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'Sodfather' dead at 82
Graham respected as friend of farmer
N.C. farmers
lose a booming voice
Longtime agriculture commissioner often called `The Sodfather'
Quotes
on Jim Graham
Chancellor Marye Anne Fox and Provost James L. Oblinger, former dean of the
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Out-of-state
costs weighed
Trustees are developing a plan to raise the price of a UNC-Chapel Hill education
for non-North Carolinians
Tourism
is golden egg for Western N.C.
Two studies, one on skiing, point direction for region
Lion
owner seeks USDA exemption
Julie Plott says she moved to Davidson County specifically because she found
a suitable, secluded location to breed and research endangered and threatened
animal species.
Editorial:
Memories of the great Graham
He'll be remembered as one of the state's great political "characters,"
a term generally associated as much with good fun as with anything related
to government.
Obit:
Jim Graham dies at 82
With his folksy manner, 10-gallon hat, size 15 cowboy boots and stogie to
rival them all, Jim Graham proved the perfect politician. But Big Jim differed
from all the other pols.
Obit:
James Allen "Jim" Graham
James Allen "Jim" Graham, native of Rowan County, graduate of NC
State University in the Class of 1942, long-time Commissioner of Agriculture
and North Carolina public servant for more that 58 years, died Thursday morning
from complications of pneumonia. He was 82.
Nov. 21, 2003
The News & Observer
By Kristin Collins, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
Jim Graham, a back-slapping farm boy who was North Carolina's agriculture commissioner so long he was called "the Sodfather," died Thursday of complications from pneumonia. He was 82.
In his 36 years in office, Graham stomped grapes and drank the juice from his cowboy boot, kissed a donkey's rear to settle a bet, chomped on tobacco leaves for television cameras and brayed like a donkey at political gatherings to signal the war cry of the Democratic Party. He retired in January 2001.
"We have lost one of our most dedicated public servants, who will always be valued for his compassion and hard work," said Gov. Mike Easley. "The commissioner will forever be remembered and respected as a champion of agriculture with a burning desire to make life better for all people of North Carolina."
Graham's health had been failing for years, and after he retired, he was in and out of the hospital battling pneumonia and other ailments. He spent his last year at Mayview Convalescent Center in Raleigh, where visitors sometimes waited in line to see him.
Once an imposing figure who stood 6 feet 3 and weighed well more than 200 pounds, Graham was frail and thin and used a wheelchair by the time he died. But friends say he never lost the spark that made him legendary.
"When I walked in his room the other day, I said, 'What in the hell are you doing laying in here when there are sick people out there that need this space?' " said Jim Devine, Graham's longtime press secretary. "He said, 'You son of a ... You ain't never gonna change, and you ain't never going to heaven.' "
They spent the rest of the visit talking politics, a topic that always held Graham's interest.
In his prime, Graham was part folk hero, part savvy deal-maker. Governors came and went while he served longer than any other state agriculture chief in the country.
He built an empire even as the number of farms in the state declined from 188,000 in 1965 to fewer than 50,000 in 2000, his last year in office. When Graham took office, the Department of Agriculture had about 600 employees. By the time he left, he had more than 1,300 employees in 17 divisions and a $60 million annual budget.
Agriculture's champion
During his tenure, tobacco gave way to pork and poultry, and agriculture increasingly fell under the control of large companies, while family farms struggled.
Graham supported agribusiness and criticized environmental regulations, earning him the support of big businessmen such as Wendell Murphy, who made a fortune building a corporate hog industry in North Carolina.
"He was a friend of anybody in agriculture," Murphy said.
But small farmers all over the state, who saw Graham as an advocate for the little guy, were the driving force behind his victories in nine statewide elections, the first in 1964.
Graham got their votes by crisscrossing the state at a dizzying pace, attending countless meetings, shaking hands at country stores, following auctioneers up the aisles at tobacco warehouses. Each October, he moved his office to the state fairgrounds and worked the crowds at the State Fair, an event he relished.
Everywhere Graham went, wearing his trademark Stetson hat and size 15 1/2 alligator-skin boots, he treated acquaintances like old friends -- never forgetting a name or a face, always remembering to ask about a mama or daddy. If someone came to him with a problem, he never brushed it aside, his admirers say.
June Brotherton, Graham's spokeswoman from 1981 to 1989, remembers her boss carrying index cards in his pocket. He wrote down people's questions and concerns and, when he returned to the office, handed them to his employees. They had 48 hours to come up with an answer.
"He felt that was important because, by keeping your finger on the pulse of the people, you know what they need and what they expect from you," Brotherton said.
At the opening of the tobacco market each year, farmers would gather around Graham and take turns shaking his hand, treating him with a reverence accorded few modern politicians.
Billy Carter, a Moore County tobacco farmer, said Graham's ceaseless advocacy for farmers, and his genuine personality, won him boundless admiration.
"Tobacco, in particular, is something that was basically beyond the control of the state agriculture commissioner," Carter said. "But whenever there was an opportunity to advance the cause, he would do it."
Graham unabashedly took on anyone he thought was hurting North Carolina farmers. He once fired off a telegram to the U.S. secretary of agriculture, complaining about a brochure that recommended eating fewer eggs. And when Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Joseph Califano attacked cigarettes in the 1970s, Graham sent a telegram to President Jimmy Carter suggesting that Califano be fired.
A boyhood dream
James Allen Graham was born April 7, 1921, on a dairy farm in Rowan County. He came from a long line of Democrats, and he grew up milking cows before dawn and going to the Presbyterian church his family attended for generations.
He decided as a boy that he wanted to be agriculture commissioner, working to "solve the great problems that perpetually plagued the farmer," he wrote in his 1998 autobiography, "The Sodfather."
He met his wife, Helen Ida Kirk, a Rowan County home economics teacher, at the State Fair when he was a student at N.C. State University, then State College. After graduating in 1942, he worked as a teacher in Iredell County. In 1945, Agriculture Commissioner Kerr Scott made him supervisor of an agricultural research station in the mountains.
Still with an eye toward becoming agriculture commissioner, he moved his family to Raleigh in 1956 to manage the Raleigh Farmers Market.
In July 1964, Gov. Terry Sanford made Graham's boyhood dream come true when he appointed him to fill out the term of Agriculture Commissioner L.Y. Ballentine, who died in office. That November, Graham ran for office and won the seat.
As commissioner, Graham was responsible for agricultural research and marketing, regulating grocery store scales and gas pumps, for inspecting meat and poultry, for creating pesticide regulations and for running the N.C. State Fair.
He wasn't spared criticism. Some said he pandered to big business. Other said he had an overly cozy relationship with Strates Shows, the Florida carnival company to which Graham gave the contract to run the State Fair midway every year.
From 1986 to 1994, Strates made $833,500 in "bonus" money from state taxpayers. Graham said he hadn't studied the state's contract with Strates until The News & Observer reported the details. The contract was later renegotiated and the bonus dropped.
In the end, Graham's tenure was untainted by scandal -- unlike that of his successor, Meg Scott Phipps.
Phipps was convicted this month of several felonies arising from illegal fund raising in her 2000 campaign and is likely to spend five years in federal prison. She resigned in June, and the department is being run by an interim commissioner.
Graham started his political career working on the campaign of Phipps' grandfather, Kerr Scott, who was governor from 1949 to 1953. Devine said Graham was deeply disappointed in Phipps.
Contacted at Mayview a few months ago, Graham declined to comment about the Phipps scandal except to say, "I'm thankful I'm not involved in it."
Unlike Phipps, Graham didn't have to raise huge sums of money to win voters. He never faced a primary opponent, and he coasted to victory in election after election. He never stopped campaigning the old-fashioned way, spending little money but lots of time pressing flesh in small towns. He didn't resort to a television ad until his last election in 1996.
"I ain't perfect," he used to drawl. "But if my fanny don't do a good job, y'all can vote me outta here."
He cherished his two daughters, Alice and Laura, and his wife, Helen, who died of Alzheimer's disease in 1999. But otherwise, his job was his life.
He worked almost every weekend, often traveling the length of the state in a day. He frequently put more than 100,000 miles a year on his state car. In 1990, he was hospitalized briefly for exhaustion.
"I believe every day is election day," Graham once said. "If you are going to do that, you've got to keep hustling."
His daughter, Alice Graham Underhill, a former state legislator, said her father never stopped loving people or loving life. But leaving his job wasn't easy.
"I don't think that he gave up," she said. "But I don't think he was someone who was destined to enjoy retirement."
Staff writer Kristin Collins can be reached at 829-4881.
Staff writer Wade Rawlins contributed to this report.
Nov. 21, 2003
The News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
"Agriculture in all of its aspects has shaped the history and character of North Carolina, and nobody was a more dedicated and passionate advocate of agriculture than Jim Graham. When I first came to NC State, he stood up in front of a packed crowd and asked me what the ‘A’ in the alphabet stood for. Because his influence as North Carolina’s Agriculture Commissioner had spread far and wide, I was able to provide the correct answer: Agriculture. He loved the land and the people who work it, and the results of his tireless labors on their behalf can be seen in every community across our state. We mourn his passing, but we celebrate his enduring legacy."
- Chancellor Marye Anne Fox
“Jim Graham’s lifelong dedication to North Carolina – its land and its people – has made an indelible and lasting difference. His 36-year tenure as Agriculture Commissioner permanently transformed North Carolina from a one-crop state into one of the nation’s most agriculturally diverse states. On a personal level, he was a steadfast and loyal friend, and a true mentor for me as a college dean. He would often joke that I was the fourth dean he had “trained” at NC State. His homespun advice was deceptively simple yet incisive. Beneath that Stetson hat was a truly wise and gentle man. His leadership and his friendship will be missed.”
- James L. Oblinger, provost and former dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Nov. 21, 2003
The News & Observer
By Jane Stancill, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
UNC-Chapel Hill trustees
want to raise tuition again, and this time they want to dig deeper into the
pockets of out-of-state students.
current costs
Tuition and required fees at UNC-Chapel Hill for 2003-04:
IN-STATE OUT-OF-STATE
$4,072 Undergraduate $15,920
$4,269 Graduate $16,267
The trustees had been scheduled to consider a plan Thursday for a dramatic increase in tuition and fees for all undergraduate and graduate students -- including an 11 percent increase in next year's fees and a $900 total rise in tuition over the next three years.
But after the political storm over a proposal to bring in more out-of-state students, trustees said it was time for the non-North Carolinians to cough up more to cover the full cost of their education. As it is now, the tuition and fees for out-of-staters at UNC-CH cover about 95 percent of the cost, with state taxpayers picking up the rest.
The trustees will develop a plan for increases -- including a bigger bump for out-of-state students -- by January. Then the tuition increases would have to be approved by the UNC Board of Governors, which is scheduled to consider tuition for all 16 campuses in February.
It could mean a tuition increase of $1,000 or more per year for UNC-CH out-of-state students, who now pay more than $15,000.
"There's a lot of public pressure that the state of North Carolina not subsidize out-of-staters," Trustee Paul Fulton said.
He said he'd like to see the out-of-state bills rise to the level of peer institutions such as the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia.
"The timing is absolutely right," Fulton said, adding that approving the same increase for in-state and out-of-state students would be a political mistake at this point.
"To offer a flat rate is to say we don't get it," he said.
Last week, a UNC Board of Governors committee tabled the proposal to raise the cap on out-of-state students at UNC campuses from 18 percent to 22 percent. The plan had raised the ire of taxpayers, legislators and public school leaders, who feared the action would displace the sons and daughters of North Carolinians.
Jacking up out-of-state tuition could have negative consequences, though, some say. UNC-CH Student Body President Matt Tepper said a steep increase next year would hit the current out-of-state students hard. "I think that's absolutely unfair," he said.
Chancellor James Moeser said such a plan would have to be phased in and suggested that out-of-state athletes and scholars be exempt from any increase. A dramatic jump in the out-of-state charges would be devastating to the Morehead and Robertson merit scholarship programs, he said.
"Unless we could hold them harmless, we will create havoc in the athletic department, and we will cripple our merit scholarship programs," Moeser said. "This has to be approached in a very careful way."
Professional schools at UNC-CH also have asked for major increases. The Kenan-Flagler Business School wants to raise graduate tuition by $9,000 for in-state students and $6,000 for out-of-state students in a three-year period. The medical school has asked for a $2,500 increase next year, and the dental school wants to charge in-state students $4,800 more by 2006-07.
Meanwhile, N.C. State University trustees are scheduled to consider raising tuition $900 -- $300 annually over three years -- at their meeting this morning.
At a committee meeting Thursday, campus leaders said tuition increases are needed to retain faculty and support classes to make up for the budget cuts from the legislature.
"The legislature hasn't been willing the last several years to shoulder the burden they did 20 years ago," Chancellor Marye Anne Fox said.
But students spoke in protest of the increase, saying it would especially burden in-state students from struggling families.
They pointed out that NCSU recently completed a $900 tuition increase and said that its actions would create a domino effect, spurring tuition increases at smaller universities around the system.
Staff writer Jane Stancill can be reached at 956-2464.
Staff writer Barbara Barrett contributed to this report.
N.C. farmers lose a booming voice
Nov. 21, 2003
The Charlotte Observer
By Anna Griffin, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Charlotte Observer.
Tar Heel politics grew quieter Thursday with the death of longtime Agriculture Commissioner Jim Graham, the cigar-chomping, donkey-braying, boot-stomping voice of N.C. farmers for almost four decades.
Graham, who left office in 2001, died of complications from pneumonia at Mayview Convalescent Hospital in Raleigh. The man they called "The Sodfather" was 82.
"He was just totally authentic. He was what he was, and didn't want to be anything else," said Jim Hunt, who served alongside Graham for 20 years as governor and lieutenant governor. "He grew up in an age when politics was a personal business. That's how you related to people. I don't think we'll see his likes again, but I'm certainly thankful we had him."
Graham was an unabashed yellow-dog Democrat, known for letting loose with a wild donkey bray at party events. He was a generous man who bought children popcorn and sodas at the state fair, handed office visitors frozen poultry and fresh vegetables -- N.C. grown, of course. He once answered a young man's questions about his footwear -- size 15 1/2 EEE cowboy boots -- by buying the boy his own pair.
Graham was larger than life, or at least as much as a politician could be, a broad-shouldered, big-eared man who stood 6 foot 4 and weighed upwards of 240 pounds. He was self-assured but never pretentious, as capable of talking to presidents and governors as sharecroppers and migrant workers.
Above any single accomplishment at the Department of Agriculture, Graham served as an ambassador for a threatened way of life.
`Made a man out of me'
His ambition to help farmers started early.Born on April 7, 1921, Graham grew up working on his parents' Rowan County farm. His family kept dairy cattle, hogs, mules and horses and grew cotton and hay. From the time he was strong enough to milk the cows to the day he left for N.C. State University, Graham awoke every day at 5 a.m. to his father's knock on the bottom of the home's stairway. He and his brother, Charles, would scamper downstairs to begin work.
"I don't know what would have happened if we hadn't responded promptly," Graham recalled in his 1998 book, "The Sodfather: A Friend of Agriculture." "What he might have done probably would have been called child abuse today, but it made a man out of me."
As a boy, Graham watched as hog cholera killed many of his parents' pigs, and boll weevils ate through their cotton crops.
His mother urged him to go to Davidson and study to be a Presbyterian minister, but Graham wanted to help make life easier and more certain for farmers like his father.
In his book, Graham said he had his future planned out even before he left high school: He would study at N.C. State, teach for a few years, lead one of the state's experimental farms and, eventually, get himself elected commissioner of agriculture.
That is precisely what happened. Graham graduated from N.C. State in 1942 with a degree in agriculture education. He volunteered for active duty in World War II, but could not convince enlistment officers to overlook his weak left eye.
Instead, he taught at Celeste Henkle School in Iredell County for three years, then spent six years running a state test farm in Ashe County.
He managed the Dixie Classic Fair in Winston-Salem, then the N.C. Farmers Market in Raleigh.
In 1964, Gov. Terry Sanford appointed Graham to replace Agriculture Commissioner L.Y. Ballentine, who died in office.
A job he loved
Graham, then 43, never looked back. He was re-elected agriculture commissioner eight times. He ended almost every speech -- and he gave thousands of them -- the same way: "I love my job."
"Wherever he went, whatever he did, he was commissioner of agriculture," said David Smith, a deputy commissioner who worked under Graham for 28 years. "He just identified with farmers. When they hurt, he hurt."
In a rumbling, mumbling voice, Graham hounded federal agriculture officials to help farmers, wrapping a meaty arm around anyone who might help him win assistance from Washington.
He never left the office without a stack of index-size cards covered with the latest crop totals and statistics detailing farming's importance to the state economy.
He pitched the state's products everywhere he went, with everything he had, to the point that he once chewed up a leaf of cured tobacco to show his faith in the state's tobacco producers.
A sign in his office pointedly addressed their plight: "Thank You for Smoking."
Graham met his wife, Helen, beneath a manmade waterfall at the state fairgrounds in 1941. When she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in the 1990s, he spent tens of thousands of dollars to give her round-the-clock care at home and oversaw construction of a new waterfall named for her.
Coins dropped in the memorial's fountain go to Alzheimer's research.
Though he'd been flirting with the idea of retiring since suffering a mild heart attack in 1982, Graham didn't announce plans to retire until the fall of 1999. In November 1999, Graham said he would forgo another re-election bid to spend more time with Helen. She died a month later, and Graham left office reluctantly in January 2001.
He endorsed and campaigned for his replacement, Democrat Meg Scott Phipps, who pleaded guilty this month to using her office to give and receive illegal campaign contributions.
After departing, he suffered from several bouts of pneumonia. Ill health left him frail and using a wheelchair.
But Graham still welcomed a stream of visitors to his room to talk politics, N.C. history and farming. Last month, he made his annual appearance at the N.C. State Fair.
"He's just a giant of a man, intelligent and enthusiastic even up until last night," said Peter Daniel, a longtime friend and former aide. "The staff of the convalescent center was amazed at how many people came to see him. But that's what he looked forward to, having people come in so he could ask them about the farm bill, ask them about the status of the tobacco buyout, ask about their families. He was still involved, even up until the end."
Graham is survived by two daughters, Connie Brooks and former state Rep. Alice Graham Underhill, and seven grandchildren.
Graham's funeral is 2 p.m. Sunday at First Baptist Church in Raleigh.
Visitation is 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday at Brown-Wynne Funeral Home in Raleigh and at the church following the funeral.
Remembering Jim Graham
"North Carolina has lost one of our foremost public servants today. For many of us, the name of Jim Graham is synonymous with North Carolina agriculture. We will all sorely miss his wit, wisdom, and commitment to a better North Carolina."
U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes
"No one had a stronger passion for agriculture in our state than Commissioner Graham. He just had a great respect and love for our rural communities and the folks who produce our food and fiber."
N.C. Sen. Charlie Albertson,
D-Duplin
"The commissioner will forever be remembered and respected as a champion
of agriculture with a burning desire to make life better for all people of North
Carolina. He was my friend and a tough but gentle man."
Gov. Mike Easley
"Commissioner Graham wanted to be remembered as a friend of agriculture, but he was much more than that. His hard work and lifelong commitment to making our state a better place to live made him a model for public service in North Carolina and the nation."
U.S. Sen. John Edwards
"North Carolina has lost a great leader, agriculture has lost a passionate and vocal champion, and I have lost a valued friend and mentor. Jim Graham dedicated his entire life to agriculture with great
determination and drive. His impact on agriculture was immeasurable and his legacy of leadership will be felt for many generations to come."
Interim Agriculture
Commissioner Britt Cobb
"To those of us who were here a long time, he really became a father figure. My own dad died at a fairly young age, and I told Commissioner Graham once, `I said `Yes sir' to you a whole lot more times than I ever said it to my own father.' "
Assistant Agriculture
Commissioner David Smith
Ocean link weaker in fishermen's ailment
Nov. 21, 2003
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 The Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
DAYTONA BEACH -- Painful skin lesions that 10 commercial fishermen in Volusia County have contracted did not come from infected fish, narrowing the possibility that the infection came from the ocean, according to preliminary pathological tests.
The tests of two grouper with skin lesions didn't match the organism believed to have caused the infections in the deep-sea fishermen.
The fish posed no threat to human health, said Dr. Craig Harms of the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine, who tested the two snowy grouper caught by the fishermen about 200 miles offshore.
"We didn't find anything that would support a link between the fish and the fishermen," Harms said.
Harms found four types of bacteria on the fish, all of them normally found on marine organisms and none related to the methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as MRSA, which caused the fishermen's lesions.
The fishermen had worried their disease could have come from the ocean.
The antibiotic-resistant staph infections are becoming more common worldwide and are easily spread. Local health officials have maintained the infections among local swimmers and fishermen were most likely spread from person to person, and did not come from the ocean.
Officials with the Florida and Volusia County departments of public health have launched investigations into the infections reported by the fishermen.
Tourism is golden egg for Western N.C.
Nov. 21, 2003
Winston-Salem Journal
By Richard Craver, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 Winston-Salem Journal
Two economic studies on Western North Carolina highlighted yesterday the importance of the tourism industry to the region.
Four tourism-related projects are among the 10 recommendations that have emerged from the Future Forward economic-development study of a 12-county region. The study is similar to the AngelouEconomics study of Northwest North Carolina that includes Forsyth County.
A separate report by Appalachian State University found that the ski industry contributed more than $120 million to the economy of Western North Carolina during the 2002-03 season.
The Future Forward Economic Alliance leadership summit met in Boone to discuss the six strategic themes targeted for a region that features Alexander, Avery, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Iredell, Lincoln, McDowell, Mitchell, Rutherford, Watauga and Wilkes counties.
The tourism efforts fall under the theme of making the region a "cool place to be."
The Future Forward study recommends pursuing up to $1.3 million in federal, state and local financing for startup costs for a "mega development" for regional tourism and retail. It suggests spending up to $2.25million on developing and promoting outdoor, heritage and cultural activities and creating greenway easements.
The study also emphasizes two transportation and infrastructure projects that would make the region, and its tourist attractions, easier to reach for area residents and visitors.
"We can cultivate our own local metropolitan- and micropolitan-area assets as centers of economic and cultural activity, while realizing our green space and natural assets will be attractive to our future workers, residents and visitors," the report said.
Paul Combs, a member of the Future Forward leadership committee, said he was pleased with the educational and employment emphasis of the study. One recommendation was to pursue $400,000 in financing to create a multi-county network that would match residents with available jobs.
"We won't go back to where we were before the recession," said Combs, the director of the Appalachian Regional Development Institute, a research and public-services program at Appalachian State.
"We have to promote the retraining of those who have lost manufacturing jobs, as well as encouraging young people to stay in school and learn marketable skills."
Regional cooperation will be pivotal to the success of the recommendations, said Noah Pickus, the director of the Institute for Emerging Issues at North Carolina State University.
"They recognize this study is not just about changing an economic system," Pickus said. "It's more about changing the culture in Western North Carolina so that it values education, accepts the importance of constant innovation in business and that it accepts regional development and governance policies."
Pickus said he was most enthusiastic about the plans for a learning-and-innovation network that would enhance the technological aspects of economic development.
Meanwhile, the ski-industry study found that skiers spent a combined $67.7million on skiing, lodging, meals and other expenses last season. Another $53 million was generated from wages and purchases made by workers or ski-area operators.
Steven Millsaps and Peter Groothuis, economics professors at Appalachian State, conducted the study for the N.C. Ski Areas Association. The professors based their study on a ski season that runs from Thanksgiving through mid-March.
The study found that a total of 544,219 skiers visited North Carolina's seven slopes during the 2002-03 season. They spent an average of $124 a day on skiing, lodging, meals and other expenses.
"The results of this survey of spending behavior are significant for two reasons," Millsaps said. "One is that the magnitude of the spending is large, and the other is the timing of the spending during the winter months when the number of visitors to the area is small."
The study found that 40 percent of the skiers are from North Carolina and that they typically return to the same resort each season. More than 70 percent of the tourists said they are more interested in skiing than snowboarding.
Lion owner seeks USDA exemption
Nov. 21, 2003
The Dispatch (Lexington NC)
By Eric Frazier, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Dispatch.
Julie Plott says she moved to Davidson County specifically because she found a suitable, secluded location to breed and research endangered and threatened animal species.
When she located a house for sale on 61/2 wooded acres off Swicegood Road in Tyro last year, she thought it was just right for her. She says the first thing she did was talk to the county manager and planner to be sure what she planned would not violate any county regulations.
"I meant to be private and that's what I intend to be," she explained.
But it didn't take long after Plott built an enclosure for Sasha, a 450-pound lioness she has owned since the feline was a cub, to attract more attention than she wanted.
When Sasha roars, she scares the neighbors.
"I'm sympathetic to their concerns," Plott said. "It's not every day that a lion moves into town."
Plott installed an 8-foot wooden perimeter fence to keep out prying eyes and mischievous trespassers, like the television news crews that showed up without her permission.
Shielded from view is a 2,000-square-foot fenced area where Sasha lives with a 45-pound Welsh Corgi mixed-breed dog named Mo. The two animals have been together for six years, Plott said, as an ongoing experiment in interspecies bonding.
"I operate a business as well as a nonprofit organization," she explained. "My animals are not kept as pets, but rather they are used in breeding programs or in behavioral research studies."
Plott studied zoology at North Carolina State University and received her bachelor of science in recreation management from Appalachian State University. Her concentration was in outdoor experiential education. She is a member of the Feline Conservation Federation, the Simian Society of America and the American Association of Zookeepers.
Through her business, Ambassador Exotics, Plott raises captive-bred exotic animals and prepares them for human interaction at environmental education facilities.
Among her current animals are two African servals, three cotton-top tamarins, two Greater African bush babies, an owl monkey and two goats.
The yearlong moratorium has so affected that part of her operation that she had to go to work at her father's store in High Point to replace the income. Being away also takes time from her research.
"Through my nonprofit, The Zoological Studies Foundation, I research practical ways for animal care facilities and owners of captive species to provide environmental enrichment for their animals," Plott said.
She disagrees with some animal rights activists who believe no wild animals should be captive. As natural habitats disappear, she believes it is inevitable they will be bred in captivity, and she is interested in discovering ways to improve their quality of life. She said her mission is to be a "good steward of God's creatures."
Plott said she has not only been harmed by the moratorium but will be severely affected by the ordinance if it is adopted in its present form.
"I have taken every effort to ensure the public's safety and the well-being of my animals," she said. "I exceed all the regulations. I could have spent about $5,000, but I spent $20,000."
The enclosure is constructed of 9-gauge chain-link fencing that is 12 feet tall. The 4-inch poles are sunk in concrete below the ground. Entry requires passing through two doors, and each lock has a different key.
"This is a 100 percent no-contact facility," Plott explained. "Nobody has to touch her."
The den looks like an 8-by-8-foot outbuilding with no windows. It has double-guillotine doors on each side. The first door is made of chain link fencing material, the second of heavy wood backed by metal plating. One set of doors are designed for a transport cage to be fastened to it when the lion is removed from the enclosure, as was the case Oct. 6 when Sasha had to have a full hysterectomy. Plott said she discovered ovarian tumors have caused the lioness to roar more than normal in past months.
Asked if there was a possibility the lion might escape if a storm blew a tree down, collapsing the fence, Plott said it was very unlikely. She said the lion goes into the den whenever there is a storm because the noise frightens the animal.
"She wouldn't go anywhere," Plott assured. "Lions are very territorial. This is her home."
She also pointed to the secondary 8-foot wooden fence, which she said the lion is incapable of leaping over and cannot climb because the front paws are declawed.
Sgt. Rusty Everhart, a county animal control officer, said he has visited Plott's facility. He called her safeguards "more than adequate."
"She's got a class act," Everhart said. "She's really gone above and beyond what most folks ever think of doing."
Plott has followed the development of the ordinance from the beginning and attended most of the committee meetings. She has many points of disagreement with the final draft but hopes specifically to see an exemption extended to USDA-licensed facilities like hers.
"I am in agreement that Davidson County should have reasonable exotic animal ordinances that limit the ownership to USDA licensees of certain larger exotic animals, such as lions and bears," Plott said. "This ordinance confuses the issue between pets and animals that would, should or could only legally be owned, bred or exhibited by permitted and licensed businesses and organizations."
Eric Frazier can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 226.
Editorial: Memories of the great Graham
Nov. 21, 2003
The News & Observer
By Jim Jenkins, Deputy editorial page editor
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
He'll be remembered as one of the state's great political "characters," a term generally associated as much with good fun as with anything related to government. There was the Stetson Open Road hat, the cigar, the donkey bray, the special technique of savoring a fresh tobacco leaf, the golf cart at the State Fairgrounds. Thirty-six years as commissioner of agriculture gives a man a lot of time to develop some, shall we say, personality in the job.
Jim Graham died yesterday. In his last months, I'm glad to say I spent a lot of time with him at Mayview Convalescent Center in Raleigh, where he was attempting to recuperate from a number of bouts of ill health. My father, who died Oct. 30, had been a friend of Jim's for nearly 40 years. It was a comfort to him, and to Jim I hope, that they were there together in that very good place.
I called him ol' buddy, and he called me the same. His room had the markings of a lifetime in public service -- plaques, mementoes, editorial cartoons, lots of red and white in recognition of his long service to N.C. State University. A big red recliner arrived just recently. And guest books. Governors and senators and university officials and farmers and teachers and a host of friends. I think they'd gone to the third or fourth book by the time my buddy slipped away.
There are some things you need to know, that the Commissioner, as he was known to one and all, would deem more important than any personal recollections. One of those things is that Jim Graham built and ran a great Department of Agriculture. It served the farmers and the public and was known to those in other state agencies as an efficient and honest place.
The scandal that enveloped the department under the resigned former commissioner, Meg Scott Phipps, worried Jim Graham out of personal concern for her family and because he had spent a lifetime running a department that lived up to its responsibilities and did so honestly. It pained him that folks might think otherwise. They didn't, of course, primarily out of their respect for Commissioner Graham.
Just days ago, I ran into interim Commissioner Britt Cobb, one of Graham's boys, he might say, sitting by Jim's bedside. "He's a good fella," Jim said.
North Carolina's farmers had no better friend, and state government no better resource on history and public service, than James Allen Graham. He was a connection to the old days -- Thad Eure (former secretary of state), Edwin Gill (former state treasurer), others who served long and well -- and to the new. Graham had a touch for picking the right people for the right jobs, and he had no tolerance for pretense or for politicians with an exaggerated view of their own brilliance.
Yes, that's something that must be said of Graham. You can't be in politics without possessing a certain self-confidence, but this was a man of humility. That's one reason everyone at Mayview loved him so. He joked and bantered with nurses and staff. He tried to bring others out, make them feel welcome. He had the most impeccable manners you've ever seen.
He was a man of gentility and kindness, to all. His devoted love for his late wife, Helen, was an inspiration to his daughters and his grandchildren. And he was tough -- time and again in recent years, he kept battling against various illnesses. If something got him down, he'd inevitably get back up.
All these things Graham would be proud of; all these things his family would want you to know, if you don't already.
Lots of thoughts now, tumbling out... Eighty-two years is a long time to live, and when half of it is spent in the public eye, a long time to build memories.
It also makes it all the harder to realize that someone so long on the "scene" is gone. So there will be lots of things, large and small, traveling through memory in these next days. In the case of Jim Graham, literally hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians have very personal recollections, most of which will bring a smile. For me, it's the time I bought an Open Road for myself and dropped by the commissioner's office, where we had our picture made in our matching hats. The Commissioner sent me a copy some days later, signing in part, "Two of a kind!" I took that as a high compliment.
But he was so much more than a "character." He was character itself -- and worthy of his long and fruitful life.
Deputy editorial page editor Jim Jenkins can be reached at 829-4513.
Nov. 21, 2003
Associated Press; Greensboro News & Record (Jim Schlosser)
JIM GRAHAM
April 7, 1921 -- Born James Allen Graham in Rowan County
1938-- Graduates from Cleveland High School
1942-- Graduates from N.C. State, majoring in agriculture education
1946-52-- Gets job running an Ashe County farm that raised cattle, sheep and burley tobacco
1957-64-- Manages Raleigh Farmers Market
1964-- Appointed by Gov. Terry Sanford to fill out term of Commissioner L.Y. Ballantine, who died in office. Running as a Democrat in November, wins first of nine elections.
1976-- Gives trademark "donkey bray" at Jimmy Carter presidential campaign stop in Greensboro, gets national attention. Follows through with promise to kiss donkey's behind after GOP-dominated Wilkes County goes Democratic in November election.
1978-- Persuades General Assembly to buy additional 144 acres for fairground expansion. Jim Graham Building dedicated at fairgrounds
1999-- Announces he won't seek 10th term
Nov. 20, 2003-- Dies at Raleigh convalescent center
-- The Associated Press
With his folksy manner, 10-gallon hat, size 15 cowboy boots and stogie to rival them all, Jim Graham proved the perfect politician. But Big Jim differed from all the other pols.
People trusted him. Liked him. For 36 years they never grew weary of him, re-electing him nine times as North Carolina's agriculture commissioner.
Graham, whose 36 years in office from 1964 to 2001 was longer than any previous commissioner, died Thursday at a Raleigh convalescent home. He was 82.
Graham stood out in crowds. He was large, loping in gait with a baritone voice loud enough to be heard across a corn field. He used to send Democratic gatherings into laughing spasms when he'd bray like a donkey, his way of showing his love of the party. He mastered the imitation by tending to his family's donkeys while growing up on a 240-acre livestock farm in Rowan County, land he owned throughout his life.
He first brayed at a rally for presidential candidate Jimmy Carter.
Years later, Graham rated fellow farmer Carter as his favorite president.
"The commissioner will forever be remembered and respected as a champion of agriculture with a burning desire to make life better for all people of North Carolina,'' said Gov. Mike Easley, who won office in 2001 as Graham was leaving office. "He was my friend and a tough but gentle man.''
When Graham decided not to seek a 10th term, his wife, Helen, was ill and would die in December 1999. Graham's vigor had diminished noticeably. His 6-foot-3-inch frame had become bent.
Still, he could have won re-election, but as he said in a 2000 interview, "I didn't want people saying to me, 'You ought not to run. You are too old,' ''
Many children grow up wanting to be president. Graham said he grew up wanting to be agricultural commissioner.
He got his dream job in 1964 when longtime commissioner L.Y. Valentine died in office. Gov. Terry Sanford appointed Graham, who had been running the Dixie Classic Fair in Winston-Salem and the Raleigh Farmer's Market, to replace Valentine.
Few people in the state can name the state auditor or state treasurer or commissioner of labor, but from 1964 to 2001 most Tar Heels knew the agriculture commissioner, even though 99 percent of the population didn't live on farms.
Graham's personality was larger than a blue-ribbon bull at the State Fair. He relished political rallies, livestock and tobacco auctions, horse shows, fairs and other places where crowds congregated.
Edna Linville, who with her husband, former Guilford County Commissioner R.N. "Buster" Linville, owned a large farm in Oak Ridge and a tobacco warehouse in Stoneville, remembered Graham as the politician "who would come and spend the weekend with you.
He would come to the opening of our tobacco warehouse to visit and to get some votes. He was a man of the people.''
"He was one of the best politicians I ever saw,'' said Bob Caldwell, former president of the N.C. Grange farm organization. "He never met anyone that he didn't know his brother, his aunt or someone.''
Graham's people skills translated into victories come election time. He flirted with running for governor in 1976 and 1988 but eventually decided against it.
He was forever grateful he didn't. "I don't think I would have been a good governor,'' he said in 2000, "but I think I've been a good commissioner of agriculture.''
Even Republicans agreed with that.
"Jim Graham was a great man, no doubt about it,'' said Steve Troxler, a Republican and a tobacco farmer from Browns Summit who sought to succeed Graham in 2000 but lost to Democrat Meg Scott Phipps.
She has since resigned and pleaded guilty to accepting illegal campaign contributions from a State Fair carnival operator.
Graham endorsed Phipps, citing his respect for her grandfather and father, both of whom served as governor and were farmers.
But Graham praised Troxler as a good tobacco farmer.
"I never saw him show any political partiality,'' said Troxler, who plans to run again in 2004.
While some might have dismissed Graham as more style than substance, he was proud of his accomplishments. The number of farms in North Carolina continue to decline -- a trend that began early in the 20th century. But under Graham the state's agriculture economy rose from $1 billion to $8 billion annually.
He led the push to establish the state's first school of veterinary medicine at N.C. State, his alma mater.
Graham considered an attack on agriculture as personal. When environmentalists complained that hog farming was polluting the state's rivers and streams, Graham made it a point to publicly eat more barbecue. When conditions in poultry plants were criticized as unsanitary, Graham ate more fried chicken.
He posted in his office a sign that said, "Smoking is Welcome'' and another that quoted Mark Twain: "I smoke in moderation, only one cigar at a time.''
Yet, he was early to recognize the need to diversify the state's tobacco-dominated farm economy.
He stressed poultry and hog farming, as well as nursery products. Christmas tree farming, an agricultural afterthought when Graham took office, became a $100 million-plus industry. As a result, tobacco's share of the farm economy dropped from 46 percent to 14 percent.
Graham's favorite event each year was the State Fair. He enjoyed the crowds, inspecting the latest farm machinery and viewing the livestock and exhibits.
For the 2000 fair, Graham's last as commissioner, his staff dismantled his memorabilia-filled office in the State Agriculture Building across from the State Capitol and reassembled it in a tent at the fairgrounds. Graham sat and greeted thousands of well-wishers.
He was farmer to the core. While other N.C. State alumni viewed the football game against North Carolina as the Big Game of the season, Graham got most excited when State played Clemson, a clash of cow colleges.
Graham lived long enough to see State beat Clemson this season, 17-15.
Graham's funeral is 2 p.m. Sunday at First Baptist Church in Raleigh. Visitation is 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday at Brown-Wynne Funeral Home in Raleigh and following the funeral at the church.
Obit: James Allen "Jim" Graham
Nov. 21, 2003
The News & Observer
James Allen "Jim"
Graham, native of Rowan County, graduate of NC State University in the Class of
1942, long-time Commissioner of Agriculture and North Carolina public servant
for more that 58 years, died Thursday morning from complications of pneumonia.
He was 82.
A native son of North Carolina,
his entire life was dedicated to the advancement of the States' largest and
most vital industry of agriculture. He was a farmer, a former teacher of agriculture,
superintendent of an agricultural research station, manager of the Dixie Classic
Fair, first secretary of the NC Hereford association, manager of the Raleigh
Farmers market and North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture.
He was a man of industriousness
and unfailing good humor; a churchman of deep faith and a dedicated family man;
a lifetime Democrat who, during a truly honorable longtime career in public
service, was champion of both agriculture and the consumer.
He will long be remembered for his
determined efforts to make life a little better for all citizens of North Carolina,
especially her farmers. His 36-year tenure as NC's Commissioner of Agriculture
stretched over two centuries and saw unprecedented growth in his department
and the beginning of many new and varied programs to assist all people of the
State. He developed one of the top departments in the nation and was recognized
by many national organizations for his vision.
In a statement about Jim Graham,
former Commissioner of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, Governor
Easley said "we have lost one of our most dedicated public servants who
will always be valued for his compassion and hard work. The Commissioner will
forever be remembered and respected as a champion of agriculture with a burning
desire to make life better for all people of North Carolina. He was my friend
and a tough but gentle man".
During his years as Commissioner,
he started and secured funding for a number of outstanding programs and facilities
in the name of agriculture and consumer services. These included a program to
eradicate the boll weevil in cotton, eliminate pseudo rabies, cholera and TB
in hogs and provide soil testing for all who would send in a sample.
He helped develop five major farmers
markets and three agricultural centers for all to use, build and staff seven
animal disease diagnostic laboratories across the state whose services are available
to all who own animals.
He started the "Goodness Grows
in North Carolina" promotional program, now in many states across the country,
he expanded the state agricultural fair and set up a program to check every
gas pump and scale in the state for accuracy. Graham hired staff to inspect
every meat, poultry and seafood processing plant in North Carolina to insure
all consumers a safe and wholesome supply of food.
Included among hundreds of awards
and honors were the North Carolina Citizens Association Distinguished Public
Service Award, the National Future Farmers of America Distinguished Service
Award, The North Carolina 4-H Alumni Award and the Progressive Farmer's "Man
of the Year" award. In 1997 the state's largest farm organization, the
NC Farm Bureau, presented him with their Distinguished Service to Agriculture
Award.
The Raleigh Kiwanis Club named him
"Kiwanian of the Year", the North Carolina Wildlife Federation gave
him the Governor's Award for contributions to environmental quality, and he
was only the second person in North Carolina to receive the National 4-H Alumni
Award.
His name is well known among agricultural
interests across the country. In fact, the 26-mile stretch of US highway 70
from Salisbury to Statesville was dedicated recently as the "Jim Graham
Highway".
Jim Graham served as a deacon of
the First Baptist Church in Raleigh and as a member or officer in numerous organizations
and associations including the Grange, Farm Bureau and National Farmers' Organization.
He was active in the Cattlemen's
Association, Soil Conservation Society, Farm Managers & Rural Appraisers,
Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, Raleigh Rescue Mission, Raleigh YMCA Board of Directors,
and the United Cerebral Palsy of North Carolina. He also served as President
of the National Association of State departments of Agriculture.
The Commissioner was most noted,
however, and rightly so, for the firm but fair manner in which he spoke out
through the years regarding issues affecting agriculture. In this vital industry,
both producer and consumer had in Jim Graham a friend of inflexible integrity,
proven intelligence, and indefatigable spirit.
He will be sorely missed, because,
as all who knew him who say "Jim Graham was my friend".
Graham's wife, Helen Ida Kirk Graham
passed away in December 1999 at age 81.
He is survived by daughters, Alice
and husband, Dr T. Reed Underhill of New Bern, Connie and husband, Leslie R.
Brooks of Nashville, TN; grandchildren, T. Reed Underhill, Jr., Laura Underhill,
Graham Underhill, Berry Brooks, Lauren Brooks, Allen Brooks and Grace Brooks.
The Graham family would like to
express a special thanks to the wonderful caregivers who provided for Commissioner
Graham for the past few months and for Mrs. Graham at home for more than 10
years. We also wish to thank the Mayview Convalescent Center staff who were
always gracious and attentive to every need and request. These people will forever
hold a special place in our hearts.
Memorials may be directed to the
James A. Graham Scholarship fund at N. C. State University, Box 7645, Raleigh,
NC 27695-7645; the First Baptist Church Building Fund, 99 North Salisbury St.,
Raleigh, NC 27603; or the Third Creek Presbyterian Church, Cleveland, NC. 27013.
A memorial service will be held
at 2 p.m. on Sunday at the First Baptist Church at 99 North Salisbury Street.
The family will receive friends
from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Saturday at Brown-Wynne Funeral Home at 300 St.
Mary's Street and following the service at First Baptist Church Fellowship Hall.
Condolences may be sent to the family
at MeM.com