Jimmy Keefe was proud to follow in his late father’s footsteps as a county commissioner.
He was studious and conscientious, and Jimmy Keefe never feared speaking his mind about whatever issues or challenges Cumberland County faced.
“Before you tell me why I can’t,” Keefe, 64, was saying on April 15 at the Larry J. Keen Fire & Rescue Training Center, “tell me how you can.”
Keefe was a commissioner who just would not take no for an answer, not without first exploring every way to say yes. And often, he would argue some more about why he believed something would benefit the county.
He believed and was passionate about this fire and rescue training center, which is a part of the Fayetteville Technical Community College education program and named in honor of Keen, who is the former president of the college.
So, this was a fitting place for Keefe to receive the Order of the Longleaf Pine, the state’s highest civilian honor.
“Jimmy was instrumental in this,” Col. Freddy Johnson Jr., a county native and commander of the N.C. State Highway Patrol, said about the training center on Tom Starling Road before presenting the honor on behalf of Gov. Josh Stein and N.C. Rep. Garland Pierce. “This is an impactful award for you, and I am proud to be a part of this.”
Johnson isn’t just commander of the NCSHP, he’s a firefighter at the Stoney Point Fire Department, where his father, Freddy Johnson Sr., is the longtime fire chief and can tell you everything imaginable about fighting fires and fire safety.
‘I dearly love this place’
Keefe was humble in accepting the Order of the Longleaf Pine. He was more interested in showing off the training center, and particularly the Swift Water Rescue Training area of the facility.
“I dearly love this place,” Keefe told those in attendance to include Mark Sorrells, president of FTCC; former president Keen; firefighters; current and past county commissioners; and Pine Forest High School classmates of days long ago.
He remembered the genesis of this training center, and conversations with Keen and now-retired County Manager Amy Cannon.
“With Dr. Keen and Amy Cannon, we sat around a table,” Keefe said, “and they said, ‘Yes, we can make this happen.’”
Keefe reminded us of his philosophy about being a commissioner.
“For a community to thrive,” he said, “you have to have a good education system and a good health system, and our medical system is thriving here. And public safety.”
‘Jimmy voted with his heart’
Jimmy Keefe’s 16 years as a commissioner and time as a Fayetteville City Council member were not lost on others.
“I was in the room,” Commissioner Glenn Adams said, remembering conversations with Keen, Cannon and Keefe about this fire and rescue training center. “This is all Jimmy. We [commissioners] voted with our hands. Jimmy voted with his heart. You pushed county commissioners to be better.”
Kirk deViere now is chair of the county commissioners.
“If you want to get something done in this town, you want Jimmy on your team,” deViere said. “You have made an impact on this state and this county.”
Charles Evans, a former commissioner and city council member, said Keefe was more than just another elected official filling a seat.
“You were a person who cared about people,” Evans said. “And it was you who nominated me as commission chairman.”
Sister Kathy Keefe Jensen remembered when she first gave thought to running for the Fayetteville City Council.
“We had to do a debate,” said Keefe Jensen, now the council’s mayor pro tem. “He had cue cards” and helped her prepare for her District 1 campaign in north Fayetteville.
Jimmy Keefe served four terms as a commissioner from 2008 to 2024. He served two terms as a city council member from 2001 to 2005.
“When we do what we do, we don’t do it for things like this,” he said about the Order of the Longleaf Pine. “Quality of life is important. I was just a small part. I’m just a blip on the radar, but this means so much. It’s humbling and overwhelming.”
Epilogue
When Jimmy Keefe decided last year not to seek another term as a commissioner, he reminded us in December of a father, John Keefe, who was a commissioner from 1992 until his death at age 66 on Feb. 29, 1996.
“My father taught me passion,” he said. “My late mother taught me compassion.”
I spent many days listening to John Keefe while he sequestered me in his office along Bragg Boulevard, and where he told me his ideas and hopes and dreams for a better county and community. Some of us couldn’t help on this Order of the Longleaf Pine day for Jimmy Keefe but think of John Keefe and Sophia Keefe looking down from heaven on what Jimmy Keefe would become in his 20 years of elected public service.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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