broadway debut when she was just 21, originating a role in Bring It On: The Musical. That experience taught her just how hard it is to perform eight times a week. “It takes incredible stamina and discipline to deliver the same material every night and have it feel like it’s the first time.” She’s now a veteran of four Broadway shows and in rehearsal for her fifth, and feels privileged to be part of an incredible community of artists.

Her most recent stint on Broadway is in the show that has transformed the way we think about musical theatre: the cultural phenomenon that is Hamilton. A member of the cast from its beginnings off-Broadway, DeBose plays the Bullet. “It is astonishing to see how this show has been able to reach people of all ages, races, religions, and creeds and had a profound effect on politics, education, and other arenas,” she says proudly.

She had the guts to pursue her dream of working on Broadway and now finds herself in situations she could never have imagined. Consider just one experience she shared: “I sang at the White House alongside my fellow artists as the President and First Lady mouthed the words!” « THE CAST

ANDREW BRITT

East Carolina University Director Associate Director On Broadway: The Present, Bright Star, Waiting for Godot, No Man’s Land, Breakfast at Tiffany’s andrew-britt.com

ARIANA DeBOSE

Actress On Broadway:

«Hamilton, Pippin, Motown: The Musical, Bring It On: The Musical arianadebose.com

LAUREL HARRIS

University of Michigan Actress On Broadway: Evita, Wicked (national tour),

«Beautiful: The Carole King Musical laurelharris.com

ROB MARNELL

Elon University Actor On Broadway: Beautiful: The Carol King Musical, Jersey Boys (Las Vegas) robmarnell.com«CRAIG STELZENMULLER North Carolina School of the Arts Lighting Designer Associate Lighting Designer On Broadway: Cats, An Act of God, School of Rock, Gigi, It’s Only a Play, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Matilda, Everyday Rapture, The Little Mermaid craigstelzenmuller.com

WALTER profile OAK CITY VETERANS

BADGE OF HONOR

Iraqi war veteran Jim Freeze holds the Purple Heart he was awarded for service in the Iraqi war.

Ophotographs by ROBERT WILLETT On Nov. 11, our nation honors the service of all military veterans. North Carolina has the third-largest military population in the country, and is also home to nearly 800,000 veterans, so our state has a special role in recognizing those who have served our country.

Raleigh in particular is home to many of these brave men and women. Walter is proud to honor the service of all our local veterans with these stories of a few.

Braima Moiwai and the djembe

RICHARD PEYTON WOODSON III

Army Air Force; WWII 1944 - 1946

Richard Peyton Woodson III, a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II, dropped life-saving food packages to starving civilians in German-occupied Holland and rescued French prisoners from a Nazi concentration camp, among other heroic wartime acts. But this recipient of France’s National Order of the Legion of Honor describes his service as “a very ordinary story.”

“There were millions of servicemen in World War II who were doing extraordinary things,” Woodson says. The longtime Raleighite is no stranger to extraordinary things, in war or in peacetime. The former chairman of the British American Insurance Company was inducted into the Raleigh Hall of Fame in 2013 in recognition for his business and philanthropic contributions here. He “has generously devoted his time and resources to advance education and the arts throughout the Triangle and beyond,” the group said. “His contributions have made Raleigh the dynamic place that it is today.”

Woodson, now in his 90s, set out to make a difference early. As an undergraduate at Princeton, he was an eager soldier, enrolling in the university’s ROTC program in order to join its esteemed field artillery unit. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, Woodson, then 19, volunteered for the Army Air Corps “the very next day.” He finished college as a reservist, and proceeded to basic training in February 1943. Pilot training in Texas followed. Soon he was flying PT-19s, then the BT-1s, UC-78, and finally, in Florida, the heavy bomber B-17s he would fly in Europe.

That post began in September 1944, when Woodson was sent to Snetterton Heath in Norfolk, England, where he flew with the 96th bomb group of what he calls “the mighty Eighth Air Force.” Woodson regularly woke in the dark of night to fly alongside fellow B-17s through thick cloud cover to assemble in combat formation before heading to Germany.

As the war ended, the bomb group took on a brave humanitarian mission. On May 1, 1945, Woodson and his crew were among the first to drop food into the still-occupied western Netherlands, where civilians were starving. The crew had to fly at an extremely low altitude – below 1,000 feet – to drop the food, praying that German anti-aircraft artillery wouldn’t try to take them down in the process. The desperate need of the Dutch people steeled the crew’s resolve. “We could see their faces,” Woodson recalls. “People were standing on rooftops. They were leaning out of windows. They hung sheets out the windows of their apartment buildings,

VALOR

WWII veteran Richard Peyton Woodson III received France’s National Order of the Legion of Honor.

spelling out ‘Thanks, Yanks.’” Operation Chowhound, as the effort was dubbed, continued for five days. Some planes were hit in the process. Woodson’s was not.

More than a decade later, at a party in Raleigh in 1956, Woodson met a Dutch man who had been a 7-year-old hiding in the bushes to be “the first to get the food” during that drop. His family was starving, surviving only on tulip bulbs, and the food saved their lives. Eleven years later, when the two men realized how their fates had intertwined, the Dutch man enveloped Woodson in a massive hug. “That was pretty emotional, I must admit,” Woodson says today. “I had not given much thought to that food drop” before that chance meeting, he says. “It was just another mission. But to hear that, it has been extraordinary for me.” It wasn’t long after that he met John Pace, whose mother had also been saved by Woodson’s mission. Then an 8-year-old girl, Pace’s mother watched as the B-17s dropped food in her town of Ypenburg, where Woodson had flown. The food saved her life and the life of her mother.

That same first week in May, Woodson and his crew saved still more lives. At the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, thousands of prisoners were stranded without food and left to starve when SS officers in charge abandoned the camp. Among them were 3,000 French prisoners, whom Woodson and his fellow bombers rescued, 30 at a time, and flew to Chartres, France. In honoring that rescue last June, Denis Barbet, the Consul General of France in Atlanta, presented Woodson with the National Order of the Legion of Honor, which was established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 to recognize outstanding service to the French Republic, and is considered France’s highest honor for military and civil merits. “It is thanks to them, who fought against tyranny and for a free world, that we were able to celebrate the peace restored to a democratic Europe,” Barbet said. “Dear veterans, you are our heroes. By fulfilling your duty to your country, you helped ensure liberty and democracy for the French people, and we will never forget that.” –Liza Roberts

HONOR

WWII veteran John Irby received the Silver Star for gallantry in combat.

JOHN IRBY

Army; WWII 1943 - 1946; Korean War 1950 - 1952

Ask 93-year-old Raleighite John Irby what he remembers most about his time in World War II, where he served in General George Patton’s Third Army, and he will likely talk

about the Battle of the Bulge.

The Battle, one of the last major German offensive actions in the war and the cause of massive casualties, was Irby’s first combat experience. When he arrived in Bastogne, Belgium, his first assignment was to collect corpses – civilians, Germans, Allies, everyone.

“I had to go through four city blocks and pick up all the dead people. There were about 12,” Irby says. “What I remember more than anything was it was extremely cold and all the corpses were frozen. It was good I guess, because they were like blocks of ice.”

“That was my introduction into combat,” he remembers. “That was pretty severe for me to be faced with that in the first few hours.”

Irby didn’t come from a military family. His father, a dentist, served in World War I, but never went overseas. Irby says his father always regretted that he didn’t get to go. For his part, Irby was drafted into the war during his third year of college at Virginia Military Institute.

“We didn’t expect that. We thought we would graduate,” he says. “They pulled us out a year ahead of time.” Irby was quickly assigned as the leader of an Army reconnaissance platoon of 33 men. That was his job from then on, he said. And though combat was challenging, the fight to stay warm was tougher, Irby remembers. “There is no question in my mind that 1944 to 1945 was the coldest winter in Europe in 40 years. We just tried to keep from freezing and find shelter in a building. We often slept on the ground in 1- to 10-degree temperatures. That was more difficult than the combat, just trying to survive the cold winter,” Irby says.

He is most proud of the Silver Star he received for gallantry in combat for his actions when he found himself and his platoon in a tight spot, outnumbered and surrounded by Germans.

They were traveling with an armored division into enemy territory. When a division is on the move, it is typically broken up into three combat commands of 4,500 troops, Irby explains. The first advances into enemy territory; and it is standard procedure, he says, for a reconnaissance platoon to stay the point and find out where enemy forces are. Irby’s platoon often did just that. On one occasion, Irby got ahead

DUTY

WWII veteran John Penix served in Guam as a member of the Army. of his combat command, and his platoon was separated by about a quarter-mile. That was just enough for German forces to close in on his platoon.

“There were about 60 men or so, but we had superior fire power,” Irby said. “All our armored vehicles and jeeps had machine guns. We captured the whole force. There were about 60 of them and 33 of us.”

After the war, Irby went back to college to finish his degree in civil engineering. He was in the Army reserves when the Korean War started, and he served 17 months stationed at various Army bases in the United States. Irby spent his career in design and construction, working in northern Virginia. His job moved him to Raleigh in 1960, and he has been here ever since. –Taylor Knopf

JOHN PENIX

Army Air Force; WWII 1942 - 1946

Just a few days before Christmas 1942, John Penix was drafted into the Army Air Force to serve in World War II. The Wake

County native reported to Fort Bragg and was sent to Utah for three months of basic training.

“Everyone was being drafted. I wasn’t surprised,” Penix says. “I figured it would happen sooner or later.” After basic training, Penix was sent to advanced training for Army administration. By

the time he got to Florida where an outfit was packing up to go overseas, he was told he wasn’t trained to go overseas with them.

“That’s the best deal I ever got in the Army,” Penix says, grinning. “I stayed there until the war was over.” Penix says he had a relatively easy life in being in Army administration, which he was grateful for. “I had a typewriter instead of a rifle,” he says. “I never had a rifle except at the shooting range.”

He sat behind a desk until he got to Guam, where he was put in charge of a squadron.

That happened after the war ended in 1945, when Penix was sent to Greensboro, N.C., and was placed on a shipment to Guam. There, he was on a service unit responsible for maintaining the base, runways, and airplanes. As First Sergeant, Penix oversaw the troops in his unit and made sure they were doing what they were supposed to.

“Only black troops did the hard, dirty work,” Penix says. “Any official order that came down would have an asterisk before your name. That way there was no mistake about who you were. That meant you were part of the ‘colored troops.’”

He said the terms “black” and “African American” weren’t used until the 1960s. Penix doesn’t seem to hold a grudge over it. He simply says that is the way things were.

“Everything was different then with segregation,” says Penix,

COURAGE

now 94 years old, as he sits in his living room wearing a “proud to be an American” T-shirt.

After the military, Penix finished school and found a career in the postal service. He raised his two children on his own in Dayton, Ohio. He says he only meant to drive through Ohio, but felt very welcomed by the community who ultimately helped him raise his children. He retired as postmaster of Yellow Springs, Ohio. In the 1980s, Penix moved back to Raleigh to be closer to family and friends. –Taylor Knopf

Iraqi war veterans Jim and Grace Freeze photographed at Caroll’s Kitchen, a nonprofit restaurant that Jim has opened in downtown Raleigh.

JIM AND GRACE FREEZE

West Point 2001 - 2005; Army 2005 - 2011

Jim and Grace Freeze, both 33, were newlyweds when they were deployed to Iraq nine years ago and had to spend 16 months apart. It was a scenario they could not have predicted five years earlier as freshmen meeting through friends and Bible study, and just starting college life at West Point.

The United States Military Academy had appealed to both

of them because of its stellar reputation, free tuition, and guaranteed job after graduation. “Also I think I wanted to serve my country just to give back,” Jim says. “I feel like I was the recipient of a lot of good that America offers.”

But a month after they started at West Point, the unthinkable happened. The World Trade Center was attacked and the United States was going to war. The message to all West Point students was clear, Jim says: “When you graduate, you are going to war … now let’s get you trained up.”

Both started as lieutenants, the lowest rank for an officer. Grace served as a military police officer and Jim as an armor officer. During their first deployment, they were sent to different areas of Iraq and their paths never crossed, though they corresponded once a week through email or phone.

Their experiences in Iraq were very different.

For her part, Grace trained Iraqi police, traveling in an arprove the economy in these local villages, and it seemed to work. Violence went down considerably by the time we left.”

He and his men also faced “harrowing situations.” In one instance, he was wounded and sent to a Baghdad hospital with second degree burns on his face. A few of his soldiers were injured and sent back to the U.S., and one was killed.

Between deployments, for about 18 months, both Jim and Grace were stationed at different military bases. The second time, in 2010, the couple went back to Iraq together. That time, their experiences were completely different.

The war in Iraq was “ramping down,” Grace recalls.

“It was tremendously eye-opening for me to see the war from the ground level in 2007 - 2008 with a lot of violence,” Jim said. “Then to see it in 2010 on a broader scale, a lot had changed. There was tremendous progress and it looked worlds different.”

As part of the military police, Grace assessed the capability

SERVICE

Iraqi war veteran Grace Freeze holds the Bronze Star she was awarded for service in the Iraqi War.

mored vehicle between police stations to assess progress and make sure everyone had the proper resources. “We would teach them how to set up a holding cell, how to do a witness statement, conduct basic investigations,” Grace said. “The culture is different there. They don’t have the same technology or literacy.”

Grace said she is often asked if the Iraqi officers had trouble respecting her as a women in leadership. “In my experience, they alway treated me probably even better. They understood that in American culture and our military, men and women could be in leadership,” she said. “So they were very accommodating, even though that was very different for the Iraqi men.”

During Jim’s first deployment, he was responsible for securing towns and villages. He also communicated with local officials to find out what they needed most. Ultimately, they wanted jobs, Jim says. “They wanted the young people to get back to work so they wouldn’t engage in violence. The war threw their economy into chaos … They would say, ‘Help us get jobs again and that will help with our security.’” Jim focused on “what we could do to imand readiness of the Iraqi security forces as a whole to determine if the U.S. could leave. Jim, meantime, spent his second deployment as the right-hand man to a one-star general who spent a year meeting with governors and businessmen in the southern part of Iraq. Jim estimates he spent as many as 450 hours in a helicopter traveling 62,000 miles with the general over that year.

“I saw a lot of potential that things could have changed for good,” he says. “But I also saw the potential that this could easily get thrown off kilter. Potential doesn’t guarantee success.”

After six years actively serving in the Army, the Freezes moved on and started a family. They now have two boys, ages 2 and 4. Jim moved to Raleigh for a job with a recruiting firm that helps veterans find jobs, while Grace got her master’s degree from N.C. State.

In September, Jim opened Carroll’s Kitchen, a nonprofit restaurant on Martin Street in downtown Raleigh that provides jobs for women from local homeless shelters. –Taylor Knopf

ART & HOME

by LIZA ROBERTS

photographs by CATHERINE NGUYEN

I“I’M A BIT OF AN ART ADDICT,” SAYS RALEIGHITE CAROLE ANDERS, “and enjoy using my home as a ‘gallery.’” Sharing her love of North Carolina painting, sculpture, glass, and ceramics – with iends, charitable organizations, and publications like WALTER – is meaningful for someone as involved in the art world as Anders. “Sometimes,” Anders says, “sharing … causes others to be more interested.”

COLLECTED, REFINED

Previous page: The abstract painting above the mantel is by Raleigh native Herb Jackson, who won the North Carolina Award in 1999. The smaller works on either side of the fireplace are by Kathy Triplett, from Weaverville, N.C. The English secretary, circa 1850, is from Acquisitions, Ltd., in Five Points. In the sunroom beyond, the English drop-leaf desk was purchased on a trip to England.

This page, clockwise from top left: The painting to the left of the window is by Edith London; the one on the right is by Raleighite Robert Irwin. The dining room’s silk chinoiserie wallpaper is by Gracie. Anders took it down when she first moved in, stored it in the attic for 10 years, then hung it back up. The silver service is English; the bird sculptures are by Mark Chatterley.

EVERYWHERE, ART

The large abstract painting, from the Lee Hansley gallery, is one of George Bireline’s last before he died in 2002. On the chest are a glass bowl by John Geci, a white vessel by Ani Kasten, and a whimsical giraffe by Chrissie Callejas. Sarah Blakeslee painted the watercolor on the top right in 1949; Will Henry Stevens painted the one below.

ELEGANT ENTRANCE

A 2012 painting by Durham’s John Beerman from the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York hangs above a circa-1860 French settee from Boone’s Antiques in Wilson, covered in Lee Jofa fabric.

With a collection gathered over many years that includes works by esteemed artists like George Bireline, John Beerman, Will Henry Stevens, Sarah Blakeslee, Francis Speight, Maud Gatewood, Dorothy Gillespie, Jacob Cooley, Noyes Capehart Long, Wolf Kahn, Howard Thomas, Hobson Pittman, Margaret Cogswell, Ben Owen, Ani Kasten, Lucy Dierks, Pat Scull, Alex Gabriel Bernstein, Katherine and William Bernstein, Rick and Valerie Beck, John Geci, and others, the Anders’ collection is undoubtedly an inspiration. Carole, a longtime community leader with the Raleigh Arts Commission, Raleigh Fine Arts Society, and Junior League of Raleigh; and her husband Cloyce, former president of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, have the perfect house to showcase it all. When the couple first visited the 1920s Hayes Barton Mediterranean as guests in 1986, Carole was immediately taken with its elegance, welcoming center hall, and spacious rooms. “I love this house,” she told her hosts, “and if you ever decide to part with it, please let me know.”

PERSONAL FAVORITES

In the center hall, a John Beerman painting, one of several in the home, hangs at the top left. Below it is a painting by Wolf Kahn. On the right, from the top: A 1997 Sarah Blakeslee still life and a landscape by Lawrence Mazzanovich, both purchased through Lee Hansley. Valerie and Rick Beck made the works of glass. Chairs from Highsmith Antiques flank an antique table found in New York by designer Stewart Woodard.

When her wish came true, Carole got busy making it their own. With the help of architect Meg McLaurin and interior designer Stewart Woodard, she oversaw three separate renovations to update the kitchen and bathrooms and add a family room, then filled it all with fine English antiques, one-of-a-kind objects, and beautiful fabrics in a bright, refined palette.

Through it all, art played a central role. The kitchen was made more neutral in order to provide a backdrop for ceramics and paintings, and the placement of art took precedence in every room.

Each work of art in the house is meaningful to Anders; every piece evokes a story about its meaning, the time and place she bought it, and what she loves about it most. She is knowledgeable about every artist, and in many cases, knows – or knew – them personally. “It’s fun to know your artists,” she says. She has purchased some works directly from studios; in others, she has worked with gallerists including Raleigh’s Lee Hansley, whom she credits with guiding her for years. “If you want to have an art collection,” she says, “you need a dealer.” As well as a world-class fountainhead of creativity. “North Carolina is stocked with talent,” Carole Anders says. “We live in a wonderful state.”

GREEN ENERGY

This page, top: The large painting above the living room sofa is Maud Gatewood’s Spring Thaw. A pastel by Will Henry Stevens hangs beside it on the right; Looking South, N.C. Capitol by James McElhinney is on the left. This page, bottom: Maud Gatewood’s Linville Falls with vessels by Ben Owen and figures called souls by Asheville artist Cassie Ryalls Butcher.

OUTSIDE AND IN

This page, clockwise from top: A painting by Maud Gatewood hangs above one by Joe Cox, a design professor at N.C. State. The outdoor sculpture is by Bob Irwin. The 1920s Mediterranean house in Hayes Barton features a covered porch with wrought-iron details.

STYLE SERIOUS FOLLIES

Architectural jewels across the Triangle

by J. MICHAEL WELTON

Lowe’s Pavilion at the NCMA

IIt happens every day at the 160-acre park on the campus of the North Carolina Museum of Art: Three minimalist structures deliver joy and wonder to hundreds of joggers, bikers, and meanderers visiting the site. They’re diversions in the landscape, placed to punctuate and celebrate the visual richness of the grounds. But they’re not only meant to be seen – they also provide a vantage point to better appreciate the beauty of their own surroundings.

Two of these structures can be considered pure architectural follies – diminutive, decorative objects placed in the park without an obvious purpose. One is the Lowe’s

Pavilion, designed by Tonic Design and Mike Cindric. Sure, it’s sometimes used as a classroom, and it does have a storage component – but mostly it’s a gathering spot designed to direct the eye out to an open, western landscape.

Created with a $50,000 grant from Lowe’s Home Improvement, the pavilion covers a total of 800 square feet, with a perforated metal skin as transparent as a cicada’s wing. It was fabricated in a metal shop and assembled on-site in 2007; today, it’s a light-shifting setting for yoga exercises, wedding photography, and even the occasional nuptials. It’s a folly, yes – but a serious one, and well-loved.

Down the hill, overlooking a pond that cleans and filters storm water before releasing it to a stream below, is a platform created out of steel, poured-in-place concrete, and South American ipe wood. It hovers over the water’s edge, creating a place for rest and contemplation – and for conversations about sustainability in the environment. It was created by students at N.C. State’s Design/Build summer program in 2013 – and ever since it’s been a gaze-shifter, conversation-starter, and a fixture that’s fully part of the pond.

Back up the hill, tucked into the woods in an area called

the Discovery Garden, lies the newest addition by N.C. State students – a small structure with a pair of purposes. It’s a storage shed for tools used by volunteers, its design clearly influenced by the mid-century modernism that’s part of Raleigh’s DNA. Built of steel and pine – charred and sealed in the Japanese shousugi-ban method – it was completed this past summer. It’s a playful and lighthearted space with an extended canopy that provides shelter from a storm. Because of its functional aspects, it can’t be considered a true folly, but it can be considered a Zen-like center of calm.

The NCMA park is not the area’s only notable public landscape that features small decorative structures. At Duke University’s Sarah P. Duke Gardens Charlotte Brody Discovery Garden, architect Ellen Cassilly’s elliptical pavilion provides visual interest. It features a base of stone and concrete and a metal trellis that weaves its oval way to a Pantheon-like oculus at the center of its roof. In one imaginative gesture, Cassilly introduced trumpet and cross vines to the winding rebar; when it all climbs to the top, the oculus is trimmed to allow sunlight in.

A new prairie garden, also at Duke, also features a striking folly by Cassilly. It’s a rectangular structure on a hillside, topped with a sloped roof. Thousands of seeds native to North Carolina’s prairies planted on the hillside have resulted in grasses that now rise three feet up to partially hide this ephemeral vision. On its sides, Cassilly designed woven, thin, debarked cedar trees between pine timbers, yielding what may be her finest and most fetching small building to date. “It’s an orientation device,” she says. “When it’s hot, you see this shady spot up the hill, and it calls you up.”

Out in Wake Forest, tradition rules when it comes to architectural follies. At the Wake Forest Historical Museum, adjacent to the Calvin Jones House (circa 1820), rests the Old Well from the former site of Wake Forest College. At its center is a sculptural, Beaux-Arts marble fountain donated by the class of 1911, long before the college moved to Winston-Salem in 1956. Its classical gazebo was designed by New York architect Frank E. Perkins in 1934. No longer a functioning well, it’s now the focal point of the Brewer-Harris Garden. After Southeastern Baptist Seminary donated the fountain and cover in 2001, it became a gathering spot for an ever-thinning group of Old Campus alumni who return each year.

A few blocks away on the seminary campus, another non-functioning well is situated in a formal landscape where the Old Well once stood. It’s nestled between an allée of live oaks, with the Neo-Georgian Binkley Chapel at one terminus and Stealey Hall at the other. Its octagonal gazebo was designed in 2000 by architect Jimmy Edwards to match the eight sides of the chapel’s steeple – and the arches of its louvered windows. It’s an elegant little gem at the center of the red-brick campus, its copper roof slowly weathering to eventually match the cupola atop Stealey Hall, whose design it emulates. Its fountain continually recirculates water in memory of 14-year-old Dana Alexandra Jordan, who died of cancer in 2007.

Perhaps the most ambitious collection of architectural follies, though, is found clustered in a 1930s Works Progress Administration-planted pecan grove on the 117-acre E. Carroll Joyner Park on the outskirts of Wake Forest. There, a number of agrarian sheds have been carefully preserved and protected, including a wooden mule barn, tobacco barn, and chicken coop. To round out the trio and create a classic rendition of a typical Eastern North Carolina rural landscape, the town rebuilt a two-story log cabin on site. None of the buildings are functional any longer, but they form a nostalgic backdrop for the community’s annual “Six Sundays in Spring” series of musical concerts.

Architectural follies may draw their name from the French for “foolish,” but I was pleased to find each of these to be anything but. They are place-makers – little buildings mostly, designed to delight us socially and aesthetically. Sure, they’re decorative objects, but they also make us stop and think about where we are – and what our buildings want us to see.

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