Artist in July spotlight
Anne Vincent has been chosen Artist of the Month for July at the Lenoir County Council on Aging. She started taking classes around 2005 under the late Eddie Cox and now Bettie Saville.
Vincent has learned many facets of art and particularly enjoys landscapes, folk art and objects she remembers from her life on her father’s farm, as depicted in her painting on display at the Skinner Center.
She claims it is a therapeutic endeavor in her life and has been an enjoyable and productive measure of expanding her knowledge.
Former Kinstonian promoted
Ben Hodge celebrated 27 years of military service June 6. He recently was promoted to the rank of colonel, and now serves with the 12,000 service members of the North Carolina National Guard as Senior Command Chaplain.
He is the son of Ray Hodge of Smithfield, who lived in Kinston for 18 years with his family when he was pastor of First Baptist Church.
Ben Hodge recently returned from a yearlong combat deployment supporting Operations New Dawn and Enduring Freedom, and before that, Operation Iraqi Freedom, during which he earned the Bronze Star and Meritorious Service Medal.
Hodge is a graduate of Kinston High School, Wake Forest University, Southeastern Baptist Seminary, several military schools, and has done additional study at Duke University and in professional seminars.
He and his wife, Kate Winstead Hodge, and children — John, a rising senior at Appalachian State University, and Eleanor, a rising senior at Mount Tabor High School — live in Winston-Salem, where he returned to his civilian career with Davidson Audio Visual, Inc.
Elks award scholarships
The Kinston Elks Lodge 740 received 13 applications this year from local high school seniors. Each North Carolina lodge can forward two boys’ and two girls’ scholarship applications for state competition.
Congratulations to Heather West, a South Lenoir High School senior who received a $1,000 state scholarship, and to Camron Gray who won an Elks Scholarship of $1,000 for four years. Kinston Lodge members Jack Strickland and Hilda Byrd presented local scholarship awards to both South Lenoir seniors during South Lenoir’s annual awards ceremony May 30.
Rising seniors can contact their guidance counselors by Sept. 1 for Elks scholarship applications or apply at elks.org/enf/scholars/mvs.cfm.