Wanda LaGwen Peppers-Jones, 63, of Wilson, died Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021. Funeral was held at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 10, at Higher Calling Baptist Church. A walk-through visitation was held from 3-6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 9, at Stevens Funeral Home. Arrangements are by Stevens Funeral Home.

Wanda LaGwen Peppers-Jones

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Dozens of volunteers pulled weeds, removed roots, raked leaves and cleared debris Monday as a part of a project aimed to restore and preserve Wilson&#x2019;s rich African American culture and history. &#x201C;It&#x2019;s an opportunity for us to put ourselves aside and do something for the greater good,&#x201D; said Joyah Bulluck, who is a part of the Lane Street Project, a community initiative dedicated to the restoration of three historic African American cemeteries. Volunteers worked in the Odd Fellows Cemetery on Saturday and Monday. &#x201C;There is teamwork here,&#x201D; Bulluck said. &#x201C;There&#x2019;s a mission and a goal at hand. We&#x2019;re just trying to honor and bring reverence and dignity back to those who have come before us. That includes Dr. Martin Luther King and everyone who has been buried in these three cemeteries.&#x201D; The cemeteries are Rountree, Odd Fellows and Vick. Volunteers kicked off the Lane Street Project initiative Saturday and picked up where they left off Monday. The project is spearheaded by Wilson leaders and historian Lisa Y. Henderson. The three cemeteries encompass 11 acres combined. &#x201C;It started with a few people and a few hands on deck,&#x201D; Bulluck said. &#x201C;Each time we come out here, we get more and more people. The news is spreading. The cause is spreading. If you&#x2019;re African American and you are from Wilson, then you have family in one of these three cemeteries.&#x201D; <h5>ANOTHER DISCOVERY</h5> Raven Farmer, who volunteered Saturday and Monday to clear out undergrowth at the Odd Fellows Cemetery, said rediscovering history is what the efforts are all about. &#x201C;You can only go as far in the future as much as you know about your past,&#x201D; she said. Farmer and fellow volunteers made a discovery Saturday. &#x201C;I initially thought we found three headstones,&#x201D; Farmer said. &#x201C;We started scraping away and we ended up seeing this.&#x201D; It was a walled plot for the Best family. Henderson later explained that the Best family once owned most of what was known as the Grabneck community, an African American community which today starts at the 1100 block of West Nash Street. &#x201C;It was a large family, originally from Greene County, but (they) came to Wilson right after the Civil War,&#x201D; Henderson said. &#x201C;They owned acres of property in that area.&#x201D; <h5>DREAM FULFILLED </h5> Roughly a month ago, volunteers fulfilled one of their main objectives &#x2014; finding Samuel H. Vick&#x2019;s resting place. The prominent Wilsonian, after whom Vick Elementary School is named, also famously brought Booker T. Washington to Wilson on Nov. 3, 1910. Henderson said volunteers are making her dream come true in many ways. One of which is that young people who grew up in the same community as she did would see the Lane Street project as worthy, connect with it and embrace it as their own. Another part of the project&#x2019;s dream includes bringing together multi-generational people to clean the cemetery as best they can. Henderson said it&#x2019;s about bringing the graves back to light and connecting people with their ancestors and family members. &#x201C;We want to keep this going,&#x201D; she said. &#x201C;The Lane Street Project, which had been an idea, suddenly became an actual team and an actual movement. It&#x2019;s breathtaking, heartwarming. It&#x2019;s amazing.&#x201D; <h5>TRAILBLAZERS</h5> Volunteer Portia Newman said unfortunately, the land has been neglected for a long time. Doing her part to give back and helping to save an important part of Wilson County&#x2019;s history is what drives her. &#x201C;This work is really awesome,&#x201D; Newman said. &#x201C;There is such rich African American history here. People who trailblazed efforts here in Wilson County, people who facilitated opportunities for Black folk in a way that I think doesn&#x2019;t get talked about. As a product of Wilson County Schools, this wasn&#x2019;t a part of our history class. I think it&#x2019;s an awesome opportunity to make the connection between the now.&#x201D; Just because the graves were forgotten for years doesn&#x2019;t mean people should keep forgetting about them, volunteer Craig Barnes said. &#x201C;It doesn&#x2019;t mean you can&#x2019;t do something now,&#x201D; Barnes said. &#x201C;It&#x2019;s like a treasure hunt in here. You are rooting yourself deeper into the history of Wilson.&#x201D; Prospective volunteers who missed the two-day cleanup kickoff still have plenty of opportunities to pitch in. The group will meet the first and third Saturday of each month from 9-11 a.m. or noon to 2 p.m. to continue cleanup efforts at the Old Fellows Cemetery at 2100 Bishop L.N. Forbes St., formerly Lane Street. Bulluck said members are thrilled that so many people are interested in helping them. &#x201C;Nobody wants to be forgotten,&#x201D; she said. &#x201C;We all want to leave a legacy behind. These were influential, prominent people here. To bring remembrance back to them and to honor them and their legacy, it really means a lot.&#x201D; The cemeteries were founded nearly 125 years ago and have been neglected for half that time. Henderson said her hope is for all of Wilson to work together to restore the sacred space.

Wilson volunteers clean historic Black cemetery

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The road from Montgomery, Alabama, to Black Creek is one Devoski Boyd came to know well from an early age when his family would make the trek to visit his great-grandfather, Elise Walston.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a city boy, but I spent a lot of summers in Wilson as well as Black Creek on my great-grandfather&rsquo;s farm, where he raised chickens and horses, had ponds to fish in and land to ride ATVs,&rdquo; Devoski Boyd said. &ldquo;We have a huge family, so the chance to see all my aunts and uncles &mdash; rekindling those relationships was always a great time, but I also soaked up the environment we were in being in Black Creek.&rdquo;
Now those experiences are at the heart of his company, Black Creek Outdoors, a clothing brand he recently launched with fellow Montgomery resident Jonathan &ldquo;J-Rob&rdquo; Robinson.&nbsp;
&ldquo;The original goal was to mend the gap we saw in the outdoors community,&rdquo; Boyd said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve seen a lot of models who work with certain brands and what not, but we didn&rsquo;t see a lot of brands that showcased our community or had faces that looked like us making important decisions. The mission and idea of Black Creek Outdoors was to find a way to use our platform and the outdoors to unify people of all races, all genders and all preferences. We just want to give people a safe place to enjoy the outdoors.&rdquo;
The two recent college graduates have full-time jobs but dove head-first into finding &ldquo;ambassadors&rdquo; who believed in Black Creek Outdoors&rsquo; mission. Roughly 30 ambassadors representing fishing, hunting, cliff jumping, golf and more have been recruited to wear the branded shirts and hats while promoting diversity and unity.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Cal Culpepper is a terrific angler and one of the top bass fishermen in the country. We had a call with him three months ago to explain what we were doing and show him our products. He said no one had really pitched him the way we did,&rdquo; Boyd recalled. &ldquo;It felt really good trying to beat the odds as an entrepreneur in a space we&rsquo;re not extremely familiar with but being able to surround ourselves with the right people to push our message out and build our brand.&rdquo;
The ambassadors have taken Boyd and Robinson out to hunt, fish and enjoy other outdoors activities. Those experiences inspired the two to dream big with plans to invest in the company&rsquo;s namesake community.
&ldquo;We want to have a Black Creek facility with a fishing pond to host tournaments, have livestock and land set aside for hunting where we can host outreach activities for inner-city youth,&rdquo; Robinson said. &ldquo;We want to give them the opportunity to see if they like the outdoors, because if they don&rsquo;t have the opportunity, they&rsquo;ll never know.&rdquo;
The founders are finalizing designs and production of new merchandise lines set to launch this spring. Boyd said he hopes once pandemic restrictions are loosened, he&rsquo;ll be able to bring Robinson to Black Creek and introduce him to his great-grandfather, who is 93 years old.
&ldquo;A lot of what we want to do is take people out of their element and expose them to outdoor activities they might not have access to,&rdquo; Boyd said. &ldquo;A lot of the programs or initiatives we plan to launch in the near future depending on COVID will put people in positions to experience things they&rsquo;ve never had the chance to before.&rdquo;
Visit http://ShopBlackCreek.com/ and follow @ShopBCO on social media to learn more.

Black Creek inspires outdoors clothing brand

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Barton College students are returning to campus for spring semester classes this week with additional measures to hinder the spread of COVID-19.
&ldquo;We are committed to providing a healthy Barton experience where we can mutually learn together,&rdquo; said college President Douglas N. Searcy. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s our strength at Barton and what we do so well. Because of our size and our commitment to relationships, we are able to learn face-to-face in the classrooms and labs, to compete in sports competitions and to engage in socially distanced co-curricular activities, and to do it with safety as the highest priority.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Gary Daynes, Barton&rsquo;s provost and vice president for academic affairs, said the college is scheduled to begin classes on Tuesday.&nbsp;
&ldquo;We have made that decision because we continue to believe both that we can offer classes and other on-campus activities with a high measure of safety and that for the students we serve in the disciplines we teach, being face to face in the classroom or in a hybrid learning environment is of the highest value,&rdquo; Daynes said.&nbsp;
Daynes said college leadership is &ldquo;not na&iuml;ve about the dangers of the coronavirus, the challenges of operations for students, faculty, and staff well-being and the fact that things are even more challenging than they were last fall.&rdquo;
Barton reported about 120 students who tested positive for COVID-19 during the fall semester. None had serious cases, according to a college news release.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Contact tracing did place a significant number of our students, at one time or another, into a period of isolation as well,&rdquo; Daynes said.
Daynes said faculty members worked with students in isolation so they could stay on top of classwork.
&ldquo;So, whereas in the public schools, contact tracing affected many teachers, here at Barton, because of the way we have socially distanced in the layout of all of our classrooms and with the 100% compliance of mask usage, we had a very small number of faculty and staff who were out because of contact tracing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And, we expect that to continue to be the case during spring semester.&rdquo;
NEW MEASURES
Daynes said the college is taking additional measures this spring in order to do an even more effective job of managing the virus.
&ldquo;The first of these measures is that all of our students, prior to returning to campus, must provide evidence either of a recent negative coronavirus test or that they have had the coronavirus and have recovered from it,&rdquo; Daynes said.&nbsp;
The college has software to help collect this information.&nbsp;
&ldquo;We know that this effort is not foolproof and that you are only negative when you get tested and people can be exposed afterwards, but, nonetheless, this is a measure we can take and that students can complete that we hope will reduce the prevalence of coronavirus amongst returning students,&rdquo; Daynes said.&nbsp;
The college has also implemented surveillance testing on campus, beginning with its student-athletes. Daynes expects to expand surveillance more broadly during the semester.
Barton requires students to complete a daily COVID-19 health screening and report the results.
The college saw no instances of coronavirus spread in classrooms, residence halls or athletic facilities during the fall semester, according to Daynes.&nbsp;
&ldquo;We feel confident that with the right safety measures in place, our students can live on campus and retain their health, and that they can participate in key co-curricular activities, whether it&rsquo;s athletics, clubs or organizations or working on campus, and be healthy themselves and help keep others on campus healthy.&rdquo;
Daynes said campus health depends on each student, staff member and faculty member&rsquo;s willingness to adhere to the safety protocols. The Barton community has to be &ldquo;humble and flexible,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;
&ldquo;You can put into place the best systems and the best protections and still have instances where people get sick, and we are aware of that possibility,&rdquo; Daynes said.&nbsp;
SPRING COMMENCEMENT
Daynes said the college is still planning for spring commencement.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Our deep desire is to be able to hold it on campus, not just for the students who are graduating this May, but also for the students who graduated last May and had only a virtual commencement,&rdquo; Daynes said. &ldquo;We realize that our ability to do this depends on a great deal &mdash; it depends on the guidance from the state, it depends on the successful distribution of the vaccine amongst people who are in line to receive it, it depends on our ability to plan and manage for a large event this spring.&rdquo;
Daynes said college officials might determine in March that it&rsquo;s impossible to hold an on-campus commencement ceremony in May.&nbsp;
&ldquo;However, right now, our plan is to bring people together on campus for commencement this spring for our Barton 2020 graduates in 2020 as well as our 2021 graduates,&rdquo; Daynes said.

Barton College adds new coronavirus measures

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The family of a slain Wilson man who died in a robbery four decades ago wants his unsolved case reviewed. James Crisp ran a music store on Goldsboro Street in the 1980s. Super Hits Volume One Record Store was popular in a way that&#x2019;s rarely seen today. Folks would drive from Rocky Mount and Greenville just to see what records Crisp had on the shelf. On Oct. 11, 1982, an employee coming to work found the front door open and Crisp&#x2019;s body at the back of the store in a pool of blood. His hands and feet were bound with an extension cord, according to archived Wilson Times reports. Crisp had been stabbed six times, according to his autopsy. <h5>GRANDDAUGHTER’S MISSION</h5> Crisp died before granddaughter Ashley Eatmon was born. She&#x2019;s now a criminal prosecutor in a different judicial district. &#x201C;I think my career path influenced wanting to find out what happened with this 1982 unresolved murder,&#x201D; Eatmon said. &#x201C;The unanswered questions are something that our family has always wondered about.&#x201D; Eatmon acknowledged the odds are long at this point that any resolution can be found in her grandfather&#x2019;s death, but she wants to try. &#x201C;It is the right thing to do,&#x201D; Eatmon said. &#x201C;Justice requires that someone take action to find out if there is anything that could be done no matter how much time has passed since this senseless killing.&#x201D; Use of DNA evidence in criminal cases was all but unheard of when Crisp was killed. &#x201C;There have been plenty of cold cases solved by reviewing the physical evidence to determine if testing evidence years later would provide information on the case,&#x201D; Eatmon said. &#x201C;I initially contacted the SBI Cold Case Division regarding this because they have grants to do this very type of investigation, and they have been very helpful in this request. The goal was always to see if any physical evidence could be tested.&#x201D; SBI agents have reached out to the Wilson Police Department to start the process, Eatmon said, adding that she&#x2019;s talked with detectives regarding reviewing the evidence in their custody. &#x201C;The Wilson Police Department is working with the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation to determine the current status of the case,&#x201D; said department spokesman Capt. Steve Stroud. The Crisp case isn&#x2019;t listed among unsolved murders on the police department&#x2019;s website. <h5>CASE DISMISSED</h5> Crisp&#x2019;s wife told reporters at the time of his death that she couldn&#x2019;t sleep and lived her life in fear because no one had been arrested. Seven years after Crisp died, police arrested three men and charged them in the crime. Frederick Lyles was serving time in Raleigh&#x2019;s Central Prison on an unrelated armed robbery conviction. Anthony Best was on the lam in Virginia, but authorities soon caught up to him. O&#x2019;Neal Rasta Thompson was located in a South Carolina prison serving time for an aggravated assault conviction. Lyles, now 60, was 22 at the time of the murder and 29 when arrested. Best and Thompson, who are now 61, were 23 at the time of the murder and 30 when arrested. Lyles has an extensive criminal conviction history. Thompson &#x2014; a Haitian immigrant &#x2014; was traveling from town to town and appeared to be homeless. Wilson Police Chief Tom Younce held a press conference at the time of the arrests and announced the case was closed. &#x201C;There was a time when I didn&#x2019;t believe they would ever find who did it,&#x201D; Crisp&#x2019;s wife told the Times. &#x201C;I&#x2019;m glad I was wrong.&#x201D; Crisp&#x2019;s daughter Sharon Eatmon told the newspaper in 1989 that the whole ordeal wouldn&#x2019;t be over for her until the three men were brought to trial. A trial never happened. The district attorney&#x2019;s office dismissed the case, citing lack of evidence. The late John Covolo, a prosecutor in 1990 who went on to be a judge, said the evidence the police collected against the three men didn&#x2019;t &#x201C;pan out.&#x201D; Covolo told the Times that a hair sample sent to the SBI crime lab didn&#x2019;t match any of the three suspects; however, the real issue was an eyewitness who agreed to testify but later refused to take the stand should a trial go forward. Another witness said he&#x2019;d testify against the three men, but he was an inmate with zero credibility, according to Covolo. A detective at the time said police would have to live with the district attorney&#x2019;s office&#x2019;s decision. Family members said they were confused and disappointed. Since the charges were dropped, Lyles has been convicted of selling drugs and attempted breaking and entering. Best has been convicted of breaking and entering, larceny and a drug-related charge, according to information provided by the N.C. Department of Public Safety. Thompson was turned over to federal immigration authorities. His name dropped from state public records after that. <h5>‘SOMEONE KNOWS SOMETHING’</h5> &#x201C;Someone saw something, someone heard something or someone knows something,&#x201D; Eatmon said. &#x201C;I am hoping that almost 40 years later that if anyone has information on this case they contact the Wilson Police Department. I know the chances of anything happening with this case now are slim to none, but you never know until you try.&#x201D; Gov. Jim Hunt, who lives in Wilson County, offered a $5,000 reward for useful information in the case back in 1982. Such rewards typically don&#x2019;t expire. Team Cold Case, a local partnership between the media, business owners and law enforcement, is also offering a reward of up to $15,000 for information leading to an arrest, bringing the total possible reward up to $20,000. Anyone with information about the case can call Wilson police at 252-399-2323, Crime Stoppers of Wilson at 252-243-2255 or Team Cold Case at 252-406-6736. Crisp

Family seeks answers to music store murder

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We had a special breakfast at my house recently, overnight French toast filled with fruit and pecans. Breakfast on weekdays is usually cheese toast, grits, frozen waffles, fruit and granola or cereal, but I had the ingredients on hand, so I mixed up the recipe and popped it in the fridge to chill and work some magic. Not only did I want to eat the fruity French toast, I also wanted to experiment with an adaptable recipe that would work well for a special breakfast or brunch for company. I think I succeeded. All you have to do is prepare the French toast the night before, take it out of the fridge and bake while getting ready for the day. Because it was just my husband and me, I made a small recipe of the baked French toast that would equal four servings. Earlier in the week, we had eaten part of a large loaf of French bread I had gotten in our Walmart pickup order. There was plenty left for our breakfast. Most baked French toast recipes follow a basic guide: dice some bread; stir a mixture of milk, eggs, vanilla and maybe spices; add fruit or nuts. Some recipes include cream cheese and a buttery topping, but I don&#x2019;t like overly-sweet breakfast recipes, so mine was simple. Although I used French bread, I would have loved using a loaf of challah for my French toast. I also used skim milk, but some prefer cream. I had fresh blueberries in the refrigerator that needed to be eaten soon, so I used those, as well as some peaches from the freezer. You could also skip adding the fruit to the mixture that bakes, and instead could top plain French toast with fresh fruit. Chopped pecans topped our breakfast treat. There are so many ways you can adapt this basic recipe. Change the bread, switch the milk, experiment with fruit. My husband would have loved diced apples. And you can always use walnuts or almonds if you prefer. I was happy that I could use what I had on hand. Since the pandemic, I&#x2019;ve really learned to rely on the foods I have in the house and have come up with many substitutions that have worked just fine for us. Lisa Boykin Batts has been writing a weekly food column since 2001. Her column includes recipes she and her family enjoy.

Baked French toast a morning treat

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Kenneth and Leisa Houghton of Statesboro, Georgia, announce the engagement of their daughter, Kendra Sharon Houghton, to Eric Milliken Via, both of Warner Robins, Georgia. The bride is the granddaughter of the Sharon Robertson of Harrison, Arkansas, and late Harrell Robertson, and Wanda Houghton and Nadean Houghton of Harrison and the late Bill Houghton Parents of the groom are Michael and Mary Sargent and Dr. B. Scott Via, all of Wilson. He is the grandson of the late Eugene Via and the late Jeanne Via; Conrad and Anne Odden of Wilson; Harrison Givens of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and the late Marylou Givens; and Richard and Mary Sargent of Wilson. A Nov. 13 wedding is planned in Savannah, Georgia.

Wanda LaGwen Peppers-Jones

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Baked French toast a morning treat

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