CityView Magazine

44 September 2021 FEATURE A Lyrical Legal Career BY KIM HAST Y I n an accomplished legal career in which he has taken on some of Fayetteville's highest- profile cases and most recently received an award named for one of the men he most admires, Jerry Beaver says he has one regret. "I wish I'd spent more time playing music," he said. He's chuckling when he says it, but then again, H. Gerald Beaver has proven himself to be a man of many talents. At age 78, he has taken on the designation "of counsel" with the firm he founded, Beaver- Courie Attorneys at Law. But neither the music nor the sense of justice has ever dimmed for him. e musical talents started early, back when he was a boy growing up in Albemarle and his older sister would draw sideburns on his face with an eyebrow pencil to enhance the Elvis Presley imitations he did at the local theater. Later, while in law school at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, he had the chance to play with the Red Clay Ramblers, Bland Simpson and Jim Wynn, and Mike Cross at the famed Cat's Cradle. e legal talents would be honed, in part, during a prized internship in Wake County that lawyer Wade Smith helped him secure. Beaver was charged with searching titles but was given the chance to go into courtrooms and watch the lawyers in action. He recites the names of the lawyers he met that summer with the reverence of a baseball fan listing the starting lineup of the 1969 Mets. "All the leading members of the bar were in Raleigh at that time," he said. "I met Robert McMillan and Earl Purser," he said. "I met Joe Cheshire's father before I met Joe. I met Howard Manning, Phil Redwine and Russell Dement. I got to know and respect all of these Raleigh lawyers, and when I came here to Fayetteville, I could call on them and they would refer things to me." Beaver interviewed with then- Cumberland County Public Defender Sol Cherry, taking a job right aer law school as an assistant public defender in Fayetteville in 1973. "When I first came here, Hay Street was wild and wooly as it could be," he said. "I knew everyone downtown. I knew the bar owners, adult bookstore owners and the street walkers. We used to go in the bars and hand out ACLU cards." A couple years later, his guitar brought him more good luck. He did occasional stints playing with bands at local bars, including the Gaslight Club on Fort Bragg Road. "I went there one night, and Carolyn was there," he said. "e next night I called her and asked her on a date." Carolyn and Jerry Beaver, far right, with son-in-law Kirk deViere, daughter Jenny, grandson Grey and daughter Laura. PHOTO BY CINDY BURNHAM

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