Fayetteville has a new queen. “The title of Miss Fayetteville means so much to me,” Katie Strain, 27, says in a news release, about earning the crown at the 77th Miss Fayetteville Scholarship Pageant held Feb. 1 at Seabrook Auditorium on the Fayetteville State University campus. Strain is a second-grade teacher at Overhills Elementary School in Spring Lake and 2021graduate of Methodist University, with a degree in elementary education. Strain, according to the release, served as a student ambassador for student scholarships at Methodist and was a member of the cheerleading squad that won the Cheerleading CANAM Grand Nationals in 2019. “When I first competed for the title of Miss Fayetteville seven years ago, I struggled with self-confidence and self-worth,” Strain said. “But I refused to give up. Through hard work and determination, I kept pushing forward. Some goals take a little longer to achieve, but the journey itself is the most rewarding part.” Vivian White MacDonald, who died at age 81 on June 23, 2010, was the first Miss Fayetteville in 1947. Mary Michael McLamb, 17, was crowned Miss Fayetteville Teen, according to a pageant photographer.
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The 31st Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Parade is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday in downtown Fayetteville, according to Stanley Ford, chair of the Fayetteville Cumberland County Martin Luther King Jr. Committee. “The parade is expecting about 1800-2500 spectators,” Ford says about the parade, which was originally scheduled for Jan. 18 but was postponed because of an inclement weather forecast. More than 2,000-plus spectators Saturday would be quite the tribute in honoring and remembering the historic and tireless civil rights leader and 1964 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, whose life was taken by an assassin’s bullet on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn.
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“Cumberland County is doing a great deal to lift our community up and it’s important that all of our residents know what’s going on in their community and how it affects them,” Cumberland Board of County Commissioners Vice Chair Veronica Jones says in a news release about the board’s Jan. 30-31 retreat, where commissioners identified economic prosperity, quality county development, government transparency, high-performing education, culture and recreation, health and wellness and community safety as its seven priorities. “This is not just our Strategic plan — it’s the community’s plan — and we truly value everyone’s perspective and participation in the work of improving our county. I look forward to turning this document into real progress across this county.” The retreat was facilitated by Rebecca Jackson of True North Performance Group and Chris Rey of RC Strategy Group.
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The Fayetteville City Council has scheduled its strategic planning development and goals setting for 2025, according to a news release, at 9 a.m. on Feb. 11-12 at the Dorothy Gilmore Therapeutic Recreation Center, 1600 Purdue Drive. Laura Robinson and Julie Brenman of Fountainworks, a strategic planning and consulting company headquartered at Research Triangle Park in Raleigh, will be on hand to work with the council.
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A 20-year-old man is the ninth homicide in the city after police responded to a reported shooting at approximately 12:37 p.m. on Jan. 29 in the 300 block of Roundtree Drive near Yadkin Road, according to the Fayetteville Police Department. The victim, according to police, was pronounced deceased by medical personnel at the scene of the crime. An arrest warrant has been issued for a 21-year-old man, according to the FPD, charging him with first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. “The sanctity of life is no longer sacred,” Fayetteville Police Chief Kem Braden told the City Council in August of 2023. Not much sanctity of life in January, either. Nine homicides in 29 days. That’s one third of the 27 homicides investigated by city police in 2024.
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Some of us wait until the last minute to file our 2024 tax returns in anticipation of the April 15 deadline, but I’m not one of them. I’m busy putting together every document of expenditures, aka, don’t mess with the Internal Revenue Service.
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“Well done, Bill,” George Breece writes about CityView’s reporting of the Greater Fayetteville Chamber’s annual awards ceremony held Jan. 28 at the Center for Medical Education and Neuroscience Institute, and where Suzanne Pennink received the 58th Realtor’s Cup. “I couldn’t be happier for Suzanne,” writes Breece, who is director emeritus for the chamber and recipient of the 2002 Realtor’s Cup.
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“Mr. Kirby, I just read the article as did my husband and my son, and I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for your amazing words,” Lori Kinney writes about our Jan. 3 CityView column about her late mother-in-law Shirley Fay Kinney, who died at age 69 on Nov. 15, 2018, after a valiant fight with stomach cancer. “I am so impressed how eloquently you put it into a story and again just shining a light on that beautiful, beautiful soul that we lost way too soon. I appreciate this article more than you know. I have a grandbaby on the way in August. I have printed your article out, so that someday my grandbaby will know how incredibly amazing their great-grandmother was. Thank you again.” You were, Mrs. Kinney, fortunate to have a loving mother-in-law, and your mother-in-law was fortunate to have a loving daughter-in-law like Lori Kinney.
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Aly Hansen, who coaches figure skaters at Cleland Ice/Inland Skating Rinks on Fort Liberty, says she not only grieves for Vadim Naumov, 55, and his wife, Evgenia Shishkova, 52, the Russian coaches aboard the fatal American Airlines Flight 5342 that collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter on Jan. 29 outside Ronald Reagan Washington National in Arlington, Va., but also for coaches Alexandr Kirsanov, 46, and Inna Volyanskaya, 59. Kirsanov was the Russian-born coach of the University of Delaware Figure Skating Club, and Volyanskaya, a Russian coach with the Washington Figure Skating Club. Hansen also is heartbroken-hearted for the 11 U.S. Figure Skating athletes who died in the ill-fated flight. Hansen, 39, is managing editor for Up and Coming Weekly in Fayetteville.
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Major Gen. Todd Hunt, adjutant general of the North Carolina Army and Air National Guard, is scheduled as keynote speaker for the Our Community Salute High School Enlistee Recognition Ceremony set for 7 p.m. on May 7 at the Crown Complex, according to Col. (Ret.) John Gobrick, who is president of the local chapter of the Our Community Salutes, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit. “Our previous two ceremonies conducted in 2022 and 2023 were tremendous successes,” Gobrick writes in email. “We’re looking to make this year’s event even better.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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