CityView Magazine

8 September 2021 A promise to keep … BILL KIRBY JR. mid 1970s, with an eye one day of perhaps becoming governor. Life was good, until Feb. 20, 1978, when a heart attack at age 40 took Larry Adam ompson's life and le a wife and a community in stunned disbelief. "Heman Clark, the county district attorney, wanted me to fill his term," Virginia says. "He would not take no for an answer." April 3, 1978 Virginia ompson took her oath on April 3, 1978, with the late Tommy Griffin, clerk of court, administering the oath of office. She held the family Bible. She was solemn. You could see the sadness in her eyes. But Virginia ompson was determined to make Larry ompson and their children and this community proud, and Virginia ompson's promise was a promise to keep. "J. McNatt Gillis took me under his wing," she always has said about the longtime commissioner. "One of the first things he did was give me an apron for the Massey Hill Lions Club's annual oyster roast, and it had a pocket with an oyster tool. He said I would be attending a lot of political events, and eating a lot of chicken … and oysters. He was very good to me, and Mr. Mac taught me how to be a commissioner." She would serve out Larry ompson's term, and three times win elected terms of her own, including being named the P ardon me, if you will, for bending the traditional rules of journalism. Not that I haven't skirted the boundaries before, with stories of my mother, and not to forget my Ugly Aunt Ethel. is one is special. "I thanked Ronnie Smith and told him how honored I was," Virginia ompson Oliver was telling me about the call from Smith, president of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners, informing her that she would be inducted into the association's hall of fame on Aug. 14 at the NCACC 114th annual conference at the Wilmington Convention Center. "But, with my bad back it would be nearly impossible for me to be there." Call him back, I urged Virginia, who is dear to me. "You should be there," I said. "To be inducted into the N.C. Association of County Commissioners' hall of fame is a great honor, and a testament to your three terms as a county commissioner to Cumberland County. You were a chairwoman of the Cumberland County commissioners and president of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners. "Call Mr. Smith back. "You should be there, Virginia," I said. "Either in person or by video." Virginia McLester was a Rockingham girl who grew up in a red-brick, two-story home, attended Greensboro College and caught the eye of Larry ompson, a Fayetteville boy who was studying law at nearby Wake Forest University. ey married and eventually moved along Amigo Drive behind the ompson home place off Raeford Road. He practiced law. She taught the arts at Alexander Graham Junior High School, and they raised three children. Larry ompson had an interest in politics, too, and became a Cumberland County commissioner in the first chairwoman of the board in 1981. You will find Virginia ompson Oliver's fingerprints throughout this county – from Cape Fear Valley Medical Center to the Cumberland County Public Library & Information Center to the 1980s merger of the city and county school systems. She could chair a meeting with authority. Never talk to her in governmental acronyms. Tell it straight. Tell it true, and Virginia ompson Oliver would lead in a way of her own alongside fellow commissioners to include Billy Horne, E.J. Edge, W.E. (Bill) Tyson, J. McN. Gillis, M.M. Beard, Mary McAllister, Morris Bedsole, Charles Speegle, Johnnie Evans and Robert C. Lewis Jr. Her political career came to an end in the late 1980s with a loss for the N.C. House of Representatives. She remains a yellow-dog Democrat, and it's best not to get involved in a political debate with Virginia, else it could turn in to a long evening. Aside from politics, she remains active in this community with generous and selfless ways, from serving as co-chair of fundraising for the Medical Education Center & Neuroscience Institute under construction at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center to supporting the Cumberland Community Foundation, the Cape Fear Botanical Garden, the Cape Fear Regional eatre, After her husband's death, Virginia Thompson took her oath as Cumberland County Commissioner on April 3, 1978. Larry Thompson Virginia Thompson Virginia Thompson was determined to make Larry Thompson and their children and this community proud, and Virginia Thompson's promise was a promise to keep.

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