Kyle Petty to share songs, stories in Sunset Series appearance

Kyle Petty

ASHEBORO – At age 12, he picked up his first guitar at a NASCAR track and started writing songs.

And from the stage at Randleman High School to the sacred circle of the Grand Ole Opry, Randolph County native and former NASCAR driver Kyle Petty has proven that stock car racing isn’t his only talent.

Come hear for yourself as Kyle performs a selection of original tunes from his personal songbook at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, September 9, at the historic Sunset Theatre in downtown Asheboro, in Friends of the Library Sunset Signature Series event.

Begun in 2018, the Sunset Series brings high profile speakers and performers to the Sunset Theatre. It is sponsored by the Heart of North Carolina Visitors Bureau, the City of Asheboro and the Friends of the Randolph County Public Libraries.

Although widely known as a NASCAR driver and analyst, Kyle always has had a passion for music. He received his first guitar at age 12 from a traveling preacher at the racetrack.

Soon after, he began writing his own music, finding creative influences in Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Carole King, James Taylor, Harry Chapin and Jim Croce.

In the 1980s, Kyle took to the stage for a brief period after signing with RCA Records. He has opened up for acts such as Randy Travis, The Oak Ridge Boys and Hank Williams, Jr., and has performed on the Grand Ole Opry.

Today, Kyle frequently performs his original music in intimate shows across North Carolina and surrounding states.

Outside of his music, Kyle can be seen twice weekly on ”NASCAR America,” streaming on Peacock; on pre- and post-race NASCAR Cup and Xfinity coverage on NBC and USA Network; and as host on his new show, ‘Dinner Drive with Kyle Petty’ on the Circle Network. He also co-hosts the weekly radio show, "Fast Talk" on the Performance Racing Network.

He penned the best-selling memoir Swerve or Die: Life at My Speed in the First Family of NASCAR Racing in 2022.

Kyle also leads his annual Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America, one of the country’s most popular charity motorcycle rides, which raises funds and awareness for Victory Junction – a camp for children with chronic and serious medical conditions created by the Petty family in honor of Kyle’s late son, Adam.

The Sunset Theatre is located at 234 Sunset Avenue, Asheboro. Seating is first-come first-served.

For more information, contact the Heart of North Carolina Visitors Bureau at 800-626-2672.

Asheboro library ‘Back-to-School Night’ to showcase new online tutoring service

ASHEBORO – All Randolph County students – including those in the city and county school systems, Uwharrie Charter Academy, private schools, and home schools, are invited to a “Back-to-School Night” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, August 15, at the Asheboro Public Library.

The event will showcase free resources that the library offers to support K-12 students, including Tutor.com, an new, online service that provides live, one-to-one tutoring in all subject areas through carefully vetted educators.

Students are invited to wear school colors to show their pride and will be able to test virtual resources, participate in brain games, and win prizes to help out in the new school year.

Availability of Tutor.com is part of an “Equal Access to Tutoring” project developed by the Asheboro library Youth Services staff and funded by a federal Library Services and Construction Act grant via the State Library of North Carolina. At the Asheboro library alone, staff estimate they receive five requests for affordable tutoring each week.

Tutor.com will be accessible at all seven library branches and remotely to anyone with a library card or REAL2 student ID.

In addition, the grant will fund 10 each of laptops, Chromebooks and iPads for the Asheboro library that students can check out and use anywhere in the library to access Tutor.com and other resources.

The Asheboro City Schools is a partner in the project to help promote the new resources.

The Asheboro library is located at 201 Worth Street. Call 336-318-6804 for further information.

The Equal Access to Tutoring project is supported by grant funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (IMLS grant number LS-23645-OLS-23).

Author Judith Turner-Yamamoto, Asheboro native, returns for Sunset Series appearance

Judith Turner-Yamamoto

ASHEBORO – Randolph readers will recognize familiar locales — Little Beane Store, Blue Mist Drive-In, the Sir Robert Motel and others — in Asheboro native Judith Turner-Yamamoto’s debut novel, Loving the Dead and Gone.

Turner-Yamamoto — Judith Cox, growing up in Asheboro — will appear in conversation with Randolph Hub journalist Larry Penkava in a Friends of the Library Sunset Signature Series event at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, August 19, at downtown Asheboro’s historic
Sunset Theatre.

Her appearance is free and the public is invited. The Sunset Series is sponsored by the Heart of North Carolina Visitors Bureau, the City of Asheboro and the Friends of the Randolph County Public Libraries.

In Loving the Dead and Gone, a freak car crash in a place not unlike Randolph County puts in motion moments of grace that bring redemption to two generations of women and the lives they touch. The choral novel delves into the minds of four characters, and explores how the traumas of the present stir those of the past.

Set in the world of 1920s tobacco farms and 1960s textile mills, the novel exhibits a lyric strength and deep and empathic understanding of working-class daily life in rural and small-town 20th century North Carolina.

Loving the Dead and Gone was named a Gold Medal winner in Southern Regional Fiction in the 2023 Independent Publisher Book Awards. It was shortlisted for the 2023 UC-Berkeley Eric Hoffer Book Awards Grand Prize, where it was an honorable mention in General Fiction and finalist for the Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award for Debut Fiction.

Publisher’s Weekly calls Loving the Dead and Gone “a bittersweet and fantastical debut.” Foreword Reviews says “Loving the Dead and Gone is a moving, insightful novel about growing through tragedy.”

Turner-Yamamoto’s work has appeared in over 30 journals and anthologies. She has received more than fifteen awards and fellowships, including the Washington Prize for Fiction and the Virginia Screenwriting Award.

She has taught fiction at the Chautauqua Writers’ Center, the Danville Writer’s Conference, and the Writers’ Center at Bethesda, Maryland. A featured author and panelist, she has appeared at various book festivals and is a keynote speaker at the 2023 Santa Barbara Writers Conference.

As an art historian, Turner-Yamamoto’s on-air interviews have been featured on NPR affiliate WVXU. She has penned over 1,000 articles on the arts, travel, design, books, fashion, and food that have appeared in The Boston Globe Magazine, Elle, Interiors, Art & Antiques, The Los Angeles Times, Travel & Leisure, and many others.

Begun in 2018, the Sunset Series brings high profile speakers and performers to the Sunset Theatre. The theatre is located at 234 Sunset Avenue, Asheboro.

For further information, contact the Heart of North Carolina Visitors Bureau at 800-626-2672.

Accidental witness: historian to recount McGlohon’s A-bomb experience in Asheboro library talk

John McGlohon's photograph of the
Hiroshima atomic bomb blast.

ASHEBORO – Many Asheboro residents are aware that legendary Fire Chief John McGlohon, as an aerial reconnaissance photographer in World War II, snapped images of the atomic bomb blast at Hiroshima.

What they may not know is that as McGlohon began to tell his story, doubters arose — and because his images were classified Top Secret until 1995, proving it was problematic.

McGlohon friend and oral historian Ken Samuelson will share McGlohon’s unique story, and detail his own efforts, through archives, museums and service members’ memories, to substantiate it, in a talk at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, August 10, at the Asheboro Public Library.

Although only the three B-29 bombers assigned to the Hiroshima mission — including the “Enola Gay,” which dropped the bomb — were supposed to be in the area, a misunderstood order put McGlohon’s reconnaissance aircraft nearby. McGlohon captured images of the explosion and its aftermath.

John McGlohon with his
aerial reconnaissance camera

After the war, McGlohon returned home and operated a photography business. In 1955, he joined the Asheboro Fire Department, and served as Chief from 1961 to 1985. After retirement, he served on the city council from 1987 to 2005 as mayor pro-tem. 

Samuelson, from Moline, Illinois, graduated from George Washington University and served in the U.S. Navy as a supply officer. He later worked in financial management.

He has a long and deep interest in World War II, and has conducted oral histories with veterans for the North Carolina Museum of History, The National World War II Museum and the University of Florida Oral History Collection. He has published numerous articles on veterans he has interviewed.

His oral history work led him to McGlohon.

The library is located at 201 Worth Street. For further information, call 336-318-6803.

Learn beekeeping basics in Asheboro library talk

ASHEBORO – Get buzzing about beekeeping as Cooperative Extension Horticulture Agent Cody Craddock talks about how bees make your garden bloom in “Basics of Beekeeping,” 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 27, at the Asheboro Public Library.

Craddock will offer beekeeping tips, share information about hive supplies, and answer questions.

The talk is free and the public is invited.

Craddock has been an avid gardener since childhood, when he grew a large garden and pulled a wagon to sell produce to neighbors. He graduated from the University of Mount Olive in 2021 and has worked for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Randolph County office ever since.

The Asheboro library is located at 201 Worth Street. For further information, call 336-318-6803.

Kid-friendly Shakespeare comes to Randolph libraries in July

ASHEBORO – A troupe of traveling players will bring three of William Shakespeare’s plays to life in interactive theatrical adventures for the whole family at five Randolph County Public Libraries locations in July.

Shepherd Shakespeare of Charlotte will perform at the libraries as follows:

• Asheboro: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 10 a.m. Monday, July 7;
• Franklinville/Ramseur: As You Like It, 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, July 19, at Ramseur Lake (Ramseur Municipal Building in case of rain);
• Liberty: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 18;
• Randleman: The Tempest, 10:30 a.m. Thursday, July 20;
• Seagrove: As You Like It, 3:30 p.m. Thursday, July 20.

Shepherd Shakespeare is comprised of the husband-and-wife team of Chester and Katy Shepherd. Both are theater veterans whose shows are designed for maximum fun and understanding of William Shakespeare’s timeless stories.

The shows are free and the public is invited. For further information, call 336-318-6804.

Learn about shark teeth and seashells at Asheboro and Liberty libraries

ASHEBORO – Dig into an interactive fossil and seashell event with Dr. Ashley Oliphant, author of Shark Tooth Hunting on the North Carolina Coast, at the Asheboro and Liberty public libraries on Thursday, July 6.

Oliphant will appear at the Liberty library at 2 p.m. Her presentation is aimed at children will include a show-and-tell segment with dinosaur, whale and shark fossils followed by a dig activity in which kids will get to keep the shark teeth and seashells that they find. Please call 336-622-4605 to sign up.

At Asheboro, Oliphant will present a talk for all ages at 6:30 p.m. Learn about her passion for beachcombing, research and the time before dawn when good shells and shark teeth are easiest to find. No registration is required for her Asheboro appearance.

Oliphant is a retied English professor from Denver, N.C., and author of six books.

For further information, contact the Asheboro library at 336-318-6803 or the Liberty library at 336-622-4605.

The Liberty library is located at 239 S. Fayetteville St. The Asheboro library is located at 201 Worth Street.