CityView Magazine

46 | May 2020 T H E L A S T W O R D You can go home again BY TONY CHAVONNE I can blame it on Martha Duell. I never knew my father, and I was raised being told by my mother that my last name was Italian- American. I never noticed that Chavonne did not fit with the Musselwhites, Dallases and Lancasters sprinkled throughout the Massey Hill mill villages. And, to be honest, I never spent a moment worrying about it. But that all changed in 1972 with the release of "e Godfather." Marlon Brando made being Italian special and having a name that ended in a vowel suddenly became hip. I walked the halls of school with a little more bravado, extending lots of people "offers they couldn't refuse." I rode that wave through the releases of the Godfather movies and even got some Rocky Balboa thrown in for good measure. I gained a new appreciation for all things pasta and even red wine started to have some appeal. It was a great time to be Italian-American. Or so I thought. e first real challenge to my proud new heritage presented itself when I was elected mayor. Fayetteville enjoys a sister-city relationship with St. Avold, France and has many French-born people living here. Martha Duell, a proud daughter of France, was convinced that my name was French and not Italian. Martha was a powerful force in our community, and her strong arguments made me begin to question my heritage for the first time. My wife Joanne and I led a local delegation to visit St. Avold in 2010, and during our trip there we visited a small town with a population of 192 in the middle of France actually named Chavonne. We had hopes to visit with the mayor there and was surprised when, upon finally finding the town hall, we discovered his office hour was 3 – 4 p.m. on Wednesdays. We were indeed a long way from home. Finding Chavonne in France challenged my lifelong

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