When Carolyn Strickland set her mind to something, you could be sure she was committed to seeing it through.
“We’re going to have a church,” she said somewhere around 1964, “on the north side of town.”
She wasn’t alone in her resolve.
William and Florence Wellons said so, too. E.F. and Gussie Ammons, R.C. Davis, Walter Guy, Margaret Harrington, Sudie Strickland, Louise Smith, and E.H. and Bonnie Phillips said there would be a Pentecostal church on the north side, and nothing could stop them, either.
Ramsey Street was nothing like today, as it has transformed into shopping centers, businesses and retail outlets, and its share of fast-food restaurants, and all with a heavy presence of traffic.
But those 12 original founders were adamant about bringing Northwood Temple Church to life, and it began with a land gift from the late William Wellons and his brothers who were developing the Northwood Estates subdivision.
Billy Wellons once said his father and brothers felt led by God.
Those early Northwood Temple Church disciples gathered at William and Florence Wellons’ brick, colonial-style home along Andover Road in Northwood Estates for what was the first Sunday service, with Lila Berry delivering the first sermon. They also worshipped at the home of Walter Guy, on the banks of Ed Phillips’ pond and behind Lucile Souders Elementary School.
Carolyn Strickland and her husband, Charlie, always were there. Once construction of Northwood Temple Church was complete, they were there for the preachings of Rev. Harry Correll and Eric Vernelson before Rev. John Hedgepeth arrived in 1968.
“For 58 years almost, she would always choose to go to the same place on the right side, sit and that was her place,” Hedgepeth reminded those who came on July 10 to remember Carolyn Riddle Strickland. She was the last living founder of what today is the palatial sanctuary, where Hedgepeth is coming up August 4 for his 58th year behind the pulpit. “Eternity has opened up its heart and welcomed one of the best. One of the most precious saints has gone home, and one of the best you would have found was Carolyn Riddle Strickland.”
‘Her Faith Was Devout and Seamless’
Carolyn Riddle grew up downtown near Liberty Point. She graduated in 1950 from the old Fayetteville High School and later attended Worth Business College. She had that post-World War II dark hair that caught the eye of Charlie Strickland. They married July 12, 1958, and were together until his death at age 84 on December 22, 2015.
They met at a tent revival at the old Pepsi-Cola Bottling plant on Eastern Boulevard. If there was a revival or someone preaching the gospel, you could find Carolyn Strickland there or later tuning in to Rev. Billy Graham, delighting in George Beverly Shea’s deep, baritone gospel-singing voice or Rev. Oral Roberts on television, with Charlie Strickland by her side.
“Her faith was devout and seamless,” daughter Elaine Kelley said. “They read the Bible. They would pray together on the couch. Mama would reach over and grab Daddy’s hand, and they would pray. That’s just the way it was. You took your problems to the Lord, and that’s just what they did.” And when others were in need of prayers, they bowed their heads together for them, too.
When Carolyn Strickland wasn’t working in administrative jobs at the Trailways Bus Co. and later JCPenney, both downtown, you would find her at home in the kitchen, where she could offer up country meals from her fried chicken to her beef roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions. She later helped out at Turner Lane downtown at the gift shop owned by Elaine Kelley, with Charlie Strickland playing checkers nearby with old pal John McCormick.
But Sundays were for being at Northwood Temple Church.
“Lord, yes,” youngest daughter Becky Spell remembers growing up with her parents. “We were in church six days a week.”
Amen, sister Elaine Kelley said.
“At least six days a week, and sometimes two or three times a day,” she said. “There was girls auxiliary, and if there was a revival, we were there. We were just there all the time. Every time you turned around. Mama and Daddy would sit in the back right side. A lot of times, they were late. That was Mama.”
‘Mama Had a Sweet Tooth’
But they always were there to hear John Hedgepeth preach.
After Charlie Strickland’s death, Carolyn Strickland left her Westwood neighborhood home and lived at Heritage Place downtown for independent and assisted living for older adults, and where she on occasion could be a bit mischievous resident from time to time.
She liked slipping out and heading to the nearby Taco Bell, and once on her walker escorted three fellow residents to the nearby CVS drugstore for some shopping, which had Heritage Place managers is something of a state of flux. Suffice it to say, Carolyn Strickland could be something of a character down at Heritage Place.
Carolyn Strickland spent these recent years at an assisted living facility in Raeford, where she enjoyed visits from her daughters, and especially on Sundays when Becky Spell would treat her mother to banana pudding as they watched reruns of “The Andy Griffith Show,” which gave Carolyn Strickland such joy … and the banana pudding.
“Mama had a sweet tooth,” Elaine Kelley said.
Epilogue
Carolyn Riddle Strickland died peacefully on July 4 at FirstHealth Hospice & Palliative Care in Moore County.
She was 94.
Elaine Kelley and Becky Spell were by their mother’s side every day in the final three weeks of their mother’s life.
“We did not do one thing for our Mama,” Kelley said, “that we didn’t see her do for others.”
John Hedgepeth would have the last word.
“She was an example you would have wanted to follow,” Hedgepeth said from the pulpit. “No one I know ever raised one voice against her. She was a protector, always watching over her children.”
Carolyn Riddle Strickland was a charter member and the last of the original founders of Northwood Temple Church, which today serves 4,573 members.
“Carolyn was one who helped start Northwood Temple Church,” Hedgpeth said. “She said, ‘We’re going to have a church on the north side of town.’ Many people will see her name marked at the cemetery, and say 20 years from now, ‘I heard of that woman.’”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
