From the DVD "An Intimate Lesson With Tony Rice" (Source VHS)
"Church Street Blues" is written by Norman Blake
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bluegrass
Tony Rice is considered one of the most influential acoustic guitarists in bluegrass, progressive bluegrass — or “newgrass” — and acoustic jazz.
Photos: Those we've lost in Guilford County during 2020
Tony Rice
Rockingham County bluegrass guitar legend Tony Rice, 69, died Dec. 25. He was considered one of the most influential acoustic guitarists in bluegrass and acoustic jazz.
Dan Seaman
Daniel Seaman, a retired theater instructor who built the drama program at Weaver Academy and led it for more than a quarter century, died Dec. 7. He was 69 years old.
Troy Lawson
Troy Lawson, 58, the first Black person to chair the Guilford County Republican Party, died Nov. 30. “Anywhere I’ve traveled or worked, I could pick up the phone and always have friends. As long as they’re Republicans, I’m at home,” Lawson said in 2018.
George Johnson
George R. Johnson Jr., a former dean of Elon University's law school and a well-known figure in North Carolina legal circles, died Nov. 15 at age 69. Johnson joined the Elon Law faculty in 2006 — the year the law school opened in downtown Greensboro. He was named interim dean two years later after the retirement of Leary Davis, the law school's founding dean. Johnson later became the law school's second permanent dean, a role he held from 2009 until 2014, and first Black dean. After stepping down as dean, he had served on Elon Law's faculty and taught classes in constitutional law, contracts, critical race theory and introduction to legal studies.
Charlotte Hamlin
Charlotte Hamlin, a barrier-breaking former teacher, college administrator, human relations trainer and educational researcher who had collected lore and vivid images from her world travels, died Oct. 5.
For nearly two decades, Hamlin had been a professional storyteller in the N.C. Storytelling Guild and the Triad Storytelling Exchange, the latter of which she founded. A former Guilford College administrator, she started telling stories professionally after an early retirement from the school. She was fighting stage four cancer in her final days.
Randy Tuggle
Greensboro College women's basketball coach Randy Tuggle died Sept. 10 after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Tuggle, whose 198 victories are the most in program history, was 62. Tuggle led Greensboro to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament in 2011 and earned coach of the year from the USA South and D3Hoops.com. Greensboro won seven regular-season and five tournament championships in the USA South.
Gary Franklin Bass lll
Beach music promoter Gary Franklin Bass lll, 69, died July 18. He was the owner of Beach Party Sounds and was the house DJ for Fat Harold's Beach Club from 1985 until his death.
Royce Reynolds
Businessman and philanthropist Royce Reynolds, founder of Crown Automotive, died May 10. Reynolds, who grew up on a Tennessee farm, put himself through college selling Bibles door-to-door. After taking a job at an Alabama car dealership, he eventually bought a Pontiac dealership in Greensboro, which he renamed Crown Pontiac. His Crown Automotive Group would later expand to include 20 makes of new vehicles, a finance company and a used car auto mall.
John Jellicorse
John Lee Jellicorse, UNCG's Broadcasting and Cinema first department head, died July 1 at 82. He joined the staff at UNCG in 1974 as head of the Drama and Speech Department and helped lead the department during a period of explosive growth.
Helen Medlin
Helen Medlin, the first principal of Claxton Elementary in Greensboro, died May 10 at age 107. She retired from Claxton in 1975 and had previously taught math at Peck and Lindley elementary schools.
Barry Farber
Longtime radio talk show host Barry Farber, a Greensboro native who ran unsuccessfully for New York City mayor in 1977, died May 6, one day after his 90th birthday.
Herman Middleton
Retired UNCG theater professor Herman Middleton (shown, left, receiving an award in 1973) died April 12 at age 95. He was instrumental in founding both the North Carolina Theatre and the Southeastern Theatre Conferences. He retired in 1990.
Mekia Valentine
Former Greensboro Day and Dudley basketball standout Mekia Valentine died March 26 at age 32. Valentine, a 6-foot-4 forward, began her basketball career at Greensboro Day before transferring to Dudley for her senior season. A top-25 national recruit, she played at Wake Forest for two seasons and for UC-Santa Barbara.
Tom Haggai
Thomas "Tom" Haggai of High Point, a philanthropic leader and former CEO of IGA Global, died March 27. He was 89. Haggai was a radio commentator, public speaker and Southern Baptist minister who in 1956 became the first pastor of Emerywood Baptist Church in High Point.
Fred 'Curly' Neal
Greensboro native Fred “Curly” Neal, who dribbled his way into history as a member of the Harlem Globetrotters exhibition basketball team for 22 years, died March 26 at his home near Houston.
Richard Frederick Brereton
Decorated military pilot Richard Brereton, whose career spanned two branches (Navy before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and Air Force afterward), died Jan. 31 at age 52.
Maurice Jennings
Maurice Jennings, founder of Greensboro-based Biscuitville, died Sept. 19. Jennings, a former flour broker, opened two Mountainbrook Fresh Bread & Milk stores in Burlington in 1966 and later opened several Pizzaville restaurants before coming up with the winning recipe that was Biscuitville in 1975. He moved the headquarters from Alamance County to Greensboro in 2007.
Katie Dorsett
Katie Dorsett, the first Black woman to hold a state Cabinet post and serve on the City Council, died July 6. She was 87. She served two terms on the City Council from 1983 to 1986 and was a Guilford County commissioner from 1986 until 1992. That's when she was appointed secretary of Administration by Gov. Jim Hunt, the first Black woman to hold a state Cabinet position.
Fred Starr
Fred Starr, a longtime furniture industry executive and community volunteer leader, died April 1. Starr spent 16 years as president and chief executive officer of Thomasville Furniture Industries. He came out of retirement to become president and CEO of Natuzzi Americas, then joined Thompson Traders in 2009 where he remained president and CEO until his death. He served as chairman of the Forsyth-Guilford Metropolitan Baseball Park Authority, spearheading the unsuccessful campaign to bring a major league baseball team to the Triad. He also served as a board member and in volunteer leadership positions with organizations including the Eastern Music Festival, Reynolda House Museum and UNCG and was honorary chairman of the Wyndham Golf Championship.
Doris Tanger
Local philanthropist Doris Tanger, pictured here with Maestro Gerard Schwarz at a benefit for the Eastern Music Festival’s student scholarship fund in 2016, died Aug. 14 of natural causes. She was 94. Tanger, widow of Tanger Factory Outlets founder Stanley Tanger, was a breast cancer survivor who became active in the Reach to Recovery program to help other cancer patients. The Doris S. Tanger Center for Patient and Family Support at Cone Health Cancer Center is named for her and she and her husband contributed $1 million in 2010 toward the center's expansion. She also was a great financial supporter of Greensboro parks, including the wedding gazebo at the Greensboro Arboretum.
Gene Corrigan
Gene Corrigan, ACC commissioner from 1987 to 1996, who ushered in expansion during his time in Greensboro, died Jan. 24 at the age of 91. He also served two years as NCAA president.
Fred Crumpler
Fred Crumpler, a prominent Winston-Salem attorney whose legal work helped establish the right of a criminal defendant to enter a plea without admitting guilt, died Jan. 17. One of his cases, North Carolina vs. Henry Alford, paved the way for what is known as the Alford plea.
Sally S. Cone
Greensboro philanthropist Sally S. Cone died Jan. 17. She was 87. Cone long advocated for women's rights to reproductive choice, both locally as onetime president of Planned Parenthood of the Triad and at the national level of Republican politics. She also spoke out about the lack of gender equity in education and put her voice and money behind UNCG's Women's Studies program. After earning a master's degree in library education from UNCG, she served as a librarian at Oak Ridge Military Academy and in the public school system. She was also a public information officer for the Greensboro Housing Authority. She was active on various boards, coalitions and commissions. They ranged from the boards for Bennett College, Planned Parenthood of the Triad, and Family and Children's Services of Greater Greensboro.
Jack Scism
Jack Scism, a retired award-winning staff writer for the News & Record and one-time state parole board chairman, died Jan. 11 at 87. The parole board stint came after Scism co-authored a series of stories in early 1973, involving charges of political conflict and favoritism with the state parole board.
Hank Brodt
Hank Brodt, who survived five Nazi prison camps and a forced labor camp as a teenager, died May 22 at age 94. He wouldn’t talk about it at first, even to his children. It wasn’t until the retired carpenter, who served a stint in the U.S. Army, moved to High Point in 2005 and joined Temple Emanuel that Rabbi Fred Guttman encouraged him to speak up. He also was called to testify during Nazi war crime trials.
Miss Lou Lou Gehrig
Miss Lou Lou Gehrig fetches a ball on the field during a Greensboro Grasshoppers game in April 2015. The Labrador retriever, who served as bat dog for eight seasons, died Oct. 12 after a brief stomach ailment. She was 9 years old. Lou Lou served alongside Miss Babe Ruth from 2012 through 2015, then by herself through the 2019 South Atlantic League baseball season. The Grasshoppers did not play this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lou Lou was known for not only picking up bats but for chasing down foul balls at First National Bank Field.
Richard Cox
Richard Cox, a well-known music teacher in Greensboro who founded the Bel Canto Company and for many years guided choral preparation for the Greensboro Opera Company, died on Christmas Day. He was 92. He taught music at what was then High Point College from 1953-58 and was a professor of music at UNCG from 1960 until he retired in 2002, according to his obituary. He served as choirmaster at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church for a half-century and wrote three books related to vocal and choral music. He was inducted into the North Carolina Music Educators Association Hall of Fame in 2015.
Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane: A look back at five favorite stories from 2020
Amid a year of worry and heartbreak over COVID-19, there have been uplifting moments.
Mitchel Sommers showed us how to stay connected with elderly friends and family in nursing homes when he sang outside his mother’s window.
Grace Anderson and Daisy Wyatt had planned to spend months pursuing their dreams in foreign countries. The pandemic brought them home.
Triad theater organizations created a virtual trivia tournament to entertain themselves and others during social distancing.
Graduates and faculty of the N.C. A&T theater program talk about the discrimination that Black theater professionals encounter.
Before the pandemic and social unrest, our staff had the privilege of covering the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at the Greensboro Coliseum.
