Saturday, June 23, 2007
By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer
TAYLORSVILLE -- Two Alexander County men who died in a plane crash Thursday were remembered by family and friends Friday for their love of flying and desire to live life to the fullest.
Dr. Walter Long Jr. and Benny Hall Sharpe, both of Taylorsville, were killed Thursday when Long's small, single-engine plane crashed on a rural airfield and skidded into trees lining the grassy runway.
"It was Dr. Long's dream to get a plane and fly when he retired," said Mary Overton, a nurse who worked with Long for nearly 40 years. "He just loved being outside and making the most of his life."
Aviation officials Friday were investigating the wreck and expected to complete a preliminary report within 10 days, said Paul Cox, senior air safety investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board. It could take a year, Cox said, before the final investigation report is released.
The men, said friend and Statesville-based pilot Phil Hazel, were taking the Cessna 182C -- formerly owned by Dale Earnhardt, according to Observer news partner WCNC -- for a leisurely flight on a clear day. They had planned to return to the Taylorsville Airport, where their cars were parked, he said.
Long, a 75-year-old former physician, and Sharpe, a 70-year-old retired Piedmont Airlines and U.S. Airways pilot, loved flying and traveling, especially across the open wilderness of Alaska and Canada, family and friends said.
After Long retired from a nearly 40-year career as a family practitioner, he began plotting long journeys across the nearly untouched parts of North America, said Dr. Russell Faulkenberry, Long's former partner at Family Care Center in Taylorsville.
Often, usually in the early fall, Faulkenberry said, Long and his wife, Mary, would pack up their camper and head north.
"They'd drive as far as they could go, even after the road ended," Faulkenberry said. "He lived to be physically active. He was a brilliant man, and he found the world interesting."
Sharpe, too, had spent time exploring the north's rough terrain. In the early 1990s, before Sharpe retired from a nearly 25-year career as a commercial airline pilot, he bought a seaplane and mapped out, stop-by-stop, a trip over the Rocky Mountains, into Canada and across the Arctic Circle and Nova Scotia.
"He's the most methodical person I've ever seen in a plane," said his nephew, John Sharpe. "Uncle Benny flying, well, he was a perfectionist."
That attention to detail, said Sharpe's daughter, 45-year-old Constance Sharpe, was consistent in everything her father did.
"He understood the responsibility that came with the job he had, and from that perspective he taught us how to be responsible and independent," she said. "I'm proud to say I'm just like him."
All content © THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER and may not be republished without permission.
6/22/07
Plane crash kills airline retiree, doctor
Friday, June 22, 2007
By Marcie Young and Greg Lacour
Charlotte Observer Staff Writers
TAYLORSVILLE -- Two Alexander County men, one a retired doctor and the other a retired airline pilot, were killed when a small plane crashed Thursday afternoon on a rural airfield.
Dr. Walter Long Jr., 75, and his friend Bennie Hall Sharpe, 70, were pronounced dead at the scene just east of Taylorsville.
It's unclear who was flying the single-engine, 47-year-old Cessna 182C, said Sheriff Hayden Bentley, although Long owned it. The men were "longtime friends who flew together a lot," Bentley said.
"They were well known, well liked in the community," he said.
The Civil Air Patrol reported the plane overdue about 1:30 p.m. after the plane sent a signal indicating that it was missing, authorities said. Then Statesville-based pilot Phil Hazel spotted the wreckage from a helicopter, said N.C. Highway Patrol Sgt. Eric Harris.
Vernon Kerley, who lives across from the air strip, said he saw the plane circling but heard no engine noise.
The flight appeared local, starting and set to end in Taylorsville, the FAA said.
All content © THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER and may not be republished without permission.
By Marcie Young and Greg Lacour
Charlotte Observer Staff Writers
TAYLORSVILLE -- Two Alexander County men, one a retired doctor and the other a retired airline pilot, were killed when a small plane crashed Thursday afternoon on a rural airfield.
Dr. Walter Long Jr., 75, and his friend Bennie Hall Sharpe, 70, were pronounced dead at the scene just east of Taylorsville.
It's unclear who was flying the single-engine, 47-year-old Cessna 182C, said Sheriff Hayden Bentley, although Long owned it. The men were "longtime friends who flew together a lot," Bentley said.
"They were well known, well liked in the community," he said.
The Civil Air Patrol reported the plane overdue about 1:30 p.m. after the plane sent a signal indicating that it was missing, authorities said. Then Statesville-based pilot Phil Hazel spotted the wreckage from a helicopter, said N.C. Highway Patrol Sgt. Eric Harris.
Vernon Kerley, who lives across from the air strip, said he saw the plane circling but heard no engine noise.
The flight appeared local, starting and set to end in Taylorsville, the FAA said.
All content © THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER and may not be republished without permission.
6/21/07
Good deed doesn't go unnoticed
Thursday, June 21, 2007
By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer
When Chris Jernigan decided to donate one of his kidneys to a colleague, he figured it would be a quiet surgery that would only be shared with their families, close friends and other co-workers.
"It was never intended to be like this," Jernigan said Wednesday, hours after an interview with the ABC morning show, "Good Morning America."
"The national media attention has really been a shock."
For seven years, Lisa White, one of Jernigan's employees at a Morganton foster care agency, has battled polycystic kidney disease, a potentially deadly and genetic condition that left cysts scattered along her kidneys.
But last month, after years of watching White suffer from severe infections and daily, constant pain, Jernigan gave his employee of more than 11 years what she needed most -- a transplant.
As Jernigan and White began going through the transplant process, they learned more about organ donors and the long list of people waiting for kidneys. The wait, she recalls doctors saying, can sometimes take five years.
Many of White's family have suffered from the disease, she said. Her mother died three months after receiving a kidney transplant, and an aunt and uncle died from complications of the disease.
Another aunt is doing well after her transplant, White said, but her older brother has been waiting for a donor for more than a year.
They never intended to make national headlines, but news of a boss donating a kidney to an employee has spread from CNN to The Associated Press and smaller television stations and newspapers across the country.
"It just mushroomed into this big thing," White said. " I'm not the only one who has had this done. There's so many people who have had transplants ... and need transplants."
All content © THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER and may not be republished without permission.
By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer
When Chris Jernigan decided to donate one of his kidneys to a colleague, he figured it would be a quiet surgery that would only be shared with their families, close friends and other co-workers.
"It was never intended to be like this," Jernigan said Wednesday, hours after an interview with the ABC morning show, "Good Morning America."
"The national media attention has really been a shock."
For seven years, Lisa White, one of Jernigan's employees at a Morganton foster care agency, has battled polycystic kidney disease, a potentially deadly and genetic condition that left cysts scattered along her kidneys.
But last month, after years of watching White suffer from severe infections and daily, constant pain, Jernigan gave his employee of more than 11 years what she needed most -- a transplant.
As Jernigan and White began going through the transplant process, they learned more about organ donors and the long list of people waiting for kidneys. The wait, she recalls doctors saying, can sometimes take five years.
Many of White's family have suffered from the disease, she said. Her mother died three months after receiving a kidney transplant, and an aunt and uncle died from complications of the disease.
Another aunt is doing well after her transplant, White said, but her older brother has been waiting for a donor for more than a year.
They never intended to make national headlines, but news of a boss donating a kidney to an employee has spread from CNN to The Associated Press and smaller television stations and newspapers across the country.
"It just mushroomed into this big thing," White said. " I'm not the only one who has had this done. There's so many people who have had transplants ... and need transplants."
All content © THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER and may not be republished without permission.
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