The Festival on the Neuse attracts thousands of spectators to Kinston each year.

Before they arrive on May 1, the Pride of Kinston and local group Kinston Promise Neighborhood will host volunteers for the city’s annual Clean-up Day.

Pride has held the initiative 10 times since 2006. With the partnership with Kinston Promise this year, the clean sweep will expand to the East Kinston area.

“It’s always been a community volunteer thing,” Pride Director Adrian King said. “The point of it all is to clean downtown (because) it’s good for economics, as well as aesthetics.”

Volunteers will meet at Pearson Park Saturday at 9 a.m. for their assignments. After a complimentary lunch, a tree will be planted at the park to observe National Arbor Day, a holiday acknowledging the importance of trees.

“You taste with your eyes first,” King said. “What you see informs the rest of your feelings about a place or a thing or a person.”

The two groups hope to spread the message that a neat, liter-free community is important to draw people into Kinston.

“We feel like our community ought to be really proud of where we are,” King said. “You should be willing to put forth a little effort to keep it clean.”

Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 or at jessika.morgan@kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.

2013 Clean Up Day

• Saturday from 9 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
• Pearson Park
• Lunch served at 12:30 p.m.
• Tree planting at 1:30 p.m.

SNOW HILL — An incinerator explosion at the Greene County Animal Shelter has left the only animal control officer in the county injured and not able to work for an unknown amount of time.

The accident, which happened April 10, was brought to light at the Greene County Board of Commissioners meeting by a citizen presenting to the board.

At about 9 a.m., Randy Hawkins, the officer, was taking euthanized animals from a freezer to a gas-fueled incinerator when a blast came out from the unit’s door, throwing the officer against a mobile unit about 10 feet away, Shelter Attendant Gayle Joyner said. The impact caused dents where his body and head hit the trailer, she added.

Joyner said she pulled up at the shelter just after the accident happened and saw Hawkins coming toward her quickly and looking disoriented.

“I thought Randy had been bitten by a dog,” she said.

Joyner said he told her to go look at his jacket, which was burned and melted.

He kept saying his hand was burning, but there were no burn marks on it, she said.

“He told me he hit the trailer and it dented in,” Joyner said.

Fortunately, Hawkins had put on a bullet-proof vest because he planned to make a call later that day in a potentially dangerous area. It may have saved his life, Joyner said.

“If it hadn’t been for that,” she said about the vest, “it probably would have killed him.”

Hawkins suffered a concussion, Joyner and Greene County Health Department Director Michael Rhodes confirmed.

“The vision in his left eye is still not clear,” Joyner said, “and he still has ringing in his ears.”

The burns that he felt immediately after the accident later began to show up visibly, she said.

Rhodes said he won’t be returning to work until his doctor gives the OK.

“We’re just taking it a week at a time,” Rhodes said.

The metal incinerator’s ignition had not been starting up easily in the past and the unit had been repaired about six months earlier, he said. Joyner said Hawkins had mentioned having problems with it again. The unit was fired up and running when the explosion occurred, she said.

Rhodes said Hawkins had called about the problem again and he was in the process of getting a technician to look at it.

“We’re not using it until it gets a complete checkout,” Rhodes said. “I’m trying to find someone certified to look at it this time.”

Joyner has been working toward becoming an officer, but she isn’t currently licensed to carry a gun nor is she rabies-certified by the state. However, she can assist with emergency calls.

Greene County Sheriff Lemmie Smith said his deputies take emergency after-hours calls, but they don’t have the equipment to handle aggressive dogs.

“We’re having to assist more calls,” Smith said, “because animal control doesn’t have an animal control officer.”

Rhodes said the department is focusing on animal bites until there is additional help.

“It affects us greatly,” he said about the accident, “because, at the moment, we don’t have anybody to pick up animals.”

With the shelter nearly full, Rhodes said residents can bring animals to the shelter, but should call first to make sure there is space available.

Before dropping off a dog or cat, call the Greene County Animal Shelter at 252-747-8184.

Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.

People may lie, but numbers don’t.

Eastern North Carolina AIDS rates top the state, with Jones County at No. 1 and Lenoir County at No. 3. Greene County comes in tied at No. 9 with Nash County.

The statistics, part of the 2011 HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report by the state Division of Public Health, show the latest picture on sexually-transmitted diseases in North Carolina.

Unfortunately, it’s nothing new.

The Charlotte Observer quoted UNC Charlotte medical geographer Gerald Pyle in 1994 saying, “The largest number of (AIDS) cases are still in metropolitan areas, but the rates are getting higher and higher in some of the poor, rural counties.”

A dozen years later, the threat continued to loom.

“We are right in the middle of an epidemic of HIV and AIDS, and I don’t know how many people think about that or know it,” Dr. Thomas Kerkering said at ECU in 2006, quoted in university publication Pieces of Eight.

If there is a silver lining, diagnosed AIDS cases dropped significantly in Lenoir and Jones counties in 2011, from 2010.

“It’s certainly encouraging to see, for example, the two (cases) in 2011, compared to the previous years,” Lenoir County Health Department Director Joey Huff said. “We’ve always had that unfortunate distinction of being a higher-rate county when it comes to HIV infection and also AIDS, and some of the other STDs as well.”

Lenoir County had 15 diagnosed AIDS cases in 2009 and 11 in 2010. Over the three-year period, state statisticians calculated the county has 22.5 AIDS cases per 100,000 people. Jones County, which had three cases in 2009 and 2010, and one in 2011, has a rate of 29.7 cases per 100,000 people, because of the county’s much smaller population.

Should people engage in risky behavior, there are methods in place for free testing.

“In North Carolina, we have an excellent testing program, where anybody can go to a health department anywhere in North Carolina and be tested for HIV anonymously and free,” Huff said.

Huff explained that counselors are on hand to instruct people how to reduce their chances of contracting HIV, if they test negative, and how to not spread the disease, should they test positive for HIV or AIDS.

There are a variety of drugs used to manage the disease and allow a person to live longer than otherwise possible, but income and availability of health care can be barriers to people seeking help.

“Unfortunately we don’t have any providers that provide that service locally,” Huff said. “People who come to us, when they find out they’re HIV positive, we refer them to the infectious disease clinic in Greenville.”

Messages left with Jones County Interim Health Director Howard Surface and with the state Division of Public Health were not returned as of press time.

Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wes.wolfe@kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.

For free HIV/AIDS screening, contact the Lenoir County Health Department at:

•  252-526-4200
•  201 N. McLewean St., Kinston
•  Appointment required

SNOW HILL — Greene County’s last audit was not the first time its commissioners and county manager had heard the reserved funds were being siphoned away.

For two years prior, the county’s auditor, Jay Parris of Barrow, Parris and Davenport in Kinston, had warned the board they were spending more than they were taking in.

Still, none of the five commissioners imagined the 2011-12 budget would be $1.6 million short, nor the current budget also be laden with omissions and revenue overages.

“I think we did not realize we were going down the direction that we were going,” Commissioner Bennie Heath said, “… I was presented a budget that I thought was a solid budget — that was balanced.”

Commissioners James Shackleford and Denny Garner said part of the problem was a lack of property tax increases for several years, while county expenses rose.

“Nobody wants to raise taxes unless they have to,” Shackleford said, “but sometimes not raising taxes can cause you more problems than raising taxes.”

The county hasn’t raised property taxes since 2008 when it increased from .746 to .756 per $100 of property value.

Garner said taxes should have been raised incrementally over time, but he and other commissioners had told then-county manager, Don Davenport, not to raise the taxes after the citizens protested over a proposed 5.4 percent increase.

Heath had told the audience at a public meeting in June the board would probably pass an interim budget to give time in July to study the budget further. But instead, it was passed in “the closet.”

Interim County Manager Richard Hicks, as well as others, said the problems didn’t happen suddenly. Hicks was hired after Davenport retired in December.

“I think it was more of a long-term problem,” Hicks said, “where they just kept anticipating the revenues.”

The budget was passed with the commissioners knowing it was partially based on funds that were not guaranteed — federal inmate rental fees at the jail that never materialized and the quarter-cent tax that wasn’t voted on until November.

“We felt like that, you know, that we could go ahead and pass it without doing an interim budget,” Garner said. “But, in hindsight — you know hindsight is 20/20 — that’s probably what we should have done.”

Chairman Jack Edmondson said getting the budget late in the fiscal year was part of the problem. When some citizens became angry over the quickly-approved budget, the board held a workshop in July to look at additional cuts.

“We only had one workshop,” Edmondson said, “and cut a few items, but we didn’t cut no ways near enough.”

He said another problem was not performing routine maintenance for county facilities and then paying more for it later.

“We didn’t maintain the courthouse,” he said, “and look at the expense we had to go through to get it back in shape and we’ve still not fully solved the moisture problem there.”

Snow Hill resident Carolyn Newcomb said lack of oversight, transparency, financial accuracy and long-term planning, as well as mismanagement, are what caused the county’s problems.

Jody Tyson, an Arba resident, cited lack of management, poor oversight, inaccurate data and an unresponsive board contributed to the crisis.

“The majority of the county commissioners sat at a table all summer,” he said, “when citizens repeatedly expressed concerns and questions and they didn’t respond, nor reply, nor, frankly, seem concerned enough to even investigate the factual concerns that were placed before them.”

Several residents said the only commissioner who has stepped up to the plate is Edmondson, who from the beginning of the crisis informed a group of citizens of the problems, brought them his copy of the budget to study line by line and later, when employee cuts were made, gave up the remainder of his travel and commissioners’ stipend — $435.80 plus $150 for travel each month.

A couple of months later, the rest of the board gave up their $100-per-month travel pay, but not their regular stipend.

Garner said last week he had told Hicks he would take the 4.61 percent furlough with the rest of the employees — that equates to $17.42 out of $377.92 each month.

Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.

La GRANGE — A Kinston man allegedly shot his brother to death Saturday morning after a fight broke out.

The suspect, Benjamin Thomas, was found walking down a road at the Lenoir-Wayne County border, Lenoir County Sheriff Chris Hill said.

Deputies from Lenoir and Wayne were called to the shooting and found Richard Sylvester Thomas, 28, of Kinston dead in the yard of a house over the border in Wayne County.

The two brothers were fighting in a car, stopped at a house and continued fighting until the shooting occurred.

Lenoir Deputy Kenneth Black spotted the suspect walking down a road near the county line, Hill said.

“Our people were up in that area,” Hill said, “and saw someone who fit the description.”

Hill said Thomas was turned over to Wayne County Sheriff’s Office.

The gun was retrieved from a ditch, and Thomas was being held with bond at Wayne County Jail.

Information was obtained from the Associated Press.

You could call it an oasis.

In low-income neighborhoods, there can be a “retail desert.” Meaning, because area residents don’t have a lot of disposable income, retailers don’t feel it’s a good move to invest in a new location.

Local commercial realtor Wayne Malone said the naysayers were out strong when he and Vanguard Property Group looked into putting a Dollar General on East King Street.

“We started this project a year and a half ago, and I was told that it’d never work,” Malone said.

The location, a block from public housing and near the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard roundabout, had been stigmatized as a crime-prone area. But, Malone said, the store passed Dollar General’s neighborhood crime survey without any problem.

“This will be open in 30 days,” Malone said.

Another obstacle at the site was soil contamination from industrial activity in that part of Kinston. But, the money needed for clean-up wasn’t a deterrent.

“I am pleased we were able to find a practical solution to the environmental challenges, so that we could continue on with our work,” said George T. Barnes of Vanguard Property Group in a statement. “Kinston is special — I have family and friends there, so I am especially gratified we were able to move forward.”

Mark Pope, head of economic development for Lenoir County, said work continues to attract investment to the MLK corridor.

“We’re looking at a couple things there around the roundabout,” Pope said. “The city owns some property as it turns onto (N.C.) 11, Martin Luther King (Jr. Boulevard), off King Street. We’ve actually advertised that site, and I think we did have an interested party at one time that was looking at putting up a small, convenience-type store complex there.

“We’re still looking at that site.”

Malone said that if the Dollar General is successful — and he believes it will be — a couple of other companies may expand into East Kinston, as well.

“But I’ve got a couple other national companies — if this gets built and opens up, then they’re willing to go take a look in that area,” Malone said, later adding, “We think that store is going to be one of the better stores anywhere.”

Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wes.wolfe@kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.

The following arrests were reported by the Greene County Sheriff's Office:

CLICK HERE  to view  to view a PDF document that includes photos of inmates processed at Lenoir County jail this week. To access previous entries, click on the "MUGSHOTS" tab in the crime section on this page (NOTE: This section is still under construction. Typing "mugshots" into the search box at the top of the page will produce previous collections of mugshots.)

According to an incident report obtained from the Kinston Dept. of Public Safety, two armed gunmen made off with $1,150 cash and a cell phone during a Sunday night robbery at Taco Bell on 1806 W. Vernon Ave., Kinston.

No injuries were reported. See tomorrow's edition of the Free Press for the full story.

Two people went to the hospital following a wreck Monday on U.S. 258 North that slowed traffic in both directions for the better part of an hour. Troopers with the N.C. Highway Patrol were not immediately able to confirm the names of the drivers before Lenoir County EMS transported them to Lenoir Memorial Hospital. ‘It sounds like there was a bus stopped here at some point, and the lady in the blue car, here, did not get stopped in time and she rear-ended the white car,’ NCHP First Sgt. Charles Johnston said. The blue car, a Chevrolet Cobalt, sustained heavy damage to the front end. The trunk lid and rear bumper buckled in on the white car, also a Chevrolet. State Trooper R.B. Kirk, who worked the scene with Johnston, was on a hit-and-run call to Skinner’s Bypass when he encountered the wreck. The condition of the drivers is unknown at present.

Two thieves may want to make a literal run for the border.

Kinston police believe two black men of undetermined age committed an armed robbery Sunday at the Taco Bell on West Vernon Avenue, making off with $1,150 cash. They also took a Blackberry Curve mobile phone with its pink case, valued at $130.

According to the incident report, the crime went down at 10:50 p.m. when the two men, brandishing firearms, held up three workers at the fast food establishment. They’re suspected of robbery and kidnapping.

N.C. General Statute 14-39(a)(2) states a person is guilty of kidnapping if he or she retrains or confines a person to facilitate the commission of a felony. Robbery with a firearm is considered a Class D felony under state law.

Kinston Department of Public Safety spokesman Woody Spencer said Monday the suspects remain at-large.

“It’s still under investigation, so that’s where it stands at this point,” Spencer said.

Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wes.wolfe@kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.

The couple accused of murdering Kinston resident Laura Ackerson are being tried separately, again.

Monday, Wake County Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens split the cases of Grant Ruffin Hayes III and Amanda Perry Hayes, who are accused of murdering Ackerson in 2011.

Rosemary Godwin, attorney for Amanda Hayes, filed a number of motions on April 8, including ones asking for a separate table for her to sit at, that Grant Hayes — in a letter from jail — threatened to kill her, and that the defendants have opposing defenses.

WRAL CBS-5 reported April 11, “Godwin says in other motions that Amanda Hayes has an alibi for the time of Ackerson’s death and that she was coerced into helping dispose of the body because she was worried Grant Hayes would kill her, her daughter and his two sons.”

Godwin refused to comment to The Free Press.

In light of the motions, Stephens said the decision to combine the Hayes’ cases March 1 needed to be re-evaluated. Grant Hayes’ attorney, Jeff Cutler, has said the defense strategy taken by Amanda Hayes makes a combined defense untenable.

Free Press efforts to discuss Stephens’ ruling with Cutler were unsuccessful.

WakeCountyprosecutors opposed splitting the cases, believing Amanda Hayes to have participated in the Ackerson murder with every bit of culpability as Grant Hayes.

With the ruling, Amanda Hayes’ court date is set for May 20, while prosecutors will try Grant Hayes Aug. 22.

Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wes.wolfe@kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.

I never thought I’d live to see it, but Tax Deduction No. 2 turned 3 on Monday.

I arrived at TD 2’s preschool a few minutes early, so I peeped around the door to see how she acted away from her parents. To my amazement, as other parents showed up to pick up their kids, TD 2 picked up each kid’s book sack and handed it to the corresponding parent.

At home if we hand her a few pairs of socks and ask her to put them in her room, they end up in our mailbox.

That she has the wherewithal to memorize the face of each child’s parent and their book sack tells me she’s ramrodding us on the whole sock deal — although it was funny watching our mailman pretend to like the size 3 pink butterfly socks he thinks we gave him for Christmas.

When we ask her a question at home, TD 2 usually responds in a series of clicks and clacks — sometimes tapping out a message with a stick upside down on the dining room table. Today at school I saw her explain to a classmate why it’s better to get any and all felonies out of your system before turning 16.

Being that it was the kid’s “berfday,” I stopped at the Dollar Store to procure her one of them helium-filled aluminum foil balloons. I let the girl of honor pick the one she wanted, and as I’m sure I don’t have to tell you she got into an altercation with the balloon within seconds.

I broke up the fight by holding up a copy of the latest Guns 'N Roses album that was sitting on a nearby shelf. Just looking at the album made TD 2 cover her ears in fright, thus freeing the balloon to take its rightful place on the store ceiling.

I could have held up a James Blunt CD, but I didn’t want the poor girl to be sick on her birthday.

There was only one cashier on duty, but mercifully the store was bereft of customers. In fact, the only other customers in the place were shopping for a kid’s birthday as well — and they were in front of me in line at the check-out counter. The old me would’ve immediately started dreading whatever chunk of check-out hell was about to come my way, but over the last few months I’ve had good experiences at cash registers.

Recently at Aldi, an older gentleman who had enough groceries in his cart to feed a Kardashian’s ego for a week saw me standing behind him with one lowly pineapple and waved me ahead of him. To pay this act of kindness forward, I walked up to an elderly lady and asked if she’d like me to carry her groceries for her.

Apparently the poor woman’s hearing aid was on the fritz, but her canister of Frontiersman Bear Attack pepper spray was firing on all cylinders. After explaining to the woman and the responding officer and EMS personnel that I was just trying to help with her groceries, the remorseful woman apologized and gave me a piece of Werther’s candy. Nothing says “I’m sorry” like a piece of caramel-flavored granite.

Back to my current check-out line situation … the people in front of us were apparently buying items for a kid’s birthday party as well. These people had five of those helium-filled aluminum foil balloons, a 3-liter jug of carbonated punch imported (I’m guessing) from Bogota, and some party hats. Also in their cart were five large glass items that were either giant candle holders or brandy snifters.

I once drank some ginger ale from a brandy snifter and being inexperienced with that type of delivery vessel accidentally inhaled two nostrils worth of Canada Dry. I covered the faux pas gracefully, but the resulting sneeze did result in chunks of Gouda and Conran Christmas crackers being embedded permanently in a nearby curtain.

I’ll give the Dollar Store employee credit for thoroughness, because she meticulously wrapped each piece of glass in old newspapers as if it were chunks of the Maltese Falcon. I’ve seen newborns handled with less care than these pieces of $1 retail glass, of which I have no problem. The problem came when the total due was $38.14 and the customer decided to pay in $1 bills.

In the middle of counting the stack of $1 bills for the third time, the customer looked at me as I gnawed on the edge of my shopping cart as if I was somehow annoying her.

“I’m sorry, OK, I just got paid and I have a lot of ones,” she said. “That mean look on your face won’t get me to count any faster.”

“I’d hoped that those three years you spent in fourth grade would have handled that,” I said. “I’ve always wondered: Does an employee of the strip club re-coat the pole with Pam at the beginning of each shift or do the dancers have to do it themselves?”

Eventually the cashier is handed the stack of ones and determines she needs 14 cents more from the customer.

“I think I have 14 cents,” said the customer who then began to give herself a full-body cavity search that would shame a Tijuana border agent. After four minutes, all she found on her person was a pair of salad tongs and a deer tick. She then handed the cashier another $1 bill to cover the 14 cents. Of course the cashier then discovered she was out of change and we had to stand there until an armored truck from Fort Knox showed up with a stack of dimes, but at least we got our balloon.

Tonight we’ll temporarily lift the fruit/vegetable policy and treat TD 2 to a feast of macaroni and cheese with chicken tenders, topped off with a birthday cake depicting her hero, defense attorney Johnnie Cochran. Between the presents, the carbs and the sugar, we’ll be lucky if we don’t end up in the holding cell.

Jon Dawson’s columns appear every Tuesday and Thursday in The Free Press. Contact Jon at 252-559-1092 or jon.dawson@kinston.com. Purchase books, music and dollar store pregnancy tests at jondawson.com.

SNOW HILL — Commissioners Bennie Heath and Denny Garner said it’s time to stop pointing fingers of blame about Greene County’s financial dilemma.

But many of the residents have wanted to know since June who is responsible for the financial disaster of a budget — both last year’s and current.

“I think we’re all responsible for it,” Commissioner James Shackleford said.

The board member said he put his confidence in then-county manager Don Davenport, who retired in December. But if a tax increase was necessary to make the budget balance, Davenport should have been forthright in saying so, he added.

“I think he should have stood more for his recommendations,” Shackleford said.

Those who shared responsibility over the budget were Davenport, former finance officer Shawna Wooten and the commissioners.

Heath said he had confidence in the staff and didn’t see the “red flag.”

“I’ll just say that we all had a piece of this puzzle,” he said, “and we’re all in this together.”

Garner said there’s plenty of blame to go around, but to “beat it to death” hurts the county.

“The bottom line,” he said, “the buck stops with the commissioners.”

Chairman Jack Edmondson and Commissioner Jerry Jones said the omissions and overages of revenue on the budget put Davenport at fault, but the commissioners are to blame for not monitoring it closely. Edmondson said the board told Davenport not to raise the property tax by the proposed 5.4 percent.

“Nobody ever said anything about dropping back to 2 cents or a penny,” he said about the board discussion. “We just asked (Davenport) to make expenditures fit revenues, and it was not done.”

Jones said Davenport didn’t discuss certain elements of the budget and wasn’t “truthful” about what would happen if taxes weren’t raised.

“We paid a man over 90-some thousand dollars a year,” Jones said. “You expect him to tell you the truth and what’s going on, and he did not do it.”

Edmondson said, “Maybe we didn’t ask the right questions to get the answers that we should have been getting.”

He also said politics were involved, such as Davenport — “a likeable guy” — giving in to the department heads’ requests when the money may not have really been there.

The commissioners agreed Davenport was ultimately responsible for overseeing the work Wooten performed. Edmondson said, with Hicks’ evaluation of her and assistance, she may have still been in her finance position today had she not resigned when the heat turned up.

Interim County Manager Richard Hicks said the auditor was “pretty clear” in 2010 and 2011 the fund balance was in decline.

Hicks said amendments should have been made all along. If the manager doesn’t look at the line items on a monthly basis and their history, he “could easily be fooled” or “may not see something that happened,” such as a trend, Hicks said.

“Myself, personally,” he said, “I would not be comfortable with those kinds of mistakes, you know, in a budget I presented.”

County residents Jody Tyson, Carolyn Newcomb and Chuck Stokes put the center of blame on Davenport, but believe the commissioners should have been more aware — especially when the public raised concerns over budget items. Newcomb likened Davenport to a CEO of a company.

“Greene County was paying top dollar for a county manager to make sure that our finances were looked after,” she said, “that everyone was informed to make a wise decision.”

Stokes compared Greene County to Enron — making the books “look right.” He also said the commissioners’ reaction was a negative one — “damage control,” but the financial mess was bigger than damage control could handle.

He also blames the citizens for not being involved all along. But he indicated there are still questions to be answered.

“I think the county manager,” Stokes said, “I think he should come forward and confess to what happened and help us all to understand a little bit more about exactly what his motive was for cooking these books, like he did.”

Multiple attempts to reach Davenport for this report were unsuccessful.

Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.

Nearly 70 years after Clyde Ballenger’s ship sank in the North Atlantic, a Wilmington mother stumbled across his Purple Heart while spring cleaning her home.

When Sylvia Jabaley found the iconic gold and purple medal in a box in her dresser, she immediately knew it was in the wrong place.

Her husband, Eric, had found the Purple Heart in 1998 as he sifted through belongings left behind by renters at a house he bought, a brick home at the corner of Wrightsville Avenue and Audubon Boulevard.

“He picked it up and thought, ‘I can’t throw that away,’” she said.

So the medal — awarded to members of the armed forces wounded or killed in service — was boxed up for safekeeping, forgotten until Jabaley found it in the same house, the gold still shiny.

Inscribed on the back is a name and a rank — Clyde E. Ballenger, a boatswain’s mate second class for the United State Coast Guard.

For hours, she searched the Internet for his name, trying to find what became of Ballenger. Finally, Jabaley found a hit. He was lost in 1944.

But who was Clyde Ballenger? Did he have family? Could they be tracked down? How was the medal connected to their house?

About eight hours into her search, Jabaley had found no confirmed family members.

And Clyde Ballenger was still a mystery.

Serving at sea

The U.S. Department of Defense has a Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office charged with overseeing the effort to recover more than 83,000 service members that are unaccounted for. More than 73,000 of them never returned home from World War II.

Clyde Ballenger’s name is on that list. His recorded date of loss is March 9, 1944.

On that night, the USS Leopold was about 400 miles south of Iceland, according to a report from the Coast Guard Historian’s Office.

The Leopold was one of 30 destroyer-escorts built in 1943 by the Navy but manned by Coast Guard crews. Their main objective was defending the convoys against German U-boats, or submarines.

In the winter of 1944, after spending two weeks training off the coast of Maine, the Leopold was sent to protect a 27-ship convoy in the North Atlantic.

On March 9, 1944, the crew detected a U-boat lurking in the convoy’s route. The Leopold, along with the nearby USS Joyce, was ordered to fire upon the submarine.

Crews shot a flare into the sky to help them spot the sub, but when they did, the U-boat was already descending into the waters.

As gunners fired into the darkness, the ship was rocked by a torpedo.

Statements from the crew, preserved in the Coast Guard’s survivor’s accounts, evoke a harrowing scene.

The blast blew Seaman 1st Class Troy Gowers out of his shoes and into a net a dozen feet away.

He returned to his gun. It was jammed. Electricity was off. When the order came to abandon the stricken ship, Gowers thrust a lifeboat overboard and jumped into the nearly freezing ocean. Waves washed over the raft.

On board the ship, a guardsman pinned during the explosion asked an officer to shoot him. When the officer said no, he asked them to pass him a gun so he could shoot himself.

Just as a storm strengthened, Seaman 1st Class W.G. O’Brien said the Leopold began to sink.

As the USS Joyce passed by, O’Brien heard their skipper on a megaphone. “We’re dodging torpedoes,” the man shouted. “God bless you. We’ll be back.”

Soon after, crew members were flung into the ocean when the ship rolled over. “The waves were about 50 feet high and one by one, the men were washed off,” O’Brien said.

It was a grim morning when the Joyce returned. Of the 199-man crew, there were only 28 men left to save.

Clyde Ballenger, 22, was among those lost.

Life before war

Four years earlier, in 1940, Ballenger, then 18 and unmarried, lived with his parents in New Bern, according to U.S. Census records written in cursive.

His father, Clyde Austin Ballenger, was a 48-year-old barber. His mother, 50-year-old Nora Prevatte Ballenger, listed no other children.

Ballenger had left school after the ninth grade. When the census-taker came to their home, it was spring, and Ballenger was seeking work.

About 20 months later, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Ballenger would find a job serving his country.

As a boatswain’s (pronounced “bos’un”) mate on the Leopold, Ballenger would have worked on the ship’s deck and could have assisted with standing watch or navigation, said Coast Guard Lt. Terrence Walsh, who oversees casualty matters.

“It’s your classic sailor stuff,” Walsh said earlier this month over the phone.

The Coast Guard keeps records of its members made before 1950 in a bank of 3-by-5 notecards. The cards usually have a birth date and home of record.

“Sometimes, that’s all it has,” Walsh said.

Within those files was a Clyde Edward Ballenger, service number 220-823 — the same number on file with the missing personnel office. Born in Sumter, S.C., Oct. 26, 1921, Ballenger had enlisted as an apprentice seaman.

No family was listed on the card.

Yet when the Leopold sank, Ballenger left behind a young widow, Elizabeth Emily Ballenger, of New Bern.

His wife is listed next to Ballenger’s name in a National Archives list of war deaths from North Carolina.

After 1944, the paper trail in New Bern for his wife runs cold.

Clyde Ballenger’s mother, Nora, died in 1949, just five years after her son, according to county records. His father, Clyde Austin, died in 1955.

‘Only one left’

At 84, William “Bill” Ballenger speaks slowly on the telephone from his home in New Bern.

He listens closely about the search for a surviving Ballenger.

“I’m about the only one left,” Bill said.

Clyde was his first cousin on his father’s side. “I knew him very well.”

Bill doesn’t remember exactly when Clyde went away to war.

“It’s been so long ago,” he said.

While the years have erased the memory of his cousin’s funeral, he immediately recounted that Clyde was killed in the North Atlantic.

It wasn’t the family’s sole loss. The war also claimed the life of Ed Ballenger, Bill’s older brother and only sibling, who he said also served in the Coast Guard.

Bill remembers his cousin Clyde had a wife, Elizabeth, but doesn’t remember them having children.

“She just left the area and remarried,” he said.

Bill was at a loss to explain how Clyde’s Purple Heart ended up in a Wilmington house built after his cousin’s ship went down.

“All the family was right here, local,” he said.

Bill said he would like to have his cousin’s Purple Heart, although he said he wouldn’t object if another member of the family wanted it. Though he added, he’s likely the closest family that’s left.

A permanent home

Sylvia Jabaley still wonders who lived in her house that would have had some connection to Clyde.

“It could have been anybody,” she said.

Jabaley has been in contact with officials at the Coast Guard’s medals and awards program, who encouraged her to ship the Purple Heart to their office. She’s also thought about it going to a museum.

“I’m not quite ready for that,” Jabaley said, standing in her shaded backyard, holding the Purple Heart in the palm of her hand. For now, she wants to keep the medal in North Carolina.

Jabaley had hoped to put the medal in the hands of another Ballenger, perhaps a son or grandson.

“If it were that simple, it’d probably already be there,” she said.

For now, she’s waiting and wondering who else is out there that may surface, someone who knows how the medal got there — and where it should go next.

Chandelier restoration under way

Harold Dale of Kinston was on hand over the weekend to watch the beginning of a process to restore the chandeliers in the Grainger Hill Performing Arts Center.

Dale's grandson, Layton Edmondson, is working to have the chandeliers restored to their original condition. He is lowering each, one by one, as part of the meticulous process.

Historic Grainger Hill Performing Arts Center is at 300 Park Ave.

Field Controls prepares for Shop for Life

Randy Hood with CDS Networks and Services of Kinston has presented Jenny Daughety, chairwoman of Field Controls’ 2013 Shop for Life, with a Samsung Galaxy tablet and case.

The tablet and case, valued at $300, will be the prize of a drawing to be held at the Shop for Life vendor shopping event sponsored by Field Controls. This year’s event will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 11 at the Woodmen Community Center. Each $5 ticket purchased will be entered into the drawing.

Shop for Life benefits Lenoir County Relay for Life. Tickets can be purchased by calling 252-208-7333 or 252-208-7321. 

Mayor proclaims National Service Recognition Day

Kinston Mayor BJ Murphy recognized April 9 in Kinston as National Service Recognition Day. He presented a proclamation to representatives of the Lenoir/Greene Counties Foster Grandparent Program.

Accepting the proclamation were Rebecca Warren, Foster Grandparent Program director; and foster grandparents Addie Uzzell, Swanie Ellis, Patricia Dunn and Laura Cotton.

The program is funded through the Corporation for National and Community Service, and has 72 volunteers contributing more than 76,000 hours of service each year.

Tyler Antwine is having a blast at Bethel Christian Academy, and the Trojans baseball team is having a blast with him.

Antwine, a senior, transferred to the private school from North Lenoir following his sophomore year to “increase my Biblical knowledge,” he said. He also wanted to hone his skills on the diamond.

As the Trojans (9-6, 6-1) put their first place standing in the conference and four-game win streak on the line this afternoon at Greenville Trinity Christian, Antwine leads the team in most offensive categories. He’s also one of their go-to guys on the mound.

All told the right-hander is enjoying himself.

“We’ve been putting in a lot of work out here. The pieces are just finally coming together offensively, and that’s helping us a lot,” Antwine said.

“The opportunity I’ve had out here is a lot better. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Antwine has a team-best .475 average, and is first in plate appearances (59), runs scored (27), hits (19), extra-base hits (3), walks (18), stolen bases (eight), on-base percentage (.644) and slugging (.550). He’s second in RBIs at 12 behind Austin Croom’s 15.

On the mound, he’s 2-3 with a 5.33 ERA in seven appearances — six starts. He leads the team in strikeouts with 26.

Not bad for a kid who hadn’t pitched ever, in his life, before last season.

“He’s been a real workhorse for us this season, both on the mound and at the plate,” Trojans coach Kenny Sutton said.

“We’re glad he’s here. He’s having a great senior year.”

Today’s game marks the anniversary of Antwine’s first career start.

It’s also a reminder of just how far he’s come.

Antwine pitched a complete-game win in extra innings at Trinity last season, but it wound up being his last outing of the year. Antwine said he injured his throwing shoulder at some point during the game and never quite recovered.

Not only did he not take the hill again as a junior, the pain in his shoulder affected his defense at shortstop and his hitting.

“I didn’t really do that well last year because I got hurt,” Antwine said, “but this year I’m doing pretty good.”

Today, Antwine’s shoulder is completely healed and so has his game. The Trojans have three games left in the regular season — all this week — and then it’s on to the playoffs.

Bethel won back-to-back N.C. Christian School Association state 2A titles in 2010 and 2011, and in Antwine’s first year it came up short.

He isn’t planning on coming up short this year.

“It’ll be a happy end to all this hard work I, and my team, have been putting out,” Antwine said. “We have a lot of potential, and we haven’t even begun to meet it yet.”

Ryan Herman can be reached at 252-559-1073 or Ryan.Herman@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter: @KFPSports.