CityView Magazine

22 | July/August 2018 "ank you for being part of our family," one man told Leslie. Jay Gothard shook Leslie's hand and said, "ank you for your passion for the truth." Leslie, a native of Morganton and a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, started his career in radio. He worked at stations in Raleigh and in Virginia and Texas before returning to North Carolina where he became news director of WRAL-FM and the North Carolina News Network. He joined WRAL-TV in 1984. Rick Gall, the station's news director, said Leslie has "a perfect blend of credibility and personality" and is "a true journalist who under- stands and cares about the stories he's sharing." During his career, Leslie covered big stories and interviewed big names. His reporting on the dumping of garbage in the ocean off the North Carolina coast by the U.S. Navy helped prompt major regulatory changes. He has received more than 75 awards, including two Peabodys and five Emmys. But he also delighted in the back-road, small- town and neighborly details about people and places in North Carolina. For extra credit in the 8th grade, he learned all of the state's counties and their county seats. When in 2010 he found himself unable to identify the home counties of a couple of tiny towns, he half-joked that he needed to revisit that project. Leslie is also a noted musician, performing and composing new age and Celtic fusion music on eight CDs. He brought his guitar to his Fare- well Tour stop in Fayetteville and, to the delight of those gathered, he performed several songs. No farewell party is complete without cake and Patsy and Adam Crawford at e Sweet Palette came up with a doozy of one - it included a figure of Leslie playing his guitar beside a TV on which Leslie was reporting the news. It also tasted great. e outpouring of affection in Fayetteville touched Leslie. As he got into his SUV to return to Raleigh, he wiped away a tear. Fayetteville, he told Janet Gibson of e Arts Council, had outdone itself. And then he drove away. During an extra-long lunch break at The Arts Council, people packed inside to meet the 67-year-old Leslie, whose award- winning work at WRAL over the years included reporting, anchoring and hosting the popular "Tar Heel Traveler" series. In recent years, he co-anchored the morning and noon news.

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