A daughter stood tall and solemn on this day of a mother’s life celebrated and remembered. “My mother was just as beautiful on the inside,” Heather Wilson Tuttle would tell those Thursday who gathered at Snyder Memorial Baptist Church in remembrance of Brenda Heath Wilson.
Bill Kirby Jr.
Bill Kirby Jr. is a veteran journalist who spent 49 years as a newspaper editor, reporter and columnist covering Fayetteville, Cumberland County and the Cape Fear Region for The Fayetteville Observer. He most recently has written for CityView Magazine.
Column: Candied apples, cotton candy, funnel cakes and the carnies are back in town
There’s just something about the county fair. From the candied apples to the cotton candy, to the aroma of onions and green peppers frying on the skillets to flavor a sausage dog, to the carnival hawkers tempting you to try your skills and win a teddy bear.
Column: Why end A Dickens Holiday? The answer depends on whom you ask
Call it the art of compromise. And compromise is better than controversy and polarization.
Column: Emotional evening for ‘the kid’ from Hollywood Heights
This has been that joyous weekend for the once-kids of Seventy-First High School, the classes of 1971 and 1972. And for Marshall Lovett, a 50th reunion to remember. “I’m looking …
Column: Endowment in memory of quiet philanthropist to benefit homeless mission
Virginia Lilly Yarborough was a newspaper heiress who quietly gave back to her community. “We are humbled by this wonderful endowment gift to support daily assistance for the homeless of our community,” says Craig Morrison, executive director of Fayetteville Area Operation Inasmuch, about the Virginia Lilly Rankin Yarborough Endowment for his organization.
Column: 1976 photographs of Elvis in concert are safe and secure
If the late king of rock ’n’ roll ever had a fan, it’s Phil Barnard. He always enjoyed seeing those wood-framed photographs of Elvis Presley hanging in the hallway of the Crown Complex arena showing Presley when he performed here Aug. 3, 4 and 5 of 1976.
Column: Amateur filmmaker works to finish Market House documentary
Perhaps you will remember Tanesha Hendley, the former schoolteacher who found herself in the throes of May 30, 2020, when provocateurs and angry protesters damaged the downtown Market House, an issue that polarized the Fayetteville community.
Column: Special projects coordinator heading Fayetteville Dogwood Festival’s way
You can’t exactly call it a financial windfall. But every dollar counts. Especially when you are overseeing the annual Fayetteville Dogwood Festival. And, not to mention the accompanying fall festival and those spring through summer Fayetteville After Five gatherings at Festival Park.
Column: Paul Beard treasures the photograph on the cabinet by his desk
When you are in Paul Beard’s line of work, you come to meet a plethora of people from athletes to entertainment legends. Beard has served as assistant manager and manager for the Crown Complex in Fayetteville and today is general manager of the Florence Center in Florence, South Carolina. He’s been doing some thinking of late.
Column: Seventy-First High Class of 1962 celebrates 60th reunion
They gathered this night to remember what many might recall as the best of their days growing up with one another at the old Seventy-First High School along Raeford Road, just up the way from Doodle …

