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EVERY

SQUARE MILE OF COLUMBUS COUNTY

Peoples Funeral Home

Fred and Martha Senter Not taking it easy in ‘retirement’

Moskow’s A store steeped in tradition

Carrying on the compassion of the Bennetts

Laurel Newsome

A teacher who inspired generations 954.indd 1

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contents

margaret

bower’s

millpond

hewett

laurel

cody

76

28

newsome

bunch

14

moskow’s

64

24

gault

house

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on the cover...

Fred and Martha Senter

Cover photography by Fuller Royal

Spring 2015 Volume III Issue I The News Reporter Company, Inc. Whiteville, NC 910.642.4104 MANAGING EDITOR Les High EDITOR Stuart High CREATIVE DIRECTOR Abigail Spach ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Dean Lewis ADVERTISING Amelia Sasser . TJ Enzor Hanne Richards CONTRIBUTING EDITORIAL Dan Biser . Briana Cahn Clara Cartette . Cynthia Hansen . Bob High Stuart High . Fuller Royal Wallyce Todd . Allen Turner Jefferson Weaver . Ray Wyche COPY EDITOR Diana Matthews 954 PHOTOGRAPHER Fuller Royal CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Franklin Davis . Derek Keith Victoria Kelly . Mary Kindschuh Grant Merritt . Meredith Tedder

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Senior Portraits • Safaris Beach Portraits • Families Portfolios • Designer Sessions Children • Locations 910.770.1834 www.fullerroyal.com Spring 2015 | 954 | 7

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Spring 2015 | 954 | 9

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finds

local

Summer Straw Hats McArthur Supply 117 E Railroad Ave Chadbourn (910) 654-4615

summer Steven Land Socks All Tied Up 710 S Madison St Whiteville (910) 640-3824

Salt Life Cor

n Hole Board s Purple Mo nkey 205 N Brow n St Chadbourn (910) 654-0 282

Lucien Piccard Chronograph Men’s Watch Flower’s Jewelry and Coin 212 N Brown St Chadbourn (910) 654-5308

ndcrafted Locally Ha urniture F Adirondack Depot Furniture ison St 723 S Mad h W iteville 808 (910) 642-6

Blue Milk Shake from one of the oldest soda fountains in the state Elvington Drug 1126 Main St Fair Bluff (910) 649-6126

Clam Roaster McArthur Supply 117 E Railroad Ave Chadbourn (910) 654-4615

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essentials Event DĂŠcor Olde Town Florist 123 E 1st Ave Chadbourn (910) 654-5646

Lenny and Eva beads

Neon Pink dress Gore Girls 817 S Madison St Whiteville (910) 207-6579

The Wild Side of Blue Turquoise Gore Girls 817 S Madison St Whiteville (910) 207-6579

Monogrammed Burlap Pillows and table runners Southern Sisters 2124 New Britton Hwy E Whiteville (910) 640-2160

Octopus Decorative Yard Sign 410 Furniture and Gifts 1493 Joe Brown Hwy S Chadbourn (910) 654-4157

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(L to R) - Andrew, Will, Diane, Ethan and Rhonda Scott

Chadbourn Feed Service changes, adapts with the times

By ALLEN TURNER

It’s a family business that,

like most businesses in today’s economy, has had to change and adapt with the times.

After the late William L. “Bill” Scott II and his wife Diane bought Dixie Grain and Feed from Franklin Bullard in 1978, they changed the name of the business to Chadbourn Feed Service. It has remained in the Scott family since, and three generations of Scotts are at the business on West First Avenue in Chadbourn every day.

With William L. Scott III, better known to most people as Will, at the helm today, his wife, the former Rhonda Faircloth, his mother, Diane, and Will and Rhonda’s sons, Ethan and Andrew, all are daily regular cogs in the machinery that makes up Chadbourn Feed Service.

Change is something the Scott family has handled well and even prospered with. When William Scott II, a native of Tidewater, Virginia, came to Whiteville in 1960 as a certified public accountant freshly graduated from East Carolina College (now ECU), it was to work with the accounting firm headed by Allen Price. One of the businesses Scott serviced as a member of that accounting firm was Dixie Grain and Feed.

The senior Scott had grown up on a farm in Virginia as one of eight

children and, as his wife puts it, “He was a farm boy and he missed it.”

In 1963, Bill Scott left the accounting firm that had brought him to Whiteville in order to join Dixie Grain and Feed. He passed away in 2000.

Allen Price, founding partner of what is now the Thompson, Price, Scott and Adams accounting firm, met Bill Scott during a recruiting trip to East Carolina College.

“When we came to Whiteville for Bill’s interview, we came down Pinckney Street and Madison Street in the spring of 1960 and the dogwoods and crape myrtles and the azaleas just stole Bill’s heart,” says Diane Scott. “It was a beautiful time of year, just beautiful.”

The Scotts quickly decided to locate in Columbus County. Bill Scott remained at the accounting firm until 1963 when he joined Bullard at Dixie Grain and Feed.

Although Diane Scott graduated from college as a registered nurse, she never went to work in her field.

Instead, she became a stay-at-home mom to her sons, Will and Byron, and daughter Joan. As her children got older, she started helping in the feed business.

All of the elder Scotts’ children remain active in Columbus County.

It is ironic that, in the early 1960s, Bill Scott left Price’s account-

ing firm to join the feed company, because their son, Byron, is now a partner in Thompson, Price, Scott, Adams based in Whiteville, although Byron runs the firm’s Elizabethtown office. Daughter Joan Dorsett is in the home health care industry here, and Will and his family remain with the family business.

It is a family business that has changed and adapted with the times.

When Bill Scott joined the company in the 1960s, most farming operations were much smaller independent farms than they are today with the advent of contract farming.

Dixie Grain, and later Chadbourn Feed, ground and mixed a lot of livestock fodder themselves, but that custom grinding and mixing ended in 1994. Despite the lack of custom grinding and mixing, they are still a major provider of feed in the area, but all the feed they sell today is pre-ground and pre-mixed

by Purina.

Will Scott is a huge proponent of the Purina brand name. “Purina is known for its quality and for its research and development,” says Scott, “There’s not an animal species that I know of, either livestock or pets, that they haven’t custom formulated a feed for.”

Scott says their business used

to be centered more on feed for chickens and larger agricultural animals, but today it is becoming more focused on supplies for pets, fish, horses, small animals and birds.

There are deer farms and hunting preserves emerging and “We’re trying to evolve and change with the changes in the world,” he says.

“We don’t carry a bunch of different brands like some of our competitors. We have stayed true to Purina because their research and development and their quality stand behind their name.”

His mother Diane chimed in, “Being a family business, you’ve got to believe in what you’re selling, because if you don’t it’s not just your business name, it’s your family name that’s out there,” she said. “If we did something bad, people wouldn’t say, ‘It’s Chadbourn Feed Service.’ They would say, ‘It’s the Scotts.’ That’s one of the main things about us … all of our products are things we believe in ourselves.”

Probably the biggest change that has occurred in the business since Will Scott has been involved has been the emergence of contract farming, particularly swine. In those operations, the pork companies provide the feed and veterinary supplies for the hog farmers.

“But,” says Scott, “there are some small hog producers left on an in-

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dependent basis, and we’ve still got the Southeastern Livestock Market that provides a very good service to this county. Southeastern gives livestock producers who independently own their stock a place to carry their animals and get a fair price for them.

“You’d be surprised at how many back yard farmers there still are around here, and a lot of them grow livestock for their own food. And there are a lot of people with horses and pets and that type of thing.

People want premium food they can trust to feed those animals because the animals in many cases are part of the family.”

Chadbourn Feed has expanded fairly dramatically lately, so much so that that the business taken over by the Scotts in 1978 had a “grand opening” last month to celebrate its new direction. They have expanded their warehouse space in order to convert what used to be older warehouse space into a new retail and display area.

They are trying to meet the needs of a changing county. Diane Scott says, “Williams Farm Supply in Chadbourn closed and, more recently, the Farm Store in Whiteville closed. That left a void. People needed a place to buy their lawn and garden supplies, and we’ve tried to fill that void.”

In addition to expanding to lawn and garden supplies, including seeds and plants, Chadbourn Feed retails items like Yeti coolers and Traeger wood pellet grills, neither of which carry bargain basement price tags but both of which are highly touted for their quality. They also carry a full line of pet supplies.

The Scotts are proud that two of their grandsons have come back home to work as the third generation in the family business. Grandmother Diane says, “So many of our young people leave Columbus County for jobs because there’s not a lot here for them. We’re just so proud they’ve come back home.”

Ethan, 27, has been back for a few years and Andrew, 22, returned to the business after graduating from N.C. State University in December.

(Third grandson William IV – who goes by “Luke” – lives in Florence, South Carolina, where he is safety director for Nucor Steel.) All three boys worked at the business after school and during summers as they were growing up.

“There’s nothing here that Ethan

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and Andrew don’t already know how to fix or know how to run or know how to figure out,” says Diane.

The feeling of family permeates at Chadbourn Feed Service. Will Scott says, “It’s a wonderful feeling to have my family here, including my wife and my mother and two of my sons. The business makes our family an even tighter-knit family, and the fact that it’s family makes for a better Chadbourn Feed Service. I look forward to coming to work every day because of that.”

Diane voices a similar theme.

“Good things do happen, and it’s a wonderful feeling to get up in the morning and know I have a place to go. Or, at this stage in my life, if I don’t want to come in I can get up and say I’m going to the house and garden tour instead and I’ll see everybody next week,” she laughs.

She says her late husband, Bill, would be very happy about the Chadbourn Feed Service of today.

“He left us a lot. We’ve tried to improve on what he left us, and I believe our ‘grand opening’ last month would have been a very proud moment for him.”

Working as a family enterprise isn’t always like a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting, however.

“It has its challenges, of course.

You can imagine that,” says Rhonda.

“The hardest part is leaving it here when you go home in the afternoon.

When you’ve got the husband, wife, two sons and mother-in-law working here, it is extra hard to leave it here at times, but we try to get away and do things together that don’t involve the store.”

She smiles, “It (the store) always finds its way back into the conversation at some point in time, but, over all, it makes us closer in the end because we’ve certainly learned how to work together and how to overlook certain things that you need to overlook because, if you don’t, you’re not going to have a very productive working relationship at all, and that would bleed over into your personal relationship as well.”

She concludes, “The positives far outweigh the negatives, and we’re all working for a common goal. That’s the thing. We all see the light at the end of the tunnel. When it gets hard and the days are long and the tensions get high, you know that tomorrow when you come back, it’ll probably be all right.”

WHITEVILLE CITY SCHOOLS Everyone Committed to the Success of ALL Students

Empowering all students to reach their maximum potential for lifelong learning and productive citizenship. www.whiteville.k12.nc.us Spring 2015 | 954 | 13

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Laurel Newsome at her retirement reception at CCA.

Former students of all ages lined up to highlight the impact of the scriptural ABC’s.

“O” give thanks…

Hugs kept happening between Newsome and reception guests.

Newsome and her granddaughter at the reception’s bulletin board.

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Laurel Newsome a teacher who inspired generations

by WALLYCE TODD Photos courtesy of DKeithPictures.com and Wallyce Todd

They came together to honor the woman who had made a foundational difference in their lives or the lives of their children. On February 21, the reception to honor Laurel Newsome’s 37 years of teaching at Columbus Christian Academy (CCA) gave testimony to the

34 of her 37 years at CCA, she was known as the teacher who laid a strong, scripturally based foundation on which kindergarten students would go on to build an academic education with a focus on faith in Jesus Christ.

One of the most poignant parts

am the Word of God.’ Mrs. Newsome taught the children the Word of God.” She also taught children about love, consistency and discipline. The themes were constantly recurring in conversations as people at the reception talked about the education ma-

incorporated into every school day.

At the home Laurel shares with her husband Joe, who is also retired, she keeps a collection of at least one the creative pillows she crafted each year. Pillow making usually occurred during three to four weeks of Newsome’s summer vacation. Annu-

“When they lined up at the door to leave every day, I kissed them on the top of the head and said, ‘I love you.’”

-Laurel Newsome impact one teacher can make.

“She is one of the best educators I’ve ever been associated with,” said Willard McPherson, who was the principal at CCA for two years at the beginning of Laurel’s time at the local faith-founded school. He is now the pastor at Piney Forest Baptist Church.

He also continues to work within education, often though programs coordinated through Southeastern Community College. All four of the former CCA principal’s children had Laurel as a kindergarten teacher.

“She’s one of the finest I’ve ever seen,” McPherson said. “What she can do with a group of kindergarten kids is almost miraculous.

“She had those kids reading sight words by Christmas. She’d have them half a day, and by Christmas they’d be reading. She’s just amazing,” the bi-vocational pastor and educator said.

His sentiments were echoed in a variety of ways by the dozens who came to the reception to “give honor where honor is due,” as another pastor and administrator said. Rev. Bobby Phillips was the pastor of Missionary Alliance Church, where CCA was located when Newsome was hired to be a teacher there.

“I knew that she was a provision of the Lord for the school,” Phillips said. “I know God would say to her as we do: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ We honor you today. We love you, and we thank God for you.’”

For the first few years of CCA’s existence, Mrs. Newsome taught higher grade levels. However, for

Willard McPherson honors Newsome during the CCA reception for her in February.

of the beloved teacher’s retirement reception was when more than two dozen former students of all ages held different letters of the alphabet and walked onto the stage in front of where the Newsome family sat.

From her vantage point on the first row of the chairs in the audience, the retired teacher Laurel covered her mouth with her hand and moisture filled her eyes as she witnessed former students reviewing the 26 scriptures she had taught them in years gone by. It was obvious that the “letters of the alphabet” Bible verses had been effectively planted deep into the hearts and memories of many.

Phil McPherson is married to Carolyn; they are another couple that sent all four of their children to CCA… and are thankful they did.

“In essence, Jesus said, ‘I am the alphabet of God. The Alpha and the Omega,’” Phil stated. “Jesus said, ‘I

triarch.

Mary McPherson – one of Phil and Carolyn’s daughters – remembered experiencing some of those Newsome attributes in a personal away. Though it’s been many years since Mary was in kindergarten, she clearly recalled her first teacher’s classroom management style.

“Mrs. Newsome was the only teacher who made me put my head down for punishment… but she gave us a pillow as well,” Mary said with a wry grin. The other former students nodded in agreement with her.

Then, their conversation easily segued into a discussion of the personal pillows each one of them had received from Newsome when they were in her class. Jacob Ward is 27 years old. He “was a student of Mrs. Newsome’s during the 1992-1993 academic year.” He still remembers “my pillow” and the 20 minutes of rest time his kindergarten teacher

ally, she’d put to good use the sewing skills gained in her childhood.

Students’ pillows started off simple and small, and “grew” into such pillow animals as a bear, a rabbit, a turtle, a pig or a fish. Even though they were now adults at a retirement reception, one could sense a bit of teasing jealousy between CCA alumni whose pillow was a simpler version then the ones Laurel would make in later years.

Her sewing ability developed when she was young. She made clothes for herself and her siblings for many years. Laurel had four brothers and three sisters, and they all grew up in and around Bagley, Minnesota.

The long-term teacher remembered the first six years of her education in a one-room schoolhouse.

It was only when her family moved from the country “to town” that she began attending a larger school in seventh grade.

She recalled her joy in reading. It would strongly influence her in later years when she was teaching young students.

“I loved to read,” Newsome said.

“In my little country school, we had three small shelves of books, and I read every one except Jane Austen.

It was a bit beyond me at the time.

Then I went to school in the city and there was such a big library. I didn’t know what to do.”

Laurel and Joe have been married for more than four decades. The couple’s house has lots of shelves filled with books of all shapes and sizes, many of them Christian historical Spring 2015 | 954 | 15

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L to R, top to bottom Newsome shows her handmade boy and girl bunny pillows. Newsome looks through her book about Iran. A scrapbook note from a former student, who’s now a CPA. A few of the many handmade pillows Newsome made for her students. The original art drawn to reflect Newsome’s CCA career. Laurel and Joe Newsome with their two sons, Jody and John; their daughters-in-law, Paula and Anne; and their grandchildren, Reeves, Caroline, Nick and Sophie. A scrapbook note from Rev. Bobby Phillips and his wife, Mary Ruth. fiction novels. It is obvious Laurel finds reading an ongoing pleasure.

The Newsomes have two sons and four grandchildren; each one of them is treasured.

The story of how Laurel and Joe Newsome came to know each other is an unusual one. “We met on the other side the world,” Laurel said.

Laurel had accepted a teaching post in Iran, an ancient land formerly part of the Persian Empire. Her job was to teach the children of the Mobile Oil company’s workers based there in the late 60s.

Joe had asked for a year-long position based in Abadan, a city a located right at the fork where the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers come together to flow as one river into the Persian Gulf. Little did Joe or Laurel know that Iran was the country where they would each meet the one they would marry.

At the time when both had professional positions there, the country was governed by the Shah, who led a dictatorship that would later be overturned. Though they were dating, Joe still had to leave Iran after the one year, so he returned to Florida.

It was on America’s East Coast where he would wait for Laurel to join him when her school year in

Iran was finished. “We wrote a lot of letters” during that time, Laurel acknowledged.

Joe has a theory about why he and his lifelong sweetheart were attracted to each other. “You know what really drew us together? We had so much in common,” he said.

“I came from a very, very poor home. And she came from a poor home… But we always wanted to do things,” Joe said. “Since we’ve been married, we’ve traveled to all 50 states and all nine provinces in Canada.”

Laurel believes “travel helps everybody,” and she hopes to be able to resume more travel with her beloved spouse after she addresses a few health-related issues.

For now, the retired educator is allowing herself some down time after over 40 combined years of teaching. In her home on the outskirts of Whiteville, Laurel looked at the framed original drawing CCA supporters commissioned to represent her and her students. She then flipped through the pages of the scrapbook many former students helped create for her retirement gathering, and recalled how she had felt at the reception in February.

“Oh my, I was overwhelmed,”

Laurel stated before continuing. “It was very rewarding and very sweet, and it brought tears to my eyes. The present of the alphabet – that was amazing.”

The kindergarten teacher literally taught generations within the same family. Anna Cartrette was a student of “Mrs. Newsome,” and years later, her daughter Margaret was in Newsome’s kindergarten class.

“She’s been the same from when I was in kindergarten to when my daughter was in kindergarten,” Cartrette said while highlighting their teacher’s “gift of consistency.”

Mary Margaret Wooten Nealy also mentioned Newsome’s caring and steadfast nature. “She did everything in love,” Nealy recounted.

“Things were disciplined and consistently structured. However, where you left for the day, you still knew she loved you.”

Nealy’s twin sister, Sara Bailey Wooten, shared her own personal memories of Newton as a teacher.

“One thing I remember is how she loved me. It was consistent, just love.

Her expectations and love for me made me want to be successful in whatever we were doing, be it reading circle, penmanship, whatever.”

Laurel echoed their sentiments.

“I had very, very high expectations for my children. After about six weeks in kindergarten, every night, they had homework. We had handwriting. Reading. All of the scripture was done orally.

“We used phonics,” she continued. “After several weeks, we had books with very simple sentences.

And when they could read it, I gave them a gold star, and they could take the book home.”

“I wanted to get them to start loving Jesus when they were very young.

I wanted them to get to know him and to serve him… actually, that’s what I want them to know first,” Laurel said.

“Then, when they lined up at the door to leave every day, I kissed them on the top of the head and said, ‘I love you.’

“Yes, most of all, I loved them.

They are my babies. And they are still my babies even if they are 34 years old now,” she said.

Eyes that were once again wet with memory and emotion framed her reminiscing smile… as the years Laurel Newsome spent at CCA flowed like a river of recollections through her heart.

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A commercially ava ilable cane pole with aluminum reinforcements. The bands are typical places where many home-made cane pol e anglers add duc t tape for strengt h.

e ched to th hook, atta int, makes ed fishing pa ap in sh re ed d dipp e end A bent an g line and ly wrap th al avy fishin n also simp actu rod with he end. You ca knot to attach the d ro nt lle barrel an exce then use a e. with line, fishing lin

Cutting cane or bamboo at the root ensures a cl level osed end, wh ich strength pole and ma ens the kes it last lo nger.

nal , traditio a popular the bobber bbers are t bo us e dj in A nl .

I es e) is h cane pol t you hop choice wit is at (wha ited hook ba l. e ve th so fish-eye le

A sim shot is ple straig ht a cricke ll you need shank hook t whe re a h to hold a and a spli n ungry t panfis earthworm h can o find it r .

Cane Pole

d.i.y.

by JEFFERSON WEAVER

It has been said that fishing was revolutionized by the pre-Columbian “discovery” that adding a stick to a fishing line makes a more effective fish-catching tool. In the thousands of years since, we have moved from simple sticks to crude reels and hand-carved line guides to space-age micro fibers, graphite and plastics capable of being tied in more knots than the line itself.

Many anglers, however, still prefer the simplicity of the cane pole. It’s especially popular along the Waccamaw River, where traditionalists still bring home bucketsful of bream, perch, catfish, jacks and bass using methods that haven’t changed for centuries.

True river cane (Arundinaria gigantean) is hard to find in fishing-pole size stalks in our area, due

to a number of environmental factors. Many of the cane poles seen for sale in bait shops nowadays are products of Oklahoma and Arkansas, where the ideal ¾ inch thick, seven-foot stalk can still be found in harvestable numbers.

Invasive bamboo, however, makes an excellent substitute, and indeed, was introduced in some areas for use in making fishing poles. Bamboo stalks can be split into thinner sections, then glued and wrapped together for art-quality fishing rods, in sizes from ultra light fly rods to surf rods. Bamboo also has the advantage over river cane in that it can be used green, although with any wood project, allowing the wood to dry for a few weeks is a good idea.

Whether you can find a stand of thick river cane, or opt to fight your way into a bamboo grove, cut the stalk at the root. You want the butt end, where the stalk is solid, since that makes the pole significantly stronger.

Choose a stalk of ¾ to one inch in thickness, and six to eight feet long. The old standard of having the pole “half-your-height” higher is more applicable to wide-open river banks and lakes, as opposed to areas with lots of brush and trees, such as backwoods creeks, farm ponds and swamps.

Trim all the “leaves” off the stalk, and smooth the joints with a pocketknife or sandpaper. When the leaves are gone, hold the pole horizontally – the tip will bend. This is where the stalk once gravitated toward sunlight. At the point where the bend straightens slightly, clip the end of the pole. You can also force the pole to straighten, but either way, you want the end to be slightly smaller in diameter than a pencil.

Rigging a cane pole can be as simple or complex as you like. Millions of fish have been caught on a pole with the line simply knotted to the tip, but it’s a good idea to wrap the tip with a few turns of heavier line, then tie that off, creating a base for the leader.

Some purists prefer to knot the leader directly to the pole, while others make a base of electrical or plumbers tape, then attach the leader, then put another layer of tape over the leader where it’s attached to the pole.

Leaders can be made of any weight line, but eight to 12-pound are most popular in our area. Attach the leader with a barrel knot (if you feel fancy) or a series of smaller knots that distribute the stress of a fish on the line. Make sure the end of the leader comes off the tip of the pole.

A standard for line is to measure the line against your pole, then subtract a foot, but the best length if simply whatever length you can easily handle, based on your fishing waters. If you’re using jigs, poppers or small spinners from a boat, a shorter length might be preferred. Short lines on short poles have been popular with crabbers in the coastal sounds and tidewater areas for centuries. For fishing from the bank for bream and perch on the bed, a longer length of lighter line keeps you from spooking the fish. Longer line of heavier strength is good for small to medium catfish and bass.

For less than $10, you can outfit your family with fishing poles, dig some worms from the backyard, and enjoy fishing like your grandparents did: at its simplest, with the lowly, but beloved, cane pole.

With the height of fishing season upon us, it’s a great time to make some family memories – and catch some supper at the same time.

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Lumber River

Visitors Center

The Lumber River Visitors Center, opened January 3, 2011 as a place where locals as well as visitors can get information about Fair Bluff and the Lumber River.

Information and brochures are found in the Visitors Center telling about great places to visit in Fair Bluff, like our River Walk and our Depot Museum.

Established through a grant from the N.C. Tobacco Trust Commission, operated under the Guidelines of the N.C. Department of Transportation, aided by the Town of Fair Bluff and the Greater Fair Bluff Chamber of Commerce, the Visitors Center is located at 1140 Main Street, right in the middle of town. Two main Highways pass by the Center making up Fair Bluff's Main Street, N.C. 904 and US Hwy 76.

The Visitors Center is set up for meetings and special events. Tours of the River Walk are featured and history of the City and the Lumber River.

Please stop and visit us as you come through our beautiful town at 1140 Main St., Fair Bluff, N.C. Call us at 910-649-7202, or email us at visitfairbluff@tds.net . Join us on Facebook at Facebook/Fair Bluff N.C.

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Arts& Culture

Cody first places the Bells of Ireland to determine the height and structure of his arrangement.

pretty petals

by STUART HIGH & CODY BUNCH Photography by MARY KINDSCHUH

Whiteville native Cody Bunch is event designer and owner of J. Cody Design located at 800 S. Madison Street, Whiteville in the former Kramer’s Ladies Shop. He specializes in planning and coordinating flowers, linens, general décor, vignettes, tent rentals, photo booths, and more for weddings, corporate and family events.

Cody’s style, which he calls “gardeny,” was nurtured while creating floral arrangements from natural elements found on his family farm. He moved to Wilmington at age 21 to work for a florist and formally learn the craft of event and floral design.

As the event and floral designer for the recent Vineland Dancing with the Stars fund raiser, Cody shared with us his tips on creating a tall, slender, compact arrangement. He showcased this arrangement on the drink station positioned on the Batten Pavilion at Vineland. It was just the “wow” factor needed to greet arriving guests.

Elements Cody used to build the arrangement include Bells of Ireland, Viburnum, white Roses, white Hydrangea, Asiatic lilies, Dendrobium Orchids, Italian Ruscus, Wax Flower, Stock, Snapdragons & Iron Plant.

Next, Cody begins to build his arrangement with “base flowers” such as hydrangea and viburnum, and “focal flowers” such as roses and lilies are added.

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After gathering flowers and tools for his arrangement, Cody anchored a block of water-soaked floral foam into his container.

Stock, wax flowers and snapdragons serve as fill-in flowers.

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Accent greenery can be added first or last, but Cody prefers to add it last so it doesn’t get lost in the arrangement.

In the last step, a delicate spray of white Dendrobium orchids is carefully added to make this arrangement a “showstopper.”

J. Cody Bunch designer/owner of J. Cody Designs located at 800 South Madison Street, Whiteville, NC. Phone 910-207-6630, email jcodybunch@jcodydesign.com or visit J. Cody Design on Facebook.

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special

Margaret Hewett works with new technology.

She also uses old-fashioned methods of bookkeeping.

954

Bookkeeping has been her life-long career

by CLARA CARTRETTE

Mary Margaret Lee Hewett grew up in Pinehurst but she found a husband and a new home in Tabor City.

She married Ruey Hewett of Tabor City in 1950 and moved to the Yam Capital of

The couple met through the intervention of Bertha Wright, a friend of the Lee family.

Mrs. Wright had planned to pair Margaret up with another Tabor City man, but the attraction between Ruey and Margaret was

Margaret and a friend from work agreed to a double date with the two Tabor City men. The man who had called her was her date, while Ruey was her friend’s date. Ruey might as well have been with Margaret any-

Moving to Tabor City from a resort area was a different atmosphere for her, but Margaret said she learned to love Tabor City, the people and her church, Clarendon Baptist. She was the first woman to serve as president of the Tabor City Chamber of Commerce. the World, a title that was given to the town many years ago when the Yam Festival was in its infancy.

Hewett opened Ruey’s Clothing Store on Main Street in Tabor City in January 1946 after working for Walter Berry Roberts, who wanted to get out of the clothing business and retire. Margaret said Roberts told Ruey that he could buy the merchandise that was left for $100.

just too strong.

“She [Mrs. Wright] kept telling me she wanted me to meet a young man from Tabor City and fixed supper at her cottage at Ocean Drive for us,” Margaret said. “My family would go down there in the summer.

The man she fixed supper for didn’t go, and neither did I. The next week the man called and wanted to come to Pinehurst and asked if I would get his friend a date.”

way, the other man pointed out afterward, since he’d talked to her most of the time.

It was sort of love at first sight for Ruey and Margaret, as she too was more interested in Ruey than in her own date.

“In about a week Ruey called me,” she said. “He was going to High Point to pick up a load of blue jeans and wanted to take me to dinner.”

He did so, and they continued to date and

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Rick Coleman, Margaret Hewett and Joey Coleman with Yogi Bear at Jellystone Park at Daddy Joe’s Campground near Tabor City. were married on April 9,1950, after he gave her a diamond before Christmas. He was 35 or 36 years old, she said, and she was not yet 24.

Margaret had been a bookkeeper for the Pinehurst Corporation, which owned the entire town, she said. A Mr.Tufts came from Boston, bought property and developed the area as a winter resort. Scottish golf course architect Donald Ross designed the area’s first golf course.

Moving to Tabor City from a resort area was a change of atmosphere for her, but Margaret said she learned to love Tabor City, the people and her church, Clarendon Baptist. She was the first woman to serve as president of the Tabor City Chamber of Commerce.

Ruey Hewett died in 1972, and their son Jimmy became president of the company.

While he was in college his mother managed the store.

The store closed several years ago when competition from nearby shopping malls and big box stores created a crisis for small businesses.

In addition to Jimmy, Ruey and Margaret had two daughters, Winnie and Meta.

Jimmy has been director of the Columbus County school bus garage for several years.

Winnie retired last year after a long career in recreation management, budget analysis and child protective services in California. Meta is a music teacher for Columbus County Schools and is music director for Cherry Grove Baptist Church.

A few years after Margaret married and moved to Tabor City, her youngest brother, Hector Lee, and his family moved to town, where he worked at Ruey’s Clothing Store.

Margaret and Hector were two of nine chil-

dren in the Lee family.

Hector eventually bought the Todd House, a boarding house and family style restaurant that Mary Todd had opened in 1923 after her husband died. The Todds lived in the country and she opened the restaurant to make a living for her family. Hector and his wife Rachel, who was cafeteria manager for the 12-grade school campus in Tabor City, are now deceased, and their son Nelson Lee and his daughter Madison Lee Ward now operate the Todd House.

Bookkeeping is a job Margaret Hewett continues to this day. She now keeps “at least five sets of books,” said Rick Coleman.

She works for the Coleman family, who operates Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park at Daddy Joe’s Campground just east of Tabor City.

There are also books to keep for the Coleman farm, rentals and other business interests.

Rick and Joey Coleman claim Margaret as a second mama, stating that they spent a lot of time at the Hewett home playing with her son Jimmy when they were growing up.

“They seem just like my boys,” she said.

Margaret said she had visited her daughter Winnie in California one summer. She and Jimmy stopped to see Joe Coleman, Rick and Joey’s dad, who was sick. Jimmy announced that his mother was going to semi-retire and Rick said, “You’re just what I need.” She told him she didn’t know a thing about the tobacco market and was told, “You can learn.”

“I ended up going on the tobacco market, to Boone, Mountain City, doing the same thing I’m doing now,” she said.

Has she adapted to new technology, or does she cling to the old fashioned machines to get her work done?

“She’s on Quick Books 15,” Rick said.

“She is very detailed; all the i’s have to be dotted and all the t’s have to be crossed. She never misses a beat. She still adds in long hand on paper. The computer is only as good as what you put in there, and so far as I know, she has never blown up a computer.”

“One did go out in January or February,” Margaret added.

“She just mashed a wrong button and we fixed it,” Rick said.

Rick also spoke of her superior work ethic. “Sometimes she will come in at 8:30 a.m. and apologize for being late because frost was on her car. I’ve never told her what time to be here.”

She works more with Joey on the tobacco market while she works with Rick for other business interests. She’ll observe her 16th anniversary working with the Colemans on May 5.

And how much longer does she plan to work?

“I reckon I’ll keep trying to work,” she said with a smile.

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Never More Than A Lap Away Sam’s Pit Stop - Chadbourn Sam’s Pit Stop - Lake Waccamaw 101 Strawberry Boulevard 106 Old Hwy 74 / 76 West Phone:910-654-6494 Phone:910-646-1200

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special

954

Senters spruce up old home place for altruistic, bygone way of life

by RAY WYCHE

Six rocking chairs sit on the inviting porch of the Martha and Fred Senter home off Honey Hill Road east of Whiteville, but they are seldom used even though the view from the porch shows a comforting, restful panorama of field and forest.

The Senters have both retired from productive careers, but their retirement plans didn’t involve fishing poles or traveling. Or rocking chairs.

Fred Senter left a long career as a Baptist minister and as a U.S. Army chaplain in 1985, having served four years of active duty in Korea and other stations, and 22 years as division chaplain with the 108th Training Division, where he attained the rank of colonel, a rare achievement for a chaplain.

He graduated from Carson Newman College and received his ministerial training, culminating with a doctorate, from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

at Wake Forest.

He served a small church near Chapel Hill for 14 years, then moved to a church in High Point for 15 years.

His last pastorate before retiring (he thought he was retiring) was as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Wadesboro — the largest congregation in Anson County — for 14 years. All his pastorates have been longer than are usual for a Baptist minister.

Martha Senter, who was raised in the house that she and Fred enlarged by 800 square feet and remodeled, worked as executive assistant in several companies after graduating in business from Woman’s College (now UNCGreensboro).

The couple has one daughter, Laura, who has the unusual distinction of earning a college degree in nursing and a theological degree from Gardner Webb University. She is now chaplain at a

woman’s hospital in Washington state.

The Senters’ working lives, plus the extra altruistic activities they are engaged in, would be ticket enough for most people to try out those rocking chairs. But the couple, both in their mid-seventies, don’t see it that way.

Fred Senter has been pastor for the past eight years for Lennon’s Crossroads Baptist Church and is active with the Ramps and Rails Group that builds and installs wheelchair ramps for the disabled in the county, at no cost to the recipients. He also donated his woodworking skills to building Free Library book receptacles to be placed along streets and roads to supply people with reading materials at no cost.

Martha Senter is chairman of the ways and means committee of the Whiteville Woman’s Civic League, a women’s group that prepares and serves meals for

meetings and banquets of businesses and organizations. Her job involves assigning dishes to be prepared by individual members.

The proceeds, 100 percent, from this volunteer venture are donated by the women to non-profit entities.

She found she still had some free time after Civic League activities and tending to a large garden, so each September she invites the entire congregation of Lennon’s Crossroads Church for a supper of homemade foods she and Fred have grown and prepared, followed by a vesper service in their park-like yard.

“I cook supper for 50 to 75 people,” she says.

The Senters aren’t following the survivalist path with their oversized food harvests; to answer the unasked question of how two people (neither of them overweight) can use that much food, they explain: “We give it away.”

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Fred Senter in his yard

The give-away of garden produce is not limited to the summer days when gardens are at their peak production. The surplus yields from their agricultural efforts are preserved for the coming winter when fresh, locally grown garden harvests are non-existent.

“I have four pressure cookers, two freezers and three refrigera-

orchard consisting of trees and bushes bearing peaches, plums, pears, apples and cherries.

The couple carries their desire to help people into the public domain.

“I was president of the hospital auxiliary in Wadesboro for 12 years,” Martha Senter says.

Fred Senter is a handyman,

ricanes Fran and Floyd. He also had a hand in remodeling and updating the dwelling. But the barn, as handsome and utilitarian as it is, is not his pride and joy.

“My big job was making the library shelving out of walnut,” he says.

Over the years of preparing sermons, Fred Senter has collected a

cost $5,000, including a Delco electricity generator and indoor plumbing, a rarity for a rural home in Columbus County in 1929.”

It’s a quiet neighborhood (there’s no other dwelling in sight, and the road fronting their home is dirt) in which the Senters chose to live but they have on hand domestic and wildlife for company.

Fred Senter proudly tallies his non-human companions.

“We have two horses, eight goats (including a nanny that recently bore quadruplets), uncounted bantam chickens and laying hens, two cats and one dog.”

Thanks to the couple’s interest in animals and Fred’s skill at building bird feeders and bluebird houses, their yard and large garden are homes to uncountable wild songbirds.

Fred Senter does his farming with a 1953 two-cylinder John Deere tractor, which he keeps running with his mechanical skills.

Church work is their main parttime interest at the present.

“Fred belongs to three Baptist Men’s Groups — Hallsboro, Whiteville, and Lennon’s Crossroads, and I belong to three WMUs (Woman’s Missionary

“It cost $5,000, including a Delco electricity generator and indoor plumbing, a rarity for a rural home in Columbus County in 1929.” -Martha Senter tors,” Martha Senter says. All this for two people.

Growing, freezing and canning are a summer’s way of life in their household.

“We don’t get bored,” her husband adds.

To add variety to their homegrown diet, the Senters have an

working with wood and repairing small motors. He owns a Model A Ford in fine operating condition, and his automotive workshop contains a 1930s model Plymouth automobile awaiting his magic touch. With little professional help, he built a barn with lumber from pine trees felled by Hur-

Fred Senter built this elaborate bookcase and fireplace

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sizeable library heavy with theological works. It’s easy for the layman to overlook these religious treatises and instead feast his eyes on the solid walnut library shelves that Senter constructed. He put attractive profiles on the walnut moldings that he made himself on visible shelf edges to dress up his creation a bit more.

Visitors and passers-by comment on the attractiveness of the Senters’ house and grounds. The dwelling was built in1929 by Martha’s parents, Clara and Willard Barefoot, and was thoroughly updated by the Senters. When asked about the scope of the remodeling, Fred Senter is quick to answer:“We rebuilt it.”

The couple inherited the house and 12 acres of land. They purchased adjoining land to bring their total holdings to 50 acres.

“I found the contract for the house,” Martha Senter says. “It

Unions) in the same churches,” Martha Senter says. Whiteville Baptist was where Fred Senter began his ministerial career one summer while in seminary, and Hallsboro Baptist was his wife’s home church.

Fred Senter was raised in Tennessee and Virginia, the son of a Baptist minister who followed the usual path of Baptist preachers by frequent moves.

“I really don’t have a hometown,” he says.

The couple lives a full life, much of their energy going to good works for others. Fred Senter admits that the energy and hours devoted to altruistic and church work, along with maintaining an attractive home place and productive garden, keep them busy.

“We’ve got all on our plates we need right now,” he says.

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Arts& Culture Fred and Martha Senter saw a green box at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences in the days before the newly repurposed museum was to have its grand opening. This was no ordinary box. It had a hinged door on its front, with a glass panel inserted into it. Behind the door were books, and the Senters were intrigued.

When the retired couple – who are still very active within the local community – saw an up close and person example of the “lend and borrow free books” idea, they agreed Fred could craft a similar wooden box from materials he had at home.

Martha would later discover that her sister, Mary Alice Stanley, already had an interest in the international “Little Library” program from a magazine article she’d previously read. The Senters thought Mary Al-

Fred Senter crafts a cedar box for new ‘Little Library’

by WALLYCE TODD

ice would likely be interested in ensuring it stayed stocked with books.

They were correct in their supposition. The green “Little Library” endeavor at the local science museum is oriented toward children and is filled with age-appropriate books for them.

Mary Alice and Fred decided to gear the selection of books placed in the new Little Library box near the depot toward readers who may or may not be youngsters.

“That’s the main thing,” Mary Alice said, “to encourage reading for literacy. Hopefully, it will be for all ages. I will be the one who will be keep checking on this one (at the depot),” she said.

With this goal in mind, Fred, Mary Alice and her husband, Tom Stanley, met one morning in April to place the recently constructed brown wooden box – with its own

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Fred Senter glass panel insertion and collection of books behind its door – next to a bench at the “downtown” end of the Vineland Depot.

“What an ideal setting… at the focal point for downtown – the Vineland Station,” said Tom, who is the director of the Whiteville Downtown Development Commission.

“Now, there’s the bench, the books and the birds chirping. You can sit and read and watch the busy traffic in downtown Whiteville.”

After Fred had used his electric drill to ensure every screw was tightly turned, Mary Alice added a few more books, including “one book you can sit on the bench to read and then leave it for someone else to sit on the bench and read.

“You can escape the real world for a bit if you read. When I was young, I didn’t take the time to read – but now I love it,” she continued. “One of my real joys is to escape the hustle and bustle of every day life by taking some time to read.”

The stained cedar box was crafted from wood Fred acquired “in Anston County. That’s where we lived for 14 years,” the retired pastor and army chaplain said.

In order to complete the project he smilingly said, “I got volunteered for,” Fred sawed the cedar up into board, ran it through his planer and then through his molder-head before putting it all together and adding its door and decoration.

After going through the official application process, Mary Alice received the register charter number for Whiteville’s newest Little Library (#23118). The charter number also came with all the information she needed to set up the “take a book; return a book” program at the location beside the depot.

So there are labels and books for lenders and borrowers both inside the box. There is also pertinent information on the side panel of the cedar box Fred created just for that purpose.

After ensuring the box was securely prepped and set, the three friends – who are also each other’s relatives – were then ready to declare the newest “Little Library” officially “open for borrowing” and “ready for returns.”

Tony Grippi, a downtown resident, who also owns and operates “Anthony’s,” the nearby Italian restaurant, was taking a morning walk down Madison Street the day Fred, Mary Alice and Tom were putting the finishing touches on the town’s most recent “encourage reading project.”

The restaurateur paused and walked over to see the small but mighty newest addition to downtown. “It looks pretty nice,” he observed.

The recently opened Little Library is, indeed, a nice idea… a very nice idea… one that will hopefully act as a catalyst for other similar additions to be contributed around the county.

Literacy is of integral importance.

Books can be portals to the gathering of much new knowledge. The combination of reading a book while naturally collecting Vitamin D through time spent seated on an outdoor bench in nice weather just seems to add up to a healthy happening all around.

Fred, Martha, Mary Alice and Tom invite you to soak up some stories and some sunshine. Visit the new Little Library near the depot and absorb the benefits. It could do your mind and body a world of good.

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Sport& Leisure

An “a-lure-ing” passion Delco man hand makes fishing lures

by JEFFERSON WEAVER

Bait shops, catalogs and the fishing aisles at large department stores are full of shining, spangling, mass-produced plastic plugs and lures designed as much to catch fishermen as to catch fish.

Carol Massey’s topwater plugs, however, are made one by one, with more thought put into catching fish, and very little concern for attracting the fisherman’s pocketbook.

“I probably give away as many as I sell,” the soft-spoken Delco man says. “I try to break even when I do sell them, but that’s about all.”

At 74, Massey has caught his share of fish, and hunted his share of wild game. He still loves both activities, although fishing is far and away the leader. Born in Middlesex and raised in Wilmington, Massey bluntly says he grew up “poor.”

“We had a two-room house, with a hand-

pump and an outside privy,” he says, chuckling. “People can’t relate to that nowadays.”

He shared the home with his brother and two sisters.

“They had middle names,” he laughs. “I don’t know why Mama didn’t give me a middle name, or why she spelled my name like the female spelling.”

Leaving school at 16, he walked to work every day, and on payday, gave his mother his check.

“We just did it like that back then,” he said. “I did it that way until I got married, and I don’t regret a thing about it.”

His entire life, Massey has been a passionate outdoorsman. Surrounded by fresh and salt water when he lived in the Port City, Massey fished every chance he had.

When he was 19, a good friend asked him to come along on a fishing trip that changed

his view of angling.

“I sat in the back and paddled while he was flyfishing,” Massey says. “I was hooked.”

The friend, Bonnie Thompson, gave Massey a solid fiberglass fly rod, and taught him how to use it.

“There’s just something about flyfishing,” he says, noting that many people associate fly rods with trout fishing, rather than panfish, bass and other species in our area. “You have to practice, and you have to be patient.”

Flyfishing typically involves casting a tiny, almost weightless lure so it gently lands on the surface of the water, giving the impression of an insect. The angler must be able to present the lure in such a way that the fish—whose eyes are focused on the lure on the surface—doesn’t suspect his dinner is actually a disguised hook.

While he still loves to flyfish, Massy

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4/29/15 12:13 PM

Carol Massey with some of his antique and collectible lures. The classic plugs provide some of the inspiration for his work. spends most of his water time with crickets, popping bugs and topwater lures of his own making. He loves catching any kind of fish, but especially loves crappie and warmouth bass, often called zebra perch.

And while he uses a lot of his own products, he isn’t a snob.

“I use some commercial stuff, of course,” Massey says. “It’s a matter of whatever catches fish.”

‘Not an artist’ Massey’s self-deprecating style belies his skill as a lure maker.

“I don’t know why people want to see these,” he says, opening a box of hand-finished and fitted plugs. “I’m kind of proud of them, and some people like them, but they aren’t special.”

Massey doesn’t aggressively market his lures—most don’t even have names, like the Rapalas, Mirro-Lures, Devil-Horses or Jitterbugs so familiar to most anglers. He sells a few here and there by special order, and makes some up for sale “if somebody wants to buy one,” but he doesn’t have a retail store, booth or even a website.

“I don’t know how to do that Internet,” he laughs. “I don’t need to.”

Many of Massey’s lures have the look, feel and delivery of classic bass and topwater lures of the 1950s, when both craftsmen

and manufacturers were experimenting with combinations of wood, aluminum, plastic and composite materials. He makes many of his pieces in the same style of the classic topwater cast lures, although no two are just alike, and Massey’s lures are obviously different from the mass-produced models.

While he makes some of his components, he discovered it was easier and more efficient to purchase component parts like spinners and eyes. The spinners turn and flash as a plug is drawn through the water, causing a disturbance to get a hunting fish’s attention. He uses both hand-made and storebought “bills” made of plastic or metal that extend from the front of the plugs, causing the water to gurgle and creating a wake like an injured fish, swimming frog or other prey animal.

He has made hook wells and other parts from scrap metal, rifle casings, and “almost anything.”

“The components I buy are a lot better made than what I make,” he says.

Those parts, however, are the only storebought parts of his “crankbaits.”

The bodies of his lures are turned by hand on a lathe he bought for $200 in 1989, then “played with” for years before making his first lure. Some of the painting is done with spray paint, while much is done with brushes. He has a tiny paint sprayer, but hasn’t

started using it yet.

Each lure takes several coats of paint, then detail work, then sealer after being assembled, and while the time required varies from plug to plug, none takes as long as the first one—which is still unpainted, after 15 years.

Plug Number 1, inscribed “00” for the year he made it, is on display in his shop.

“It’s a wallhanger, I guess,” he says.

The plug hangs with both antique and modern plugs, commercial and custom made lures, and tools around the workbench of his cluttered but orderly work area.

“I can find stuff,” he laughs, “even if no one else can. I can tell when something’s been moved, or is missing.”

An antique cabinet salvaged from a rundown storage building holds a couple dozen “blanks,” lure bodies in various stages of construction. Bins and boxes hold spinners, bills, split rings and other components. Boxes used for storage of offshore fishing lures hold a museum’s inventory of plugs, bugs and lures dating back to the early 20th century. Fishing rods, hunting gear and tackle boxes fill every other available space in the room.

Massey buys tackle boxes at auctions and flea markets; while many boxes contain nothing more than the typical melted rubber worms and rusted hooks, he occasionally Spring 2015 | 954 | 37

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finds hidden jewels. A circa-1950s aluminum tackle box he purchased at an auction in Clarkton had cork-lined sections (not to help the box float, but to deter rust and keep hooks from tangling) and the original owner’s tins of fishing reel oil, fly ointment, and DDT-based bug repellent. The previous owner used pimento jars to separate hooks and other tackle.

“You can find some really old pieces in these sometimes,” Massey says, holding up a fancy oil bottle that likely predated the tackle box by decades.

The box also contained several DevilHorse topwater plugs and other antique enticements. Massey studies the old pieces, not just for ideas the fish to improve his own products, but for pleasure.

“I have a couple books about these,” he says, “and I really should study them more, but I admit, I just like the old lures.”

Watching the tide Massey worked for an auto dealer in Jacksonville and later for DuPont in Wilmington. He and his wife raised three children (Robert, Barbara and Shannon) spending much of their time on the banks of the Northeast Cape Fear River.

“My youngest daughter, Shannon, asked me when she learned to swim,” Massey laughs. “I told her she was about one—we had one of those life jackets for babies, and she was always jumping off the end of our dock and paddling around.”

Massey had a small cabin and fishing camp on the Northeast, and the family spent much of their time there year-round.

“I had a boat that I kept tied to our dock,” he said, “but when the tide moved, it floated underneath, and if a boat passed by, everything would get swept out. I finally figured out how to use a window sash weight so it could ride up and down with the tide.”

Massey says the tides play a larger role in freshwater fishing – even in Columbus County—than many people realize.

“I learned to watch the tide,” he says. “At first it was because my boat kept getting damaged, but then I realized the effect it has on the fish.”

That knowledge led him to impress a group of friends at his fishing camp one day.

Some of the visitors weren’t as familiar with the outdoors as Massey, and when he saw the tide changing, he gathered his gear and headed for the boat.

“I asked them how many fish they wanted me to bring back, and when,” he laughs. The friend didn’t take the master angler seriously, and one suggested he bring back a dozen panfish in an hour.

Massey paddled his one-man boat downstream to a creek dotted with cypress knees.

“Those knees, when the tide falls, they leave these little pools of deep water,” he explains. “The crappie and the warmouth perch, they love those holes.”

Using a popping bug on a flyrod, Massey hauled in a dozen good eating sized war-

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mouths from the holes, then paddled back to the cabin—returning around an hour after he left.

Massey had used a single popping bug for the entire catch, and the bug was “chewed to pieces.” His friends were impressed, although he admits he knew the fish would be there, and that the warmouth would be hungry. Armed with that knowledge, it was just a matter of finding the right honey hole in an area rich in honey holes.

He still didn’t disabuse his friends of the idea that he was a master angler.

“I like being a little mischievous sometimes,” Massey says, smiling.

Then there was the birthday gift “that wasn’t.”

Massey opened a small country store on NC 53 near Holland’s Shelter, a fishing mecca, when his son Robert was a small child. Massey’s wife wanted to go back to work, but paying a babysitter cost more than they could afford.

“I made a deal with the man who owned it,” he says, “and we had us a store. Sold gas for a penny a gallon more than it cost us, and sold bait, tackle and other stuff for fishing.”

The couple lived in Jacksonville at the time, where Massey was assistant service manager for an auto dealer. It didn’t take long for Massey’s Gas and Grocery to become a victim of its own success.

“After a year,” he says, “we had to make a decision about whether to keep it open and me quit my ‘good’ job, or close it. It was busy, and making some money. We didn’t even have time to go fishing.”

The business was sold to a friend, and Massey began selling down his inventory.

Finally, he was left with a small storage building of lures, tackle and square cricket cages.

“I never sold any of those cricket cages,” he says. “We never knew why.”

When one of those hard-to-sell cages disappeared, Massey became suspicious. He found several other items, including tackle, lures and equipment, missing from the building.

“I had a neighbor who I’d told to help himself,” Massey says, “and he did. I just didn’t expect him to take so much.”

Later, when the neighbor’s birthday came around, Massey told his wife he had the gift covered.

“I took one of everything he had taken, and wrapped it up in one of those cricket boxes,” Massey laughs. “While he was opening it up, I told him I had gotten him something he needed. He got the wrapping paper off, and we had us a good laugh.”

‘Fishy stories’ Despite denying that he is any kind of artist, Massey spends much of his time

4/29/15 12:13 PM

carefully hand-detailing his topwater plugs.

He says he isn’t sure how many he’s made through the years, but he makes them in batches of four. Some are inspired by the Devil-Horse brand plugs he grew up using, but his main patterns are one-inch minnow plugs, and “triple hourglass” shaped plugs as large as five inches.

The triple-hourglass style is hundreds of years old, and its attraction to fish has never been explained. Massey makes them in a variety of colors and styles, from some that resemble a fish in color and detail to others designed to attract by color.

“I guess I make 50 or 60 a year sometimes,” he says. “Sometimes more. I have people want to buy them in batches, and others I just give to folks because I want them to have them. I like to see people smile, and it doesn’t hurt to do something nice sometimes.”

He says he doesn’t know if he has a most popular style – he often brings out a box and asks people to “choose one you want.”

Yet, one of his least favorite lures created one his best memories.

“I was over in Chadbourn, and had some lures out for sale,” Massey says. “There was this young man, about 15 or so, and I could tell he really wanted one. I told him to pick out a couple, but he said he didn’t have any money.

“I told him to pick what he wanted, and I just wanted him to have them. He looked from one end of the box to the other, and finally asked me which ones I liked.”

The young fisherman ended up taking home two of Massey’s plugs, including one “I didn’t much care to get rid of.

“The paint was wrong on it, and I didn’t really want to let it go. It wasn’t good enough, I didn’t think, but he liked it.”

The young angler wasn’t the only one who liked the “messed up” plug.

A few weeks later, Massey was in a grocery store, and ran into the young man.

“I told him, ‘Tell me some fishy stories,’” Massey laughs, “and he sure did.”

The plug Massey was least proud of was a producer for the young man, even bringing in a four-pound bass “he thought was going to break his pole.” The angler then fell victim to the bane of every fisherman who casts against a brushy bank – the lure became tangled in a handful of branches.

“He told me he got it out,” Massey says, “but he was scared to death he was going to break it or lose it—that plug caught fish for him. You like hearing that from folks.”

As his health has deteriorated, Massey doesn’t get to enjoy the solitude of fishing alone as much as he once did.

“I just feel comfortable fishing by myself,” he says. “We all age, but each day is a bless-

ing.”

His son Robert, also an avid outdoorsman, had become “too busy to fish,” but recently called his dad and said he wanted to get back into the hobby. Massey says the two spent much of the first of what he hopes will be many days at the mouth of Livingston Creek.

“There was too much debris for using topwater lures,” Massey says, “and we had a bad tide, but we caught some crappie with Beetlespins. It didn’t matter—even a bad day fishing is better than the best day at work.”

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Health& Beauty

You Want Those Fabulous Abs?

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There really is a misconception when trying to get a flat stomach. People think you can target an area, like abs, with constant training of that area reducing the fat located there (called spot reduction). Well, SURPRISE…There is NO such thing as SPOT REDUCTION! You cannot spot train to lose fat in a particular area because by your own genetics your body chooses where it will lose the body fat. Disappointing I know, but it’s the truth. Doing a thousand sit ups a day will NOT get rid of flab on the stomach. Nor will doing constant side bends get rid of our love handles.

However constant training of the Abs can STRENGTHEN and TONE your core (abdominals and low back musculature), making it easier to do daily physical activities.

We all have abs but the majority of people just have layers of body fat covering their abs. Therefore, the best way to SEE your abs is to reduce overall body fat. I believe the way to do this is 80% diet and 20% dedicated full body resistance training (High intensity resistance will give results quicker if you are capable). There’s is no so such thing as quick Abs - it’s consistent exercise, proper diet and calorie intake/expenditure (burning off more calories than you take in to reduce body fat).

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Stronger Body Fitness ISSA Personal Fitness Trainer Certified TRX Core Trainer SIMPLE DIET TIPS •focus on whole foods that are not processed or packaged.

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•STAY AWAY from sugar.

You want to develop strength and flexibility around the core by doing compound movements in your workouts. Doing squats and dead lifts require a lot of core stabilization and so in doing these movements you are also strengthening your trunk musculature.

Abs can be trained daily with higher reps rather than with high resistance (using weights). The following floor exercises target your Abs and can be added to your workouts at home or at the gym.

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2

3 Pic #1 (STARTING POSITION) Pic #2 (As you lift your upper torso, raise the right arm up as your left arm goes back behind you, as if you are sprinting… while you lift your left leg up and knee comes up towards your chest. Then return to starting position.)

Pic #3 (Then lift your upper torso again raising your left arm up as your right arm goes back behind you, while lifting your right leg up and knee towards your chest and return to starting position completing one repetition.)

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v UPS

russian twist

2

1

third group

second group

1

3

1

Pic #1 (Starting position: Place hands behind your head and lift feet off the ground) Pic #2 (Lift head up as you bring knees in towards your elbow and crunch your body in to make a ball figure, then return to starting position completing one repetition.)

fifth group

fourth group

crunch balls

2

Pic #1 (As you are leaning back while in a sitting position raise a weight at shoulder height and away from the body and twist your torso to the right swinging the weight out in front and to the right) Pic #2 (As you return to the middle twist your body to the left side swinging the weight around out in front to complete one repetition.)

LEG SPLIT SIT UPS

Pic #1 (Starting Position) Pic #2 (Raise feet and upper torso at the same time off the floor reaching hands towards the feet then lower back down to starting position completing one repetition.)

Pic #3 (MODIFIED VERSION: V UP: lift feet up into the air while reaching hands towards your feet and lifting head off the ground and return to starting position completing one repetition.)

1

2

2 Pic #1 (Starting Position: While laying down hold a weight behind your head and split legs apart and while lifting them slightly off the ground. * You do not have to use a weight.)

Pic #2 (Quickly swing the weight up in the air raising your upper torso while lifting your feet and bringing knees in towards your torso. Keep swinging the weight through your split legs to the ground in between your feet and then return to the starting position completing one repetition.) ...continued onto the next page

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REMEMBER, no matter how many Ab exercises you do, if you are carrying excess fat you will still have fat covering those Abs that you are working so hard to see. You need to burn off more calories than you take in to reduce body fat. You can achieve this by doing two things; exercising more and reducing unnecessary calories by eating smart. And if you are eating smart you naturally consume fewer calories in your choice of foods and consumption.

Props and gimmicks are enticing but deceiving. There’s no “magic pill” in achieving your goals. Take control of your diet and move your body each and every day to the best of your ability. Working the core in ways shown in this article will help you SEE THOSE ABS. Keep at it and NEVER GIVE UP! Persistence, patience and a life focused on better health is the only way to keep it lean and mean!

BiCYCLE CRUNCHES

sixth group

1

2 Pic #1 (Starting: While lying in a supine position on your back with hands behind your head lift both feet off the ground) Pic #2 (While bringing your right knee in towards your chest lift the head up and left elbow over your torso to touch your right knee and return to starting position. Repeat alternating the left knee in towards your chest with right elbow touching the left knee completing one repetition.)

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Sport& Leisure

Donnie Hannah… keeping it on the bright side

by DAN BISER

In

October

1994,

the

Whiteville High volleyball team went against South Columbus in a playoff match that determined the third-place finisher in the Waccamaw 2A Conference as well as a berth in the state playoffs.

Whiteville won the match, and the team was rewarded with a four-hour bus trip on a Wednesday to Beaufort County to square off with Northside in the first round of the playoffs.

WHS coach Donnie Hannah recalls that the bus broke down before even getting out of Whiteville.

“We had given ourselves plenty of time to get there, but with the problems we had with the bus, we ended up making it there right at the time the match was supposed to start. We literally got off the, bus went in the gym and took the court,” said Hannah, who was also the team bus driver as well as the lone chaperone. “Our girls made it worthwhile by winning the match, and right after it was over we hopped back on the bus and headed home.”

The kicker, Hannah said, came on the following Saturday when the Lady Wolfpack boarded the bus again and made a six-hour trip to the state’s far northeast reaches to take on Currituck County in a second-round match.

“I forgot how many bridges we had to cross to get to Currituck High School, but it was a bunch,” he said.

“We lost the match in four sets, but the fourth set went into a tiebreaker, and if we had won that, we would have played a fifth and deciding game,” he said. “Our girls played hard, but I think the fatigue factor may have caught up to us late in the match. It was another long drive home.”

It may have been a demanding week of volleyball, but for Coach

Donnie Hannah, it was all in a week’s’ work.

It remains that way today for the 59-year old Hannah, who has served 37 years in the Whiteville City School system in a variety of capacities. Coaching is just one part of his dutes.

In his earlier years, he served as a kindergarten teacher’s aide, but for the most part he has been involved with Exceptional Children’s programs.

To put it mildly, Donnie Hannah is all about Whiteville High School, all of its students and all of its athletic teams … and well beyond.

He said he occasionally thinks about retirement, but has no definite plans.

“Wolfpack blood runs thick in my veins,” said Hannah, who graduated from WHS in 1974.

He is the longest-serving member on the current Whiteville High School faculty and staff.

He said he has no idea how many WHS athletic contests he has coached.

“I love it,” he said in his husky chuckle. “The first year I coached volleyball (1981), we got runnerup in the conference and I thought that was pretty good because we were a pretty young team.

“But by the end of spring sports season, I realized the volleyball team was the only (varsity) team in the school that didn’t win a conference championship that year.

“The other coaches had a good time kidding me about that, so I made sure our girls won the conference the next year,” he added.

Hannah’s WHS varsity volleyball squad won eight conference championships along with several other strong finishes and playoff appearances.

“We used to have a big rivalry with Pender,” he said. “They were the top team in the area and their

coach, Ray Horton, became a good friend of mine. He used to say that we always gave him some good competition.”

For the past several years, Hannah has assumed the head coaching roles of the boys’ and girls’ junior varsity basketball teams, junior varsity volleyball team and junior varsity softball team. He also serves as public address announcer for boys’ varsity basketball home games. He makes it a point to attend as many other WHS sports events as possible.

Whiteville athletic director David Smith recalls enrolling at WHS in 1982 as a freshman and quickly getting to know Coach Hannah.

“I can’t imagine Whiteville High School without Donnie Hannah,” Smith said. “He does so many things that make a difference in the school, and he always keeps things on the bright side … always smiling and always greeting everybody.

“Like all the coaches around here, he doesn’t like to lose,” Smith added,” but you know he is always going to be looking out for all the kids’ best interests.”

Hannah grew up in Whiteville, the youngest of eight children.

He was raised by his grandmother, Lubertha Leach. Following graduation from WHS, Hannah enrolled at Southeastern Community College and obtained an associate degree. His plans of pursuing a four-year degree were put on hold when he decided to stay in Whiteville and help care for his aging grandmother. He took a job at Peoples Drug Store and began studying martial arts. In 1978, he was right on the verge of obtaining a black belt in karate when he was contacted by Mrs. Josephine Spaulding of the Whiteville City Schools about becoming an assistant for the system’s EC program.

“When Dr. Jerry Paschal became principal at Whiteville High and later the superintendent, he gave me a lot of support and encouragement,” Hannah said. “When I first became the volleyball coach, I knew very little about the game, but he and many others at the school showed a lot of confidence in me and helped make it a strong learning experience.”

He said his years as a kindergarten assistant at Whiteville Primary broadened his scope in the educational field.

“It was something, getting to see a lot of those kindergarten kids several years later when they came to the high school.” he said. “They had all grown up.”

As a instructor in the special needs program, Hannah has long been a stabilizing force.

“He’s a jack-of-all-trades,” said EC teacher Marietta “Lee” Edwards. “He provides a strong male role model and is very efficient in dealing with the everyday challenges of the class.”

“He has so much patience and compassion for the students in the class,” said EC therapeutic assistant Shanette Cunningham. “He has such a close bond with them all.”

Hannah said that he feels “very blessed” to be part of the EC staff.

“To some people, it may not seem like a very attractive job, but it has been an opportunity that I love and appreciate.”

Hannah and his wife Tonya are parents of Ezekiel (14), Taniyah (12) and Donovin (6).

He is a lifelong member of Antioch First Born Holiness Church, currently serving as chairman of the board of deacons.

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A large number of Donnie Hannah’s Lady Wolfpack volleyball players have gone on to distinguish themselves in the sport at the college level.

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special

954

Roseann with “NanBabies” Jaydon, Lilli, Eden, Kadence and Mason.

She was given life, and she lives it to the fullest

by CLARA CARTRETTE

Roseann Hinson Dudney

of Tabor City says she was born in an Army hospital in Petersburg, Virginia, at a cost of $12.50.

“I didn’t breathe and they laid me aside to die,” she added with a laugh.

But then she started breathing and she hasn’t slowed down since, in spite of a severe birth defect.

She was missing five toes and her knees were in her hip. One is larger and turns outward; the left one was not connected well and is fused, and the femur is tiny in that thigh.

The second of five children born to Betty and the late Dick Hinson of Tabor City, Roseann rode the school bus and attended first grade classes with her older sister Roxanne, even before she was enrolled. She recalls that she would sit in Mrs. Boyer’s class and the teacher wore strappy platform shoes.

Through the years the Hinsons lost a son at age 3 months. They

adopted two more children and raised them as their own, and they always had “extras” living with them. In spite of her disability, Roseann found her place among the others and did what her siblings did. And that’s the way her parents wanted it.

“We never treated her different from the others,” Betty Hinson said.

The Hinsons were understandably upset that their daughter wasn’t born perfect, “but we always give God the glory,” Betty said. When they learned that another mother’s baby, born at the same time as Roseann, had died, they realized how blessed they truly were to have their daughter alive.

While her parents never pampered Roseann because of her disability, they always made sure she had two sets of books so she wouldn’t have to take them to and from school each day.

“She was a good student,” her

mother said. “She learned a lot.”

Betty recalled that J. Herman Leder of Whiteville made arrangements for Roseann to attend camps for children with disabilities — Camp Sky Ranch in Boone and later, Camp Easter Seals in Southern Pines.

“She’s never felt handicapped,” Betty said. “She has always interacted well with people. She got married, had children and raised them without help. She’s worked full time, helped run their horse trimming and shoeing business and had her little craft business on the side.

“The first time I brought her home, an elderly lady, Mrs. Norris, came to see us and told me God had blessed us with a beautiful little girl, and to always love her,” Betty continued. “Roseann could always do whatever the others were doing. Her brothers and sisters treated her like everyone else and there was nothing she couldn’t do.

“She was on the County Fair board for several years, is very involved in Glory Tabernacle Church and is a very good Christian,” she added.

As a child, Roseann was always included in whatever activity her siblings were involved in and was not humored or pampered any more than they were. The Hinsons operated a store, Dick Hinson’s Trading Post near Lake Tabor, and her mother said Roseann started operating the cash register at an early age. Roseann said the cash register became her job when she was in third grade. It kept her busy, as most families would find their way to Dick’s Trading Post to get hand-dipped ice cream, if for no other reason. Grape was a favorite flavor because no other stores had it.

“For a time, we farmed and had the store,” Betty said. “When it came tobacco planting time, Roseann was there dropping tobacco plants. She was always busy.

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She was there to help scrape the hair off during hog-killing time.

She did lots of canning. One time a man tried to trick her in the store by giving her different bills to get change. When he left he told her, ‘You’re one smart young lady.’ Roseann said, ‘Mama, he tried to get my money.’ But he couldn’t trick her.”

Roseann’s first legs were made

by Dr. Heinig in Charlotte when she was 3 years old. He made them like straight braces and she couldn’t wear socks. But soon Franklin Floyd made them “prettier” so she could wear socks.

Knee joints were added when she was got a new set of legs in third grade.

“He said I was the most demanding child he ever met,” she said of Floyd. “Now his son builds my legs. I was a guinea pig, too,” she added. “They tried everything new on me.”

Roseann said she was taken to doctors’ conferences and asked to walk around on the table to show doctors her new legs.

The Hinsons connected with Dr. Heinig through orthopedic clinics at the Columbus County

A family portrait — Mason, Betty, Shawn Parker, Andrea, Lilli, Jaydon, Kadence, Roseann, Eden, Trevor and Nikki.

Health Department. She recalls that she always got milk and cookies when she went for check-ups or adjustments. Roseann’s mother recalls that measurements for her first legs with knee joints were taken from Irene Bell Young’s legs because she was petite and had pretty legs. Young, now deceased, was a Columbus County public health nurse for many years.

With each new set of legs, Roseann grew taller with the

addition of inches at the ankle.

When she got new legs in seventh grade, she was made so tall she was overbalanced and began to fall. That’s when she began using hand crutches. Many years later, Roseann guesses around 2000, she began using a power chair because of carpal tunnel damage and her hip problem.

Roseann was smart and made good grades, but school wasn’t always physically easy for her.

However, classmates helped by carrying her books. Betty credits seventh grade teacher Helen Kelly and Principal Tommy Lewis with having other students help with her books.

“I couldn’t run and play tag, but I did play Red Rover,” Roseann said. “I would take my jack rocks and play with them during recess, or just sit and read or crochet while the others played.” She remembers teaching a teacher, Mrs. Margaret Hall, to crochet during recess.

Was she ever taunted by classmates? At times, she said, but one particular incident stands out.

“There were four girls who said we were going to play at recess, but when we had recess one said, ‘Let’s run!’ But she made me strong,” Roseann said. “Adults accepted me more than children my age. I had lots of adult friends.”

When Roseann turned 17, there was still no driver’s education car equipped with hand controls in Columbus County. She sat down and wrote the governor, telling him her situation. The next week there was a driver’s education car with hand controls ready continued on page 52

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for Roseann.

She continued serving as the family store cashier when she wasn’t in school. She knew she was going to UNC Wilmington, but also knew she had to get another foreign language credit before enrolling. The summer after graduating from Tabor City High School she attended UNC Pembroke to complete that credit, and was awarded a scholarship through UNCP to go to UNC Wilmington. She graduated within four years with a degree in accounting, driving to and from Wilmington so she could come home and spend weekends with her family.

Roseann worked at the tobacco markets, with Rainbow Growers and at BB&T after getting married, but stayed home for a year after her daughter Andrea was born. She then got a clerical job at Southeastern Community College and later became institutional funds accountant in the business office, retiring after 17 years.

“I loved my job,” she said.

“There are some good people out there.”

Roseann and her husband had

a daughter, Andrea, and a son, Trevor. She says she has now been happily divorced for 11 years after 27 years of marriage.

In addition to her son and daughter, she has five “NanBabies,” two boys and three girls who are her pride and joy. The two oldest are boys Mason, 10, and Jaydon, 5. The girls are Kaydence, 3; Eden, 2, and Lilli, 1, and while they are not all sisters, they sometimes dress alike.

Roseann raised her children to be independent, according to daughter Andrea.

“She was tough, and you had to walk the line with her,” she said. “We had to be independent because she was very independent and wanted her children to be that way. She brought us up in the church and taught us to be good citizens.”

Andrea is the mother of Roseann’s “NanBabies” Mason, Jadon and Lilli. Trevor’s children are Kaydence and Eden.

It is amazing what Roseann is able to do, and her family says there is nothing she won’t tackle as a challenge. She, her mother and her daughter tore out five

rooms in Roseann’s house, building back three rooms to create a larger kitchen area and making it more convenient for her.

“Roseann-height” cabinets were installed, split-level floors were raised to one level and a larger washroom and large pantry were built to accommodate her wheelchair.

“It started out to be a project to tear out a small bathroom,” Roseann said, but the project kept growing and now her home is much more convenient for her.

Roseann has a sparkly smile and a winning personality. She’s smart, witty and likeable and people find it easy to like her. She was an active member of the Red Hat Society when it was a popular organization a few years ago.

It seemed to fit her perfectly — groups of friends dressing up in red hats and purple outfits, getting together for lunch, dinner, to take a trip or just be together to socialize and have fun.

“We still have four or five faithfuls who get together once a month, and some others come when they can,” she said of her Red Hat group. When the Red

Hat Society was in its heyday, her group and others in the area hosted hundreds of women at a gathering at Edgewood School.

A lot of people see Roseann as a hero, a champion who overcame a disability to lead a full and fruitful life doing just about anything that people without disabilities do. Sometimes it might not have been easy, but she coped by stepping around, crawling over and defeating obstacles in the pathway of a normal life.

She gives the credit to her parents and siblings who made her strong by treating her like everyone else, not humoring her because she had a disability. But the real glory goes to God, she said.

Her hobbies include going to the beach, crocheting, reading and working in the yard as long as she was able to.

“I can’t do it like I used to,” she explained. “I used to crawl around in the yard and do it all with a ‘diggie,’ a hand-held three-point spade. I dug the flowerbeds and filled them with flowers that were given to me. My flower gardens are memory gardens. I’ve got my grandma’s rose bush and sprouts

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from her lacy hydrangea. I don’t plant many annuals anymore. I just enjoy the perennials.”

She lives about half a mile from downtown Tabor City.

Sometimes, instead of driving, she “strolls” downtown or to other areas within her range in her electric wheelchair for lunch or to do a little shopping.

Roseann is no shrinking violet when it comes to adventure.

She tells about rappelling in the mountains.

“Southeastern Community College had a team-building class for the staff and we went rappelling in the North Carolina mountains,” she said. “ I crawled up the small ‘mountains’ — hills — but when it came to the big one, five wonderful men — my ‘pack mules’ — carried me up the mountain on their backs. It was one of the most awesome experiences and I will forever be grateful to those guys!

“I think I’ve lived a pretty awesome, simple life,” she continued. “I have been blessed to live a normal life and learn to do what I had to do and not worry

about what others thought. I’ve made a good living and had my babies that I always wanted. I’m still independent.

“From riding horses to driving a horse and buggy, to traveling and just enjoying the beach, I’ve accomplished everything I wanted to do, with the exception of riding a ‘regular’ bike,” she said. “A friend of mine recently told me that bike-riding isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, so I’m good.

There’s a lot more to life!”

Roseann is now searching for a conversion mobility van, stating that she needs one with a side ramp.

“A van would help me keep my independence much longer, and independence is very important to me,” she explained.

“I was just raised like the rest of them,” she said, summing up being able to do so much to surpass her disability. “You can sit at home and feel sorry for yourself, or you can live!”

Roseann has chosen to live life to the fullest.

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Historical

special

954

The Sound of Girls and Boys Flemington Hall celebrates 90 years

by ROBB CROSS

When F. B. Gault came to visit and stay with his great-uncle Charles Beers at Lake Waccamaw, he stayed in the Civil War-era bungalow called The Oaks, across the railroad tracks from the Carroll Hotel. When Beers died in 1910, his will allowed cash for his siblings and the bulk of his property holdings went to Gault. Beers had never married and had no issue.

Gault would also inherit the Beers interest in the Short and Beers shingle operation in nearby Hallsboro, his partner being Henry Bascom Short, son of the original Henry Blount Short who had brought Beers down from New York. Bascom would die by his own hand in 1914 and Gault would have the shingle operation incorporated as North Carolina Lumber Company.

For whatever reason, Gault decided to move from The Oaks and set his cap to build a new home closer to the lake. It would be a very regal affair.

He made arrangements to rent The Oaks and he himself entered a five-year contract in 1920 with Lucille W. Murchison of New York to rent a fully furnished home she had recently acquired

Flemington Hall today.

Photography by FULLER ROYAL

Aunt Irene Lampman Gault, the piano teacher. She held a Bachelor’s degree in music.

Frank Gault and his sister, Miriam “Mike” Gault Holt, share a laugh remembering sliding down the banister in their family home, Flemington Hall, as children. in Wilmington, located on the southeast corner of Ann and Third streets. The five-year contract was for $13,500, payable at $225 per month.

Because of his inheritance, Gault had access to thousands of

acres of cypress, juniper and pine timber. He passed the word that all the number one grade lumber was to be set aside at the mill for the future residence. The N.C. Lumber Company had expanded from shingles into kiln-dried lumber

Episcopal Bishop Reverend Edward Wooten, who gave services at the lake from 1910-15, in the old school house built by H.B. Short for his children.

Flemington Hall circa 1930s.

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and his choice pieces were warehoused until 1923 when construction began.

Trained as a civil engineer, Gault acted as his own contractor and spent two years building what was to be called Flemington Hall. This was a historical nod to the original name of the village of Lake Waccamaw, named for L.J. Fleming, who put the railroad through in 1853.

Flemington Hall was completed and occupied in 1925. Gault moved in with a wife and four children: Susie Bell LaMotte of Wilmington became the Missus in 1909 and children Charles and

Miriam came in 1911 and 1916, respectively, born in The Oaks. The other two children—Mary and Francis (Frank) were born while at the Murchison house in 1921 and 1923, respectively.

The original house (a wing and two-storied bay were added to the rear later) is essentially a transitional Federal architectural style. It is a seven-bay rectangular structure with three dormers on the front of a hip roof, with two dormers on either end. A column-supported portico encloses the front door with a balustrade balcony on top.

Matching chimneys are located on each side. The house is three rooms story continued on next page

Fond Recollections

by GINGER LITTRELL

I was a little sad the day my mother gave me a beautiful cross-stitched picture with the first two lines of Samuel Woodworth’s poem, “The Old Oaken Bucket.” It reads, “How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood, when fond recollection presents them to view.” She said she couldn’t bring herself to hang it on her wall because it wasn’t true for her. She hoped I’d enjoy it.

There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t remember some wonderful nugget of my childhood history. But why can I remember the names of everyone in my first grade class and can sing the songs we learned as youngsters, but not recall things I did two weeks ago?

My friend Professor Ben Bahr, a neuroscientist who studies dementia, explained, “Our brains as children were very efficient at storing memories because of three key factors: everything was new and special then; the brain had more nerve cell connections than adults and these connections are used for memory encoding; and lastly, we had fewer stressors in life to interfere with the coding process.”

He noted that our brains decide what to store deeply into our memory storage areas. As older people, we are far more distracted. He noted, “We worry about where we parked our car in the movie theater parking lot, how much they’re charging for popcorn these days, worrying about the person beside us who’s texting on their cellphone and the light is bothering us.

We find it hard to focus and store the information. That’s why education is so tough now because kids are so easily distracted. The best students are the 5-year-olds without cellphones.”

Frank Gault, 91, and his sister Miriam “Mike” Holt, 98, complain that their memories are quickly waning, but that’s not completely true. While they have normal dementia for their ages, our recent gathering at their childhood home defied their belief that they’re really “losing it.” While turning the pages of an old family album organized by their late brother, Charles, the memories flowed freely.

“Oh, I remember all these pictures,” said Mike. Seeing pictures of Frank as a baby, I asked if he was the family favorite. He chuckled and said, “I was the baby and got blamed for everything!”

Mike retorted, “ You got AWAY with everything.” She recalled the nights she’d come home from an outing to see a long rope hanging from the porch outside Frank’s room. He admitted sneaking out many times to Weaver’s Pier for a midnight swim.

How could they ever forget the Sunday afternoon that Episcopal Bishop Edward Wooten came for lunch? Their mother, Susie Bell Gault, was famous for her custard and wine jelly. The bishop found it so delicious that he asked for a second, then and third helping of the exquisite dessert.

Family photos in a scrapbook complied by their brother, Charles, bring back fond memories of growing up at Lake Waccamaw.

Frank recalls, “After his wife announced they had a service later that afternoon in Southport, he got up and put on his cloak (cape-type coat).”

Saying their goodbyes in the foyer of the house, the bishop turned to Mrs. Gault and said, “There’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” and climbed the stairs to the first landing.

“He slung his leg over the bannister and down he came!” chuckled Frank.

“He looked just like Zorro with that cloak flying behind him. When he hit that monkey tail at the bottom, he hit the floor. I thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen!”

Of course, the adults were aghast at seeing the bishop’s behavior. Frank added, “After he left, Mother discovered that instead of using wine in the recipe, she accidentally used Daddy’s white lightnin’.”

Seeing the bannister brought back that memory deeply encoded in the siblings’ brains. Pointing out the various rooms in the house, they recalled the children’s dining room and they had dreaded the day they would be old enough to join the adults in the main dining room.

“We had to behave in there, so we didn’t like it!” said Mike. It was the children’s room where a beautifully decorated tree would magically appear on Christmas morning.

“We had to find the key for the room that morning and when we opened that door, there it was!” recalled Frank. “We couldn’t figure out how it got there because we had been playing in there the night before.”

A “dumb piano” (no sound) that still sits in the second floor landing triggered a dreaded memory for the duo. Their Aunt Irene, who came to Lake Waccamaw from New York for the summer, would practice her scales on the semi-silent instrument. The irritating sound of the clicking keys drove them crazy, said Frank.

“We all had to take piano lessons from her,” said Mike. “We hated it!

When one got finished, the next one had to be on the piano bench. I don’t want to think of those piano lessons!”

Frank said, “Aunt Irene would drink coffee and eat toast while she was teaching. I can still smell that toast! I got bit by my dog one summer and when it scabbed over, I’d rake it off and keep it infected so I’d have an excuse not to play the piano!”

With various family members snapping photos and asking questions, the stories continued as Frank and Mike looked through the album. The minireunion was time well spent.

As we dismissed to enjoy lunch at the old Jones Hotel (Dale’s Seafood), Mike took another look around and said, “It was a wonderful place to grow up and I’m so glad it’s been preserved and is being used!”

I thought it a bit of a paradox that a place where happy memories were made more than 90 years ago is now the administrative center for Boys and Girls Homes of North Carolina. For 61 years, hundreds of children not as fortunate as the Gaults have made positive, lifelong memories on the grounds of Flemington Hall.

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wide and two rooms deep.

On the lake side, a two-storied, columned porch was eventually converted to a Florida room and has now been enclosed for offices.

The outside of the house follows the Northern penchant for clapboards (Gault’s parents were from New York) but Gault decided to use a double layer of cypress shingles, laid vertically but in such a way as to appear deceptively horizontal.

Inside, the rooms are stacked, three in front and back. In the center was the room-sized foyer. To the left were the living room and children’s room where the Christmas tree would stand, the room locked Christmas Eve until the morning. To the right was the dining room, adjacent to the kitchen.

These days Flemington Hall is home to the administrative offices of Boys and Girls Home of North Carolina. When Boys Home of N.C. originally acquired the Gault property, director Rube McRae and family lived upstairs.

When the population of boys exceeded the capacity of the first Civitan cottage, the boys sometimes

bunked with the McRaes.

Current director Gary Faircloth spoke of his brother Ron telling him stories of dining with the McRaes and sleeping in one of the bedrooms where the Gault children grew up. The house was so finely appointed that the boys — usually coming from poor and troubled environments — were usually in awe of their surroundings.

On a visit as an adult, Ron Faircloth was brought to tears while upstairs.

But back in 1925 Charles was a teenager and Miriam ruled the roost over the “babies,” Mary and Frank. The Boy Scouts had Camp Penton adjacent to their property on the lake and future physical education teacher Miriam became the first girl to swim the lake, some seven miles. It was said the Boy Scouts put her up to it.

As Frank matured, he would sneak out at night, down the hill to Sam and Carrie Weaver’s amusement venue and pier. Miriam also used the rope hanging outside the window to rappel her way to freedom. Frank had said his father was

The volute or “monkey tail” at the end of the bannister on the staircase. always an old man to him growing up (F.B. was nearly 40 when Frank was born) and Charles was interested in other things like art, so the youngest son was left to his own devices.

The impact of the Gault family on Lake Waccamaw is bittersweet.

Gault built the first pavilions for the Atlantic Coastline Railroad around the turn of the century (see photo of Gault and Beers). The bathhouses he built and rented became the beginnings of Weaver’s Pier in the early 1920s. Gault kept the beach clear for use by the 10,000-plus black “excursionists” coming to the lake on July 6, prior to 1938.

But Gault’s desire to maintain a fence on his property fronting

the street called Broadway (now Flemington Drive) caused animosity with the town and others who thought he was encroaching on public land. This was especially true when he closed and abandoned Perch Street, which ran parallel to Broadway through his property. And he did take part of what had been the Public Common since the original plat was drawn in 1853. Problems eventually led to litigation. Gault won some of the battle and compromised the rest.

Today girls and boys do their “chores” for “allowances” in and around Flemington Hall. The Oaks (once called the Huntersville Cottage when the girls were first brought to the campus) is now used for community-based services, coordinating five offcampus sites. Repurposed and no longer residential, the sound of girls and boys still echoes the behavior of the Gault children and their friends in Flemington Hall “back in the day” and doesn’t look to change.

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Arthalia Bennett Spaulding

The current Peoples team.

Peoples Funeral Home: Founded on honesty and trust Powell was hired at a Greensboro stoplight & has been with Peoples ever since.

by WALLYCE TODD

Physical address 707 Vinson Boulevard Whiteville , NC 28472 Mailing address PO Box 796 Whiteville , NC 28472 Telephone: (910) 642-4055 Fax: (910) 642-8535 peoplesofwhiteville@embarqmail.com

Donnie Wilson, associate, and LaDeen Powell, COO, discuss Peoples’ projects Peoples Funeral Home of Whiteville has been blessing members of the community for more than 50 years. When John W. Bennett founded the funeral home in 1963, he was seeing the manifestation of dreams he had to be in a business designed to provide an important service to all “peoples” during times that can be full of grief and sorrow.

John and his wife, Arthalia (who retired from teaching in 1971 and then joined the business full-time) stayed true to their mission to serve their re-

gion and its community members, “regardless of race, culture, or creed.” Originally intended to serve the citizens of Columbus, Bladen and Brunswick counties, the business has grown to serve families well beyond the borders of those counties.

Together, the couple, who did not have children of their own, maintained a business that became a meeting place within the neighborhood near Central Middle School for many years.

LaDeen Powell, the current chief operating officer of Peoples, re-

members helping the Bennetts in their office when she was a teenager. She saw how the couple’s business served an important role in her community.

That might sound a little unusual for a funeral home, but the Bennetts cherished those around them, and John and Arthalia’s naturally warm and caring personalities provided an authentic and appreciated welcome to many people with whom they came in contact.

The Bennetts were even known to regularly print and fold bulletins for area churches’ Sunday services. They sought to provide a ministry to all the people who came into their funeral home who were experiencing loss of a loved one.

In 1972, Wyoming Wicker of Southern Pines joined the staff and soon became its manager. He was known for evidencing great professionalism in the decades he served in that role and his contributions to Peoples through the years positively contributed to the success of the business today.

We would like to thank our customers for allowing us to serve you for the last 50 years! www.peoplesofwhiteville.com Beloved by the Community “I think everybody loved them,” Powell said. “Mrs. Bennett was just a bubbly personality. They were such wonderful people. I don’t have the words to describe it.

“They practiced honesty,” Powell continued. “And earned trust. They were known for treating people like everybody is somebody… no matter where you come from or what you have or don’t have.”

The community experienced them as “being understanding and patient. And they were so giving,” Powell remembered.

“That’s the legacy we still have today, one of giving back to the community. Very few days go by when we have not had the opportunity to help somebody.”

Death brings change In August 1984, John was involved in a car accident that was fatal for him. The funeral home passed in its entirety into Arthalia’s sole ownership. Some years later, she would remarry, but the business would remain hers, though her second husband, John A. Spaulding, did help her within the business.

Ten years after John Bennett passed away, in 1994, Arthalia helped coordinate Peoples’ move from Memory Street (where the Dream Center is now located) to its current address at 707 Vinson Boulevard. This was a significant relocation and one that has allowed the funeral home to

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r erve

om

Founders John W. Bennett and Arthalia Bennett Spaulding continue to serve its community well. Five years after the move, in 1999, Peoples’ website states, “Arthalia quietly passed her interest in Peoples Funeral Home, Inc. to her niece, Leacy Shipman Pierce, and her nephews, William Ernest Shipman and

So even when her dean wanted her to interview and consider a job in Michigan, Powell turned her down. “I told her I want to go home. My dad is elderly. I’m a only child,” Powell recalled.

Hired at a Stoplight She knew she was going home.

mark her 40th year with the local business whose mission has remained to serve all peoples.

While Powell considers it a privilege to have been able to learn and grow into the position she now holds, she is also quick to communicate that Arthalia’s three relatives are the actual owners of Peoples.

“They have entrusted the total operation of their business to me.

And I am most grateful for the trust that they have put in me,” Powell said. “It’s a honor to be able to manage such an esteemed business as this in our community.”

The three relatives are just a phone call away if issues arise that need owner involvement.

The truth of this was evidenced

“It’s very important to me because of the people who started the funeral home, and they passed it down to the three of us,” Shipman stated. “We are proud to be the owners because of the legacy.”

Community Care “It’s a very positive thing ; we’re proud to serve the community,” Shipman continued. “The longevity of the funeral home has been beneficial to us and the community.”

For Powell and her associate, Donnie Wilson, as well for the three current owners of Peoples Funeral Home in Whiteville (and a chapel in Riegelwood), the last 50-plus years have definitely been ones filled with: ‘Depend-

“That’s the legacy we still have today, one of giving back to the community. Very few days go by when we have not had the opportunity to help somebody.”

-LaDeen Powell Raymond Eugene Shipman. The name then changed to Peoples Funeral Home of Whiteville, Inc.” More Transition In less than a year from this business transition to her niece and nephews, Arthalia passed away in February 2000 after a brief illness. Three years later, in April 2013, Wicker – Peoples’ long-serving manager – passed away. Powell – who’d been working at the funeral home for years – was named COO, the position she still holds.

The well-known Columbus County native, who experienced the death of her mother due to breast cancer in 1969, attended segregated schools in Chadbourn most of her childhood. Her mother was a teacher at Westside High School before her health interfered with her personal and professional life. The year her mother passed away was the same year desegregation was enacted, so Powell attended her last two years of high school at Whiteville High.

Her dad owned a dry cleaner in Whiteville. As an only child to a widowed parent, Powell decided four years of college in Greensboro was enough time to be away from her father and her roots in Columbus County.

But even on the day of her Commencement, she was not sure what the next step would be in relation to her beginning a career.

Powell smiled as she remembered how her job at Peoples developed. She sat at the desk in the funeral home’s lovely main office and spoke about the day she graduated.

“As I was leaving the Greensboro Coliseum after graduation that Sunday afternoon, I looked over and then said: ‘There’s Mr. and Mrs. Bennett at the stoplight right there.’ I had no idea they had come to see my graduation; they were friends of the family.

“They asked me what I was going to do next. And I said I needed a job. They said, ‘We need a secretary.’ And I said, ‘When can I start?’

“I was hired at a stoplight in Greensboro. I left Greensboro the next day, on Monday – and I started work that Tuesday morning.”

Powell had earned a BS in office administration while at N.C. A&T. Over the years, the folks in Columbus County and beyond have come to strongly identify with her in connection to her role at Peoples Funeral Home.

40 years for Powell This month, May 2015, will

when she dialed the number for William Earnest Shipman.

When Shipman was asked how he felt about Peoples’ legacy, his response was heartfelt.

ability, Distinction, and Dignity.’

The Peoples team looks forward to seeing what the next 50 years will bring.

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Moskow’s offers glimpse into past In the late 1930s, with Moskow’s in the background, the world’s tallest man, Robert Wadlow at 8 feet, 11 inches and 400 pounds, stands in the back of a flatbed truck with more than 1,000 onlookers present. That’s Hyman Moskow with his arm outstretched next to Wadlow.

a ther, Abie, hold left, and his fa , w ko os M . e re ev St of the sto an, the founder portrait of Hym

Steve Moskow stands ready for customers early one morning in April. photography and editorial by FULLER ROYAL

Walk into Moskow’s Department Store and you will almost feel transported back to its opening in 1937.

As owners Abie Moskow and son Steve welcome you, you realize that, while the merchandise is modern-day, the look of the store is original.

“These fixtures – the tables, the shelves – all of these are original,” said Abie, who was born in 1926. “We have re-arranged a little bit. The floor is also original.”

Like most of the stores of its day, the floor is wooden – worn and creaky.

The Moskows share a rich history with the

town’s other clothing store owners.

In the first part of the 20th century, newly immigrated Jewish merchants spread out across the South.

Whiteville was soon home to family names such as Leder, Mann, Kramer and Moskow.

Abie said his father, Hyman, was born in

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This cash register, brand new in 1939, still rings up customers today.

1894 and came to the United States in 1911 from Belarus. His mother, Ida, was born in 1898.

“He came to New York,” Abie said. “He had two brothers who had already immigrated. They probably helped him with the finances to get the boat ticket. I don’t know how long he was in New York. Maybe a couple of years.

“He came south,” Abie said. “His first job was in Georgetown, S.C.” Hyman would later move to Manning, Dillon and Latta before opening a store in Lake View.

“He liked Lake View,” Abie said. “And then they lost the tobacco market. The tobacco companies didn’t move the tobacco out that year and the city fathers taxed it.”

Abie said the companies, angry over the tax, pulled the buyers out.

“The only thing left was a cotton gin,” he said. “My father came here in 1930 and found a building available.”

That building sat on what is the current site of Moskow’s.

“He stayed here until there was a fire next door in Rose’s dimestore,” Abie said. “It burned Daddy out on Dec. 22, 1936. Seth Smith owned the property. He rebuilt the store and Daddy reoccupied it in August of 1937.”

Abie said he remembers the first store. He was 10 when it burned.

“I can remember as far back as 4 years old,” he said. “There were a lot of boxes. The store had a different shape. It was larger in the back.

After the fire, the landlords straightened it out and made it longer. This store is the same width in back and in the front.”

The first building was one story. The new building had a second floor, which still houses ladies apparel.

Abie had two older siblings, Morris and Dine Budnick. Both are deceased. His younger sister, Ruth Greenberg, was born in 1935.

“She was the second baby born in the old Maultsby home, which had just opened as the hospital,” Abie said. “She was born July 4, 1935.

There was no crib. They pulled a drawer out of a

954.indd 65

Vintage chairs in the store. dresser with pillows.”

Abie said ice cream was a special treat when he was a youngster and the size of the treat depended on who scooped it.

“When we would come down and get a nickel cone of ice cream, if you went to McNeill’s first, and if John’s daddy was there dispensing ice cream, you would pass him up because he would give you a very small dip.”

Guiton’s was the next stop in hopes that Ross Davis would be scooping ice cream.

“If Dr. Guiton was there, you hesitated because he had the second smallest scoop.”

Abie, who said he has always worked in the store, recalled Whiteville’s heyday as a shopping destination.

“I graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1947,” he said. “I began working here full time.

Tobacco was the number one money crop, of course. The farmers did plant peanuts and soybeans. Everybody was used to having everything here.”

“It was prosperous,” Steve said.

“The traffic was heavier then, particularly on Saturday,” he said. “Farmers worked during the week and would come to town each Saturday to shop and visit the barber.”

He said life was “very pleasant” in the 1940s and 1950s.

“We went to the Lumina (in Wrightsville Beach) for the big dances,” Abie said, recalling his traveling to the first Azalea Festival in 1948 to see Azalea Queen Jacqueline White, an RKO Pictures contract player.

Abie said he also enjoyed the annual Farmers’ Day Festival sponsored by the Whiteville Civitan Club. He was a member at the time.

He said John Barkley, Paul Woodall and Paul Williamson were all active with the festival and “made it happen.”

He said Williamson was a huge baseball fan and was bothered that Whiteville was not a franchisee of the Tobacco State League. In the 1940s, towns such as Dunn and Erwin were.

“Paul Williamson went up there and bought the darn thing and brought it back to Whiteville,” he said. “They had the baseball club.” cont’d on next page

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He said most of his downtown business neighbors are long gone.

“Across the street was Herman Leder,” Abie said. “He came in 1925, five years before Daddy.

He put his brothers in business in other towns.”

“Guiton’s had the drug store here on the corner,” he said. “J.H. Guiton. Behind there was Dr. Formyduval. He built the John McNeill house (on the northeast corner of Madison and Lewis streets and now the home of Brent and Mary Bennon Wheatley).

Abie said when Formyduval became sick, Dr. William Greene joined the practice; he took over when Formyduval retired.

“The tobacco warehouses were all over this area,” he said. “Farmer’s Warehouse, Crutchfield’s and Tuggles were a few. Whiteville had a pretty good market.”

Abie said his family took the train out of Whiteville for trips only a few times.

“We always had a car,” he said.

His first wife, Charlotte, died in 1970 after 20 years of marriage. Abie and Charlotte had three children.

Rhonda, the oldest, was born in 1951. She lives in Raleigh and has two daughters.

Steve, who also has two daughters, was born in 1953.

Elise, the youngest, has two boys. She was born in 1959.

In 1975, Abie married Marilyn and welcomed her daughter Valerie, born in 1961, into

the family.

Steve, like Abie, grew up working in the store.

“When I was 7 years old, I probably did more destruction here than anything else,” he said.

He recalled delivering on an employee’s dare to jump from the staircase to the top of a pile of jeans on a counter.

“Granddaddy got very upset when he found out,” he said.

Steve graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1977. After four years in Atlanta, he returned to Whiteville and to the store. Steve is married to Kathy. His first wife was also named Kathy.

“Over the years we have been in business, there is no telling how many people worked here,” Steve said. “They come back and stop by.”

Dozens of high school and college-aged students earned tuition and gas money working at Moskow’s in the summer and over the holidays, as they did in Whiteville’s other clothing stores.

In addition to being a former Civitan, Abie was a Mason and a member of the Greater Whiteville Chamber of Commerce.

“I am retired now,” he said. “I don’t do much.”

While he may be “retired,” Abie still enjoys company at the store. He loves reminiscing with visitors and pulling dates and events from his memory.

For a taste of what downtown Whiteville was like in the 1940s, stop by Moskow’s and soak it in – and ask Abie what the times were like.

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special

954 Canteen saved his life on battlefield 70 years ago

by BOB HIGH

The wonderful tones of

Glenn Miller’s music from the 1940s filled the room as relatives of Carol Watts of Tabor City recently gathered to celebrate his 90th birthday – almost 70 years to the day that hot shrapnel from a German artillery shell ended his duty as a infantryman in the Ardennes of Belgium.

Watts, a retired postal worker, and his 92-year-old brother Stewart Watts served their country in opposite theaters of World War II. Carol went to Europe, and Stewart spent his wartime duty on a tiny dot of land in the Pacific.

Carol was drafted in June 1943 and trained for a year to handle a 40mm anti-aircraft cannon. By the middle of June 1944, following the Allies’ invasion of France, Carol’s training switched to becoming a foot soldier, for there were large numbers of casualties in American units. “It’s probably because they needed cannon fodder,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

Carol became part of the 76th

Pvt. Carol Watts in 1943

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Infantry Division, which eventually moved into France in early December 1944 – about 10 days before Hitler unleashed his massive counterattack in Belgium, which became the largest land battle ever fought by U.S. forces – the Battle of the Bulge.

Watts’ unit was held in reserve until late January 1945 when the 76th Division moved into the

front lines. American units were still pushing the Germans back as they advanced to the Siegfried Line and neared Luxembourg and the eastern edge of Belgium.

By February 18, the 76th Division was pulled back for a 24-hour rest. Watts and his fellow soldiers began to return to the front lines at 4 a.m. on February 19.

“We were walking on a small

World War II canteen, cup and cover.

Pvt. Stewart Watts in 1942

road toward the front near Trier, Belgium, when some artillery started falling on us. A sergeant behind me was killed, and four wounded by shrapnel when the first round hit. I guess it was an “88” shell. That was their favorite (and most deadly) weapon,” Watts related.

“All of us hit and hugged the ground. There were several other shells that fell where we were. I guess it was the second or third round that got me. A piece of shrapnel hit me in the right side, and it must have hit a rib, because it deflected into my abdomen.

“A very sharp piece hit my right cheek beside my mouth. It knocked two teeth out and cut three more off at the gum line. I didn’t get anything done about my teeth until I got back to Tabor City,” Watts stated.

“The largest piece of shrapnel to come close to me would have hit my back and right hip. But it sliced through my canteen. That canteen getting hit probably saved my life. They always say that when you’re wounded, you want a drink of water.

“I reached back for my canteen and found it was empty. The water had drained out when it was sliced open. A miss is as good as a mile, but it scares you to death when you realize how close it was,” Watts declared.

Medics treated him with a shot of morphine, but didn’t move him until about noon, eight hours later.

He took his first airplane flight when he was moved from a Luxembourg hospital to England in a “tail dragger” – C-47. Eventually, Watts was moved back to the U.S. by ship, docking in Boston.

He spent many weeks at hospitals in Georgia and Florida before being discharged and returning to Tabor City.

Watts recalled that when his unit was moving forward in late January, 1945, the 76th Division

4/29/15 12:14 PM

‘They found my heart doing the huckle-buck when I had a physical exam, and that cut me out of being a pilot.’

-Stewart Watts was relieving the 87th at the Saar River. “There were some tree bursts near us. The guys from the 87th saw us marching toward the front, and they started hollering, ‘You’ll be sorry.’ Typical GI talk,” he remembered.

out of being a pilot. I became part of the ground crew after we went to Tennessee for training,” Stewart recalled.

Probably the scariest moment of Stewart’s life happened at the Smyrna, Tennessee, base

Stewart Watts and wife Miriam (left) recall the 1940s with his brother Carol Watts and wife Gracie.

Before he was wounded, Watts said he and a few other soldiers “took a ramble one day. The temperature was zero. We found a German machinegun nest with four Germans laid out on the ground. They looked like they were sleeping. You wouldn’t have known the difference if you hadn’t seen their wounds.”

Carol Watts started farming again after his discharge in September 1945. He was a son of “Double O” Watts – Ollen Onslow – and Nellie Huffaker Watts. His mother was from Kentucky, and met Carol’s father while teaching school in the Roseland community north of Tabor City.

Carol has two sisters, Geneva Dyches of Wilmington, and Bernice Joiner of Georgia and Florida. Carol married Gracie Arnette of the Carolina section near Tabor City, and they had four children. There’s Timothy Watts living in Cherry Grove Beach, S.C., Debbie, who married Gene Gray and lives in LaGrange, Melanie Cox of Loris, S.C., and the youngest, Alan, who resides in Cape Carteret. There are 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Carol’s older brother Stewart notched his 92nd birthday in early April. He enlisted in the Army in February 1943. “I’d never been in a plane, but I wanted to fly, and I got into the Army Air Corps Cadet program, and was sent to nearby Myrtle Beach.

“They found my heart doing the huckle-buck when I had a physical exam, and that cut me

ing an unusual sound that would fly over the island at night, and occasionally drop a bomb.

The enemy plane was used to keep American Marines, soldiers and others awake and be a general nuisance.

Alan Watts, second from right, is shown with his parents, Carol and Gracie Watts, and uncle Stewart Watts.

where he worked on the runways and in the control tower.

“There was a B-24 pilot doing touch-and-go landings, and on one of his approaches he wasn’t lined up right, so they told him to come around again. He swerved the plane to the right and he was heading straight to the control tower.

“He banked the bomber at the last moment and we could have reached up and touched the wing when he flew over us in the control tower,” Stewart related.

Stewart could have gotten a medical discharge, but he didn’t want to return home and “be around all the draft dodgers.” He was sent to New Caledonia as part of the 13th Air Depot Group, where his duties included the mess hall and clerical work.

Stationed on Biak, a small island off New Guinea and one degree off the equator, Stewart said he met an Army barber there who had bad eyes. “He asked me if I wanted to try it, and I did. That’s when I started barbering.”

Stewart said he met Arthur Prince of Tabor City on Biak. “There was a list of names and hometowns on the bulletin board in the canteen shack on Biak. He saw my name and looked me up. Another guy I met there was Woodrow Sarvis from Vinegar Hill. I didn’t know him before the war.

“Washing Machine Charlie was about the biggest problem we had on Biak.” This was a Japanese plane with its motor deliberately mak-

Stewart was sent to Japan for two or three months after the Japanese surrender in September 1945, before being rotated home.

Stewart returned to Tabor City in February 1946, and “farmed with Carol for a few years,” before going to barber school. “I had to learn how to shave somebody with a straight razor.”

He went to work at Fowler’s Barbershop in 1948, and has been cutting hair and shaving customers ever since.

He and Carol marvel at the efforts of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) winning the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940. German bombers and fighters repeatedly attacked British airfields and aircraft factories in August 1940, until the number of new aircraft produced each week fell below the number of British fighters lost.

The RAF managed to narrowly exhaust the German air attacks, and the Germans didn’t know until years later their plans to invade Britain in 1940 would have probably been successful if they had not called off their attacks on airfields and factories.

Stewart married Billie Ann Baker of Bolton, and they had two girls, Cheryl Ann Mills of Tabor City, and Victoria Carolina Stocks of Ocean Isle Beach. Stewart married a second time to Miriam Hooks, and they live today along Lester Watts Road, Tabor City. Stewart has two grandchildren and one great-grandchild, all girls.

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Russ handles tons of items a month at his location along South Canal Street, Whiteville.

Russ’ recycling efforts saving taxpayers thousands of dollars

by BOB HIGH

With photos by Fuller Royal, Bob High In the mid 1990s Edwin Russ of Lake Waccamaw was talking to a county employee who told him he could rent a baling machine for $1 a year from Sunoco Recycling of Hartsville, South Carolina, and make money recycling cardboard.

All Russ would need was threephase electricity. Russ, then operating his Southern Tire and Muffler business on the southern edge of Soules Swamp in Whiteville, had three-phase power at his property along West Main Street at the Canal Street intersection.

Russ got the baler from Waste Management’s shed at the old county landfill, where the machine was being used to create 800 to 1,000-pound bales of cardboard with two-phase power. The baler was not getting enough electricity to function properly. Russ’ three-phase current to the same machine began to create 1,500 and 1,600-pound bales of cardboard.

Russ’ investment was his time and his property. Within a few years, Russ realized he’d bitten off a big chew, and it was getting difficult keeping current with the loads of cardboard delivered to his prop72 | 954 | Spring 2015

954.indd 72

erty by Waste Management, business owners and private citizens.

Russ is adding a new baler – the first one has seen its best days and weeks. He currently bales shredded office paper, newspapers and magazines, plus plastic bottles and food containers by the thousands.

“This is really a full-time job for me. My son and daughter (Brad Russ and Paige Russ Brewer) are operating Southern Tire and Muffler. I spend many, many hours a week right here, or I’m driving all over the county getting containers from businesses and schools, bringing them here to empty, and then I’ve got to shred the paper, and sort some of the items. It’s a real job,” he said recently as he worked in dust and flattened plastic bottles scattered across the ground.

Russ, now a county commissioner, is saving the county’s taxpayers thousands of dollars – unknown to most – a year with his recycling business. Columbus County’s government pays Waste Management $53.40 per ton of waste hauled to the Sampson County landfill. Russ is recycling 60 to 70 tons of waste a month. That amounts to between

$38,500 and $45,000 a year in savings.

And he wants to do more, but he’s beginning to slow down because of age and the never-ending days of gathering trash. “This is a great opportunity for a young man who wants to have his own business. He can’t do it five days a week, and not in eight-hour days.

But if someone isn’t afraid of hard

the types of plastic, but that’s expensive in time and effort.

Private citizens often bring boxes of paper from their homes and offices and watch Russ run a large shredding machine that produces wads of stringy paper that is sold

by Sunoco Recycling either to a Georgia Pacific plant in Georgia to make toilet paper, or shipped to China for untold purposes.

Russ is recycling 60 to 70 tons of waste a month.

That amounts to $38,500 a year in savings to the taxpayers if he uses the 60-ton a month figure, and $45,000 a year if Russ averages 70 tons a month. work, it can be rewarding – in the mind and heart, and in the pocketbook,” Russ commented.

In addition to hard work, Russ has to weather the ups and downs of the waste market. Cardboard is now $75 a ton. Last year it was $150 a ton. Shredded paper is about $140 a ton, and it was up to $240 a ton about 18 months ago.

The money paid for recycled plastic is the most stable price -- $8 to $15 a ton – and it’s more if you sort

Waste Management delivers thousands of pieces of cardboard a week to Russ’ Go Green Recycling firm here. It’s cheaper to let Russ handle it than for Waste Management to truck it out of the county for recycling.

Russ recruits businesses, schools and organizations to let him handle their waste – particularly cardboard, office paper and plastic bottles. He also handles steel food cans, discarded by the thousand

4/29/15 12:14 PM

Russ helps one of his employees with a bale of shredded paper. each week in homes and schools tors, lawyers and the like. There are all across Columbus County, plus sensitive and private data on these other odd pieces of metal. However, sheets of paper, and they shouldn’t Russ is quick to remind people that, be left intact. if empty steel dog and cat food cans Russ, who is insured and bonded are among their household waste, to handle the data-sensitive waste they should PLEASE RINSE paper, has become a better busithem before bringing them to the nessman. He’s currently holding Go Green lot. three tractor-trailer containers full Partially empty milk jugs with of shredded paper, waiting for the their soured contents, as well as market to rebound a bit, in the same non-rinsed food cans, create an way that farmers hold corn, soyunholy stench – one the average beans and other crops for a better person wouldn’t want to handle. So market price. Two full-time workwhy give it to someone else? ers help Russ at the recycling yard.

Russ particularly asks that any “When you’re here on a cold, wet person delivering plastic contain- day, it’s not so enjoyable,” he noted. ers – detergent, soft-drink, beer and Word of mouth has gotten food – drop them in the baskets at Russ tons of additional business the Go Green entrance, and don’t from places like Wilmington and leave them in the plastic shopping Brunswick County. Southeastern bags.

Community College, Whiteville’s “The plastic shopping bags usu- Edgewood Elementary, Tabor City ally get caught when we’re baling Elementary School and East Coplastic. We deliver them by mistake lumbus High School also contribwith the baled bottles, and the bags ute various waste products to Go get caught in the auger and chip- Green Recycling. ping equipment where the plastic Russ noted that waste paper is made into chips, and it causes from Tabor City Elementary isn’t the machinery to stop. Recyclers much, and it could be much more hate plastic shopping bags,” Russ profitable for him if Tabor City pointed out.

Middle and South Columbus High Russ said gathering cardboard schools would contribute. “I’ll furfrom businesses, county agencies nish the containers. All they have and schools isn’t a simple task. to do is dump it in the containers,” “I might have to start charging he noted. a nominal fee to the businesses Russ can recycle Clorox and where I’ve got metal containers for detergent bottles, plastic food concardboard,” he declared. “It won’t be tainers from microwavable meals, what Waste Management is charg- and any type drink bottle. He also ing per container, but something takes aluminum drink cans, the that can help pay for my gas and small pet food and meat cans that other expenses of operating my are aluminum, and wads of alumitrucks.” num foil (without food waste), plus Taxpayers will be pleased to learn small pieces of cardboard such as that the Clerk of Court’s offices pizza boxes. send Russ pounds and pounds of Go Green’s drop-off location is waste paper each week to be shred- open 24/7. When a person delivded. The Clerk’s several offices de- ers household or business waste to posit their waste in a rolling plastic Russ, there’s usually a good feeling container that is padlocked. There for the individual that something is are many other such containers at being done to overcome the mounvarious county offices, and some tains of waste people accumulate. at private professional offices, in- Russ asks business people or private cluding those of a CPA, doctors, citizens to contact him at 840-0100 judges and attorneys. Russ imme- for more information about any rediately shreds the papers from the cycling project. clerk’s office, county tax office, doc-

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The Mill Pond A Southern Legacy

by VINCENT BOWERS

3

4

2

1. Ernest Vinson, proprietor of the Brunswick Supply Company, and Redden Gaskins, clerk and postmaster. Circa 1945 1

2. Ernest Vinson with his two youngest grandchildren, Ju Ju and Vinson, on his back porch in the mid-1950’s.

3. (left to right) Oscar Maultsby chopping barbecue beside the Camp at the Mill Pond as Cliff Woolard, Julia Vinson, Lawrence Smith, Kate Greene, Ernest Vinson and Virginia Woolard look on. Circa 1942.

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4. (left to right) Julia Bowers, Lawrence Bowers, Martha Guiton, John Guiton, Mary-Brandon Smith, Lawrence Smith, Pete Townsend, Josiah Maultsby and Jean Dewey. Party at the Camp to celebrate the marriage of Julia and Lawrence.

Circa 1942.

4/29/15 12:14 PM

t

If your vision of Heaven

is a peaceful place where Southern is spoken, friends are unpretentious, and the setting is nostalgic, then you are envisioning the Mill Pond.

Just a five-minute drive south of Whiteville down a lazy country road lies a parcel of land where towering pines and moss-laden cypress surround a sprawling freshwater pond. At the water’s edge is an old, weathered cabin that once celebrated galas and gatherings of yesteryear.

This romantic setting is the stage of the new book, The Mill Pond, A Southern Legacy, by E. L. Vinson Bowers. This historical novel begins during an earlier time when the author is sitting in the back of a two-man johnboat in the middle of the pond with his endearing grandfather, Ernest Vinson. The story is told through a writing style like that of Robert Ruark. As the dialogue between the grandfather and his grandson develops, numerous accounts and adventures are told about the legendary pond that dates back to 1786.

An excerpt from Chapter I sets the stage for the book…

“Are you going to fish for bass today, Granddad?”

“Yes, son. With this particular red-andwhite hand-tied fly, I think the bass should strike quickly.”

Granddad’s weathered fingers were tightly holding the tiny fishhook as he looped the line through the eye of the handmade lure to secure the knot. After tightening the knot with a gentle tug of the line with his teeth, he threw the fly overboard. With a flip of his wrist, he waved the long fly rod back and forth over his head to release the waxed line to the right length so he could begin the day’s fishing.

Granddad settled into his graceful casting rhythm, gently placing the long line and lure exactly at the spot he directed it.

His slow movement working his custommade bamboo pole from one side of the boat to the other seemed to be almost one continuous motion. His facial expression never changed as his cigarette dangled from the corner of his mouth and his eyes focused on where he would place the lure. As a youngster, I was in awe of his ability to put that little hairy object anywhere he wanted, especially within inches of a green lily pad or an old cypress stump at the edge of the pond.

After a short period of time, a largemouth bass made a loud popping noise at the bait.

In a split second, the lure disappeared and the bass sucked it into its mouth. All at once, the fishing line tightened, the hook was set, and the fight was on.

“He’s hooked!” cont’d on next page

954.indd 77

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Slowly, Granddad started to work his split-cane rod back and forth. I could see the beads of sweat forming on his forehead. This was the moment he had been waiting for. For over an hour, he had been patient in working the lure until he got a solid strike. He was not going to hurry now and lose everything.

He took his time to reel in his catch close to the edge of the johnboat and asked me to pick up the wooden hand net to retrieve his silver trophy. I was quite pleased that he trusted me enough to carry out the most important part of our mission-getting the fish into the boat!

I was so excited. I nervously eased the net up behind the large bass just below the water’s surface and scooped it up.

Quickly, I placed the dripping net in the boat between my legs.

As the bass was jumping in every direction inside the dark brown netting, I gently put my foot on top of the bass and successfully reached down and pulled the colorful lure out of its mouth.

Sliding my index finger in its

crimson gills, I placed the slimy creature into the tiny live well in the middle of the boat. The caged six-pound bass thrashed furiously for a few minutes before it finally settled down.

“Job well done, son!”

“Thanks, Granddad. Let’s catch some more!”

One of the many events at the old cabin described in the book is in Chapter XIII about the uncertain times during WWII… “Oh, hell. President Roosevelt just declared in a radio broadcast that there exists an Unlimited National Emergency. The Nazi armies have a succession of sweeping victories throughout Europe!” declared Mabel Chestnut as she burst into the great room in the camp with a bourbon and water in one hand and a Camel in the other. Wearing a blousy pink sweater and a giant smile, Mabel was the life of the party and a little boisterous. “I hate to think our men in Whiteville could go off to war.

God help us!”

It was an unseasonably cool

evening in late May 1941. A light fog had settled on the pond at dusk, and the crickets were serenading. Occasionally, the deep-throated bullfrogs would bellow their rhythmic croaking, and in the distance across the pond were bits of light shimmering through the trees from the quarters.

Whiteville guests had found their way to the camp down the serpentine pine straw lane. They noticed a haze of smoke rising through the tall pines from the barbecue pit and were greeted by the savory smell of burning oak logs and roasting pork.

Oscar Maultsby had his hands wrapped around a flat shovel as he tended to the hot coals under the roasting pig. He was a master at preparing delicious barbecue – juicy, seasoned, and chopped to perfection. The hundred-pounder had been slowly cooking on the grate since before dawn, and Oscar had kept the temperature constant, rotating the meat until it reached the perfect tenderness and was golden brown.

Most of the guests had arrived about an hour before dark.

They had gathered in the camp to greet their hosts, the Vinsons.

Julia was wearing a lovely white linen blouse with a light pink camellia in her hair while Ernest wore his favorite dark tartan plaid shirt.

The old hunting cabin presented itself in grand style. The heart pine living room gleamed with appointed potted plants, and the faint scent of raw rosin was still in the air. Rustic bamboo furnishings circled the brick fireplace. In one corner was the vintage wooden poker table covered with dark-red felt, and in the other corner of the room stood the popular liquor bar. It was an old hunt board from the Jackson Brothers Lumber Company days, loaded with various whiskeys, a pitcher of water, ice bucket, and glasses.

As good Scotch whiskey and bourbon made their rounds and spontaneous chatter elevated in the camp, several couples wandered outside to check on Oscar at his cooking station. They en-

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joyed the sweet, tantalizing barbecue smell as well as watching Oscar prepare the golden meat for dinner on a large wooden table. He was in a world to himself. He was humming an old, familiar spiritual and chopping away. Several guests took the liberty of sampling the vinegary delicacy.

“Oscar, your barbecue is out of this world,” Julia said as she ate a small piece.

“Thank you, ma’am,” Oscar politely responded while nodding his head.

Bowers grew up in Whiteville and graduated from North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina’s Young Executive Program. He is an outdoorsman and lives in New Bern.

This is his second book.

To purchase The Mill Pond - A Southern Legacy by Vinson Bowers, please call (252)670-4733 or email Vinson.Bowers@ascvolvo. com.

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SUGAR: The Bitter Truth

by BRIANA CAHN, RD, LDN

Did you know that the average

American consumes approximately 130 pounds of added sugar every year, or 765 grams of added sugar in three days? That ’s equal to 17 cans of soda.

Natural sugar is not to be confused with added sugar. Natural sugar is found in fruits and some vegetables, where added sugar is added to foods during processing.

Added sugar contributes to extra calories and zero nutrients.

The American Heart Association recommends that males consume less than 9 teaspoons (36 grams) of sugar each day and that females consume less than 6 teaspoons (24 grams) of sugar each day.

However, the average adult consumes 22 teaspoons (88 grams) of sugar each day and the average child consumes 32 teaspoons (128 grams) each day. To put that into perspective, a 20-ounce Sun Drop has 75 grams of sugar.

Where is all this added sugar coming from? The largest amount of added sugar is coming from regular soft drinks (33 percent). The average American consumes 53 gallons of soft drinks every year. The other sugar is coming from, respectively, sugar, candy, cake, cookies, fruit drinks, dairy desserts (ice cream) and grains.

A diet high in added sugar is associated with many diseases, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and

cancer. Studies have shown that people who consumed the highest amounts of added sugar were twice as likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease.

Sugar has many different names. Corn syrup, dextrose, fruit juice, glucose, maltodextrin, maltose, molasses to name a few.

Make sure you are familiar with the names, as food labels and health claims will trick you!

Try your best to limit the added sugar in your diet. Avoid processed foods. Try cutting your current sugar intake in half and slowly eliminate the sugar from there.

Drink water or buy low calorie beverages.

Instead of adding sugar to recipes, try extracts. Flavor your foods with cinnamon or nutmeg instead of using sugar. Limit or cut out candy and dessert and choose more heart healthy foods for meals and snacks.

The benefits of reducing the amount of sugar in your diet may include increased energy, weight loss, fewer cavities, and disease prevention. You may also look and feel younger.

Sugar is not as sweet as we think!

The Good Apple 611 North Madison Street, Whiteville, NC 28472 910.759.DIET - goodapplediet.com

4/29/15 12:14 PM

We Look Forward to Seeing You Looking

Your Best!

We Specialize In...

• Hair Styling • Facial Waxing and Tanning • Hair Color for Men & Women • Color • Cut • Styling • Keratin Treatments & More Before

After

Open on Saturdays by Appointment Kaitilin Ashley Cox Stylist

Walk-ins Welcome, Tues.-Fri. 10 am - 6 pm

Carolina Class Salon & Boutique (910) 641-1187 or (910) 649-7000 Main St., Fair Bluff

“Doctor’s offices for your family”

&G G Healthcare, PC Saturday and Evening Hours are Available

805 South Madison St. Whiteville Phone: 910.642.2050 Fax: 910.642.0770

7490 Andrew Jackson Hwy Sw Cerro Gordo Phone: 910.654.2050 Fax: 910.654.1258

1112 Main St Fair Bluff

Phone: 910.649.7571 Fax: 910.649.6256

www.gandghealthcarepc.com

www.facebook.com/gghealthcarefamdoc

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Entertaining Junior Woman’s Club Charity Ball

Events

Anna Richardson and Amy Merritt

Social Photography by Meredith Tedder

Leigh Ann and Michah Merritt

Carrie and Todd Burney and Kevin and Melissa Williamson

Byron and Meredith Tedder

Rebekah Thompson and Erica Evans

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Dancing with the Vineland Stars

&

Entertaining

Events

#selfies

Wes Gray

John Garner with Danny McNeill

Natalie Whittington

Mark Council and Tamyra McKvian

Matt Wilson, Jody Council and Theron McKvian

Thetus Sessions, Bill Brooks and Rita Todd Spring 2015 | 954 | 83

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your community. your people. your stories. advertise in the next

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coming fall 2015 EVERY

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Keep Dreaming We make breakfast worth the wake.

WAFFLE INTERNATIONAL 511 Jk Powell Blvd · Whiteville (910) 642-7046

like us on facebook!

Open 7 Days a Week 6am-12 am

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Fowler Jewelry 1006 N. JK Powell Blvd., Whiteville • 640-2394

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&

Entertaining

Events

Museum of Natural Sciences at Whiteville Grand Opening 1

3

2

4

5

6

7

1_ John Elliott, Duke Energy Eastern Regional Director of Community Relations, Jim High and Keith Rogers 2_ Ophelia and Andy Anderson 3_ Whiteville Woman’s Civic League catered the event.

4_ Dr. Emlyn Koster, Director, Museum of Natural Sciences and wife, Maryse Koster.

5_ Crystal Buffkin and Steve Smith 6_ Barbara Yates #postoselfie 7_ Sara Thompson and Vickie and Doug Sasser 8_ Lisa Richey

8

to submit an entertaining feature for the next 954 magazine 910.642.4104

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Cotillion

Photography by Victoria Kelly

&

Entertaining

Events

Chase Love, Maggie Collier and Margaret High at the Pre-Ball Party given by family and friends at the Madison House as a prelude to The Cotillion Club’s annual Spring Dance and Debutante Ball.

Son of Cotillion, Chase Love, center, and with debutantes Maggie Collier, left, and Margaret High, right, pose after being presented at The Cotillion Club’s annual Spring Dance and Debutante Ball.

Collier and High join the ladies in Phase Band at the Ball.

Kane Lanier, David Maultsby, Charis Kasitati, Nick Price, Cole Faircloth, Madison Creech and Davis Inman are guests at the Pre-Ball Party.

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Calendar events

Friday, May 15 McLeod Health Foundation Sporting Clays Classic Registration begins at noon at the Low Country Preserve in Tabor City with dinner, raffle and awards following. For more information, contact Nicole Cox at 843-390-8338 Saturday, May 16 6th Annual Farmer’s Market Fun Run & Walk The Columbus County Farmer’s Market hosts the annual 3.1 mile run/walk at 9 a.m. and half-mile Kids Fun Run at 8:45 a.m. The start and finish is at the Farmer’s Market. Visit www.fmrun.com to register.

Saturday, May 16 Armed Forces Day Remembering those who have served in the United States’ armed forces.

Sunday, May 17 Lower Cape Fear Hospice Wings of Love Celebration of Life A butterfly release, dedication of newly installed Bountiful Tiles and remembering and honoring loved ones will be at 2 p.m. at Angel House Hospice Center, 206 Warrior Trail, Whiteville.

Monday, May 18 West Columbus High School Alumni & Friends Meeting This newly-formed group of alumni and friends will meet at 7 p.m. in the WCHS Media Center to make plans for the West Columbus High School 50th Anniversary Celebration in the fall.

Saturday, May 25th Memorial Day Remember Columbus County Veterans at a Wreath Ceremony at 9 a.m. at Carolyn T. High Memorial Library, 401 J.K. Powell Blvd, Whiteville.

Saturday, May 30 The VFW #8073 Ladies Auxiliary host a Rock-A-Thon to raise funds for the NC Homeless Veteran’s Fund. The Auxiliary will be collecting personal items for veterans such as household supplies, bed linens, men’s and women’s clothing such as tshirts, undergarments, coats and gloves. For donation drop-off locations, contact Angela Norris 910840-3848.

Saturday, May 30 11th Annual Bass Tournament at Lake Tabor Registration is at 5 a.m. with the blast off 6 a.m. Weigh-in is at 2 p.m. A $30 entry fee includes $5 boat ramp fee and lunch. A Big Bass contest is optional with a $5 entry fee. The event is sponsored by the Greater Tabor City Chamber of Commerce. Call (910) 377-3012 for more information.

Wednesday, June 10th Last Student Day at Whiteville City Schools and Class of 2015 graduation ceremony is June 12.

Thursday, June 11th Last Student Day for Columbus County Schools and Class of 2015 graduation ceremony is June 12.

Saturday, June 13 Sweeney Family Band Music and Comedy at the Ritz Center, 213 Hickman Road, Tabor City. Call 910-653-4141 or visit www.ritzcenter.com.

Saturday, June 13 Summer Vegetable Day at the Columbus County Farmer’s Market Enjoy cooking demonstrations, free samples of grilled summer vegetables, recipes & nutritional information.

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Calendar events

The North Carolina Cardboard Boat Race Championships at Lake Waccamaw will be on Saturday, June 20 by Whiteville Rotary

Saturday, June 20 Saturday, July 11 The Fourth Annual N.C. Watermelon Day at CoCardboard Boat Race lumbus County Farmer’s Championships Market Sponsored by the Free samples, recipes Whiteville Rotary & nutritional informaClub at noon at the tion.

Lake Waccamaw Sailing Club.

July 17 & 18 North Carolina Sunday, June 21 Watermelon Festival in Remember Dad on Fair Bluff Father’s Day Watch for the schedule of events in The News Reporter Watermelon Festival special section.

Saturday, June 27 Veteran’s Appreciation For more information, Golf Tournament email Contact Angela ncwatermelonfestiNorris at 910-840val@yahoo.com, call (910) 641-7442, (910) 3848 for more information.

234-0756 or (910) 207-8394. Visit www. ncwatermelonfestival.

Saturday, July 4 org for festival forms.

Celebrate Independence Day

August West Columbus High School Turns 50!

Visit westcolumbusalumni.com and West Columbus Alumni Foundation on Facebook for upcoming events.

Saturday, August 22 Kid’s “Back-to-School” Fun Day at Columbus County Farmer’s Market Children’s games & activities, prizes, free health screenings,

refreshments & school supplies.

September 4, 5, 6 2015 Take The Lake Labor Day weekend Enjoy this annual, family-oriented weekend of personal challenges in kayaking, walking, biking and swimming at Lake Waccamaw. Visit takethelake.org to register for events and find out more about the 2015 theme – Salute to the Arts.

C. Martin Scott II, C. Greg Williamson, Benton H. Walton, III and Carlton F. Williamson, Edward L. Williamson (1923 - 2013)

Serving Columbus County since 1953 • Personal Injury • Corporations/Business • Automobile Accidents • Traffic/DWI • Social Security Disability • Deeds & Real Estate • Wills & Estates

Williamson, Walton & Scott, L.L.P. ATTORNEYS AT LAW 136 Washington St., Whiteville • 642-7151 attorneys@wwsfirm.com Spring 2015 | 954 | 89

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Entertaining

Events

Dancing with the Vineland Stars PROVIDING

Hope & Healing to Individuals and Families in Southeastern North Carolina

• Mental Health Counseling • Substance Abuse Counseling • Sex Offender Treatment

top to bottom_ Vi Jones and Shawn Worthington ; Lucy Byrd and Mike Formyduval ; Kea Gray Stroud and Alfredo Brown

Our qualified staff provides confidential outpatient services for children, adolescents and adults

Offering Assistance With • Anxiety • Depression • Grief • Stress • Anger • Trauma • Mood Disorders

• Career Difficulties • Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder • Behavioral Disorders • Critical Incident Stress • Serious Mental Illness • Juvenile At Risk Situations

• Medicaid • Insurances • Self Pay • Sliding Scale Fees • Payment Plans Available

H H

Day, Evening & Weekend Hours Available

Phone: 910-640-1830 Fax: 910-640-1854 Crisis Line: 919-889-5118 174 Bitmore Road • Whiteville, NC 28472 90 | 954 | Spring 2015

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Southeast North Carolina’s Premier Site Development Company

Established 1995

Our valued, satisfied customers are a part of our success!

- Heavy/Civil Construction - Public Utilities (Water and Sewer) - Earthwork and Grading - Drainage

- Erosion Control - City & Municipalities - Turnkey Site Development Infrastructure - Design-Build Services Construction - Value Engineering and Maintenance

2967 James B. White Hwy. N., Whiteville, NC 28472 • Phone: 910-641-0456 Owners: Kenny & Mary Horne • Project Manager Daniel Horne

Show

Aaron Herring, Nick Hinson, Bryan Powell and Team

CAR WASH & DETAILING 910•640•1559 510 South Madison St., Whiteville, NC 28472

Before show ridez 1-2 horiz.indd 1

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&

Entertaining

Events

Whiteville Rotary’s 90th Anniversary

Coburn Powell and Knox Proctor

Sally Medford and Peggy Blanchard

Josephine and Lynn Spaulding

Contact 954 Magazine to feature your upcoming event in the next issue!

Rustic Farm Wedding Venue

Frances Price

Located on the edge of the beautiful historic Fair Bluff, Horne Bay Farm has a rustic natural beauty and an easy elegance. Southern charm and Personality abound at the majestic barn, the open air pavilion overlooks ponds and horse pastures. Contrasting elements make this the perfect setting for any wedding or event.

Larry and Fran Thomas

♦ Romantic Country ♦ Rustic Charm ♦ Equestrian Elegance ♦ Country Western Horne Bay Farm can provide you with the props to carry out your wedding theme.

Horne Bay Farm Kathy H. Ashley 910-840-4091 Hornebayfarm.com

John Krahnke, Anne Coburn, Knox Proctor and Jim High

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Fisher’s

Mens Shop & The Ladies Shop A Southern Tradition Since 1929 Featuring your favorite Southern apparel & accessory brands including:

U

127 W. Broad St., Elizabethtown, NC 28337 fishersofelizabethtown.com | 910-862-3718

SCC’s Small Business Center . . . .

Come GROW Your Business with US !

Services Provided Include: • One-on-one confidential counseling • FREE Business seminars

WANT TO

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• Resource Library • Funding Opportunities

Call or visit us today!

Brenda Orders (910) 642-7141, ext. 419 brenda.orders@sccnc.edu

YOUR BUSINESS

Southeastern Community College

capturing life’s moments...

910-445-3647

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captureitphotography11 (L to R) Jerry Hawks, Jimmy Garrell, Martha Jo Garrell and Sue Hawks Spring 2015 | 954 | 93

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jjjj

Celebrating our 20th year in business!

onthe the lakefront lakefront atat on

Lake Waccamaw Waccamaw Lake

Brunswick P L A N TAT I O N

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BOUTIQUE

Since 1995

Continuing our commitment of 1995 steaks and serving theSince best seafood, Continuing our commitment of more at beautiful Lake Waccamaw

1017 South Madison Street Whiteville (910) 642-9881

serving the best seafood, steaks and

open Lunch Dinner morefor at beautiful Lake & Waccamaw MonDay-SaturDay OPEN FOR LUNCH & DINNER Oysters now in season!

MONDAY-SATURDAY 100 Lakeshore Dr, OystersW now in season! w Lake accama

Dine In or Carry Out

100 910-646-4466 Lakeshore Dr, Lake Waccamaw

wwwww 910-646-4466 Dine In or Carry Out

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it’s a new

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So have we.

dominos

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Our commercial clients know the value of doing business with BB&T. We keep decision-making authority on the local level, with a deep understanding of the needs and nuances of the communities we serve. At BB&T, we will continue to build new relationships just as we have since 1872 – by creating long-lasting partnerships that extend beyond deals and transactions. Experience the difference when one of the strongest and most respected banks in the nation is also part of your community. BBT.com

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Whiteville · 640-2211 Whiteville Town Center

dominos.com

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Juniorettes Dance Events &

Entertaining

Social Photography by Meredith Tedder

Margaret High, Madison Creech, Jordan Edwards, Daria Dufour, Morgan Murray, Monica Williams, Tylah Robinson, Summer Hinson

Layne Fowler, Vice President and Madison Creech, President

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Caroline King, Grace Nance, Bella Rogers

Shriner Golf Tournament

Carly Lewis, Jordan Edwards, Charis Kasitati, Julie Ann Canady, Daria Dufour, Paige Meeks, Brittany Sellers

Queen Addison Davis prepares to hit the first shot at the Shriners Golf Tourney with assistance from Shriner Jack Meares.

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Beside Lumberton Ford for your convenience

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Over 235 Combined Years Of Experience Serving Your Legal Needs Since 1932 Auto Accidents Business Law Criminal Defense Civil Litigation Domestic Law DWI & Traffic Estate Planning Major Felonies

Whiteville, NC

(910) 640-0876 706 N. Madison Street Harold "Butch" Pope Dennis T. Worley Paul J. Ekster Kenneth R. Moss

Wilmington, NC

(910) 200-2677 228 North FroNt Street, Suite 101-B

Medical Malpractice Nursing Home Abuse Real Estate Social Security Wills and Estates Workers’ Compensation Wrongful Death

Banking/Collection/Creditor Bankruptcy

North Myrtle Beach, SC

Tabor City, NC

(910) 653-HELP Corner 4th & Lewis Streets O. Richard Wright, Jr. Dennis T. Worley Paul J. Ekster Boyd T. Worley Christopher C. Russell

Elizabeth Wright Embrey

(843) 281-9901 628A Sea Mountain Highway Kenneth R. Moss Melanie C. Nicholson Michael T. Smith

Supply, NC

(910) 754-2816 52 Physicians Drive

Napoleon B. Barefoot, Jr. Preston B. Hilton Rick S. Parrotte Tracie H. Brisson

We are your full service LOCAL legal team, where the tradition and experience of yesterday meets the insight of today

www.tclaw.com

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Seven Southeastern Health Services Under One Roof.

Now That’s Healthcare Made Convenient.

The new Southeastern Health Park features an outpatient surgery center with four operating rooms, two endoscopy suites, rehabilitation and

The Surgery Center is a partnership between local physicians and Southeastern Health.

specialty services and a pharmacy — all in one location. Combine world-class providers with state-of-the-art facilities, and make it quick, simple

SOUTHEASTERN PHARMACY HEALTH PARK

and convenient —well, that’s what good healthcare

SOUTHEASTERN ORTHOPEDICS

is all about. It’s just one of the many ways we’re

SOUTHEASTERN NEUROMUSCULAR REHABILITATION CENTER

working to bring you the best care possible and

SOUTHEASTERN CAROLINA COMPLETE REHABILITATION CENTER

help you maintain and take control of your own

SOUTHEASTERN SPINE AND PAIN

health towards a happier, more fulfilling life.

SOUTHEASTERN ARTHRITIS CENTER

www.southeasternhealth.org

Southeastern Health Park — 4901 Dawn Drive, Lumberton — Between Exits 20 and 22 on I-95 100 | 954 | Spring 2015

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