Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/561314
AUGUST 26 - SEPTEMBER 1, 2015 UCW 5 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Unlike the British, we Americans have no royal family to follow, so we compensate in t wo ways. We follow theirs — Will and Kate and their precious lit tle ones — or we cre- ate our own, usually entertainment stars and politicians. Like virtually everyone else in America, I am transfixed by Donald Trump — the entire package. I can hardly get enough, because there is just so much to absorb, politics not withstanding. The hair. The lightning fast and laser sharp insults. The undeniable billionaire status, of which he reminds us frequently. Free helicopter rides. The beautiful women. The political incorrectness and proud maver- ick behavior. And, the various families! Trump's birth family, a German father and a British mother with five children, made a fortune building affordable hous- ing in the boroughs around Manhat tan, though daddy Trump was known to be — shall we say — frugal. The Donald joined his father's business at the tender age of 22, heading into real estate in f lashy Manhat tan with TRUMP emblazoned on most of his buildings and zooming on to billionaire-dom. I have never heard anyone refer to the younger Trump as frugal. A long t he way, he married a Czechoslovak ian sk ier named Ivana, and t hey had t hree children. Ivana, who gif ted her husband w it h t he endur- ing moniker "The Donald," lost out to a beaut y queen f rom Georgia named Marla Maples, w it h whom Trump had a daughter, apt ly named Tif fany. Marla ult imately bit t he Trump dust as well, and t he current Mrs. Trump is Melania, a former model f rom Slovenia. They have a son named — what else? Barron Trump. A quick Google t urns up t housands of glamorous photos of Mrs. Trump including at least one modeling a f ur-lined met al bik ini. Ouch! Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy must be spinning in their graves. Another politician in the spotlight in North Carolina is state Representative Jason Saine. I have not found any bikini-clad photos of him, but there are plent y of photos of him wearing some $19,000 worth of tai- lor-made clothing he paid for with campaign dollars during the first half of this year. North Carolina law prohibits using campaign funds contributed by supporters for personal expenses, but Saine maintains that he absolute- ly had to commission his new wardrobe because his real-life job does not require suits and ties while his legislative job does. Wonder if the guy has ever heard of Joseph A. Bank or Men's Warehouse? Then at the other end of the politician spectrum comes former President Jimmy Carter, who announced to the world last week that the cancer for which he recently had surgery has spread to his brain. Poised and articulate at 90, he explained his condi- tion and his treatment and expressed his enduring faith in God. Relaxed and smiling, he praised his wife of 69 years and urged other cancer patients to hope for the best but to accept what comes. Carter is the epito- me of grace and mature manhood. I bet he has never said anything ugly about Rosie O'Donnell. And, f inally, an update on last week 's col- umn regarding t he fate of Virginia Dare, t he f irst child born to English parent s in t he New World, and t he rest of t he set t lers in t he Lost Colony. It seems t hat I am hardly t he only person interested in t his 428-year- old myster y. A Raleigh News and Obser ver column of past news stories compiled by Teresa Leonard recent ly re-ran a 1938 stor y suggest ing t hat Virginia Dare is buried in Robeson Count y! It quotes well-known Robesonians of the day recounting local legends about a gravesite near the historic Philadelphus Presby terian Church, which is not to be disturbed under any circumstances. The tale is part of a larger speculation that the Lost Colonists migrated south from their original Roanoke Island set tlement and eventually intermarried with the people we know today as Lumbee Indians, some of whom have blue eyes. Also weighing in on Virginia Dare was my friend Pam Stultz, long time senior assistant to the Cumberland Count y Register of Deeds. It seems the long-running outdoor drama about the early set tlers, The Lost Colony in Manteo, traditionally uses a live baby instead of a doll in performances on Virginia Dare's birthday, Aug. 18. The lit tle bundle of joy in the arms of an actress in this photo from last week is actually Pam's infant granddaughter, Carolyn Leigh. I hope I live long enough to learn what really happened to Virginia and that tiny band of early colonists. You Really Can't Make This Stuff Up by MARGARET DICKSON MARGARET DICKSON, Columnist. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910.484.6200. THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET Banquet rooms available up to 100 guests On the anniversary of Virginia Dare's birthday, The Lost Colony is performed using a real baby. This year, on Aug. 18, Carolyn Leigh, the granddaughter of Pam Stultz, longtime senior assistant to the Cumberland County Register of Deeds, portrayed Dare.