CityView Magazine

publisher's note The Waren Family in the snow: Sandee, Marshall, Marshall III, Janet, Hughes and Griffith Waren Remembering Charlie O ne of our great citizens went to be with the Lord in December and Fayetteville is blessed because Charles B.C. Holt lived here for 78 years. Billy, his older brother who had moved to Greensboro, passed away two weeks later. There is not a time in my life when I can't remember knowing Charlie Holt and his brother Billy. When my mother moved to Fayetteville in 1938 not knowing anybody here, Charlie's parents Bill and Hannah be- friended her and she became lifelong friends with the entire family. She used to babysit Charlie and his brothers Billy and Henry. The natural course of things is that I became friends with all of them, too. When I was growing up and going to St. John's Episcopal Church, Charlie was our Sunday school assistant superinten- dent. When I went into the insurance business, I was associat- ed with two of Charlie's good friends, Ace Parker and Harvey Oliver. We all played golf together. I have known Charlie Holt all my life, and my life is better because of it. He was a marvelous caretaker of our city. When you go downtown and ride past the Airborne and Special Operations Museum, think of him. Charlie and his brother Henry were leaders in making that possible. Charlie and I were on the YMCA board together in the early 1980's when we had a ma- jor capital campaign to build the fitness center where he was a leader in that effort. Charlie was a leader and cared about making his hometown a better place to live. He served on the city council and as Mayor and also served in the N.C. legisla- ture. I remember when he decided to retire from politics be- CityView apologizes to readers and to the Roulhac family November/December issue of the magazine. We are sorry for any confusion this may have caused. 14 | January/February • 2012 for misspelling their last name in the cause it had become too ugly for him. I never saw Charlie really get rude or lose his cool, espe- cially on the golf course. He was one of those people who was liked by everyone. He was never ugly to people and always had a smile and a kind word for folks. He was one of those people who had a sweet spirit about him, the spirit of the Lord. When Charlie moved from Gray's Creek back into the city, he lived on Pugh Street which is one block over from my home on Raeford Road. If you are a regular reader of CityView you will recall the story written by his grandson in these pages several years ago regarding the chickens that escaped his care and lived in a grove of trees across the street from my house. While growing up, my children never slept late because the roosters woke them up every morning with their crowing. The birds never could be captured and returned to Gray's Creek, so they lived in those trees for about 25 years, until they all died. Thanks to Charlie for those early morning wake up calls. There is not enough room in this column to explain all the things Charlie had his hands on in Fayetteville or all the things he did to make our city a better place to live. Fayetteville will miss his touch. I will miss his friendship but I am blessed to have known him and know I will see him again. Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, 23 (ESV) For everything there is a sea- son, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; so I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be aſter him?

• Cover