CityView Magazine

CityViewNC.com | 55 11 Weeks Can Change your life! Corporate & Continuing Education Division Center for Business & Industry, Rm. 108-G 2723 Fort Bragg Road, Fayetteville, NC 28303 Meet DaQuan, 18-year-old Cumberland County GROW graduate who was hired full time in his area of training! FTCC's Cumberland GROW Basic Building Construction Program is your pathway to a high-paying, successful career in the Construction and Trades Industry. Come train in FTCC's Cumberland GROW program to begin your pathway to success! Contact the Success Coach, Marvin Price to get started today! (910) 678-9799 pricem@faytechcc.edu Register now for the next cohort: January 10 - March 23, 2022! www.faytechcc.edu/ corporate-continuing- education/cumberland- grow-initiative/ Time Flies. Fly Fay. Find flights at www.flyfay.com SAFE, FAST FLIGHTS FROM FAYETTEVILLE. Pardon our progress! Experience shorter lines, more accessible parking, and enhanced safety measures when you FlyFAY. We're making improvements to serve you better—our terminal renovations will be complete in the Spring of 2022. Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at bkirby@cityviewnc.com, billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961. Read more of his columns in our weekly Insider newsletter. 24 at his home to remember Cheek. "He was a presence," Susan Ladd, once a features writer at e Times, would say. "He was the elder statesman – one who will live in my heart forever." Tom Lassiter, another features writer, reminded us of Cheek as one "comfortable in his own skin" and with uncompromising integrity. Cindy Burnham, another longtime photojournalist, remembered Cheek as a journalist with an intuition about a story. "He could find a story on anybody and anything," says Burnham, now a freelance photojournalist. "And that was his magic. Larry Cheek was just a great mentor. Everybody had a story, and I learned that from Larry Cheek." Diagnosis of Parkinson's disease in the past two years took a toll. But Cheek was resolute. "He never lost his kindness or his sense of humor," Suzan Cheek would tell us. "Or his grace." Epilogue I can close my eyes and see yesteryear, and our Larry Cheek. His desk and Royal typewriter in that old make-shi newsroom on Hay Street. His desk along the newspaper office on Whitfield Street, replete with cardboard cup of cold coffee and half empty by his computer terminal, scattered mail from readers and a stack of old newspapers. "Tom English Jr. was the nuts and bolts of e Fayetteville Times," I said. "But Larry Cheek was the face and the voice of the newspaper. And if your name was under his picture and in Larry Cheek 's column, you were somebody in our community. We all will always be a part of Larry Cheek, and Larry Cheek always will be a part of us." Tom English Jr. looked into all our old newspaper faces of the best of our "Times" together once upon a time. "Larry Cheek was a columnist, and very talented," the old managing editor would say. "He was a blessing and admired by thousands of readers. I stand here today to thank Larry Cheek for being among us."

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