The Kings Mountain Herald
Page 44:
August 21, 2008
LOCAL
Wells leaves Sunday |
for national convention
EMILY WEAVER
eweaver@kingsmountainherald.com
Betsy Wells, the past chair of the
Cleveland County Democratic
Party, of Kings Mountain, is leav-
ing at 6 am. Sunday morning to
catch a flight for the national dem-
ocratic convention in Colorado at
the Pepsi Convention Center.
Earlier this year, she was voted
to attend the convention as a dis-
trict delegate. On Tuesday morn-
ing she reveled in the opportunity
to represent her home and to be in
the midst of history in the making.
This will be her third year at the
national convention.
In 2000 she was a member of the
credentials convention, checking
the credentials of those such as Bill
Clinton. She said that North
Carolina was seated so far back at
that convention that when the bal-
loons were released they never
came close to getting one. But in
2004, she was elected as a state del-
egate in her campaign for John
Edwards and was delighted by
the fact that she was close enough
to the stage “to see the sweat”
beading on party officials.
This year, she ran for a spot on
the district level and received 85%
of the vote, among 10 counties.
She thanks Cleveland County for
this momentous opportunity.
Although she began rooting for
Edwards, a North Carolina man,
whom she had become well
acquainted with in his run for
Senate, she switched her vote to
Hillary Clinton after he dismissed
himself from the race before her
delegate election.
She said that she was called by
the Barack Obama party several
times on Tuesday to make sure
that, even though she had sup-
ported Clinton, that she would
support the “decided Democrat
ticket-holder” Obama in the run-
ning for president.
Dressed in her red, white and
blue attire, she wore both Clinton
and Obama buttons on Tuesday.
Although she admitted anything
could happen at the convention,
anything being the possibility that
Clinton could refuse to give up her
support of delegates to Obama in
hopes that she would get enough
super delegates to take the party,
she said that she expects Clinton to
officially secede and ask for those
who supported her to turn their
support to the new party leader.
But she said that Clinton has asked
them to remain as a group at the
convention. When asked whether
or not she thinks Obama will
choose Clinton as her running
mate, she said that it would
cement the party, but wasn't sure if
it would happen.
“It's so exciting to be in a con-
vention that’s not cut and dry,”
Wells said.
She added that the most exciting
moments about the conventions
are the roll call of the states, the
nomination speeches of the candi-
dates and the vice presidents and,
like the Kentucky Derby, seeing
the different ensembles of red,
white and blue that the delegates
wear.
The main issues are the econo-
my, health care and Iraq, she said,
agreeing with Obama’s stand that
America needs a change.
Wells was the party chair for
Cleveland County in 1998-2007.
She said that she stepped down to
pass the torch on to the younger
generation of democrat leaders.
But in her more free time today;
she still feels the passion of the
party that she felt years ago.
She grew up in Ashe County, 15
miles from Tennessee and 10 miles
from Virginia state lines. Back
then, there were little options for
women in the professional sector.
She said that she could either have
been a stewardess, a nurse, a
teacher or a secretary. Since she
didn’t care too much for flying or
treating patients and didn’t have
the typing skills of a secretary, she
chose to teach.
While attending Appalachian
State University to obtain a degree
in teaching English, she decided to
come and see her brother play
football for Gardner-Webb
University. “I fell in love with
Cleveland County,” she said.
But that wasn’t all she fell in love
with. While she was a student
teacher at Central School in Kings
Mountain, she ran into her present
husband Steve Wells at the
Cleveland County Fair. He had
ties with ASU himself, but their
paths had never crossed until that
day. He asked her out on a date
and she said they went to see the
movie “Midnight Cowboy” in
Shelby. They fell in love.
Both ended up teaching at
Central School and married,
bringing Betsy to her home in
Kings Mountain. She got into pol-
itics because of her profession. She
said that the states of Ohio and
North Carolina, unlike other
BETSY WELLS
neighboring states, set the pay
rates of teachers via politics, so it
was only natural for teachers, like
herself, to become involved in pol-
itics — choosing to back the candi-
date that would determine your
salary.
In 1994 or 95 she said that she
was voted into office as the first
vice chair of the democratic party.
She officially retired from educa-
tion, after teaching for nearly 33
years in KM schools as both an
English and Drama teacher, in
2003.
Justina Carpenter, of Kings Mountain, recently competed at
Starpower, a dance competition in Spartanburg, SC, with her
dance team, La Petite Dance Studio. Afterwards, she went on
to Starpower Nationals in Myrtle Beach, SC, in July. She came
home from both competitions with four first place trophies,
one second place trophy, four gold ribbons, three elite rib-
bons, two first place ribbons (from the national talent compe-
tition) and six gold medals. Carpenter has been dancing with
La Petite Dance Studio for four years. Her dance instructor is
Jennifer Wright.
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