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Dec 6, 2024 | 
thesnaponline.com | Jo Grey
Published 3:53 pm Friday, December 6, 2024 On Tuesday evening, the night sky seemed dim compared to the holiday lights on Badin’s Falls Road and the Village Green, but below-freezing temperatures did not diminish the high spirits of a couple hundred people in town for the annual Christmas Tree Lighting. Those hardy folks sitting on metal bleachers just sat closer together.
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Nov 26, 2024 | 
ourstate.com | Robin Sutton Anders |Jill Lucas |Leah King |Jo Grey
SPONSORED BY Kimberley Jochl doesn’t remember the details, exactly — she and her twin sister were just 2 years old — but she knows how her first time on skis went down. “We lived in western Massachusetts and were bundled up in big, warm coats and ski pants,” she says. “We had these red pom-pom hats that had a strap under the chin.
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Nov 25, 2024 | 
ourstate.com | Alan Hodge |Jill Lucas |Leah King |Jo Grey
For more than 50 years, a dazzling chandelier has hung in the dining room of the Executive Mansion in Raleigh. Only recently has its remarkable backstory been fully illuminated.
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Nov 25, 2024 | 
ourstate.com | Jo Grey
As the Great Depression weighed heavy in the 1930s, a mother in Gaston County dreamed of giving her daughter an unforgettable Christmas surprise. Ninety years later, Mary Wilson Adams still recalls the rumble of the truck that woke her one night as a carpenter delivered a playhouse — a tiny home just big enough for the 3-year-old to call her own. “It was grand!” she says, remembering that Christmas morning surprise.
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Nov 25, 2024 | 
ourstate.com | Emiene Wright |Jill Lucas |Leah King |Jo Grey
The foyer of Margo Scurry’s home in northeast Charlotte is a portal into a kid’s Christmas dream. Four-foot-tall nutcrackers stand at the entrance to the living room, just the right height to look a child straight in the eye. A glowing tree twinkles nearby. And the entire room, anchored by a two-story brick wall, is festooned with hundreds of Santas — caroling, golfing, riding scooters. She even has a huggable, life-size Santa.
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Nov 25, 2024 | 
ourstate.com | Jo Grey |Trudy Haywood Saunders |Rebecca Woltz |Lauren Rhodes
After a day spent on planes, in airports, and amid crowds, Dennis and Stephanie Farias have finally made it to the tiny town of Badin where Stephanie’s parents live. It’s almost midnight on Christmas Eve, and at the end of their long trip from Nevada, the couple approaches the 1913 Badin Inn, a three-story, white structure with a wraparound veranda.
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
ourstate.com | Jo Grey |Elizabeth Hudson |Billy Warden |Genie Safriet
It’s midday on the eve of Thanksgiving, and The Rosebriar should be hopping. Except that the parking lot looks empty, the lights are off, and the front door is locked. Instead of its regular lunch service, the Albemarle restaurant is serving the community today by preparing seasonal, carryout sides.
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Sep 19, 2024 | 
thesnaponline.com | Jo Grey
Published 9:06 am Thursday, September 19, 2024 When you ask Curt and Angela Smith why they’re bringing an old kitchen to life at the 1913 Badin Inn, they say, “Because we love creating good food and making people happy.”That’s Chef Curt’s short answer. The long answer for Chef Ang begins a long way from Badin. She spent 23 years in Brazil with her missionary parents where her mother hosted and served other missionary families who visited or lived at the mission center.
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Sep 6, 2024 | 
thesnaponline.com | Jo Grey
Published 3:02 pm Friday, September 6, 2024 Whether one speaks English or Lao, the language of the heart is the same. Laotian immigrants Tho and Phoudone Naovarath, speak well of their Stanly County community. “We have a good business, and my children have good schools,” said Phoudone. The Naovaraths have shared their hearts along the way by offering good food to all who come through the doors of Tho’s Pizza and Hot Subs in Badin. Aug. 31 was a day of joy for the Naovaraths.
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Jul 16, 2024 | 
thesnaponline.com | Jo Grey
Published 2:01 pm Tuesday, July 16, 2024 Twenty-five years ago, Jean Ross Justice mailed a parcel from Iowa City to the library in Albemarle. Justice wanted the Stanly County library to have a copy of “Late Leisure,” the fifth book of poems written by her older sister, Eleanor Ross Taylor. But from Justice’s cover letter, it appears that people back home in Stanly County were late learning about the literary accomplishments of the sisters from Norwood.
