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Thursday, June 13, 2019
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• Belmont • Cramerton • Lowell • McAdenville • Mount Holly • Stanley
Thursday, June 13, 2019
Painter and Benfield named Mt. Holly Man and Woman of the Year By Alan Hodge alan@cfmedia.info
Longtime, active, volunteers Johnny Painter and Julia Benfield were named Mt. Holly’s Man and Woman of the Year 2019 during the 69th Annual Mount Holly Community Awards event. The gathering was held in the Grand Hall of the Mt. Holly Municipal Center, was presented by Duke Energy and sponsored by the Mount Holly Chamber of Commerce. Painter is a Mt. Holly
native and attended school there. He has been married to his wife Glenda (the 2018 Woman of the Year recipient for 46 years. He is a member of First United Methodist Church where he had held many positions of importance over the years and was named 2017 Lay Person of the Year there. Painter was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Mt. Holly Community Garden. He has decades of service as a volunteer with the MHFD and
was named 1982 Fireman of the Year. A father of two, Painter coached youth baseball and was a member of the East Gaston Booster Club and Cheer Club. He was also a Girl Scouts volunteer. Now a grandfather times eight, he attends nearly every event his grandchildren take part in. Painter has also been an active volunteer at Springfest, the Community Relief Organization, and the Mt. Holly Farmers Market. See MT. HOLLY, Page 5
Julia Benfield (above center) and Johnny Painter (below center) were recently named Mt. Holly’s Woman and Man of the Year. The pair are seen surrounded by previous recipients of the prestigious honor. Photos provided
Stanley WWII veteran recalls service in Navy By Alan Hodge alan@cfmedia.info
Last Thursday, June 6, marked the 75th anniversary of D-Day when tens of thousands of Allied troops hit the beach in France. It’s important to remember the soldiers who were in the front lines of that and other battles, but it’s also important to give credit to other veterans who served in supply and logistical roles and the part they did in keeping our military forces at peak efficiency. One of those men is 92-year-old US Navy veteran Bob Cloninger of Stanley who served on a fuel and oil tanker ship the USS Mattabesset during the closing days of WWII and the immediate post war period. “I joined the Navy in August 1944 when I was seventeen years old,” said Cloninger. “I chose the Navy
over the Army because I didn’t want to sleep on the ground and it had good food.” On a more serious note, Cloninger says he felt the Navy had better schools and could teach him a job skill useful when he got out. The skill that Cloninger learned was machine work. “In boot camp we learned how to use lathes, milling machines, and other machines,” he said. A photo taken in Japan in 1945 of Bob “To pass the test Cloninger of Stanley as a teenage US we had to make a Navy sailor. wrench and a clamp from scratch. We inger went to New Orleans also learned how to tear down a diesel engine and put boarded the Mattabesset for a shakedown cruise. The it back together.” After boot camp, ClonSee WWII, Page 4
Belmont gets brand new fire truck Belmont firefighters Matthew Hodge (left) and Steven Roberts with the department’s brand new fire truck. See entire story, Page 3. Photo by Alan Hodge
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