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Bill Kirby Jr.: Until we meet again, Lorry; until we meet again

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Lorry Williams was statuesque with bright, blue eyes and a dab of Beautiful perfume behind her ear lobes, with a touch on her neck. She carried herself with class and a dignity that was hers and hers alone. She was in a league of her own. She was the consummate journalist who held herself and all of us to the highest hallmarks of journalism. We called her Lorry.

Her desk is silent, and the twin desktop computer screens dark.

Folders, still with news releases and other documents enclosed, lie on her desk on the third floor of the CityView Media executive offices and newsroom along Breezewood Avenue, where Lorry Williams savored and cherished so passionately this role of managing editor of a journalism career in its 36th year.

The UNC mug of her beloved Tar Heels still holds her pens, pencils and markers.

You could feel Lorry Williams’ presence.

“It’s a new year, and for many, that means resolutions,” she would write in her final editorial in January for our CityView digital publication and CityView magazine. “Lose weight. Exercise more. Spend more time with friends and family, … The theme for this month’s magazine is new year, new you. You’ll find tips for taking a holistic approach to health and wellness. And yes, it’s OK to make yourself a priority. It’s also OK to celebrate small victories, which is something I’ve been working on over the past year.”

Lorry Williams would offer one more message to our digital subscribers and readers on Jan. 10.

“Dear CityView readers: It has been a year since we launched our news division at CityView to cover local government news for Fayetteville and Cumberland County,” she would write. “We have worked to keep you informed about the decisions local officials make and what those decisions mean for you and your family. We believe sharing local news is important. That’s why our daily newsletter is distributed for free to more than 51,000 people each morning. As we start a new year, we’re hoping to expand our coverage and focus on other issues in the community, such as health care, education and the military. We appreciate all the support you have shown us in our first year.” 

The breast cancer diagnosis of two years earlier was taking its toll and weakening her body by the day, but her spirit for better tomorrows remained optimistic. After all, Lorry Williams had a digital news operation to supervise, daily stories and the newsletters to edit like only Lorry Williams could, and a monthly magazine to publish. Just as she did at The Fayetteville Observer, where in 2019 she became the first woman to serve as executive editor in the long history as the oldest newspaper in the state.

‘One of my rising, young stars’

A 1982 graduate of Pine Forest High School and, in 1986, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in journalism, she came in 1988 to The Fayetteville Times by way of The Sanford Herald.

“I used to say I would hire rising young stars,” says Tom English Jr., 80, the morning newspaper’s former managing editor. “And she, indeed, certainly was one of my rising young stars.”

She was an intense reporter.

She was tenacious.

She was dedicated to her craft.

She had no time for idle chit-chat when the copy deadline was nearing, and no story was beyond Lorry Williams’ reach or Lorry Williams’ grasp.

“Her first touch on a major story was about courtroom corruption, ‘Justice for All,’” English says. “It was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for public service. She was just getting her feet on the ground. The whole staff was involved.”

Luke West was the city editor.

“Anything you gave her, she would take it and run with it like it was the best story she would ever do,” says West, 80. “She proved to everybody that she was a good journalist. She meant to do it that way. That was just her nature. She was solid and dependable and steady. She belongs in the N.C. Journalism Hall of Fame.”

She covered hurricanes on the coastal shores and put you in the tornado’s eye like no reporter could. You could feel the gale-like, whipping winds. You could see the ocean waves roaring ashore toward the sand dunes. You were there because Lorry Williams could put you there like no other reporter could.

She was a journalist who would ascend in the newspaper ranks from reporter to regional editor to senior news editor to assistant city editor to city editor to executive editor in 2019 at the newsroom along Whitfield Street, the position she longed to hold in the glass executive editor’s office looking out on a cascade of editors and reporters in including Greg Barnes, Andrew Barksdale, Rodger Mullen, Michael Futch, Paul Woolverton, Drew Brooks, Kim Hasty, Beth Hutson, Rachel Riley, Myron Pitts, Bobby Parker, Scott Parker, Earl Vaughn Jr., Thomas Pope, Amanda Dolosinski, Monica Holland, Rachel Riley, John Henderson, Rodd Baxley and photographer Andrew Craft. 

The long goodbye

So many of them were there Saturday at the Adcock Funeral Home and Crematory chapel for a final farewell of this long goodbye that would come to a peaceful end early Monday morning at her mother’s home, with her mother, Margaret Williams, and former newspaper colleague Venita Jenkins near, and Bailey, the 5-year dog Lorry Williams adored, at the end of the bed.

Lorraine Williams was 59.

We called her Lorry.  

“Sad news,” Bobby Parker, assistant editor for CityView Media, would write in an email to CityView employees to include reporters Jason Canady, Jami McLaughlin, Ben Sessoms, Anthony Wooten and team members Ashley Cleveland, Jennifer Hammond, Ashley Pearson, Raven Scott, Kiara Kirkland and publisher Tony Chavonne. “I know that some of you have probably heard the news that Lorry passed this morning. I just wanted to share with all of you. She was at home with her mom and friends. I know you are with me in recognizing what a beautiful friend and colleague she was. No one was ever more committed to journalism than she, and no one was ever a more supportive friend. I’m terribly sad, but also relieved that her pain has ended.”

Veteran reporter Greg Barnes with CityView would write about her life and career and death for the CityView website. He would submit the story of her distinguished and time-honored journalism career, her courageous and fighting spirit in the face of her health struggles and death, and then a hard-nosed investigative news reporter for more than 40 years would weep to himself.

“I don’t know why,” says Barnes, 66. “I had finished it and read it a last time. And it finally hit me, I guess, that she was gone. I worked with her 30 years at the newspaper and then CityView, and we were pretty close.”

Aug. 25, 2022

For Lorry, leaving the newspaper was a difficult decision in a changing world of the newspaper industry of corporate America. But she would find a new chapter of journalism with the launch of the CityView digital publication and her role as managing editor.

She continued on Breezewood Avenue what she left behind on Whitfield Street, and her leadership would bring her such pride as CityView TODAY was honored by the N.C. Press Association with the prestigious Henry Lee Weathers Freedom of Information Award, sponsored by the Associated Press, that recognizes journalists or newspapers “for exceptional work in advancing or upholding the cause of open government and freedom of information.”

So proud she was to see her CityView TODAY journalists to include Greg Barnes and Tony Wooten accept the awards on Aug. 25, 2022, at the NCPA banquet in Raleigh for the digital publication’s investigative work on the potential sale of the Fayetteville Public Works Commission, protesters up in arms over the shooting death of Jason Walker in west Fayetteville, and the city’s denial to allow media access to a City Council meeting.

“Nothing made her happier,” Barnes says, “than when her reporters would win an award.”

Oh, how she beamed that grand evening for her CityView TODAY.

“She was very proud, especially of the awards related to open government,” Bobby Parker says. “She had a deep commitment throughout her career to holding public officials accountable, and if they didn’t get it, she would take them to law school. She knew the laws on transparency and the public having access to what was going on — many times behind closed doors, but sometimes just out in the open. To be honored last year for standing by those principles had to be a triumphant moment.”

Oh, how she beamed with such pride, and mostly for us and we for Lorry.

Your support for CityView helps ensure a more informed community. Donate today.

‘The legacy she leaves behind’

“CityView TODAY, and every one of us who lives here, lost a hero today,” Tony Chavonne, CityView Media’s owner and publisher, would tell Barnes, when news came Monday that our Lorry had lost her fight to overcome the mean-spirited and aggressive cancer that took her from us. “But we celebrate the fact that, with her vision and leadership, Lorry’s hopes of an informed community is the legacy she leaves behind for each of us.”

Former publisher and editor Charles Broadwell of The Fayetteville Observer would lead the way in February to have the Lorry Williams Visiting Scholar Office named in her honor at her beloved UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media in Chapel Hill.

“The consummate news professional, dedicated to getting the story right,” Broadwell would say. “She was at the heart of our newsroom, leading our coverage of countless stories on deadline from late-night election results to coastal Carolina hurricanes.”

The consummate newswoman if ever there was. She demanded the best of herself, and only the highest hallmarks of journalism would do. And she demanded the best of us, and never would Lorry Williams accept our least.

“She, indeed, certainly was one of my rising young stars,” Tom English Jr. would say. “She put her heart into it.”

And her heart into it from volunteering with the local chapter of the March of Dimes, the Partnership for Children and the Child Advocacy Center to her love of Cloe and Bailey, the puppies she cherished

 And the mother she held so dear.

“Mama,” Lorry Williams told her mother in the last months of a daughter’s days, “I’m so glad we had this time together.”

‘You are not ever alone’

She was statuesque with bright, blue eyes and a dab of Beautiful perfume behind her ear lobes, with a touch on the neck. She carried herself with class and a dignity that was hers and hers alone. She was in a league of her own. And behind her no-nonsense editing style, there always was the bowl of spearmint Lifesavers by her desk for us to know how much she cared, and occasionally miniature Snickers, too.

Just to let you know that all of us are thinking of you and sending our love to our talented and fearless managing editor, who leads CityView and CityView magazine as only Lorry Williams could, and without peer,” I would write to Lorry on Valentine’s Day, as so many of us would.

“You do so much more than lead us every day. You inspire us to be our best every day. Still, to this day, I see the statuesque, young woman in the Carolina blue suit sitting across the way in the old Fayetteville Times newsroom, and so intense in typing her stories for deadline with such professionalism of what all journalists should be. Just remember, I think of you every day. Not a single day goes by that I am not with you, and you are not ever alone.”

Epilogue

Old journalists came Saturday with heavy hearts and fond memories to bid their farewells, and publishers, too. From Venita Jenkins to Cindy Burnham to Catherine Pritchard to Mike Adams to Mike Arnholt to Beth Hutson to Matt Leclercq, now managing editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. From as far away as Utah and Washington, D.C., they came. Others were Alan Wooten, Jen Calhoun, Babette Augustin, James Locklear, Sammy Batten, Nomee Landis, Tina Ray, Kim Hasty, Alicia Banks, Chick and Meredith Jacobs, Mariano Santillan, Myron Pitts, Jami McLaughlin, Amanda Dolasinski, Monica Vendituoli, Amneris Solano, Nancy McLeary, Jason Brady, Tim Bass, Bobby Parker, Paige Maxwell, Ash Pearson, Rachel Riley, Keven Maurer, Drew Brooks, Melissa Sue Gerrits, Charles Broadwell, Andrew Craft, Mariano Santillan, Catherine Meeks, Janet Gibson, John Ramsey, Jaclyn Shambaugh, Monica Holland and Gloria Holt.

“Today, we come as family,” the Rev. Woody Ruffin would say. “Those of you who have known Lorry for all these years. I have read about those who have said what an influence she had on so many. To you, her journalism family, I say thank you for being here. What a tribute to come together. For you to be here today says a lot. Fifty-nine years is a short time, but it was a life with purpose. And, Father, we know today you have Lorry in your hands.”

Lorry always will be a part of them. They always will be a part of Lorry.

Her desk is silent along Breezewood Avenue’s third-floor office with the desktop computer screens dark.

Still, you could feel her presence.

Until we meet again, Lorry. Until we meet again.

                                                            -30 -

Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.

 

Fayetteville, Lorry Williams, journalism

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