Art was like most children born in 1923 – active and inquisitive. That is until he was three and an eye infection left him blind. He could’ve pitied himself, but his parents encouraged him to rise above his disability.

He found solace in music when he received a harmonica as a Christmas present when he was five and a banjo when 11. He taught himself to play, often traveling from Deep Gap to nearby Boone to perform on street corners with his guitar.

And play he did. His flat-picking style earned him national acclaim.

You know him as Doc Watson.

— Ron Smith, S&A Communications

Eastern North Carolina was once like the wild, wild west.

In the early 1700s, the Tuscarora Indians were divided into two factions: the Northern Tuscarora, led by Chief Tom Blunt, and the Southern Tuscarora, led by Chief Hancock. When the European settlers came, they stole land, brought disease and even enslaved people.

The Southern Tuscarora rebelled by launching the Tuscarora War. Settlers fought back and were aided by Indian enemies of Chief Hancock, including the Northern Tuscarora. Chief Hancock was defeated in Greene County.

For his help, Chief Blunt was given 53,000 acres near Bertie. This became Indian Woods.

– Ron Smith, APR, S&A Communications

Since 1870 the Bodie Lighthouse lighthouse has stood guard on the North Carolina coast; like a mother hen shielding her chicks, the lighthouse has warned ships of the ocean’s many perils.

But the sea wanted revenge, and by 1999 the lighthouse – which when it was built stood 1,500 feet from the ocean – was in danger of falling victim to waves that lapped at her base.

So, the decision was made to move the old girl. Would it still work … or all fall down? It did work, and now, 2,900 feet from where she started, she still stands tall.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

Those are fighting words!

Want to see if someone is a true North Carolinian or not? Just utter the words “Lexington Style” or “Eastern Style.” Their reaction speaks volumes.

It’s all about the cue … barbecue of course. Lexington Style uses more of a red sauce, made from ketchup, while the Eastern Style is more vinegar-based and some say “uses all of the pig except the squeal.” Supporters claim theirs is superior to the other. Like the time when legislators tried to get the NC General Assembly to declare Lexington Style as the official barbecue. (It failed.)

Pig pickin’, anyone?

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

During the Great Depression, life was hard for everyone, and Vernon Rudolph was no exception. But at least he had a job helping his Kentucky uncle run his store.

Like many rural general stores, it featured numerous products, including a unique-tasting doughnut made from a secret New Orleans yeast recipe. The uncle wanted Vernon to sell the doughnuts door-to-door. But, Vernon had other ideas.

Along with two partners, Vernon settled in his wife’s hometown of Winston-Salem. He first sold doughnuts out of a 1936 Pontiac and then opened his first store.

He called it Krispy Kreme.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

Here’s a name you’ve probably never heard of: Hiram Rhodes Revels. Ring a bell? We didn’t think so.

Hiram was born in 1827 in Fayetteville, the son of a Baptist preacher. What set Hiram apart was that he was black … and not a slave. His mother and father were free; he said that as far back as he could trace, all ancestors were free.

He was unique in the slave-holding South.

Hiram earned another distinction following the Civil War when in 1870 he became the first black man to serve in the United States Congress as a Mississippi senator.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

Outnumbered five-to-one, Patriot Colonels Thomas Robeson and Thomas Brown knew they needed a lot of luck, and a little deception, to capture the Town of Elizabethtown, near Wilmington, in August 1781.

The Patriots marched through the night, swam the Cape Fear naked, holding their clothes and muskets above their heads, and then attacked from numerous sides in the morning. The commanders added to the illusion by calling out the names of Patriot commanders who weren’t even there!

The Tories thought there were thousands of troops, while in reality, there were only about 60 attacking, moving and attacking again.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

The North Carolina Museum of History welcomes a new, interactive multimedia exhibit, North Carolina and World War I. This exhibit focuses on the state’s role in WWI and is meant to commemorate the US entry into the war.

The exhibit, opening on Saturday, April 8, is 6,500 square feet and has an estimated 500 artifacts on display. There will be historical film footage, period photography, interactive aspects, video reenactments and a recreated trench-warfare environment.

North Carolina and World War I attempts to give visitors the chance to experience what life was like for our soldiers 100 years ago.

– Amber Lawrence, S&A Communications

They called it “cookie time” and it had as much in common with those crumbly delights as … say, milk has with the Milky Way.

In the 1960s everyone was abuzz with America’s efforts to put a man in space and then land on the moon. The astronauts were heroes. But where to get training, as they were recognized everywhere?

They received their celestial training at Chapel Hill’s Morehead Planetarium. The Morehead staff even replicated spacecraft from plywood so the astronauts could simulate looking out a window! The staff then protected the astronauts’ privacy by calling these clandestine sessions “cookie time.”

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

Great Dismal Swamp. Just saying the name out loud conjures up a sense of dread. But there is more.

Tucked away in Northeast North Carolina and Southeast Virginia, the area is now a national wildlife refuge and the last remaining remnant of an area that once included more than a million acres. There’s also evidence that humans have lived there for over 13 million years.

But the swamp was also a barrier, an impediment. The idea of a Dismal Swamp Canal was born; George Washington directed the surveying of it. Today, the canal links the Albemarle Sound to Chesapeake Bay.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

Many of us race through Iredell County on our way to somewhere else. Iredell is a name you don’t hear often. So, who was the county’s namesake?

James Iredell was English-born, but the family immigrated to Edenton to avoid bankruptcy. James became a lawyer, and after the Revolution helped create the state’s judicial system, becoming North Carolina’s second attorney general. George Washington appointed him one of the first federal Supreme Court judges. He traveled by horseback throughout the state interpreting the new Constitution.

It was a hard, tough life, and it took its toll. James Iredell died at 48.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

There are doers and followers. Walter Hines Page was a doer.

Growing up on acreage outside Raleigh (his father named the area after Ohio prohibitionist Samuel Cary), Walter attended outstanding late-19th-century schools and even taught at UNC Chapel Hill. He started a Raleigh newspaper that later sold and became the News & Observer.

He and some friends were interested in supporting higher education and formed the Watauga Club. Those seeds blossomed into what is now known as North Carolina State University. He then founded a publishing firm with Frank Doubleday – Doubleday and Company.

Walter Hines Page was a doer.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

Life’s hard. Ava was one of seven children when the Great Depression hit, and her family lost their small farm near Smithfield. But as her parents struggled, Ava still dreamed the dream of many little girls of being an actress.

At age 18, Ava was visiting her sister Beatrice when her brother-in-law photographer took her portrait and put it in his studio’s New York window. A passerby saw the photo and said, “Someone should send her info to MGM.”

Someone did, and the career of Ava Gardner – one of Hollywood’s top actresses of the 20th century – was launched.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

Caleb Bradham dreamed of being a physician when he graduated UNC-CH in 1867. He was accepted to a Maryland medical school and worked part-time to help earn money. These were tough financial times after the Civil War and Caleb soon quit school and returned to New Bern.

Later he opened a corner drugstore and in 1893 concocted a drink he called “Brad’s Drink.” It consisted of a mixture of sugar, water, caramel, lemon oil, nutmeg and other natural additives. Townsfolk thought it was very good and began to tell others.

Caleb later changed the name to Pepsi-Cola.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

An avid golfer, James Barber knew when he immigrated to the United States in 1887 he wanted to settle in Pinehurst, known even back then as a golfer’s haven.

When planning his estate in 1916, he asked his Scottish landscape designer to design a small course for him. Upon seeing the finished work, he replied “thistle dhu” (this’ll do). The world’s first miniature golf course, often called putt-putt, was not for children, however, as Jim Barber designed it for him and his adult friends.

But the name “Thistle Dhu” stuck. Pinehurst now has its own Thistle Dhu Putting Course.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

A lighthouse is supposed to warn ships at sea of the perils of nearby land. What if the sea seeks to wash away the lighthouse … threatening its very survival?

That is what was happening in the 1990s when erosion from unrelenting, pounding waves threatened the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. A light had stood at that point since it was authorized in 1794. The choice was simple: Move it or lose it.

So in 1999 they did, oh so slowly. When finished, the lighthouse was 2,900 feet from the water’s edge, not 15 feet.

Once again the light shone bright and proud.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

He was a young kid, only 19, on his first train ride, traveling from Baltimore to Fayetteville.

George Herman Ruth had just signed a professional baseball contract with the minor league Baltimore Orioles. Manager Jack Dunn took him under his wing and shielded the young, quiet kid from the hardened veterans. Ruth was often called Dunnie’s Babe.

On March 7, 1914, Ruth played his first professional baseball game in Fayetteville. In his second at bat, he hit a long homer to right. It was the first of many to come.

Now there was no kidding. They just called him Babe.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

“Can he play golf?”

That’s the question Athletic Director Jim Weaver posed to golfer Buddy Worsham, whom he had recruited to come to Wake Forest College (located in Wake Forest before it moved to Winston-Salem and became a university).

Worsham wanted to come to Wake Forest to play golf, but he wanted his good friend to accompany him. Worsham was the star recruit, and Weaver didn’t want to miss him. So he relented.

Turned out the friend could play golf. And play it well. The late Arnold Palmer put Wake Forest golf on the map. Then later the PGA.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

We’ve all passed Camp Lejeune going to the beach, but how the heck do you pronounce it?

The camp got its start in 1941, and it was named for John A. Lejeune a year later. Lt. General Lejeune was the 13th commandant of the Marine Corps, often called “the greatest of all Leathernecks” and “a Marine’s Marine.” He was a tough guy.

But how you pronounce his name – and by extension the camp – is often debated. “La-June” or “La-Jerne.” There’s no “r” there but history shows the family said “La-Jerne.”

After all, in this country we say Marine “Core.”

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

With Scotch-Irish ancestry, familiarity with whiskey – especially making it – has always been in his blood. It was a family tradition, dating back to when one of his great-grandfathers came to Wilkes County in the 1600s.

Junior Johnson’s father was a lifelong bootlegger, and as a result, he spent 20 of his 63 years in prison. Heck, Junior even spent a year there himself for having a still.

But he was never caught hauling moonshine. Instead, he took his driving skills to the track and established a reputation as a top NASCAR driver … a legend in two worlds.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

For more than 100 years, we all have enjoyed O. Henry’s short stories. No greater love exists than the love shown in The Gift of the Magi, in which a couple sells their most prized possession in order to buy Christmas gifts for each other.

The beautiful story came from a writer with a troubled past. O. Henry was born William Henry Porter in Greensboro, NC, and worked for a Texas bank as an adult. There he was charged with embezzlement, eventually fleeing to Honduras. He later returned and served five years in prison. Maybe prison solitude was his inspiration.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

The thirst for education runs deep in our veins. We know it is a pathway to a better future. The Lumbee Indians of Robeson County knew that, and following legislature approval, a clapboard, two-story building was opened in 1888 to train American Indian teachers. Fifteen students enrolled.

It grew and grew. The school was moved to Pembroke in 1909, changing its name to Indian Normal School of Robeson County in 1911. By 1953, white students could enroll.

Following that humble start, now over 6,000 students drink from the education well of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

One of North Carolina’s most famous authors, Thomas Wolfe, wrote some of America’s most treasured novels and short stories. Wolfe grew up in a home in Asheville, with an often-drunk father in poor health and a mother who worked long hours at the boardinghouse she operated.

When Wolfe later published Look Homeward, Angel, the novel was received well by literary critics, but not by several citizens in Asheville, who recognized many of the characters as themselves.

Years later when the writer finally returned to Asheville, the rebuke from locals gave Wolfe another novel title: You Can’t Go Home Again.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

He was one of the best athletes the country has ever produced, but because he played minor league baseball in Rocky Mount for $2/day, he lost all of his Olympic medals (later reinstated).

Jim Thorpe took the 1912 Olympics by storm, winning easily and often. The king of Sweden gave him gold medals and called him the world’s greatest athlete.

When he returned home, a newspaper story came out that in 1909 he had played some for the Rocky Mount Railroaders. He had used his real name while others used aliases. He said he just hadn’t known any better.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

On August 6, we remember the day that changed the world – the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima to end World War II. Atomic blasts make history books, but most don’t know we almost had one here.

It was the height of the Cold War in January 1961 and US policy was to have nuclear-armed bombers aloft at all times. On a flight to Seymour AFB near Goldsboro, NC, a bomber developed trouble and eventually crashed trying to land. Seven of eight switches armed a weapon. Only one switch saved a nuclear explosion!

Goldsboro residents slept peacefully, unaware.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

They wanted a cup of coffee. And to right a wrong.

There were four African-American men – Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr. and David Richmond – all students at Greensboro’s NC A&T State University. They were inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King’s nonviolent protests against racial discrimination. What could they do?

They went to Woolworth’s whites-only counter one afternoon in 1960, sat down and ordered coffee. They waited. And waited. They quietly waited until the store closed. Soon afterwards, their nonviolent actions spread across the nation. Today, part of that lunch counter is located in the Smithsonian.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

Orton Plantation, located on the Cape Fear River, just inspires. It always has.

The land inspired Roger Moore to build the first structure on the site in 1725, and then to rebuild the current plantation house when the first one was destroyed by Indians. It inspired Union troops to use it as a hospital rather than burn it. It inspired Frank Capra Jr. to use it in his 1983 movie Firestarter, which then inspired Dino De Laurentiis to build a film/television studio in nearby Wilmington for movie and TV production.

Orton Plantation. For nearly 300 years, it just inspires.

– Ron Smith, APR, S&A Communications

We’ve all heard people say the town they’re from is so small that if you blinked, you’ve missed it.

But if you hail from Dellview, you’re right. Located outside of Cherryville in Gaston County, it boasts it’s the nation’s smallest town. In the 2010 Census, it counted 13 residents. It has been as low as 10.

Seems two local families – named Dellinger of course – didn’t like the county ordinance prohibiting shooting stray dogs raiding their chicken coops. So in 1925 the families incorporated solely to protect their poultry.

Didn’t see Dellview while traveling in Gaston County? You must have blinked.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

Located in an old family cemetery outside the small town of Warrenton in northeastern North Carolina stands an 11-foot obelisk that marks another Civil War tragedy.

The obelisk pays tribute to Annie Carter Lee, who died in Warren County in October 1862 from typhoid fever at the age of 23. Annie was the second (some say favorite) daughter of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who sent his family to North Carolina after Federal troops occupied the family home in Arlington, Virginia.

Annie was buried in North Carolina (remains were later moved to a family crypt) because of the war.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications

David was known in Cumberland County as a hothead, a thief, and then when the sheriff busted his illegal still, a murderer after he killed a deputy during the raid.

Sentenced to 30 years, David impressed the warden with his metalworking and gunsmith skills and soon was repairing the guards’ own weapons. He tinkered so much the governor gave him an early release to pursue his weapon designs.

You know this man as David M. Williams, inventor of the mechanism leading to semi-automatic weapons, including the M-1 Carbine used in World War II and the movie Carbine Williams.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications