P The
ERQUIMANS
Weekly
''News from Next Door"
MARCH 13, 2013 - MARCH 19, 2013
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Community mourns ‘Mama’ Felton
FILE PHOTO
Estelle
Felton
speaks
on the
steps of
the Per
quimans
County
Court
house
last year.
,4
By PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
More than 600 people came out
last week to honor a woman that
many simply called “Mama Fel
ton.”
A funeral service for Estelle
Felton was held Friday at Greater
Saunders Grove Missionary Bap
tist Church. St\e died March 2 at
the age of 81 at Vidant Chowan
Hospital.
The mayors of Hertford and
Winfall and the chairmen of the
Perquimans County School Board
and Perquimans County Commis
sion adopted a resolution Friday in
Felton’s honor.
For more than 25 years, Felton
served on the board of directors
of the Albemarle Electric Mem
bership Cooperative. She spent 20
years as a community service aide
for the Perquimans County School
System and held leadership roles
in both the NAACP and the Demo
cratic Party.
“Her official positions do not
begin to accurately describe the
level and commitment of service
to which Estelle Mitchell Felton
dedicated her life, exuding love
and compassion for all individu
als and unselfishly and untiringly
working to make her community a
better place,” the resolution reads.
Janice Cole, the chairman of the
county commission, remembers
when she and her husband moved
there. 30 years, Felton “adopted
us.
“She’s a legend,” Cole said.
See FELTON, 3
Volunteers make new museum reality
By PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
T l en men from across
the country descend
ed on Hertford last
week to expand a mu
seum honoring baseball
great Jimmy “Catfish”
Hunter.
Tommy Harrell, a local
farmer and Hunter’s
neighbor since the 1970s,
helped coordinate the
effort. He was invited to
join the No Bats Baseball
Club in 1999 and is one of
only two members who
live in North Carolina.
There are about 100 mem
bers in all.
The Hunter museum at
the Perquimans Chamber
of Commerce was opened
three years ago in an 81-
square-foot room.
The club’s job last week
was to knock down a
wall in an adjacent room,
install a wood floor and
newdrywall. The new
museum is about triple
the size. The club paid
about $15,000 for the
materials and members
volunteered to provide
the labor.
The participants
included a lawyer from
Chicago, a retired fire
man from San Francisco
and an accountant from
Florida.
Ted Simendinger, the
founder of the group and
a resident of Colorado,
said the idea is to give
back to those in need.
The club supports chari
ties that are somehow
linked to professional
baseball.
“Here you have a
farmer pulling down
I ^
STAFF PHOTO BY PETER WILLIAMS
Tommy Harrell of Hertford (far right) speaks to a volunteer while No Bats Baseball Club founder Ted Simendinger shovels debris
last week at the Perquimans Chamber of Commerce. Ten members of the club from across the country came to Hertford, some
of them for five days, to expand the museum.
sheetrock
side-by-side
with a
successful
Chicago
attorney,”
Simend
inger said.
“We have
members who
are very well off finan
cially and we have others
that live paycheck to
paycheck.
“We have four rules
and they’re all we’ve ever
needed. No wives, no
kids, no drugs, no argu
ing. 1 created No Bats
A sign designed to look
like an autographed
baseball marks
the Catfish Hunter
Museum on Market
Street in downtown
Hertford.
to be a positive escape
weekend for middle-
aged men who love the
game and appreciate
true friendship with
like-minded people in an
ultra-supportive environ
ment.”
Simendinger grew in
terested in Hunter in 1999
after Hunter was diag
nosed with Amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (ALS).
He said instead of hiding
the disease. Hunter went
public to raise money to
fight what most call Lou
Gehrig’s disease.
Simendinger never got
the chance to actually
meet him but he says
Hunter and Hertford
changed his life.
He was scheduled to
visit Hertford and meet
with Hunter, but the
pitching legend died
about three weeks before
he was to arrive.
“You can’t forget the
date, 9-9-99,” he said.
“Coming to Hertford
changed the club forever.”
The members could
have saved the expense
and time of the trip and
raised the money and
paid somebody to remod
el the chamber building,
but Simendiger said it’s
not the same. The club is
all about helping others
and developing friend
ships within the group.
Once a year the club
meets in some area of the
See MUSEUM, 3
Hertford
positions
By PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
The Albemarle Com
mission has filled two top
vacancies at the Hertford-
based agency.
Executive Director Bert
Banks said last week Lau
ra Alvarico was picked to
take the role as director for
the Area Agency on Aging.
Natalie Roundtree will be
the new director of Work
force Development. Both
women were already em
ployed in the departments
they will now lead.
Alvarico’s appointmenT
fills a position created by
a retirement in December
and Roundtree’s fillsthe
gap left after Wendy Jewett
announced in January she
would retire. Alvarico has
worked for the Alberharle
Commission for seven
years and Roundtree has
been with the agency for
about two.
The Northeastern Work
force Development Board
administers funds through
the federal Workforce In
vestment Act and serves 10
counties in northeastern
North Carolina: Camden,
Chowan, Cimrituck, Dare,
Gates, Hyde, Pasquotank,
Perquimans, Tyrrell and
Washington.
Banks said between 20
and 30 people applied for
See VACANCIES, 3
Group working on fall play production
By PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Dinner theater is scheduled
to return to Hertford in October
with an original play written by
resident Ray Sawyer.
“A stroll through our town”
looks at life in Hertford from the
1920s through the early 1950s.
Lynne Raymond, president of
Historic Hertford Inc. and Saw
yer spoke about the production
recently Sawyer’s play centers
around people and events in the
area. Some of the vignettes are
based on real individuals and
events. Others are not.
The group is working now to
collect local photographs from
the period so sets can be designed
to be as authentic as possible.
"It (the play) is not a
history lesson as much as
it is a story about
the town."
Lynne Raymond
President, Historic
Hertford Inc.
89076 47144
One location in particular is the
old Navy base at Harvey Point,
particularly the USO Club and
the officer’s club. Sawyer said one
of the stories in the play revolves
around a local woman who went
away to college and got engaged
but returned to town for spring
break. Dm-ing that time she met
a Naval officer stationed at the
base and the two feU in love and
married.
Digital images are preferred,
not the original photographs, but
someone will be available to scan
the pictures if no digital copy is
available.
“It (the play) is not a history
lesson as much as it is a story
about the town,” Raymond said.
The play is Sawyer’s first and
to do the research he spent hours
and hours interviewing local resi
dents about their stories from the
past. Some of the stories are bit
tersweet while others are funny
“There is a lot of humor in it,”
Sawyer said.
He said Hertford hasn’t had a
regular performing group in 15
or 20 years. The last big one was
the Bootstrap Players.
Raymond would like to see the
first production be a big hit and
grow to two productions a year.
For rules and an entry form
for the photo contest, visit caro-
linamoontheater.org. Pictures
can be dropped off at the Per-
quimanChamber by April 2. The
best pictures will be enlarged and
displayed in town and votes for
“People’s Choice” can be cast at
The Silver Fox, Carolina Trophy
and the Hertford General Store.
Tornado Ready
STAFF PHOTO
BY PETER WILLIAMS
Robert Spruill
looks over
students who
kneel next to.
lockers during
a tornado drill
at Perquimans
County High
School last
week. All four
local schools
participated in
the drill.
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