Front Porch Living

PAGE 4 • FRONT PORCH LIVING

Goobers - all grown upThree Roanoke-Chowan area com-panies really “dig” their jobs - cap-italizing on the bountiful harvest ofpeanuts.6

Local family enjoys string of fortuneover several generations by capturingHomecoming Queen titles. 20

‘Tis the seasonR-C area towns and or ganiza-tions announce long list of Hol-iday themed events.

Roanoke Valley Breast CancerCoalition provides support forlocal women diagnosed with thisdisease.

34Strength in numbers

The Pearcefamily model

train museum inEure is dressedfor the holidays,

opening itsdoors to thepublic Dec. 1.

28

Royal Flush

Inside this edition


Bertie family taps into worldwide popularity of peanuts

The Bertie County Peanuts office team are, from left, Jon Powell, Jack Powell, Vicky Hoggard and Alice Tayloe.

Goobers – all grown upCHAPTER 1

They can be deep fried, parched, oreaten green right from the field.They can be roasted in the shell,

salted in the shell, or finely chopped foruse in fudge as a sweet treat.

You can cover them with chocolate orbutterscotch. For an old-fashion Southerntreat, pour a handful of these salted morselsinto a bottled Pepsi or Coke and enjoy thewild mix of flavors.

Whichever way you like ‘em, most peo-ple go nuts over peanuts.

Here in northeastern North Carolina, es-pecially in sandy soil left centuries ago by areceding ocean, peanuts are a hearty crop.Long, green rows bask under the summersun. The stalk at the base of the ovary ,known as the pedicel, elongates rapidly, andturns downward to bury the fruits severalinches in the ground where they completetheir development.

Early fall is harvest time. The plant is dugfrom the warm soil and turned, leaving thepeanuts to begin the drying process before a

tractor-assisted combine plucks the goobers,vines and all, from the ground.

Other than a tasty snack, peanuts have ad-ditional applications, to include oils, sol-vents, medicines, textile materials,cosmetics, nitroglycerin, plastics, dyes andpaints.

For a trio of local businesses, peanutshave provided a way of life. These entre-preneurs have developed individual brandsthat attract customers worldwide.

STORY & PHOTOS BY CAL BRYANT

FRONT PORCH LIVING • PAGE 7

‘Peanut junkies’Founded in 1919 by W.L. Powell and his

brother-in-law, J.T. Stokes, Powell & Stokesof Windsor has become an agricultural iconin the region. As is the case nearly 100 yearslater, the company sells fertilizer, land plas-ter and farm supplies.

Due to the fact that the bulk of the fertil-izer was shipped by bar ge, the companyoriginated at a warehouse down by theCashie River near the now closed railroaddepot. Later, rail was the popular mode offertilizer shipments.

In the early 1930’s, Powell & Stokes builta warehouse on King Street (across fromBunn’s Barbecue). The company remainedthere until 1978 where it moved to its pres-ent-day location on US 13 North.

“I’ve been around farming for a long timeand 99 percent of the farmers I deal withjust enjoy raising peanuts,” said Jack Pow-ell, the third generation of his family to op-erate this business. “It’s not rocket science;

it’s just a fun crop to raise.”Like many in a heavily agricultural re-

gion, Powell stressed that he always lookedforward to October and the smell of freshlydug peanuts.

“We’re peanut junkies,” laughed Powell.The story of how Powell & Stokes first

ventured into cooking peanuts is one for theages. Powell first explained the backgroundof what is now a modern-day staple at thecompany – saying when peanuts arrive atthe facility, they are graded for quality .Those samples have to be shelled for accu-rate weighing and testing.

“When that process is complete, you havehuge handfuls of jumbo peanuts,” he said.“Back around 1980 or so, my dad (JackPowell Sr. – aka “Papa Jack”) went uptownand bought an old popcorn popper . Hebought some oil and we began fryingpeanuts in that popper during peanut harvestseason.

“Back in those days people still used lard

(for cooking purposes) and we had an abun-dance of lard stands, complete with their biglids,” he continued. “We’d take a newspa-per, lay it across one of those lids, fill it withfried peanuts and daddy would stand over itand salt ‘em down.”

The end result is now legendary.“Everybody loved our fried peanuts;

we’d cook up two batches (roughly fourpounds) every day and those that workedhere along with the farmers who traded withus would come in and snack on fresh friedpeanuts,” Powell stated.

Those fried peanuts eventually foundtheir way to meetings of the Windsor Ro-tary Club where Jack Jr. was a member.

“Everybody thought they were great;they, along with others who had tasted ourversion of fried peanuts, encouraged us tooffer them for sale,” he said.

What was once just a friendly gesture bythe Powell family to their workers, farmersand friends set the table for what is todayBertie County Peanuts and its ever-increas-ing variety of flavors.

“We had no clue of what we were gettinginto, but Jon (his son) had just graduatedfrom Davidson (College) and was in-be-tween jobs and was home at the time,” Pow-ell recalled. “Between us we kicked aroundsome ideas, to include what type of jars touse to extend the shelf life of our product.We opted for a plastic jar so the customercan see what they’re buying.”

There was also a need to develop stan-dards pertaining to cooking time and tem-perature, and, of course, something otherthan an old popcorn popper in which to frythe peanuts.

Another important element that theyounger generation (Jon) brought to thetable was to get Bertie County Peanuts con-nected to the rest of the world. That openedthe door for Internet sales as well as pro-moting the home-grown product on Face-book, Twitter and YouTube. The companyalso publishes a catalog to help drive mailorder sales.

The company didn’t rest on its traditionaltwo products – Blister Fried Peanuts andbagged peanuts (salted or unsalted in theshell, roasted in the shell, or raw – shelled orunshelled).

“It’s an amazing market,” Powell said.“Jon keeps up with all the new trends, thenewest flavors.”

Now, the business offers a wider range of

Lillie White, Daphne Mizelle and Virginia Hoggard process a pan full offried peanuts at the Bertie County Peanut kitchen.

See BERTIE GOOBERS page 8

BERTIE GOOBERS from page 7

PAGE 8 • FRONT PORCH LIVINGNG

peanut products, to include chocolate cov-ered, brittle (plain and chocolate), honeyroasted, butterscotch covered, BatchelorBay seasoned (a spicy Outer Banks styleseafood seasoning), Red Hot Hexlena, SeaSalt & Black Pepper , Weeping Mary’sGhost Pepper, boiled (green peanuts, aSouthern tradition), Goobers & Stix (mildor spicy), dark chocolate candy bars, and allnatural peanut butter.

Additionally it offers a line of cashews,pecans, trail mix, cheese straws, collegiatepackaged peanuts (for ECU, UNC, NCState and Wake Forest “tailgaters”), and BigBuck’s BBQ Sauce.

“We continue to make products that makeus proud to be from Bertie County,” Powellsaid. “We’ve been able to distribute ourpeanuts to several markets, here locally andoutside our region, and have received posi-tive feedback. That fact alone makes all ofus here strive to do even better.”

Beyond Bertie’s bordersJon Powell is the company’s fourth gen-

eration front man. He attends as many as 15trade shows each year, marketing the prod-uct line and looking for outlets in an ef fortto broaden retail sales. He has even attendedthe Fancy Food shows in New York Cityand Washington, DC where thousands ofcompanies gather to push their wide varietyof products.

“We use the retail shows as our advertis-ing vehicle,” Jon said. “W e believe thatwhen we can put our product in someone’shand and they taste it, they’re going to buyit. We still use traditional advertising(printed media sources) locally and region-ally, but the shows give us an opportunityto reach a much broader market, those thathave never heard of Bertie CountyPeanuts.”

Social media is another area where Jonpromotes the company and product.

“We have gotten good results of f ourFacebook posts and we continue to growour number of likes,” he said. “W e’ve putall of our photo albums on Facebook; peo-ple seem to enjoy the photos.”

As far as the future of the business is con-cerned, Jon said he strongly believes the skyis the limit.

“That will happen because of two simpleideas that we’ve built upon since the start –all of our peanuts are grown locally and we

start the process with the blister friedmethod,” he noted. “W e will continue togrow, how much will depend on time, effortand energy. There are other avenues outthere, TV advertising is one thing we maylook at. We have brought onboard a salesrepresentative to help us market our prod-uct.

“We’re not going to just sit back andcoast, we’re always looking to ex-pand…every year we’re putting more pres-sure on our production facility to producemore and more product,” he continued.“That’s a good thing. What use to be a part-time job during the non-Christmas season(January through September) is becomingmore and more a full-time job at our pro-duction facility. Now that facility doesn’ tshut down much at all. We don’t want tothrow all our eggs into one basket (Christ-mas sales season); we want to spread thatout year-round.”

The production facility, located within theBertie County Industrial Park south ofWindsor, was buzzing with activity. On the“dry” side, work crews were frying, sorting,and packaging. Another crew on the “wet”side busied themselves producing chocolatecovered peanuts. Meanwhile, facility man-ager Jamie Forehand was on the forklift,stacking the finished product in the ware-house, preparing for the next shipment viatractor-trailer.

Jon said the next step for the company

was expanding production and storage ca-pabilities. At this time of the year , 20-30part-time employees are needed to help fillthe Christmas orders, while another crewhandles the packing and shipping. There areconversations that may add a second shift atthe kitchen.

“We feel we’re going in the right direc-tion,” Jon concluded.

That direction includes purchasing onlySuper Extra Large peanuts. Taste and sizedoes matter for Bertie Peanuts.

“Our farmers here put peanuts on theirbest land and the end product is so muchbetter,” said Bill Powell, Jack’ s brother inthe family business. “The farmers lost theirgovernment support price and we lost a lotof peanut farmers when that happened, butthose left growing them know what it takesto produce a quality peanut, one that gradesout well, and that fact leaves our companywith a better product to sell.” �

Martha Early drops freshly coated chocolate peanuts onto thedrying belt at the kitchen of Bertie County Peanuts.


Goobers – all grown upCHAPTER 2

Just a stone’s throw across the Northampton-Bertie linenear Roxobel, amid fields containing seemingly endlessrows of peanuts, sits a small complex of buildings.

A farm lot adjoins that property, making it appear the entire areais simply an extension of a large agricultural operation.

However, once inside those buildings, it becomes extremely ap-parent that peanuts are king.

Bakers’ Southern Traditions Peanuts, located at 101 Baker Road,was buzzing with activity on a mid-week day in October. The phonewas ringing; orders were being received via an Internet site and em-ployees were hustling to meet the demand.

Such is a typical day at Bakers, especially one during this, their

busiest time of the year as Christmas orders are coming in.The business is co-owned by Danielle and Joey Baker. He tills the

fertile soil; she, up until six years ago, was a farm wife, helping toraise three sons and keeping the financial records for her husband.

“The boys were getting older and Joey and I had always talkedabout one day doing something of a value added nature to a crop wewere growing,” she said. “Peanuts seemed to be the logical choice.”

Thus, Southern Traditions was born in 2008. “The first year, I cooked some peanuts at the house and gave

them away as gifts,” Danielle said. “Then the word spread and Ihad other people asking for our style of peanuts.

“We were really not sure how well we would do, simply becausewe have so many good peanut companies here in our area,” shecontinued. “My idea from the beginning was to market our productoutside of our area. I didn’t want to be in direct competition with thePowells over in Bertie or Katrine (Spruill) up in Como.”

After checking into the legalities of the peanut product business,Baker hit the trade show trail, particularly food and wine shows, inan effort to get her brand in front of the public.

“It started slow, but grew and it’s still growing,” she bragged. “Ido a lot of shows up north and take these good Southern peanuts tothe folks up there who have never tasted the quality of what isgrown down here. I now have a loyal following up north.”

That’s not to say her brand isn’t popular on the home front.“We have a lot of customers here in North Carolina and right here

in our area, which I’m glad of,” she said. “I try not to market mybrand in a store where another one of the local producers has al-ready established their product, not unless the store specificallyasks for mine.”

Up until the last few months, Baker has done all the legwork inscouting potential retail markets to place her product line. She hasalso used the trade shows to make retail outlet connections. Bakersaid she prefers specialty shops, mom-and-pop stores, wine shopsand gift shops as retail outlets.

Currently, Bakers’ style of goobers are sold in shops in NorthCarolina, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee, New Jersey, Penn-sylvania, New York, Maryland and Virginia. The market is much

Peanuts, just not a snack food anymoreSTORY & PHOTOS BY CAL BRYANT

Facing Page: Danielle Baker labels one of the numerous peanutproducts offered by her company, Bakers’ Southern Traditions.Left: Storie Outland weighs a jar of Choco-Scotch CoveredPeanuts, part of the process at Bakers’ Southern Traditions.

See BAKER’S GOOBERS page 12


broader with online and catalog sales. Onecustomer from Hawaii called and askedBaker to stuff as much product as possibleinto a flat rate box and ship it.

Broadening the base“A couple of months ago I hired a sales

rep and she is working on getting us estab-lished in other shops she is already involvedin with other product lines she represents,”Baker stated. “I also have a chef friend inNew Jersey who works with me on recipedevelopment and he is doing some marketscouting for me up there.”

Peanuts, Baker said, are a traditionalsnack food and that’ s what they’re bestknown for. However, she is trying to showthat peanuts can be used for other food ap-plications.

“They can be used in meals, in dishes;that’s where my chef friend comes in withthe recipe development,” she stressed. “Upnorth you find more vegetarians and they’relooking for more of a protein source food.We can highlight the positive protein sourcethat peanuts have as well as other vitaminsand minerals. That angle helps us get intosome specialty shops that deal only in allnatural foods.”

Armed with that knowledge, Baker hasdeveloped a peanut soup to her line, a pre-mixed recipe where water is the only otherneeded ingredient.

“Peanuts are not just a snack food, theycan be used in other ways as well,” Bakerobserved. “There’s a big emphasis now onAsian cooking and Middle Eastern cuisineand peanuts and peanut paste are a big partof that style.”

While peanut butter is on her company’slist of products, the wheels are already turn-ing in Baker’s mind on how to re-invent thatlong-time favorite.

“I’m thinking of an adult peanut butter ,with chili oil for spice, that can be used as aspread on a cracker as a hors d'oeuvre,” shesaid. “It never hurts to think outside the box,to have a dif ferent take on how to usepeanuts.”

Baker’s product line includes the tradi-tional blister fried (lightly salted or un-salted), Redskins, Carolina Cajun style,candied peanuts (coated in sugar), BetterBites (chopped peanuts rolled in carameland dipped in milk chocolate), peanut brit-tle, bagged (roasted in the shell), southwest

jalapeno, ghost pepper, barbecued, and sev-eral varieties of chocolate covered goobers.Corporate and individual gift baskets areavailable.

Her cooked peanuts are used at UNC-Chapel Hill for a peanut butter machine(grind your own goobers) in the university’sstudent dining halls. Soon, the Baker line ofproducts will also be available in the 12 stu-dent stores that dot the UNC campus.

“The kids love it,” she said of the peanutbutter.

For Bakers’ Southern Traditions, the fu-ture is much like the past.

“Sure, we’ll add to our line, but the key toour success tomorrow is for people to con-tinue to know that when they purchase ourproduct, it’s not just your run-of-the-millbrand you can buy at most any grocerystore; we want it to be special,” Baker said.

That pride in product is evident in the factthat the process is all done the old-fashionway – by hand.

“People like the fact that there are people,not machines, behind this product,” shestated. “People like the homemade touch,they support small business and they sup-

port farmers. Likewise, we support smallbusiness.”

Baker employs three-to-four workersyear-round. To handle the traditional rushduring the Christmas season, that staff nor-mally doubles to handle the orders.

“It gives me a good feeling as a businessowner to put people to work,” she stressed.“One is the main wage-earner in her familyand I have another that is supporting twodaughters and trying to put them throughschool.”

Hopefully, down the line, the next gener-ation of Bakers will continue the “SouthernTradition.” �

BAKER’S GOOBERS from page 11

Tanya Revelle places a pan of hot peanuts in the cooling rack.


Goobers – all grown upCHAPTER 3Goodness grows in Como

STORY & PHOTOS BY CAL BRYANT


Aroadside sign on the edge of a peanut patch in northernHertford County says it all – “W e grow heart healthypeanuts.”

That same level of pride can be found within a small building inthe same area. Just by walking in, visitors can smell goodness, es-pecially when Katrine Spruill has just finished cooking peanuts.Your nostrils flare with anticipation of popping a handful of thosefreshly fried, lightly salted goobers in your mouth.

In 2001, Spruill purchased Taylor’s Home Cooked Peanuts from

its founder, Hugh Taylor. His Franklin, VA based business had beenaround for 25 years before he opted to retire from that line of work.

“We bought him out, moved the business here to Como and keptthe brand name,”Spruill said.

A nurse by pro-fession, Spruill saidshe opted to be-come a business

This sign graces a peanutfield located near the

Hertford County community of Como.

....................................................See TAYLOR’S GOOBERS page 17

A Hertford County farmer in the Como areais shown picking peanuts in mid-October.


owner for the simple reason ofwanting to be at home with whatwere then her small children – ason, Denton, now age 25 and afourth generation farmer for hisdad’s (Dennis) 2,000 acre agricul-tural operation, and a 23-year -olddaughter, Shirley Lee, currentlyemployed by Enviva of Ahoskie.

“It had just gotten to the pointwhere it was tough to balance mycareer as a nurse with the typicaldaily duties of being a mom and afarm wife,” she noted. “I decidedthat if I could do something differ-ent and do it right here on the farmwhere it’s convenient, then go forit.”

Eleven years later , Taylor’s isstill going strong and peanuts, atleast from a farmer ’s standpoint,are enjoying a revival, so to speak,after the government axed the sup-port price program decades ago.The family had their best peanutcrop ever last year, yielding a shadeover 5,000 pounds per acre.

“The Como area always seemsto grow good peanuts, quality andquantity,” she bragged.

Spruill uses those jumbo peanutsto produce four main products –Home Cooked (salted cocktailtype), Redskins (cooked with theskins intact), Cajun (blanched withspices) and Sea Salt & Black Pep-per.

“What we haven’t changed wasMr. Taylor’s cooking technique,”she noted. “We have added somedifferent things, to include vacuumsealed cans, and added some candylines.”

Spruill said she was “dabblingwith some other variations” to in-clude vinegar and ranch.

“I just cooked up some ranch fla-vored peanuts and will take them tomy next (Murfreesboro) Chamber(of Commerce) meeting for a tastetest,” she promised. “I love to ex-periment and I’m not shy when itcomes to asking customers andfriends about what they would liketo see (in product variety).”

TAYLOR’S GOOBERS from page 15

See TAYLOR’S GOOBERS page 18

Cans of Taylor’s Home Cooked peanuts arestacked in the kitchen area of thebusiness, awaiting purchase.


In the candy line of peanuts, Spruill hasadded butter toffee, chocolate covered brit-tle and peanuts, old-fashioned peanutsquares and blonde peanut brittle (madewith blanched peanuts).

Spruill also offers raw shelled peanuts inhand-sewn burlap bags. Additionally, shesells homemade preserves, cheese strawsand chocolates.

An independent salesman aids Spruill ingetting her product line “on the street.”Other than the local outlets that carry herbrand, Taylor’s Home Cooked Peanuts arepopular along North Carolina’ s OuterBanks.

“Most of our orders come online andthrough mail order sales,” she said. “W ealso do a lot of corporate sales with giftboxes and gift baskets.”

Spruill continues to market the brand atfood shows, some as far away as Atlanta,GA.

“You’ve got to put your face and yourname out there,” she stressed. “I find moresuccess on the retail end rather than whole-sale. I’m just looking for that little mom-and-pop store – a gift shop or wine shop –that wants a niche product like mine to com-pliment their offerings.”

Other than handling the typical rush of or-ders before Christmas, a time period whereshe hires extra help, Spruill is basically aone-person business.

“Dennis usually helps me a lot when hisharvest season is over,” she said.

Discovering peanut paradiseWhen the Christmas rush subsides,

Spruill has enough of the sales market tokeep her busy through other times of theyear, saying she normally cooks twice aweek after the holiday season.

And even though Taylor’s Home CookedPeanuts is off the beaten path (located in anarea affectionally known as “DC” – DeepComo), Spruill said the volume of traf ficfinding her business is surprising.

“Right now the GPS, even though itseems to never help me, brings people look-ing to travel from Murfreesboro to Court-land (Virginia) right down this road,” shelaughed. “The state line is a quarter milefrom here and this road will lead you to US58 (near Courtland). Some people stop bythat never knew we were here.”

She is grateful for the business she has,

especially the repeat customers.“I’ve been in this long enough to get to

know my customers; it’s a personal touchthing with me,” Spruill stressed. “I havemany customers that prefer ordering byphone, they want that one-on-one contactand not stare at a computer screen. That’sfine with me because I love to talk.”

For packaging the product, Spruill preferstin cans over plastic or glass.

“What’s inside speaks for itself, I don’ tthink you need to see the peanuts to make aspontaneous purchase,” she said.

Other than experimenting with flavors topossibly add to the product line, Spruillclosed by saying she has discovered the se-cret of future success.

“You need to find your comfort level and

then do that very well. Every time yougrow, it costs to grow. You have to weighall the options associated with that growth,is it the most beneficial in the long run,” shesaid. �

TAYLOR’S GOOBERS from page 17

Katrine Spruill, owner of Taylor’s Home Cooked Peanutsscoops fresh fried goobers into a can.


Kira Hall was named Homecoming Queen2012 at Hertford County High School fol-lowing in a family tradition. Her aunt andgreat-aunt were also so honored. She isshown with Homecoming King Dorrien

Askew during festivities whichwere held Oct. 5


Royal FamilyJones/Hall clan capture Queen titles

Linda Jones Hall (left) and her granddaughter, Kira Hall, look over the memories of the family’s history of being named HomecomingQueen at Hertford County schools. Kira Hall was the latest in a line of three family members who were honored.

Royalty runs in the family . That hascertainly held true for the one Hert-ford County family. The royalty in

question is that of the Homecoming varietyat Hertford County High School and one ofits predecessors, Ahoskie High.

Linda Hall sat in the stands of HertfordCounty High School on Oct. 5 smilingproudly down at her granddaughter , KiraTracy Hall as the latter was named 2012

Homecoming Queen at the Ahoskie-basedschool.

The honor was a special time for the fam-ily as they enjoyed basking in the glow ofthe honor bestowed upon Kira by the stu-dent body of HCHS. It was an extraordinarytime for the family, but also somewhat fa-miliar.

It was the third time Linda Hall had beenthere to see a member of her family

crowned at halftime of the Homecomingfootball game. The first time dated back to1971 when Jeanette Jones Amaker, Linda’ssister, was chosen as Homecoming Queenat Ahoskie High.

It happened again just 16 years later whenHall’s daughter, Angela Hall Humes wasnamed Homecoming Queen at AHS. Shewas escorted that evening by her brother ,McClary Hall III. It was 25 years later on

STORY & PHOTOS BY THADD WHITE

See ROYAL page 22


Oct. 5 that McClary Hall was able to seehis daughter follow in the family footstepswhen she was crowned.

“Great. Amazing. Awesome,” is howKira Hall described the feeling of beingchosen Homecoming Queen at HCHS. “Itfeels like being a good person paid off.”

While she was excited about being se-lected by her peers, Kira Hall was alsocognizant of the history her family had inthat area.

“I can’t explain the feeling,” she said.“Keeping it the family was a big deal. Itmeant a lot to me.”

One of the reasons it was so special isbecause her aunt was sitting in the standscheering her on as she took the field.

“Looking in the stands and seeing herwas awesome,” Kira Hall said. “She wassmiling and taking pictures and it meant alot because I wasn’ t sure she would bethere.”

The feeling of seeing her niece crownedwas just as special to Humes. She saidplans had to be altered to make the tripfrom Greensboro to Ahoskie, but she wasmore than happy to do it.

“I was very excited, thrilled even,” shesaid. “To have both of my nieces out there(Kira Hall’s sister, Felecia, was a sopho-more attendant) was special. Who wonwasn’t as important as having them bothout there.”

Looking back a few years to her selec-tion, Humes said she was proud of thehonor, even more so since it came during

ROYAL from page 21

Top Right: Janette Jones Amaker wasnamed Homecoming Queen at AhoskieHigh in 1971. Her sister, Linda Jones Hall,has had three members of her familyhonored as Homecoming Queen.

Following her sister were her daughter, Angela Hall Humes, and hergranddaughter, Kira Hall.

Right: Angela Hall Humes was namedAhoskie High School Homecoming

Queen in 1987, pictured here escorted byher brother, McClary Hall III. Twenty-fiveyears later, his daughter, Kira Hall wasnamed Homecoming Queen atHertford County High School.

Contributed Photos

..................................................


the final year of Ahoskie High School.“It was a big honor , especially to be the

one and to be selected by your peers,” shesaid. “When I was on the field I was verynervous.”

Humes said she was proud to carry on herfamily’s legacy because Ahoskie meant somuch to her familial unit.

Linda Hall said she was thrilled over theoutcome of all three ceremonies.

“I was very excited,” she said. “It was ahistorical moment for me.”

The most surprising to Hall? Her sister ’sselection in 1971.

“I think I was more surprised when mysister received it because she was the firstblack person to get it since the schools inte-grated,” Hall said.

Looking back over the ceremonies, Hallsaid she sees an improvement in racial rela-tions and the way the student body makestheir choices.

“I think things are coming together ,” shesaid. “As far as black and white coming to-gether, I don’t think it’s about who you arenow, but it’ s who deserves it. With mygranddaughter, it’s been about being a peo-ple person. She is a very respectful childwho treats people well and I’m sure that wonher a lot of votes.”

Miss Homecoming 2012, Kira Hall, is thedaughter of McClary Hall III and Kim Har-rell while Ahoskie High School Miss Home-coming 1987 Angela Hall Humes is thedaughter of Linda Jones Hall. Janette JonesAmaker, Miss Homecoming 1971, is thedaughter of the late Ernest and CaroliseJones. �


‘Tis theseason

Parades andother holidaythemedactivitiesscheduled

See SEASON page 30


Ahhhh… the sights and soundsof the season. A beautiful hol-iday season is upon us in the

Roanoke-Chowan region and thosewishing to spend time enjoying festiv-ities will have a variety of choices.From Christmas parades to hometours, there is something to please justabout everyone as the holiday seasonapproaches.

Bertie, Gates, Hertford andNorthampton counties boast of aplethora of Christmas parades. Therewill be fun for those young and youngat heart as the area is filled with bands,dignitaries, church groups and ofcourse, Jolly Old St. Nick.

In addition, those wishing for indoorfun can find it at historic Hope Planta-tion or the friendly confines of theChristmas home tours in Murfreesboroand Windsor.

Christmas parades in the region willbe held on the following dates andtimes:

Saturday, November 24:10 a.m. - Town of Conway

Saturday, December 1:10 a.m. – Town of Murfreesboro10 a.m. – Town of Rich Square10 a.m. – Town of Jamesville2 p.m. – Town of Seaboard3 p.m. – Town of Colerain5 p.m. – Town of Winton

Sunday, December 2:2 p.m. – Town of Roanoke Rapids

STORY BY THADD WHITEPHOTOS BY STAFF


The annual Murfreesboro Candlelight Christmas tour features a collection of seasonal music, decorations and plenty of good food.

Thursday, December 6:4 p.m. – Town of Windsor5 p.m. – Town of Williamston

Saturday, December 8:10 a.m. – Town of Ahoskie10 a.m. – Town of Bear Grass1 p.m. – Town of Jackson3 p.m. – Town of Gatesville7 p.m. – City of Suffolk

Other Christmas-related activities areplanned throughout the region as well.Some of them include:

Thursday, November 29:Christmas Wreath WorkshopThe workshop will be held at Historic

Hope Plantation, located near Windsor. Theworkshop is planned from 10 a.m. until 3p.m. and is co-sponsored by the BertieCounty Master Gardeners.

Reserve a spot by calling 794-3140.

Saturday, December 1:

Tree LightingThe town of Ahoskie will hold its annual

Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony at 6:30p.m.

Train Museum opensThe Pearce Family Model Train Museum

will open for the Christmas season at 6 p.m.and remain open for the rest of Decemberfrom 6-9 p.m. daily. Those wishing to seemodel trains decorated for the season mayvisit the facility which is located on LittleIsland Road in Eure.

Winter WonderlandEach year, Therman Hoggard of WIndsor

and his family display the region’ s largestcollection of Christmas lights and decora-tions. Numbering in the hundreds of thou-sands, the display is lit up on Dalton Driveeach night at dusk and remains on until 10p.m. The time gets later as Christmas nears.There is no charge for the display, but a col-lection box is available for those wishing to

donate. Dalton Drive is located off U.S. 17Business North in front of Windsor Assem-bly of God Church near Cooper Hill Road.

Sunday, December 2:Christmas Open House at Historic Hope

PlantationThe Historic Hope Plantation and the

King-Bazemore House of f NC 308 nearWindsor will be open to the public free ofcharge from 1-4 p.m. The public will be in-vited to see the homes decorated for the sea-son with natural products. There will alsobe period music in the houses. The Visitor’sCenter and gift shop will also be open dur-ing that time frame.

Open HouseThe Bertie County Arts Council (King

Street, Windsor) will hold a ChristmasOpen House from 3-5 p.m. in conjunctionwith a day full of activities in the town. TheOpen House will be between the ChristmasOpen House at Historic Hope and the Tour

SEASON from page 29


of Homes.

Historic Homes TourThe Bertie Historical Preservation Soci-

ety will sponsor its annual Christmas Tourof Homes from 4-7 p.m. Saturday , Dec. 2.Nearly a dozen homes have already beenadded to the tour. Maps for the tour will beavailable at Historic Hope Plantation, theBertie County Arts Council and the Inn atGray’s Landing, both in Windsor.

Sunday, December 4:Carriage ridesThe Windsor/Bertie County Chamber of

Commerce will sponsor its annual Carriagerides from 6-9 p.m. The carriage rides,which cost $10 per adult, will tour historicWindsor. The carriage rides will also be of-fered on Sunday, Dec. 11 and Tuesday, Dec.13 at the same times.

Tuesday, December 6 andWednesday, December 7:

Candlelight Christmas TourThe Murfreesboro Historical Association

is sponsoring the 27th annual CandellightChristmas Tour of the town from 4-8:30p.m. on both days. The 2012 theme is “TheMagic of Christmas.” The event will allowpatrons to tour the Murfreesboro HistoricDistrict, including 12 stops in historicallysignificant structures as well as traditionalholiday food and a horse-drawn carriageand tram rides. Tickets are $30 for adultsand $10 for those 12 and under. �

The Town of Conway annually leads off the Christmas Parade season in the Roanoke-Chowan area.


Pink warriors: from left Patricia Peele, Audrey Hardy, Angela Carter, Dr. Pudden Gorlesky and Brenda Bracey are a few of the membersthat make up the Core Team for the Roanoke Valley Breast Cancer Coalition (RVBCC), which helps link women in

Northampton and Halifax counties to the services and resources they need.

Strength in numbers

Strength in numbers

Breast Cancer Coalition rallies support to assist local women

STORY AND PHOTO BYAMANDA VANDERBROEK

There is strength in numbers and ifyou’re ever in doubt just ask theRoanoke Valley Breast Cancer

Coalition.For those involved with RVBCC, it’s not

about waiting for help, rather it’s about tap-ping in the available resource and knock-ing down the statistics in a team effort.

For the past three years, R VBCC hasaimed to create breast cancer awareness inNorthampton and Halifax counties as wellas provide information to breast cancer sur-vivors and work together to create a sup-portive environment for women in theRoanoke Valley by pulling together localand statewide resources. Another key focusfor the organization is to assist in strength-ening frontline healthcare workers by es-

tablishing a continuum of care for under -served women.

With breast cancer mortality rates forAfrican-American women higher than thestatewide average in Northampton andHalifax as well as lower than averagehealth outcomes, the Coalition’s work hasnever been so vital.

“We felt if we improve services for anyparticular group in the community it willimprove services for everybody,” said Au-drey Hardy, RVBCC project coordinator.“That is our focus area, but our whole thingis that we try to improve services, accessto care, knowledge based awareness for theentire community of the Roanoke Valley tomake it healthier.”

At an average meeting, the Core Team,

which includes Hardy , Patricia Peele,Brenda Bracey, Dr. Pudden Gorlesky andAngela Carter, works together like a familyto meet the Coalition’s mission and ulti-mately help their communities.

After three years of working on securingfunding and forming RVBCC, the journeyhas cumulated in a one day conference onNov. 3—one that will focus on “The Stateof the Valley” with the aim of creatingawareness of the breast cancer disparitiesin the Eastern North Carolina service area,introducing the evidence-based breast can-cer continuum for linking people to serv-ices, and presenting a resource fair ofavailable resources. It will also feature anew cancer “warm line” along with pro-motional materials.


“I think that the interestingstory is how we came to worktogether in the Roanoke Valleyand for the first time to bring allof us who have an interest inwomen in our community to-gether without the threat ofhaving to compete, but to worktogether and combine our re-sources and our energies to cre-ate this ‘Pink Print’,” saidPeele, RVBCC project consult-ant and content expert.

“The Core Team is just thenucleus of the organization andjust the working group, but theCoalition itself has about 45members,” said Hardy.

Those 45 members comefrom approximately 18 partnersand stakeholders who are in-volved with breast cancer carein the community and acrossthe state.

“We have healthcare organi-zations, volunteer groups,grassroots organizations, physi-cians, the hospital (Halifax Re-gional Medical Center), healthdepartments, faith-based com-munities, local and state politi-cians,” said Hardy.

The origins of the Coalitioncame about in 2009 when Peelewas working with Rural HealthGroup.

“We had an opportunity toapply for funding throughMorehouse School of Medicinein order to address needs in ourcommunity for women to ac-cess breast care,” Peele said.

Rural Health Group selectedthe Gregory B. Davis Founda-tion to partner with in order toestablish a program that wouldmeet the needs of women aswell as the continuum of care.

Hardy, on the other hand, re-called a shared idea betweenherself and Peele that came be-fore the initial funding oppor -tunity.

“Even before that for somereason, Pat and I, our pathscrossed and we had lunch andwe talked about a vision of aconference for people in the

Roanoke Valley about breastcancer care to bring the serv-ices to the area,” said Hardy.

Peele said the idea was tobring on other agencies, organ-izations and members whoshared an interest in helpingwomen access care.

By 2010, RVBCC was estab-lished and the training beganfor those involved.

To continue and expand theeffort, a grant award of roundtwo funding was received inNovember 2011 from LegacySoutheastern United StatesCollaborative Center of Excel-lence for Eliminating Dispari -ties (SUCCEED) under theauspices of the MorehouseSchool of Medicine. A grant of$25,000 was officially awardedto the Gregory B. Davis Foun-dation (GBDF) who will serveas the lead organization provid-ing overall management andcoordination. GBDF, who part-nered with the Rural HealthGroup under the previous

grant, will continue to partnerwith all key organizations thatmake up RVBCC.

Peele spoke about how majorfunding sources tend to trickledown to small Tier I countieslike Halifax and Northampton.

“By us working together wefeel we can create enough ac-tion over here in NortheasternNorth Carolina to say to therest of the state and to thosemajor funders and those peopleresponsible for divvying outthe resources that we have thecapacity here—we can pullourselves together and we havethe capacity to do the work onthe ground to bring up our out-comes and that can help thestate,” she said.

One major objective forRVBCC has been the breastcancer continuum, which in-volves: risk assessment, wherewomen are educated aboutbreast cancer and they deter -mine their risk; screening,where a woman gets her clini-cal breast exam and mammo-gram; and diagnosis, where awoman’s breast condition is de-termined. If diagnosed withbreast cancer, the womanmoves to survivorship wherepatients and providers are con-nected. The last stage is end oflife cycle.

“However, for us, we’re notconsidering it end of life cycle,we’re considering it quality oflife cycle, it has to do with the

quality of care at that stage andalso family members and com-munity support,” Peele said.

At the conference R VBCCplans to announce a “warmline”, funded by a grant fromthe Susan G. Komen Founda-tion, where women can call andget information about servicesand providers along the contin-uum.

RVBCC members havelearned first hand that there isstrength in numbers. Peele andHardy describe the working re-lationship as a sisterhoodamong the Core Team andnotes those who are involvedwith the Coalition have avested personal interest in thework the organization does.

“Everybody, no matter whoyou ask to do something,they’re willing to do it becausethey realize their stake in theover all picture, not worriedabout their own individual or -ganizations,” said Hardy.

“We know that we’re talkingabout bringing about change,systemic change because whatwere hoping is that the medicalcommunity as well as our faith-based community, our neigh-bors—everybody will adoptthis as a way to help womenalong the continuum and theservices that they need andwe’ll all be working together tofocus in our community,” saidPeele. �


Steam rises from a pan of beef tips andgravy as prepared by Velma Jenkins.


Velma Jenkins prepares a meal fit for a King - beef tips and gravy, snaps with potatoes and rice.

If you have dined at a restaurant in Hert-ford County in the last 40 years, chancesare you have had a dish prepared by a

chef affectionately known as “Meatball.”That nickname belongs to Velma Jenkins,

born and raised in Ahoskie. With a nick-name like Meatball, she was destined to oneday become a culinary artist.

“I don’t know why people call me Meat-ball, they just always have. My family andfriends have always called me that,” Jenkinssaid.

Her initial foray into cooking came at the

age of 11.“I would sneak in the kitchen when my

mom would leave and make chocolatecakes from scratch, with homemade icing,”she recalled. “The family would eat thecake and enjoy it, but mom would alwayssay I was using up all of her sugar.”

Meatball said he learned to cook aloneand through trial and error . Perfecting achocolate cake and the praise of her friendsand family encouraged her to pursue otherrecipes. She was soon marinating meat andseasoning vegetables.

“Growing up we didn’ t have any cookbooks at home so I just did what I thoughtwould taste good,” she noted.

As it turns out, her tastes are shared bymost of the community.

Her style of cooking can best be de-scribed as Southern, Country, or Soul Food.The food she is most famous for is her col-lard greens.

“People want a big pot of collards formost occasions. Everyone loves them andthere is never any left over,” she bragged.

Her chicken salad, fried chicken, andhamburger steak are also local favorites.She loves to cook everything from sweetsto vegetables.

Her popularity first grew when shestarted working for EastCo Aluminum inWinton. There, supervisors found out shehad a gift for cooking and asked her to catercompany holiday parties. She had nevercooked for such a lar ge group before, butstated she really enjoyed it.

The word soon spread of her cooking tal-ents and Meatball found herself catering forother company events, church socials, andspecial occasions for friends and family .She says it is not strange for her to be askedto cook for over 100 people at an event.

Her dream is to one day have her owncatering business. Until she can achieve this

‘Meatball’ wasdestined tobecome a chef

See MEATBALL page 40

STORY & PHOTOS BY CANDACE MATTHEWS


dream she enjoys cooking for community businesses. Since her humble beginning in her mother ’s kitchen, Meatball

has worked at many local restaurants, to include O’Connors, Char-lie West, and The Diner. She continues to cater for churches andfriends as a hobby. As a member of the Soul Saving Station inAhoskie she lends her skills to their events frequently.

When asked what she loves the most about cooking, Meatballsays it is bringing people together . Her favorite time during theweek is Sunday dinner. She cooks a big meal and invites the fam-ily over to spend time together.

This writer was lucky to be invited to her home for dinner oneevening. I arrived early to watch her prepare our meal. Her yearsof experience in restaurant kitchens is obvious as shecooks….dishes are washed as pots boil and surfaces are wiped be-fore and after she uses them. Cleanliness and efficiency are just asimportant to her as the flavor of her food.

A conversation with Meatball will immediately show you thatshe has never met a stranger . It could be her friendly manner , ormaybe it is her knowledge of the area and its people. If you havefamily in the area, she knows at least one member. Her many yearsin the service industry and her involvement in the communityhelped her build lasting relationships with many residents. Bothher personality and her food leave a lasting impression on thoseshe meets.

Those interested in her catering services can contact Velma Jenk-ins at (252) 287 – 3799. Be sure to ask for “Meatball,” since that’swhat her friends call her and she has never met a stranger. �

MEATBALL from page 39

Seasoning is critical to Southern chefs likeVelma “Meatball” Jenkins.

An old railroad crossing signal marksthe spot of the Pearce familymodel train museum in Eure.


This old store was once owned by Linda “Sugar” Eure and her now late husband, Henry. They purchased it in 1946from Linda’s father, Charlie Eure, and operated the store until 1992.

From ‘Scratch Hall’ to Eure StationSTORY BY CAL BRYANT | PHOTOS BY KRISTI GROVES PHOTOGRAPHY

Imagine boarding a train and riding the rails to most anywhereyour heart desired. Imagine leaving your doors unlocked andwindows open without fear, trusting that your worldly be-

longings will remain intact.Imagine a happy heart after attending a show at the local high

school auditorium featuring tomorrow’s stars from Nashville, Ten-nessee; or the taste of parched peanuts, fresh from the field; or bar-tering for groceries by trading with a live chicken or fresh eggs.

For some, it may prove hard to imagine a place like that, but notfor those born and raised in Eure.

This quaint little farming community, nestled on the eastern edge

of the Gates County Sandbanks, has come full circle. Originallyknown as “Scratch Hall” (early settlers were of a robust, not to sayrough, nature, the community traces its modern name to Nathaniel“Nat” Eure. He owned a general merchandise store and ran asawmill in the late 1800’s when the railroad first came through thearea. Until they could construct their own building, railroad of fi-cials used a back room and porch of Eure’s store for a depot.

Thanks to the railroad, Eure became a boom town – completewith a boarding house, cotton gin, bank, livery stable, numerousgeneral merchandise stores and even an ice cream parlor. The train,this particular line operating between Norfolk, VA and Rocky

Despite decline in post-railroad era, Gates Countycommunity maintains its home-spun legacy

See EURE page 46


EURE from page 45

Mount, not only provided transportation,but served as means to deliver goods to thelocal merchants and residents…the latterplacing orders through catalog sales.

Through the eyes of a childLinda “Sugar” Eure has fond memories

of growing up in Eure. Born to Charlie andLinda Eure five years before the Great De-pression, she lost her mother when she wasonly three weeks old. With her father unableto care for a growing family, Linda was sentto live with her uncle and aunt – Charlie andCarrie Sawyer. It was her aunt that gaveLinda the nickname of “Sugar.”

There were five or six stores in Eure atthat time. Other than the one owned and op-erated by her father, local residents couldpatronize C.R. Felton Dry Goods, BlockFurniture Store, Joe Landing’ s ButcherShop, P.D. & Carey Merchandise Store, andJohn and Charlie Sawyer ’s General Mer-chandise and Hardware Store. LeslieUmphlett operated the ice cream parlor;John Williams, who once served as Eure’ sMayor during a time when the village wasincorporated, was a barber by trade; Mrs.A.M. Johnson had a boarding house; andPaul Hale ran the blacksmith shop and liv-ery stable.

“He (Hale) also rented horses and car -riages,” Eure remembered. “Then when theautomobiles came he switched over to aChevrolet auto repair shop.”

There was also the Bank of Eure, organ-ized in 1912 and closed during the GreatDepression of 1929. The legendary Thad A.Eure served as the bank’s vice president andattorney. He later became North Carolina’sSecretary of State and in the process estab-lished a still unequaled record by serving 53continuous years.

Eure said she could also remember themen coming to Eure and, “visiting fromstore to store,” while the women of thecommunity would stop at her home, locatednext door to her father’s shop.

“We always seemed to have a front porchfull of women; I liked that because thatmeant our front yard was full of children forme to play with…hide-and-seek, kick thecan, hopscotch,” she said. “I’m now the lastone of that group I grew up with, but I haveso many good memories here.”

She recalled the old-fashioned quiltingbees where women would go from home to

home to help make quilts in advance of thecold winter months. The men would assisteach other in farming chores and killinghogs.

On Saturday nights as a teen, Eure re-members piling in a car with six to eightothers her age and traveling to Ahoskie tocatch a movie at the Richard Theatre.

The passenger train was also a popularmode of travel. Four would rumble throughEure in a daily basis, the first around 5:45a.m.

“You could catch the train to Norfolk andcome back that night around 9:30 or catchthe one to Ahoskie at 10 in the morning andcome back that afternoon by 4 o’clock,” sherecalled.

One of her most vivid memories of rid-ing the rails was an annual shopping excur-sion to Norfolk on the Saturday beforeChristmas. And, of course, it didn’t hurt tohave connections back then – both her fos-ter brothers, Darcy and Clarence, worked asagents with Atlantic Coastline Railroad.

“We’d get on Granby Street and shop allday, coming home at night with all thosepresents,” she said.

Eure High School was also a centerpieceof the community. It sprang to life in thesummer of 1920 and closed in 1948. Theschool auditorium was used by the public,even for movies.

“We’d have fairs and festivals on theschoolhouse grounds,” Eure said. “I re-

Linda “Sugar” Eure reminisces through one of her photo albums ather home in the Eure community.


There’s a lot to see inside the Pearce family model train museum, located on Little Island Road in Eure.The museum will be open between the hours of 6-9 p.m. from Dec. 1-31.

member seeing Sunshine Sue, Minnie Pearl,Grandpa Jones and others from Nashvilleperforming at the school. It liked to havekilled the folks over here when they closedour school and carried the kids toGatesville. People got along so much betterin small schools; it kept the community to-gether.”

Prior to 1920, Eure boasted of three smalleducational facilities: one-teacher schoolsat “Chunk” and “Hill Lane” and a two-teacher school on the same property of CoolSpring Baptist Church.

There was no electrical service in Eureuntil 1938. The first road was paved in1947. If you wanted water you used a wellwith a bucket.

You can come home againAfter graduating from high school in

1941, Eure attended Chowan College innearby Murfreesboro. That opportunity forhigher education ended abruptly just afterthe Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in De-cember of that same year.

“I was at home that Sunday and was withseveral teenagers up at daddy’s store whena man came outside and said he heard on theradio that the Japs had bombed Pearl Har -bor. Nobody knew where Pearl Harbor wasbut we knew it was bad,” Eure recalled. “Iwent back to Chowan that night and one ofthe girls there had a brother at Pearl Harbor.We had one little radio, we sat up all nightlistening to that radio. The next day Amer-ica declared war. I had a cousin from Gatesthat was killed in that war; he was killed onthe Rhine River.”

With Chowan closed during the waryears, Eure opted to move to Norfolk whereshe landed a job as a payroll clerk at VyreneConstruction, a company that built most ofthe housing for Navy personnel. That joblasted until the end of the war (1945) andpaid her $28 a week. She lived in a board-ing house ($6 a week) and rode the trainhome on weekends for a 65-cent fee.

“Growing up there were only two peoplein Eure that had a car, one was the mail car-rier and the other was a mechanic,” she said.

“The train was the way to travel.”There were only two telephones in town

at that time…one in her father ’s generalstore and the mailman owned the other. Sherecalled that during World War II the phonein the family store was used to report air -planes flying overhead.

“There weren’t a lot of planes back then,so you didn’t know if they were ours or theenemy,” she said. “The Germans were of four coast bombing ships back then.”

While most of the attention was on thewar at that time, “Sugar” also focused onthe love of her life….her high school sweet-heart, Henry Eure.

“When he got out of high school he wentto the Newport News Shipyard to work andthen joined the Navy,” she recalled. “Theysent him to the Pacific and that’s where hestayed. He was in most all the really badbattles.”

The couple married in 1944 and raisedfour children – three daughters, Linda,Brenda and Nancy, and a son, Henry Curtis(aka, “Bud”).

See EURE page 48


EURE from page 47

After the war, “Sugar’s” father experi-enced health problems and she and Henrypurchased the store he operated.

“You might say I was in that store all mylife, until my husband passed away in1992,” she said.

The store was divided, one side used asthe Eure Post Office and the other as a gen-eral merchandise store, including a sodafountain….a popular attraction back in thatera. The store was also once the home of anice cream parlor and later a barber shop.

“We sold everything from plow ropes, tosaddles, work clothes, groceries and yardmaterial,” she recalled. “Customers wouldbring in their home-cured side meat, eggsand even live chickens to trade for groceriesand other supplies. We had a chicken coopat the back of the store.”

The store was also the place to buy (ortrade) for a precious item back in that time– ice. Eure said the store had a big, woodenice box and they purchased block ice (eachweighing 300 pounds) from Gatesville.

“In the summer months people wouldwant to buy a pound or so of ice for theirsweet tea,” she said. “We’d chip it off withan ice pick, wrap it up in a piece of news-paper and off they went.”

The going price for that “ice-cold” serv-ice – one egg, Eure said.

“There wasn’t a lot of money used backthen,” she noted. “Daddy got stuck morethan once, and so did me and my husband,but we all got by.”

Eure is the oldest active member of EureBaptist Church, one that her father helpedto organize in 1913. The old brick hole (aplace where bricks were made) at thechurch use to freeze over in the winter, pro-viding a natural skating rink, while servingas a swimming hole in the summer months.

Among the many “characters” to callEure as home was Kenny Hare. He madehis money (pennies) by dancing in front ofthe store.

“Every Christmas morning we’d take theturkey out of the oven and my husbandwould stick his head out the door and yell toKenny to come over for a hot turkey leg,”Eure recalled, breaking out in a huge grin.“Old Kenny would go away from there witha turkey leg in one hand and a cigar in theother, hooping and hollering with joy.”

That pure joy wasn’t confined to Hare.“Back then everybody knew their neigh-

bors, you could leave the door unlocked and

the windows open; no one would mess withwhat was yours. If you needed help, all youhad to do was holler. I cherish those mem-ories,” Eure concluded.

The passenger trains stopped rollingthrough Eure in the 50’s or 60’s. The freight

trains continued for a few more years untilthe line between Tunis and Norfolk was per-manently closed. Business dwindled inEure; its heyday was over, but the spirit ofa warm, caring community remains intact. �

The bell that once reminded students that classes were about to begin atEure High School has been preserved. It is now attached to thebuilding that houses the Eure Volunteer Fire Department.


Everybody is a part of some type offamily and valuing them is impor -tant. Family has always been signif-

icant to my parents, sister , and me.Sometimes my family gets on my nerves,but I have learned many things from them.They have always been there for me.

Family to me means to love and care foreach other, but loving and caring is not justgiving hugs and saying, “I love you.” Itmeans havingrules such ashaving to askmy parents if Ican go some-where. Thislets them knowwhere I am soif somethingbad happensthey knowwhere to findme. Rules arethere to protectand teach me.

My dadloves to teach.He was bounc-ing my sisterand me on hisknee teachingus to countwhen we wereone year old.My family hastaught memany thingsabout everything. One thing they havetaught me is to respect others.

When it is time for supper , my familyand I always sit down and eat together . Ithink this is important because it bringsconversation and communication. Whenwe are at dinner, everybody has to tell theirfavorite and least favorite part of their day.Sharing and supporting are important partsof family.

I think because of our communication Ican talk to my parents about anything. Italk to them about school, sports, andeverything else. This communication is abig part of family. If we did not have goodcommunication then we would not be asclose.

My family also supports me at my ath-letic activities. They try to come to everygame and that is special to me because

some parents cannot always make it togames. My grandparents also come andsupport me. This support helps me do mybest for them and everybody else.

I am very close to my extended family .My cousins and I can always hangout andtalk with each other. Whenever we are to-gether, we are always talking and sharingstories. I have learned a lot from them fromwhat they have told me about their experi-

ences in life. My family and extended fam-ily gather at holidays and the beach. I loveit when we get together because it is alwaysfun to visit and listen to each other.

My family regularly goes to church to-gether. Going to church as a family hasplayed a big part in my life. God bringspeople and families together for the better.My teacher has told me, “If you don’t havesomething to stand for then you will fall for

a n y t h i n g . ”When I go tocollege I willhave a strongfamily founda-tion to standon.

Being thank-ful for familycan be hardsometimes be-cause they mayirritate you andknow every lit-tle thing aboutyou, but theyare alwaysthere for youand will bethere for you.A p p r e c i a t eyour familyand value thetime with them,the support youare given fromthem, and the

lessons you learn from them. �

(This column was submitted by PriscillaLunsford, Lawrence Academy Senior.)

Family bonds buildfoundation for the future


This issue of Front Living marks my first year anniversaryhere in the Roanoke-Chowan area. It is also marks ourfirst edition of the third year of publishing Front Porch

Living.The old cliché “time flies” is definitely true. It seems only a

few days ago Debbie and I were unpacking boxes, getting util-ities cut on, and trying to meet our new neighbors in Ahoskie.I’m sure the staf f here at Roanoke-Chowan Publications feelsas if it were only a few days ago they were birthing the very firstFront Porch Living.

One the first things we noticed when we arrived in theRoanoke-Chowan region was the important role that agricultureplays here. Being from a rural agriculture area in SouthwestGeorgia we were amazed at the similarities in the crops grownhere and the ones grown down south. Peanuts, cotton, corn, soy-beans, sweet potatoes, and some tobacco were huge cash cropsthere also.

Inside this edition of Front Porch Living I hope you enjoy CalBryant’s series entitled “Goobers - All Grown Up.” It’s a three-part article where he interviewed a trio of local companies thatturned our little peanuts into big business.

Amanda VanDerBroek has an excellent story about theRoanoke Valley Breast Cancer Collation and the wonderfulwork they do for this area, helping women and their familieswho come face-to-face with this disease.

The amazing story of how one family turns out three beauti-ful women, all earning the title of Homecoming Queen at theirrespective schools, was penned by Thadd White.

You’ll also find a list of upcoming holiday events for theRoanoke-Chowan area.

This once booming railroad village of Eure in Gates Countyis featured in the quarterly “My Town” installment. Even thoughthe train tracks were removed decades ago, Eure remains hometo local families who love the quiet life. There’s even a modeltrain museum, open to the public in December , that recallsEure’s proud past.

Again we try to make your mouth water with our Home TownEats feature. In this issue we featured the infamous “Meatball”- aka Velma Jenkins - who inspires her friends and customerswith just plain ole good southern country cooking.

Our staff enjoys writing and putting together Front Porch Liv-ing; it truly is a labor of love. Each time we publish an editionour goal is to make it better than the last issue. So far I think wehave done just that and I hope you feel the same as I do.

Front Porch Living Magazine is the only magazine publishedexclusively for the people of Northampton, Hertford, Gates andBertie counties and we hope you, the reader , enjoys thumbingthrough the unique stories photos about our home.

As always we welcome your feedback on this issue of FPLand your story ideas for upcoming editions. We look forward tohearing from you.

Until then I’ll see you on the front porch. �

Partingshots

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