Order of the Long Leaf Pine

Quick Hits

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:28:37 -0400

* State Republicans may nominate a candidate from the floor for party chair: Former gubernatorial candidate George Little or state Sen. Andrew Brock.

* John Hagler grouses about the current state of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine in an entertaining interview on WFAE in Charlotte.

* The Henderson Daily Dispatch says the Order is a great honor when it's made to a "local pillar, a community stalwart" and not for a retirement.

* Jack Betts files another dispatch in the long-running battle over an Alcoa hydroelectric dam on the Yadkin River in Stanly County.

A long-forgotten state award

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:18:12 -0400

Ginger Brame had forgotten she was in the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

The teddy bear maker, then known as Ginger Thomas, received the state honor after working as a summer intern for the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences during Gov. Jim Hunt's second term.

"When the internships ended that year, we were all invited to the Governor's Mansion for a cookout or picnic as well as I can remember," she wrote in an e-mail to Dome.

She recently stumbled across the certificate in her attic and almost threw it out, not knowing what it signified.

"Looking at your list of notables, I think I'll hang onto my certificate a little longer, just in case I run into one of the celebrity members," she said. "Then I can honestly say we have something in common as members of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine."

In recent years, the Order has been awarded to retiring state employees with more than 30 years of experience, not necessarily to interns.

Long Leaf list

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 21 May 2009 10:43:38 -0400

Long Leaf list

A list of every member of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine from 1965 to 2006.
Download document

Final thoughts on the Order

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:55:21 -0400

Dome has now read the entire list of recipients.

With our eyes getting bleary from scanning the list, we have a few final tidbits of trivia to report about the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

THRICE IS NICE: Not everyone is inducted just once. Gospel singer Shirley Caesar, Wake sheriff John Baker, longtime political adviser Franklin Freeman and Rev. Alfred G. Dunston Jr. were inducted three times; Campbell University president Norman Wiggins, four.

MISSING IN ACTION: Govs. Jim Hunt and Mike Easley, Sen. Jesse Helms, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, actor Andy Griffith and Pepsi Cola are not on the list. Govs. Jim Holshouser and Bob Scott, Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt, coach Dean Smith and Coca-Cola are.

ALSO LISTED: The Bahama community, actor Robert Redford, lobbyists Don Beason and Sandy Sands, baseball player "Crash" Davis, the earls of Guilford and Erroll, actress Ruby Dee, Raleigh mayor Tom Fetzer, journalists Jack Betts and Claude Sitton.

Document(s):
Order Of Long Leaf Pine Alphabetical List.pdf

Not just people in the Order

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:25:43 -0400

Not everybody in the Order of the Long Leaf Pine is a person.

Over the years, a number of businesses, nonprofits and government agencies have received the award.

Below, the names and dates received of some of the more interesting ones:

BIG BUSINESSES: IBM Corp. (1994), Glaxo Inc. (1992 and 1994), Carolina Power & Light (1994), Carolina Telephone & Telegraph (1981), Champion International Corp. (1994), Coca Cola (1982), NationsBank (1994), SAS Institute (1994), WTVD (1982)

SMALL BUSINESSES: Barnes Supply (1982), Belk-Leggett's of Durham (1982), Burger King restaurant (1982), Cookie Factory (1982), Goin Pet Shop (1982), Lakewood Shopping Center (1982), Richard Childress Racing Enterprises (1994)

NONPROFITS: American Legion Post No. 7 (1982), American Red Cross (1982), Bicycle Transit Authority (1982), Blue Cross and Blue Shield (1994), Mountain View Ruritan Club (1987), Durham Rotary Club (1981)

SCHOOLS: Cherryville Junior Senior High (1983), East Carolina University Regional Development Institute (1982), Collegiate School (1975), students of McCollum Fourth Grade Class (1970), Zoller Fourth Grade Class (1975)

MISCELLANEOUS: Dog Show (1976), Puppy Creek Fire Department (1995), Eastern Band of Cherokee (1999), Carolina Tarheels (1982), The Kingsmen (1992), Mars Hill College Pi Sigma Phi (1984), Members of "Agricultural Market News" (1966)

Pearce: Anyone can get in Order

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 19 May 2009 10:56:57 -0400

Gary Pearce says that the Order of the Long Leaf Pine has always been overrated.

The longtime Democratic consultant, who worked for Gov. Jim Hunt, says on his Talking About Politics blog that he feels bad when he reads that the order is the "highest civilian honor" given by the governor.

I don't know about more recently, but when I was Governor Hunt’s press secretary (1977-1984), we pretty much gave the things to anybody who asked. As long as there was no indictment pending.
We got a lot of requests. There were no criteria, no review process. Just ask and ye shall receive.
Some people apparently framed theirs.
It was an easy — and inexpensive — way to make folks feel good. How often do you get that from government these days?

He also joked that former state Supreme Court Justice Burley Mitchell's dog had to have been a "good dog" to get the award.

Famous Tar Heels in the Order

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 19 May 2009 09:50:47 -0400

A number of famous Tar Heels have been recognized.

A list of recipients of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine includes a number of native North Carolinians who have become famous.

ATHLETES: Basketball player Michael Jordan; Nascar drivers Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty and Junior Johnson; football player Roman Gabriel; baseball players Jim "Catfish" Hunter, Enos Slaughter and Gaylord Perry; basketball coach Dean Smith; boxer James Smith.

MUSICIANS: Gospel singer Shirley Caesar; country singers Charlie Daniels, Randy Travis and Ronnie Milsap; bluegrass players Earl Scruggs and Doc Watson; songwriter Arthur Smith.

LEADERS: UNC president Bill Friday, evangelist Billy Graham, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Hugh Shelton.

OTHERS: Poet Maya Angelou, historian John Hope Franklin, painter Bob Timberlake, clothing designer Alexander Julian, conservationist Hugh Morton.

Why Easley gave out more awards

ryanteaguebeckwith — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:32:16 -0400

Franklin Freeman thinks two things led to the increase in the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

The longtime adviser to former Gov. Mike Easley said that they put an application for the award on their Web site and publicized that it was open to retiring state and local government workers.

Between January of 2001 and December of 2008, 26,000 state workers and 6,000 city and county employees retired, according to figures from the state retirement system. Many were nominated by their bosses for the order over the Internet.

"When we put the application form on the Web, it made it much more accessible," Freeman said.

Easley gave out 4,034 awards during his two terms in office, about one and a half times as many as his predecessor. Former Gov. Jim Hunt had given roughly 2,730 in his most recent two terms.

Freeman, who gave out the award a number of times on Easley's behalf and received it himself, said it comes with a certificate and the right to give the state toast.

"Other than that, it's just the honor associated with the award, and that to some degree perhaps is in the eye of the beholder," he said.

Celebrities in the Order

ryanteaguebeckwith — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:59:09 -0400

Celebrities have also been inducted into the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

Here are a few famous names from outside North Carolina that have received one of the state's highest civilian honors, according to a list compiled by Phillip Fisher.

ACTORS AND ACTRESSES: Sidney Poitier, Joan Crawford, Leslie Nielsen, George Jessel.

ATHLETES: Baseball players Rod Carew and Ted Williams; golfers Gary Player, Curtis Strange and Lanny Wadkins; soccer player Mia Hamm; Olympic skiier Jean-Claude Killy.

MUSICIANS: Harry Belafonte, George Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, Tammy Wynette, Kenny Rogers, Itzhak Perlman.

POLITICIANS: President Gerald Ford, Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, Secretary of State Colin Powell, U.S. Sen. John Glenn, U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm, U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young.

ACTIVISTS: Tipper Gore, Coretta Scott King, Jesse Jackson.

TALK SHOW HOSTS: Phil Donahue, Oprah Winfrey.

OTHERS: Stuntman Hal Needham, Miss America Bess Myerson.

And his little dog, too...

ryanteaguebeckwith — Mon, 18 May 2009 13:24:24 -0400

Burley Mitchell has never gotten the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

But his wife — and his dog — have.

The former N.C. Supreme Court chief justice says his English bulldog, Bruno, received the award in the late 1970s from then Gov. Jim Hunt.

As secretary of Crime Control and Public Safety, Mitchell had started a neighborhood watch program featuring Bruno that was an early predecessor to McGruff the Crime Dog. Bruno became something of a celebrity in local newspapers.

"It was sort of a spoof," Mitchell said.

He said the award was not taken as seriously in those days. It had started as a symbolic honor for visiting dignitaries, like being a Kentucky colonel, then became more of an honor for notable North Carolinians, such as Mitchell's wife, Lou, a longtime civic volunteer.

But he disputes the idea that it's the state's highest civilian award.

"Some deputy press secretary over there started the notion that its the highest award the state gives and that concept entered the world through Wikipedia," he said.

By statute, the state's highest award is the North Carolina Awards, selected annually by a committee of the Department of Cultural Resources.