To meet Rudolph Singleton was to know him.
To know Rudolph Singleton was to never forget him, and Rudolph Singleton never would forget you.
And he could tell you anything and everything about Fayetteville, the city Rudolph Singleton loved calling home.
“I met him four years ago, and he left an indelible print on me,” Rev. Blake Benge told those who gathered Thursday in the Snyder Memorial Baptist Church chapel to celebrate and remember the late Fayetteville lawyer. “There was something about him. There was something in his countenance, his voice, or maybe his blue eyes. Today, we pause to remember a life very well lived.”
The preacher could not have told us better.
There was just something about Rudolph Singleton.
Friends called him Rudy.
He could have been the poster boy for “The Most Unforgettable Character I Ever Met,” which once was a reader-favorite published in Reader’s Digest magazine.
From Overhills to the Courtroom
Rudolph Singleton grew up amid those tall pines on the Overhills Plantation estate just outside of Spring Lake, where his late father was the hunt master for Percy Rockefeller of the renowned Rockefeller family. It was a place where Singleton learned about horses, birddogs, fishing, and fox hunting.
The family later called General Lee Avenue home, where he found friends in the late Scott McFadyen, the late Bobby Breece, and the late Billy Wiggs. He became a Boy Scout with an Eagle badge and a Fayetteville High School student, class of 1948. Classmates came to know him for his wit, charisma, and that twinkle in those blue eyes.
He earned a law degree from Wake Forest University, served Uncle Sam, and began working in the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office before joining with the late Jim Nance, the late Lacy Collier, the late Charles Kirkman, and the late George Herndon in private practice.
He could navigate a courtroom.
He could charm a jury.
“He was a damn good lawyer,” Wade Byrd said after Thursday’s service. “Always eloquent.”
Rudolph Singleton wasn’t just another courtroom lawyer.
“He was a real good lawyer,” Jim MacRae said. “He taught me a lot. He taught me about talking to a jury. My father [a lawyer] admired him, and I admired him his whole career.”
Along his way, Rudolph Singleton found Jenny Johnston of Charlotte, who would become the love of his life and his forever soulmate. The marriage of 67 years gave the couple a son and a daughter, both of whom became the light of their lives.
Skye Place a Welcoming Home for All
Life along the Skye Place cul-de-sac, just off Skye Drive, was where Jenny Singleton enjoyed hosting parties and where Rudolph Singleton was that welcoming face at the front door. And for the neighborhood kids, their door always was open.
“He taught me many things about life,” Paul Paschal said. “He always encouraged me, and every way that he could.”
Nephew Johnston Sifly remembered an uncle who taught and lived by example, and not just words alone.
“He was really big on teaching kids what to do, and one thing he taught was to keep your word,” he said. “He was always teaching. That was just Rudy.”
Sifly remembered an uncle who taught that the character of a man was integrity, and there was no room for compromise in a man’s or a woman’s integrity.
Lee Singleton said his grandfather believed in a strong work ethic and the importance of faith and living at the foot of the Christian cross.
“He was a constant source of faith throughout my life,” Singleton said. “And he could deliver the best Thanksgiving prayers you ever heard.”
Sifly would attest.
“The more people in the room,” he said, “the better Rudy’s blessings.”
And the more people in his presence, whether at Topsail Beach, Murrell’s Inlet, Rhodes Mill Ponds, or wherever you found Rudolph Singleton, the better his stories and humor that no one could deny.
Oh, the stories Rudy Singleton could tell, and to see the joy on his rosy cheeks in telling them.
‘He’s Reached His Destiny’
For all of his joys, life dealt Rudolph Singleton heartaches in these recent years.
His son, Grant Singleton III, died at age 60 on May 7, 2025, after a courageous three and a half year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Daughter Scott Singleton Gatch died at age 63 on November 26, 2025, from lung cancer. Jenny Singleton died at age 91 on March 20, 2026.
He grieved in the confidence of his faith that the day would come when he would see them again.
Rudolph Singleton Jr. died September 28.
He was 96.
“Rudy lived his life to the fullest,” grandson Lee Singleton said.
The preacher said Rudolph Singleton today is with his Lord and Savior, and sharing life anew with a wife, a son, and a daughter in Heaven.
“He’s reached his destiny,” Blake Benge said.
Epilogue
Rudolph Singleton Jr.’s life story could easily be taken from his Sunday school teachings of years ago and written by his own hand.
“Our thoughts become our words,” he wrote. “Our words become our acts. Our acts become our habits. Our habits become our character, and our character becomes our destiny. We pray our thoughts may be as pure as those of Jesus. May our words speak only truth, and may those truths become acts of love, which lead us into Christian habits establishing character worthy of our destiny in Heaven.”
He was Rudolph Singleton.
So many of us came Thursday to the little chapel along Westmont Drive in Haymount to send him on his way, with a reminder that Rudolph Singleton was one of “the most unforgettable men we ever met.”
We called him Rudy.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
