TownTalk: Remembering Dr. Marion Lark

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Colleagues and community members are remembering their beloved friend and pastor, Dr. Marion D. Lark, who died late Saturday, Aug. 19. Lark came to The First Baptist Church in Henderson in 1973 and was minister there for 29 years.

“It’s a sad day for First Baptist Church and for our community,” remarked Senior Minister Ron Cava as Sunday’s worship service began. “Our beloved senior minister emeritus …entered his rest last evening.”

A memorial service will be held at First Baptist Church Henderson, Wednesday, August 23, 2023 at 3 P.M. by Dr. Ron Cava, Dr. Glenn Phillips and Dr. Phil Young.  A private interment will be held for the family.  

“He will be sorely missed,” Cava told the congregation Sunday morning. “His impact in this congregation, in this community…cannot be quantified.”

Dr. Phil Young, First Baptist’s longtime minister of music, remembered his friend fondly. “We remained close friends after our retirement,” Young said Monday on TownTalk. “I will miss him terribly…how often I have thanked God that we were able to work together and what a blessing he has been on my life. He was a great preacher and a great pastor and we will miss him.”

Mark Hopper, FBC’s minister of music until 2022, expressed sadness and disbelief. “He has been such a constant North Star in my life for 22 years,” Hopper wrote in a statement to WIZS News.

“Marion Lark was integrity personified,” he said. “He was first and foremost a pastor in the way of Jesus: feeding the hungry, caring for the sick. He was completely devoted to his wife Jean in good times and bad.  He loved his congregation like his own family, and he saw First Baptist’s role in making Henderson a place where Christ was shown and not just talked about.  He commanded respect through humility and through modeled action and servant leadership. He was a fine musician, was unbelievably well-read, and was the definition of wisdom.  The loss to First Baptist, to Henderson, and to the Christian community is immense.”

The Rev. Dr. Paul Baxley remembers his time learning from and alongside Lark. Baxley, now executive coordinator for Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, was 23 years old when he was selected to be associate minister at First Baptist. “He offered trust, encouragement, patience, grace and support to me in really definitive years of my ministerial life,” Baxley said of his fellow pastor and friend.

“Dr. Lark created an environment at The First Baptist Church in which the colleagues who were called to serve with him could use their gifts, grow in ministry and thrive. I was by no means the only person who benefitted richly from the freedom he provided and the trust he extended,” Baxley said in a statement Monday to WIZS News.

One of those individuals was Amy Russell. When she came on staff at First Baptist, Lark was retired and simply a member of the congregation. But Russell, now associate pastor of children and families at First Baptist Greensboro, said he supported her growth and development as a minister.

“After each sermon he would give feedback,” she said in a statement to WIZS News, “from ‘that one really made me think’ to ‘I struggled with that text, too’” Russell said.

“He was unafraid to share the truth of the gospel and it was always a privilege to get to hear him preach. He built a legacy at First Baptist Church of Henderson that shaped the congregation and the community. But he didn’t build a legacy for himself. He built a legacy as an outgrowth of his deep love for the church and for Henderson and Vance County.”

Henderson City Council member Garry Daeke shared a memory that he said resounds with him to this day. There was some discussion about downtown development – not a heated debate, but the topic had everybody involved and working hard to find a compromise and move forward.

It was Lark’s advice that Daeke tries to keep in mind with every decision he makes: “‘If we are to err, let’s err on the side of grace.’”

Daeke called Lark a “consummate gentleman who loved his community.” Lark always had time to discuss issues in the community, he added. “He would always thank me for my service.”

“Dr. Lark simultaneously embodied what it meant to be a deeply committed pastor to a congregation while also working actively for the well-being of a much larger community. He gave his life and his gifts for almost 50 years to Henderson/Vance County and to The First Baptist Church. In these ways, he was an embodiment of what it means for a pastor to be a community leader,” Baxley said.

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TownTalk: Around Old Granville: ‘Angel Of Mercy’ Aunt Abby House

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During the Civil War, Clara Barton was a nurse who tended to wounded soldiers in hospitals. But Franklin County lays claim to another “angel of mercy” who, during that same time, tended to soldiers on the battlefield.

Abby House, known around Old Granville as Aunt Abby House, was born around 1796, and local historian Mark Pace shared some interesting stories about her on Thursday’s tri-weekly TownTalk history segment. House died in 1881 and is buried in her native Franklin County.

House may not be as famous as Barton, who is best known for being the founder of the American Red Cross, but Pace said she’s a good example of a local version.

“She never got married and she was poor, but she made a difference,” Pace told WIZS co-host Bill Harris.

She had no formal education, he said, but she provided what she could to those who needed help, whether it was bringing a dipper of water to a thirsty soldier or blankets from family back home to keep troops warm. Her heart for serving soldiers could have come about because of a personal experience.

During the War of 1812, House learned that her beau, who’d been called into service, was ill in Norfolk. House, who was a teenager at the time, set off to go see him.

“As no other transportation was available, she set off on foot,” Pace said. It’s 180 miles from Franklin County to Norfolk.

Upon her arrival, she learned that not only had he died, but he had been buried the day before. “She turned around and came back,” Pace said.

This sad chapter of House’s life helped chart the course for her future.

By the time the Civil War was underway, a much older House took it upon herself to help, sometimes by “bringing food and supplies and gifts from home to individual soldiers from their families,” Pace said.

Her stern, no-nonsense demeanor, a “feisty” attitude and walking cane combined to “convince” train conductors to allow her to travel at no cost; “they let her go and come as she pleased,” Pace noted.

One of the places she traveled to was Petersburg, reportedly to look after her nephews, two of whom died in the war and five of whom survived.

She was basically destitute by the end of the war, but her good deeds during wartime paid off. A group of former Confederate soldiers, along with other high-ranking political figures in the state, took up a collection and arranged to set her up in a small home on the outskirts of Raleigh near the former fairgrounds.

Gov. Zebulon Vance was one of those politicians. He visited her often, and Pace said there’s a story that goes something like this: In 1872, during Gov. Vance’s second term, he stopped by to visit House. According to his carriage driver, Vance went inside and shortly thereafter, was seen around back, hauling buckets of water into the house.

“She pretty much put him to work,” Pace mused – he may have been governor, but House had a job for him to do and, by golly, he did as she instructed.

In 1876, House attended the state Democratic convention in Raleigh. “She was somewhat involved in politics, which was unheard of at the time,” Pace said.

Paul Cameron, the owner of Stagville Plantation – which made him the largest landowner and largest slaveholder in the state – bid her come sit with him in the crowded space. Among the business that took place during that convention was to nominate Vance as the Democrats’ favorite for a third term as governor.

There was nobody from Clay County, located in the western part of the state, in attendance, and it was decided that House be allowed to cast that county’s vote.

“That is the first recorded incident of a woman casting a vote in North Carolina,” Pace said.

 

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Latest on the Vance County Fire Study

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Fire Service Study Clears Hurdle

It took about a half hour of discussion – some of it contentious at times – as well as various motions and amendments to motions, but the Vance County Board of Commissioners formally approved on Monday, August 7, 2023 the selection of a consulting agency to conduct a fire services study.

And although the board did ultimately accept giving the job to AP Triton as had been recommended by county staff, the board voted 4-3 that the public safety committee and the fire services commission, along with input from Acting County Manager Scott Elliott, would oversee the project.

That decision went against Elliott’s recommendation to the board, however.

The study is expected to take four months to complete and is going to cost more than $48,000. He said he would recommend that the study results come back to the full board for consideration.

Click Play to Hear TownTalk from 8-16-23 Containing Meeting Audio

Commissioner Dan Brummitt made the original motion that included awarding AP Triton the project “subject to project oversight” by the two groups.

During the ensuing discussion, several board members voiced objections.

Commissioner Tommy Hester said the full board called for the study and it should be the full board making decisions regarding the study.

Commissioner Archie Taylor said the study should provide “a neutral, honest look” at the fire service in the county.

Brummitt maintained that “significant misinformation” surrounding the county fire services had been bandied about in recent months and wants to ensure that the process of the study remain neutral.

Commissioner Leo Kelly said he would prefer to follow Elliott’s recommendation that the full board use its regular work sessions to monitor the study as it is being conducted.

As the discussion among the board members escalated over the course of 15 minutes, Chairwoman Yolanda Feimster declared a five-minute break and then left the commissioners’ conference room. Upon her return, she declared the meeting back in session, with a motion on the floor.

The board then voted to amend Brummitt’s original motion to simply approve awarding the study to AP Triton.

When that motion passed without opposition, Brummitt made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Carolyn Faines, that the public safety committee, fire services commission and the county manager provide project oversight of the study.

During discussion, Taylor again questioned the rationale, and Elliott interjected that in speaking with the AP Triton representatives, he was assured that they would “be making an independent analysis” of county services, and that the study would not be driven by a subgroup of the full board.

The motion passed 4-3.

(Text originally published August 8, 2023)

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Microclimates, Hot Weather, Thunderstorms, Hurricanes and Forecasting

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They probably don’t teach terms like “crazy hot” in meteorology school, but everyone around here knows firsthand exactly what Jonathan Blaes means when he says those words to describe this summer’s weather.

Blaes, director of the National Weather Service office in Raleigh, summarized the current weather pattern that has sent temps soaring into the triple-digit range across parts of the Midwest and West.

“In Texas and Arizona, it’s been crazy hot without a break for months,” Blaes said on Tuesday’s TownTalk.

North Carolina summers often see stretches of hot weather for days in a row, but not months. “This (pattern) has been pretty persistent and pretty remarkable,” he added.

The thunderstorms that blew through the area earlier this afternoon are ushering in a slight break in the heat and humidity, with predicted highs hovering in the mid- to upper 80’s for the rest of the week.

Heat and humidity are the basic fuel for thunderstorms, Blaes said, so why don’t we have thunderstorms every single day during the summer?

We feel the heat and humidity down here on the ground, but there are other factors that affect the likelihood that afternoon storms will pop up, he explained. Take the temperature of the air at higher elevations, from cloud level and beyond, for example.

Temperatures need to cool off at a steeper rate to fuel storms, so when it’s “hot all the way up into the clouds,” that cooling doesn’t always occur at the rate needed to create storms.

But there are other factors closer to earth that have a bearing on the weather, including soil makeup, elevation and bodies of water, just to name a few.

“Weather is very local,” he said. “Details matter. Locations matter,” he added. “All those different features and materials interact with the air and sunlight and they’re different.” Those differences help to drive the weather patterns in a particular area, both in the short-term and long-term.

And Blaes and his team consider all those factors when they make their forecasts.

The National Weather Service team is keeping an eye out as hurricane season continues. There already have been four named storms, and we’re barely three months in, he said.

The NOAA forecast is calling for above normal activity this hurricane season, with between 14 and 21 named storms.

Typically, we can count on 14 named storms. Of that number half, will become hurricanes. Of that seven, half of those will be Category 3 or stronger, Blaes said.

“Things are going to ramp up and you can place a pretty good wager we’re going to be hearing more about tropical storms in the Atlantic,” he said.

Thanks to sophisticated technology advances, forecasts are more data-driven and less prediction or educated guesses.

In the event of a hurricane between now and November, Blaes said one thing he’d for sure recommend is to prepare a hurricane kit and make a plan. Just in case.

 

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TownTalk: Macon Named Vance Co. Extension Director

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When you work with the public, effective communication is an important asset. And knowing about interpersonal communication skills is a bonus.

Dr. Wykia Macon has come back home, and she’s brought a wealth of experience with her – experience she has gained from time spent studying and working in several places across the globe.

Macon has been selected to lead the Vance County Cooperative Extension Center, a job that she officially began on Aug. 1.

The director oversees a staff of 9 – but it’s 8 right now, because, you see, Macon used to be lead the 4-H program.

“My time in 4-H gave me time to get into the community,” she said Monday on TownTalk, “to partner with a variety of people.”

As she transitions from being a member of the staff to the leader of the staff, Macon no doubt will put those interpersonal communications skills to good use. It’s all about knowing how to interact and connect with people, she explained.

With a year of coursework in the area under her belt, Macon said she spent two years in Kenya as a member of the Peace Corps. There she lived and worked in a boarding school for the deaf.

“I realized there were a lot of things I didn’t know,” she said.

Her doctoral studies took her to work for policy change in Ethiopia and then to Cambodia.

One thing that she confirmed during her time in those other countries is that Americans are a bit more direct.

As she embarks on this new stage, Macon said she plans to use those communications skills to help build connections in the community.

“I’m excited to watch us grow in different ways – across program areas,” she said.

The cooperative extension is known for its agricultural component, but there are so many more programs that extension provides.

From 4-H to parenting programs, small farms to family and consumer sciences, cooperative extension offices across the state share research-based information and best practices.

“We’re all about research-based information,” she said. “We take that information from the universities (N.C. State and N.C. A&T State) and share it with our citizens.”

Macon said she hopes to spark an interest in idea of community gardens, a place where young people can learn more about planting, harvesting and then cooking the food that comes from the garden. The local Boys & Girls Club has a new garden, thanks to a collaboration with the cooperative extension, and Macon said she would like to see more pop up across the county.

This is one example of how cooperative extension can expand into the community, and Macon said she’s listening out for other opportunities, too.

“When I interact with people, I just try to keep an open mind,” she said, whether she’s speaking with someone younger or someone with more experience.

“We don’t know how to fully serve the community if we don’t listen,” she added.

There she goes, making good use of those interpersonal communications skills again.

 

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TownTalk: Way To Grow Festival Is This Saturday

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The Way to GROW festival unfolds this weekend in downtown Henderson, putting the crowning touch on a week of activities to promote entrepreneurship in the community.

Heather Joi Kenney, president of Gateway CDC, is expecting more than 50 vendors to set up shop along Garnett Street, as well as along Breckenridge Street, as part of the celebration.

There will be plenty of vendors on site, serving up food and beverages and more. Two DJs are providing music throughout the day and several groups will perform live during the afternoon. Real Entertainment, based in Henderson, takes the stage first, followed by Jim Quick & Coastline and The Queen’s Court of Charlotte, who will entertain the crowd through the afternoon.

Hosting the festival is Vance County native Chanel Scott, herself an entrepreneur who is an author and FOX Soul talk show host.

The event is a way to showcase local businesses, but Kenney said it’s also a way to show off downtown Henderson.

“It draws people in and shines a light on downtown,” she said. The downtown district has plenty of room for future entrepreneurs to open up their business ventures. “Henderson can become an entrepreneurship hub,” Kenney mused.

“At first, it was just going to be a stand-alone festival,” Kenney said on Thursday’s TownTalk. But she took an idea from a local bank representative and created a weeklong series of workshops for new business owners and for others who are interested in learning starting their own business.

About 30 entrepreneurs have attended the workshops over the course of the week, representing a wide range of businesses – from restaurants and boutique clothing to women farmers and medical billing.

Just as with entrepreneurship, planning a street festival requires lots of planning, creativity and support. Kenney said city officials have been helpful during the planning process since the idea for the festival first germinated.

With a grant from NC IDEA to support businesses in underserved, low-income communities, Kenney and fellow organizer Tracy Mosley from Helping All People Succeed, the festival has moved from the planning stage to the moment everyone’s been waiting for: Festival Day.

Kenney emphasizes that Way to GROW is for the entire community.

“This festival is for all members of the community,” she said. “Henderson needs this,” she continued. “We plan to continue it into the future.”

 

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TownTalk: Upcoming Events For Louisburg Historic District

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Unless you’re a history buff, you may be surprised to learn that cemeteries once were considered like parks are today, where people could come and visit the graves of their dearly departed and then stay and enjoy the outdoor space.

Dorothy Cooper, and her fellow board members on the Louisburg Historic District, have embraced this concept and have planned some events that will take place in Oakwood Cemetery in Louisburg.

Local historian Joe Pearce will present a “Graveside Chat” on Saturday, Sept. 9 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. This is a free event, but participants are asked to register. Pearce will be discussing the Davis / Allen family. Bring a lawn chair, a blanket to spread on the ground and even a cooler to enjoy the afternoon’s program.

“I’ve always had a love and fascination for cemeteries,” Cooper told WIZS co-host Bill Harris on Wednesday’s TownTalk. When she and her family bought an old home on Main Street 17 years ago, she visited Oakwood to learn about the family that had built the home.

“We wanted to know more about the home before we did anything,” she said. Not only did she locate the family plot, but also located descendants of the original owners.

Cemeteries can provide valuable information about the people whose births and deaths are recorded on headstones, which range from simple, flat markers to elaborate works of art carved from marble.

Over time, however, headstones require maintenance and sometimes repair. And the Louisburg Historic District helps to raise funds for that work.

The city-owned cemetery is in better shape now than in the recent past, Cooper said, adding that an arborist has been called in to assess the health of the trees that dot the cemetery.

Taking care of the landscape is as important as taking care of the grounds, she added.

The group will sponsor a headstone cleaning and monument preservation workshop on Saturday, Sept. 30 from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

This workshop costs $50 and will be limited to 20 participants, but all supplies and materials will be provided.

“You come away with hands-on experience” in cleaning gravestones. “It’s amazing what water and a soft brush can do,” Cooper said.

The cemetery also will be the site for the second “Sip and Stroll with Souls” on Oct. 29 from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Docents will be on site, some in period dress, to discuss various noteworthy individuals buried in Oakwood. This event is a fundraiser for the group; proceeds go toward cemetery upkeep.

Visit www.louisburghistoricdistrict.com to learn more or find the group on Facebook.

 

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TownTalk: Introducing Philip Weil, Athletic Director At Vance Co. High

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The Vance County High School’s new athletic director has been on the job just over a week, but in that short time, Philip Weil has learned a good deal about its coaches, its student athletes and their desire and determination.

Right now, it’s all about football, but Weil has his eyes and ears on volleyball and soccer, cross country and baseball.

If it has to do with sports and Vance County High School, Weil is ready.

Coming from an urban setting like Las Vegas to a rural area may take some getting used to, but Weil has already found one advantage: Vance County has history.

He switched on the lights at the football field on a recent evening and was wowed by what he saw. “It was gorgeous.”

As he gets to know the process of being an AD, understand the school atmosphere and the sports conference, Weil said he wants to get the community more involved.

One thing he’d like to do is have some high school basketball games held in the gym at the middle school campus. After all, it used to be the home of the Northern Vance Vikings.

But right now, it’s football.

“From what I’ve seen so far from Coach Elliott’s team, they are determined and strong,” Weil said. He called their first tackling practice last week “phenomenal,” in fact.

“I think they are determined to get that state championship.”

As a middle-school baseball and football coach from 2013-22, Weil said he was able to develop student athletes’ skills by getting them involved in a strength and conditioning program.

“Scholarships are made in the weight room,” he said. It wasn’t always easy to get those middle schoolers interested in weight training, but he said the student athletes here at VCHS are motivated.

“They just want to get better and stronger and faster,” he said.

 

 

TownTalk: Cruise In For Christ Coming This Saturday

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Come to the Cruise-In for Christ this weekend and prepare to satisfy your tastebuds as you see up-close and personal some pretty delicious-looking vehicles.

Union Chapel Church is hosting the Cruise-In on Saturday, Aug. 12 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Tony’s Automotive at 415 Raleigh Rd.

Proceeds will be donated to the Vance County Special Olympics, according to organizer Tony Sanford and Radford Frazier, pastor of Union Chapel Church in Kittrell.

Last year, Sanford pitched his idea of a cruise-in to the church’s missions team. Frazier admitted it sounded a bit unorthodox, but the cruise-in got the green light. There were three cruise-ins last year; this year, there will be six.

“It was such a good idea as a way to reach the community,” Frazier told WIZS co-host Bill Harris on TownTalk. “It was a great way to get back in and get engaged with the community” following the pandemic resitrictions.

“Everything is given to the cause,” Sanford said.

The guidelines are simple, he said: Come on out, have some food, see some cars, have some fun.

Car enthusiasts love to get up close to vintage cars, lovingly restored to glimmering perfection. Whether you have one or just like to look, Saturday’s event is sure to please.

The cruise-ins average 25-25 vehicles, and Sanford said there’s plenty of room for more at his location.

Next month’s event is Saturday, Sept. 9 and will benefit Community Partners of Hope as it continues its plan to transform the former City Road Methodist Church to a year-round men’s shelter.

Contact Frazier at 919.482.2319 to learn more about becoming the recipient of the Cruise-In proceeds.

Or better yet, find Sanford and Frazier Saturday at the Cruise-In – or Sunday, at Union Chapel’s 10:30 a.m. worship service.

 

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TownTalk: 15-Year-Old Jayden Watkins Strives To Be Unique

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Jayden Watkins is not your ordinary teenager.

And that suits him just fine – in fact, Watkins said, he’s known for some time that his uniqueness is a gift from God. It’s a gift that he embraces as he continues to answer God’s call to service.

“It’s OK to be unique and different,” the 15-year-old said on TownTalk this week. “I’m grateful and blessed and honored to be unique,” he told WIZS co-hosts (and for the summer, colleagues) Steve Lewis, Bill Harris and John C. Rose, all of whom chatted with Watkins about his accomplishments and what’s ahead for the future.

A synonym for the word “unique” is “different,” which can carry a negative connotation. And Watkins is all about being positive. God’s call for us, he said is to make positive changes – within our families, households, jobs and the community.

“We must work in unity, despite our differences,” he said. “The needed change will not come if we only dream or think it,” he added. But if we are brave enough to be it.”

Watkins currently is in the middle of his Limitless 2023 tour, which has him speaking and preaching in the area from June through September.

Chances are he won’t be wearing the football jersey Watkins said he used to don on Sunday afternoons as a young child pretending to be a minister delivering the Word.

“It was my preacher’s robe,” Watkins said of that jersey, recalling that his father has shared the story when introducing his son to a group or congregation.

The purpose of the Limitless tour, he said, is “to inspire people to activate and maximize their God-given potential.” He has several upcoming engagements, including Sunday, Aug. 13 at 11 a.m. at New Grassy Creek Missionary Baptist Church in Oxford and Sunday, Aug. 20 at 11:15 a.m. at St. Andrews Christian Church in Henderson.

And his ministerial licensing service will be held Sunday, Sept. 10 at 3 p.m. at 16 Big Ruin Creek Lane in Henderson.

Whether you listen to him live or tune in to his Preferable podcast, the message Watkins delivers is one of positivity and finding purpose.

The Preferable podcast, which he started in March 2020 can be found on platforms like Spotify, Amazon and YouTube, just to name a few. According to Fox 50 and ABC 19, Preferable is one of the longest-running podcasts by a person of Watkins’s age.

“It feels a blessing to be able to host a podcast and to receive that recognition,” Watkins said, adding that he hopes the podcast’s message inspires listeners “to activate their God-given talents…to go out and build beloved communities.”

There are challenges, he acknowledged, like sending a flurry of emails just to book one particular guest. “But when I hear the testimonies that people give…I am encouraged to keep going,” he said.

His humble nature shines through during his daily routine, from his work at the radio station to the simple act of holding the door for an elderly woman making her way into the library. She recognized him, by the way, as “that” young man who makes the podcasts, Watkins recalled. She said she listens as part of her nighttime routine, which helps her have a good night’s sleep.

Check out Preferable, follow Watkins on Facebook and Instagram, email him at iamjaydenwatkins@gmail.com  and complete a booking form at https://jaydenwatkins.com/

 

 

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