Late Fayetteville Mayor Bill Hurley and the late Jimmy Little would be beside themselves to know the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival executive director said the festival could be nearing the end unless the city can offer more than $100,000 annually in support of the nonprofit. Escalating costs, Kaylynn Suarez told Mayor Mitch Colvin and the City Council on Monday, are becoming too excessive for the festival.
The city does need to provide more financial support, but the nonprofit needs to build a more proactive board of directors. It also needs to reach out to John Malzone, who put the first festival together in 1982 and was chair in 1983 and 1984. “The Dogwood Festival needs to be more than dollars and cents,” Malzone, 76, a civic leader, said Wednesday. “It is the community. The whole concept was to make people feel good about the community they live in. We were celebrating the beauty of Fayetteville and Cumberland County.” If you want to save the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival, John Malzone is the starting point. He knows the movers and the shakers in town, and John Malzone knows what to do and how to do it. After all, the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival has been this community’s signature event for 44 years.
Istvan Pataki has been recognized as 2026 Physician of the Year, Megan Serrao as Resident of the Year, and Justin Adams as Advanced Practice Clinician of the Year by the Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation’s Caduceus Society. “The work our providers do reaches far beyond the walls of our hospitals and clinics,” Sam Fleishman, chief medical officer at Cape Fear Valley Health, said in a news release. “When physicians, residents, and advanced practice clinicians go above and beyond, it strengthens trust in our health system and improves the health of the communities we serve. Dr. Pataki, Justin Adams and Dr. Serrao each carry the values of Cape Fear Valley Health in the way they care for patients and support those around them.”
Arf! Fayetteville has a new firefighter in Lucy, a crisis response canine, who will join with fellow canine, Griffith, in helping Fayetteville firefighters at Station 14 on Langdon Street decompress from anxiety and trauma after difficult fire calls. The Lab will serve on the B-shift, according to a news release, and work under the supervision of city firefighter Spencer Rowell. Lucy received her Crisis Response Dog Vest on Wednesday at the fire station.
“Bill, thanks so much for the great article,” John Webster, executive director of the Child Advocacy Center, wrote in an email about my April 1 column on the nonprofit celebrating National Child Abuse Prevention Month, which is underway throughout April. “I’ve had several folks reach out to me about the article. The Pinwheel Planting Ceremony was very well attended—the best one in years.”
Wade Saleeby said he recently read my May 18, 2025, column remembering Larry Miller, the University of North Carolina All-America, who led the Tar Heels to the NCAA National Championship game in 1968 against Lew Alcindor-led UCLA. “Who didn’t like Larry Miller!” Saleeby wrote in an email. “My Dad was at that game when Carolina lost. He got Lew Alcindor’s autograph for me. I have it somewhere in the archives. I sent this picture of Larry with me to some friends with this story. Buddy Bedgood was great friends with (Coach) Dean Smith and could walk into his office without an appointment. Most everybody in Wilson was either a Carolina or Duke fan. We watched all the games on TV. We all had our heroes. Larry Miller was mine. Just thought you might like to know.”
All of us who followed the Tar Heels in the late 1960s, Mr. Saleeby, marveled in awe watching Larry Miller and his twisting Houdini-like moves on the basketball courts. He was one of the greatest UNC athletes of all time, and my hero, too. Lawrence James Miller died at age 79 on May 11, 2025, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Elister Harris believed her late brother, Lt. Colonel Clifford Carmichael, is worthy of becoming a member of the Fayetteville Sports Club Hall of Fame. “A Vietnam war veteran, Special Forces officer, college professor and former outstanding football player for E.E Smith High School, and first of 12 siblings who have contributed to this community,” Harris wrote in an email. “How do I request his consideration for the HOF?” Greg Parks is the president of the sports club, Mrs. Harris, and you can reach him at Parks Building Supply and Solutions. Or you may email FSC Hall of Fame board member Earl Vaughan Jr.
Jenny Singleton loved calling Fayetteville home, where her door always was open to gatherings of family and friends. She had a “quiet confidence and grace to everything she did,” and cherished leisurely days at Murrells Inlet or Topsail Beach with a good book in hand. And she enjoyed walking her dogs with husband, Rudy, on afternoons along Skye Drive. A graveside service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday at Cross Creek Cemetery. In the event of inclement weather, the service will be held at the Snyder Memorial Baptist Church chapel. Jennette Johnston Singleton, 91, died March 20.
Helen Brockett sends along a reminder about a Purple Up! community walk in recognition of the courage and resilience of military families, which is scheduled from 2–3 p.m. on Thursday at Gray’s Creek Elementary School, 2964 School Road, Hope Mills.
If you are looking for a day of golf, fun, and fellowship, Donna Vann hopes you will consider participating in the 5th Annual Nancy H. Blackmon Legacy Scholarship Golf Tournament in memory of her late mother, who was a teacher and assistant principal at Terry Sanford High School. The captain’s choice event is scheduled for an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start at Cypress Lakes Golf Course in Hope Mills. Proceeds, according to tournament organizers, are used for a $1,000 education scholarship for a graduating senior who is the child or grandchild of a Terry Sanford High School alumnus planning to attend a four-year college or $500 for a senior at the school planning to attend a two-year community college. Mrs. Blackmon graduated from TSHS when it was known as Fayetteville High School. Nancy Hedrick Blackmon was 79 when she died Nov. 4, 2010. Register online, email, or call 910-978-9058.
Marshall Waren, a longtime business owner and former publisher of CityView Magazine, will be remembered Saturday for his entrepreneurial and volunteering spirit and unbridled faith in his Lord and Savior at a memorial service, which is scheduled for 11 a.m. at Snyder Memorial Baptist Church. He co-founded the monthly lifestyle magazine with his wife, Sandee Waren, in 2006 and was publisher until selling the publication to former Fayetteville mayor Tony Chavonne in 2020. The magazine and online digital publications now are owned by The Assembly, which is headquartered in Durham. Beyond his career as an insurance executive and publisher, you can find his fingerprints on Fayetteville Area Operation Inasmuch, The CARE Clinic, Connections of Cumberland County, and the YMCA of the Sandhills. A 10 a.m. visitation is scheduled prior to the service. Marshall Hughes Waren died at age 76 on April 6.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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