Alfred Johnston “A.J.” Fletcher is the founder of Capitol Broadcasting Company. He and a small group of partners formed the company in 1937 with hopes of winning a license to operate a radio station in Raleigh. They were successful and ever since that simple start years ago Fletcher’s company has grown into one of the premier communications organizations in the nation.

A.J. Fletcher learned the value of hard work at an early age. Born in 1887 to a Baptist minister in Ashe County, NC, Fletcher spent his formative years working as a stable boy, bank clerk, bellhop, delivery boy for a grocery store and an attendant at a fruit stand.

Fletcher’s first brush with the communications business came early; as a law student at Wake Forest College he ran out of money for school and began running the small weekly paper in Apex. He served as news reporter, editor, ad solicitor and publisher, working every angle as a one man show.

In 1910 Fletcher married Elizabeth Utley and took the $900 he had saved working at the paper to return to school. He never graduated from college but learned enough law to join the bar and run his own practice as an attorney.

He founded the Fuquay Springs Gold Leaf weekly newspaper and invested the money he earned at law and the paper in a variety of interests. Radio Corporation of America was one such company that caught his attention.

In 1919, Fletcher moved his young family to Raleigh. He and Elizabeth had three sons—Fred, Frank and Floyd–and added a daughter, Betty Lou, three years later. He looked for new pursuits in the Capitol City while he continued to practice law and publish the weekly newspaper.

By the late 1930’s Fletcher’s son Frank had followed his father into the practice of law and was among the first group of lawyers hired by the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, DC.

Because of A.J. Fletcher’s interest in music and business and Frank’s encouraging reports from Washington, DC on the new medium of radio, Fletcher and his partners applied to the federal government for a radio license. On July 28, 1938, the FCC granted their request to operate station WRAL on 1240 kilohertz with power of 250 watts. WRAL-AM signed on the air on March 29, 1939, with NC Governor Clyde Hoey and Raleigh Mayor George Isley issuing welcoming addresses.

A.J. Fletcher wasn’t content to just own radio stations—his interest in television had already been piqued shortly before WRAL-AM went on the air. He and his eldest son, Fred, saw a demonstration of television at the RCA booth at the 1939 World’s Fair. When the television industry began taking off in the early 1950s, Fletcher was ready to take on a new challenge. At the customary retirement age of 65, A.J. Fletcher began a legendary battle in Washington, DC to win the first VHF television license for Raleigh.

After a grueling three-year competitive application process, Fletcher’s Capitol Broadcasting team beat out heavily-favored Durham Life Insurance Company and won the license for VHF channel 5 in Raleigh. On December 15, 1956 – WRAL-TV signed on the air as an NBC affiliate in the state’s capitol city. A.J. Fletcher’s hard work had paid off.

A.J. Fletcher had a wide variety of non-broadcasting interests, but remained particularly devoted to opera. Himself a bass singer and avid performer, he formed the National Grass Roots Opera Foundation in 1948. He wanted to make opera available and accessible to the public and also sought to provide young artists with professional careers. As a result of the Foundation, more than two million North Carolina school children heard opera sung in English. The Grass Roots Opera Foundation eventually evolved into the National Opera Company and later the Fletcher School of Performing Arts.

A.J. Fletcher’s many personal philanthropic efforts included grants to churches, orchestras, the Baptist State Convention, Duke University, East Carolina University and Southeastern Theological Seminary. In 1961 he founded the non-profit A.J. Fletcher Foundation to carry on cultural and educational outreach. The Fletcher Foundation has blossomed into one of the state’s leading philanthropic organizations, focusing on education, human service and poverty programs, and new and emerging non-profit groups across the state.

Not only did A.J. Fletcher launch WRAL-TV, he designed the station’s landmark azalea gardens that opened to the public in 1959. “It was simply my way of paying tribute to beauty for beauty’s sake,” said Fletcher, who loved azaleas and enjoyed finding new varieties for the property. In 1974, Fletcher received a national award from the American Association of Nurserymen for the design of his beloved gardens.

Fletcher was the recipient of many other honors and awards. In 1975 he was elected to the North Carolina Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame. Also in 1975 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree by Duke University. And in 1978 he received the North Carolina Public Service Award from the Pfeiffer College Alumni Association.

A.J. Fletcher died April 1, 1979 at the age of 91.

Barbara Lyons Goodmon is President of the A.J. Fletcher Foundation, which is the charitable fund created by the founder of Capitol Broadcasting Company.

Goodmon graduated from St. Joseph’s School of Nursing in Memphis, TN in 1965. It was there in Memphis that she met Jim Goodmon—CBC’s President and CEO. The couple married and moved to Raleigh in 1968.

In addition to her leadership role at the Fletcher Foundation, Barbara Goodmon has served on a number of community boards in the Triangle. With primary interests in the field of human services, she has served as Chairman of the Salvation Army, Vice Chairman of The Healing Place of Wake County, and Chairman of Wake County Human Services.

Barbara Goodmon is a 1994 graduate of Meredith College in Raleigh, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in History. She also earned a Masters of Liberal Studies degree at North Carolina State University in 2000. She received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Barton College in 2009.

Goodmon has received numerous honors, including the William Booth Award from the Salvation Army. She was inducted into the Academy of Women of the Raleigh YWCA and–along with husband Jim–was inducted into the Raleigh Hall of Fame in 2008.

Barbara and Jim Goodmon have three children: Elizabeth, Jimmy and Michael, along with seven grandchildren.

No one had more impact on the birth of Capitol Broadcasting Company than Frank Fletcher, the middle son of CBC founder A.J.Fletcher.

Frank Utley Fletcher grew up in Raleigh, but left home after college to make a name for himself as an attorney in Washington DC. In 1934 he went to work as one of the first staff attorneys at the FCC–a new federal agency set up by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to oversee the nation’s growing communications industries.

Fletcher rose swiftly through the ranks and performed virtually every legal job available at the FCC. He became an expert in station licensing procedures and saw firsthand that the business of broadcasting offered great promise and potential.

With that knowledge in hand, Frank Fletcher was instrumental in convincing his father to get into broadcasting. He first assisted in obtaining an FCC license for WRAL-AM in Raleigh and later played critical roles in securing the licenses for WRAL-FM and WRAL-TV.

It’s fair to say that Capitol Broadcasting Company might not exist at all if not for the astute knowledge and persuasive efforts of Frank Fletcher.

Frank left the FCC in 1939 to join Spearman and Roberson—a new communications law firm in the nation’s capital. He took a leave of absence to serve as a legal officer in the Army during World War II, but returned to private practice at the end of the war.

Frank’s reputation as a trial lawyer spread throughout the D.C. Bar and broadcast industry and it wasn’t long before he was serving clients large and small in the communications industry. The law firm’s name was eventually changed to Fletcher, Heald and Hildreth, and Frank served as Chair of the firm until his retirement in 1985.

Frank Fletcher dominated the communications law profession for fifty years. He served as President of the Federal Communications Bar Association, President of the Broadcast Pioneers, a Director of the National Association of Broadcasters and on the Board of Visitors of the Wake Forest Law School.

In 1995 Wake Forest Law established the “Frank U. Fletcher Professorship in Administrative Law” in his honor. Fletcher also served as a Trustee of Shaw University, which awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws.

In 1986 Frank Fletcher was inducted into the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, joining his father and brother Fred in the ranks of honorees.

Fletcher devoted the final years of his life to philanthropy, providing counsel to the A.J. Fletcher Foundation and its charitable efforts.

Frank U. Fletcher died July 23, 1995 at the age of 83.

Fred Fletcher was a broadcast executive, entertainer and public servant who — as General Manager of WRAL-AM, WRAL-FM and WRAL-TV — helped shape the first quarter century at Capitol Broadcasting Company.

The eldest son of CBC founder A.J. Fletcher — Fred’s on-air talent, marketing savvy and community spirit made him a perfect fit for the company’s early ventures into broadcasting.

Fred helped launch WRAL-AM in 1939 and soon made a name for himself as the host of a daily talk show called “Tempus Fugit.” Fred would entertain, inform and hold forth with a cast of characters that included his most memorable persona –the lovable “Fairy Tale Man.” During every show Fred would transform into a master storyteller to read the classics from the Brothers Grimm. He was the proverbial one-man-band who created his own sound effects and made up the voices of all the characters. Listeners young and old loved it, and before long “Tempus Fugit” was the top-ranked show in its time period.

Fred Fletcher grew up in North Carolina, but left for college in the Midwest. He earned an undergraduate degree from George Williams College in Chicago and then went to work at a YMCA in South Chicago. Along the way he fell in love with Marjorie “Marjie” Lempke, and they were married in 1936. The young Fletchers soon moved to North Carolina, where Fred earned Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Sociology at UNC-Chapel Hill. Only then—in 1939–did he turn his attention to his father’s new business – a radio station known as WRAL-AM.

Fred started as WRAL-AM’s Education Director and then moved up to General Manager in 1942. Later he took on additional management duties when CBC signed WRAL-FM on the air in 1946.

The 1950s brought television, and the long, arduous legal battle that eventually won Capitol Broadcasting the coveted license for Channel 5 in Raleigh. Fred was an integral part of the CBC team that fought for and won the license at the FCC.
When WRAL-TV signed on in December 1956 – Fred Fletcher was at the helm as the first Vice President and General Manager. He was later named President of Capitol Broadcasting Company–a title he held until his retirement in 1975.

Fred Fletcher always had an entrepreneurial spirit and his professional career was marked by a series of firsts. Among them, creation in 1954 of the first network of shortwave radio operators to collect and disseminate hurricane information under emergency conditions; creation of the Tobacco Radio Network, which was the first radio news and sports network in North Carolina; and the hiring of the first African-American morning radio host (JD Lewis) in the Deep South.

Fred also started the UCP telethon on WRAL-TV and went on the air each year to personally raise thousands of dollars in the fight against Cerebral Palsy.

From his beginnings with the YMCA in Chicago, Fred Fletcher maintained a deep affection for recreational groups and facilities. One of his favorite events was the annual holiday celebration for the Golden Age clubs at the Raleigh Parks & Recreation department. Fred created the event that grew from less than a hundred attendees to more than a thousand each year. The Golden Years Celebration still thrives each December at the Raleigh Convention Center.

Fred was a devoted public servant. He was elected to Raleigh’s first City Council in 1947 and served Raleigh and Wake County for more than 50 years as a member of various Parks and Recreation commissions. He served as chair of the boards for more than 30 of those years.

In recognition of that service, the City of Raleigh honored Fred by naming a park on Glenwood Avenue after him. In 1985 he was awarded the National Parks & Recreation Association’s “Robert M. Artz Award” for Citizen Volunteer Leadership. In 2007 he was inducted into the Raleigh Hall of Fame.

Fred Fletcher was also active in the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters and served as President of the organization in 1963. The NCAB honored him in 1982 by inducting him into its Hall of Fame.

Fred Fletcher – CBC’s beloved “Fairy Tale Man” — died January 8, 2000 after a long illness. He was 89.

James Fletcher “Jim” Goodmon literally grew up in the broadcast industry.  He was so young when he first went to work at WRAL-TV that he had to be paid from petty cash so as not to run afoul of wage and hour standards.

Jim Goodmon learned the business of broadcasting at the knee of his grandfather A.J. Fletcher—founder of Capitol Broadcasting Company.  Goodmon observed station operations carefully and learned well, and in turn–A.J. Fletcher recognized his grandson’s potential.  This close, early relationship laid the groundwork for the future leadership of the company.

Jim Goodmon grew up in Raleigh and graduated from Broughton High School in 1961. He attended Duke University, but left for the Navy in 1965 before obtaining a degree.  While serving his enlistment in Memphis, Tennessee, he met and married Barbara Lyons. The couple soon moved to Raleigh.

Upon his return to North Carolina in 1968, Goodmon was named Operations Manager at WRAL-TV.  In 1973 he took on corporate responsibilities as Executive Vice President of Capitol Broadcasting Company.  In 1975 he became CBC’s President, and in 1979 he was named President and Chief Executive Officer of the company, a position he held until September 2017—when he was succeeded as CBC President by his son Jimmy.  Jim remains as the company’s CEO and was elected Chairman of the CBC Board of Directors during the 2017 transition.

During his career Jim Goodmon has guided the growth of CBC’s broadcast holdings and led the company’s expansion into satellite communications, new media, real estate and professional sports.

Known as a trailblazer and a pioneer, Goodmon explores new technology with passion and energy—always seeking out the latest and best methods of serving audiences, clients and community partners.

He holds a fierce dedication to the public interest, and all CBC divisions not only meet but exceed industry requirements and standards.  In 1998 he was appointed to the Advisory Committee on Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters.  Known as the Gore Commission, this prestigious panel recommended public interest obligations for American broadcasters as they made the transition to digital television.

Goodmon led CBC and its stations into the digital age, gaining industry-wide recognition as a visionary whose stations constantly pushed the boundaries of technology.  In 1996 the FCC granted the nation’s first experimental HDTV license to WRAL-TV, which was the first in a long line of CBC technological achievements in the field of high definition television.

Jim Goodmon’s interests go well beyond broadcasting.  Under his leadership, Capitol Broadcasting Company has expanded into real estate—developing the American Tobacco Historic District in Durham and turning it into an award-winning example of entrepreneurial restoration.

Durham is also home to another CBC-owned icon, the Durham Bulls.  Jim Goodmon has always loved baseball, and in the early 1990s CBC took over the most famous franchise in minor league baseball history.  Under CBC ownership the Bulls have won championships, risen to Triple-A status, and set attendance records at the state-of-the-art ballpark that has become a centerpiece in downtown Durham.

Whether it’s broadcasting, real estate, new media or professional sports–Jim Goodmon is at the forefront of the industry.  His leadership is based on principle, vision and a strong commitment to the community, and those ideals inspire the divisions of Capitol Broadcasting Company each and every day.

Goodmon has also been instrumental in the success of the A.J. Fletcher Foundation, a charitable fund that donates millions of dollars annually to organizations throughout North Carolina.  The Fletcher Foundation supports programs that foster care for the elderly, infirm and indigent.  It also provides funding for initiatives in Education, the Arts, Public Recreation, Communication Arts, and Religious Faith. Jim serves as the Foundation’s Chairman of the Board.

Jim is the recipient of numerous awards and honors:

Named 2003 Tar Heel of the Year by The News &Observer of Raleigh.  The newspaper gave Jim the honor “because of his involvement and influence in two arenas: the redevelopment of Durham’s American Tobacco complex and the national debate about how many television and radio stations a single media company should be allowed to own.”
Inducted into the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2003.  The Hall recognizes and honors people who have made significant contributions to the broadcast industry over an extended time.
The Nashville/Midsouth Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences presented Jim with the Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2000 for his contributions to the community and outstanding achievements in broadcasting.
DTV Pioneer Award.  Presented by Broadcasting & Cable magazine, this award recognized Jim’s leadership role and achievements in the advancement of digital television.
Inducted into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame in 1997.
Inducted along with wife Barbara into the Raleigh Hall of Fame in 2008.  This recognized the Goodmons’ service to the Raleigh community and their work with the Fletcher Foundation, the Healing Place of Wake County and other groups providing hope to the less fortunate.

Currently Jim serves as Chairman of the Dix Park Conservancy, a private organization backing the development of Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh.

Jim Goodmon holds honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Pfeiffer College and Duke University as well as an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from William Peace University.  He serves on the boards of many organizations across the Triangle and state.

Jim and Barbara Goodmon have three children: Elizabeth, Jimmy and Michael, along with ten grandchildren.

James F. Goodmon, Jr. (“Jimmy”) is a life-long broadcaster with a passion for the business. He has spent the last 25 years working in various roles at multiple CBC entities.

Starting as a 16-year old camera operator for WRAL-TV’s 5 a.m. news, Jimmy Goodmon’s career path has spanned a multitude of television and radio station functions. From promotions, programming, and operations to selling radio and television advertising, he has spent his career working in various roles at multiple Capitol Broadcasting Company entities.

On September 4, 2017, Jimmy Goodmon was named President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Capitol Broadcasting Company. In the new role Jimmy assumes operational responsibility for all Capitol Broadcasting Company divisions.

Jimmy becomes the fourth generation of his family to hold the title of CBC President, following in the footsteps of his father Jim, great-uncle Fred Fletcher, and company founder A.J. Fletcher—Jimmy’s great-grandfather.

Prior to his election as President, Jimmy served 12 years as Vice President & General Manager of CBC New Media Group, where he developed a successful vision and strategy for emerging media business opportunities.

Specifically, Goodmon managed WRAL.com, Capitol’s digital channel initiatives including three MDTV channels, and Albright Digital, a digital solutions provider that aids car dealers with Internet marketing.

He also successfully developed and spun out News Over Wireless (now StepLeader, Inc.), a mobile solutions provider that powers mobile platforms for over 300 TV and radio stations across the country.

Jimmy was also responsible for strategic acquisitions, investments and start up projects for the company. In addition to the digital initiatives, Goodmon served as Vice President & General Manager of Sunrise Broadcasting, a five-station radio group, and WILM-TV–both located in Wilmington, NC. He also oversaw the operations of WRAL-FM and Microspace Communications–both located in Raleigh, NC.

Jimmy Goodmon is a member of Capitol Broadcasting’s Board of Directors and serves on the company’s Executive Committee. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Mobile 500 Alliance.

In addition to his broadcast interests Jimmy is active in the community, serving on numerous boards, including the Salvation Army of Wake County and the National Salvation Army, UNC Rex Leadership Council, Duke Raleigh Hospital, NC Museum of Natural Sciences, Wake Health Services, the Achievement School, and the AJ Fletcher Foundation. He is chair-elect of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce’s Executive Committee.

Jimmy is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College and earned his MBA at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. He lives in Raleigh with his wife Anna and three sons Fletcher, Watson, Walker and daughter Frances.

Broadcast executive John Greene served Capitol Broadcasting Company for more than three decades – steering WRAL-TV through the pivotal 1980’s when the CBC flagship gained national recognition as one of the most dominant and decorated local television stations in the country.

Greene grew up in Shelby, NC and paid his way through UNC-Chapel Hill working in radio news. After graduation in 1966 he joined WBTV-TV in Charlotte as a News Reporter. He was promoted through the ranks as Producer, Managing Editor and News and Information Manager for WBT Radio and WBTV.

In 1973, Greene moved into station management as Station Operations Manager for WWBT-TV, the Jefferson-Pilot Broadcasting facility in Richmond. Three years later he received a job offer from longtime colleague Fred Barber, who had just been hired to lead WRAL’s management team. Greene accepted the offer and joined WRAL-TV in 1976 as Station Operations Manager. For the next three years he teamed with Barber to put a lasting imprint on the WRAL operation.

Greene brought new standards of excellence to WRAL and helped propel the news operation to unprecedented ratings success. He also instilled a spirit of creativity that led the station to many industry firsts. In 1979 Greene was instrumental in the launch of SKY5, which made WRAL the first station in North Carolina with a fulltime helicopter dedicated to newsgathering. The station also broke new ground in 1984 with the acquisition of LiveStar 5 – the state’s first KU-band transportable uplink vehicle.

Greene was named WRAL-TV’s Vice President and General Manager in late 1979. In 1984 he took on corporate responsibilities when he was promoted to Senior Vice President of the company. In that expanded role Greene continued direct management of WRAL-TV, but oversaw CBC’s three other television stations as well.

In 1990 Greene left WRAL-TV to become a lecturer at the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication. However he maintained ties to Capitol Broadcasting as a consultant to CBC President Jim Goodmon.

In 1994 Greene rejoined the company fulltime as CBC’s Vice President of Special Projects. His assignments included new business development, consulting and lobbying at the state and federal levels. One of his primary missions was to help shape the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Over the next decade John Greene also played an integral role in CBC’s groundbreaking efforts with digital television (DTV) and High Definition Television (HDTV). He supervised the completion of WRAL-HD, the nation’s first commercial digital television station.

John Greene retired from CBC in 2009, not long after WRAL and the rest of the nation’s television stations made the historic transition from analog to digital transmission. His career with Capitol Broadcasting spanned more than three decades.

Greene earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1966 and graduated at the top of his class in the School of Journalism. He has served as a member of the Board of Visitors and Journalism Board of Visitors at UNC. Greene has also served on the boards of North Carolina Central University and Gardner-Webb University.

In 2007 John Greene was honored by industry colleagues who inducted him into the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. The honor recognized his career-long contributions to the broadcast industry in North Carolina. Greene is a Past President of the NCAB and received the 1993 Distinguished Service Award from the organization.

Greene founded and chaired “Save Our Sounds, Inc.” – a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to coastal preservation. In 1994 he was named by Governor Jim Hunt to chair the “Year of the Coast” committee to develop a long-range environmental plan for the North Carolina coast. He has also served on a number of other state coastal planning committees.

Greene is married and the father of two children. He lives in Raleigh and enjoys sailing, fishing and tennis.

Michael Goodmon leads one of the country’s most dynamic urban mixed-use developments–the American Tobacco Campus in Durham.

As Vice President of Real Estate for Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc.–the campus’ owner and master developer–Michael manages the day-to-day activities of approximately 1,000,000 square feet of Class-A office, restaurant, residential and retail space. He scopes and develops new projects and opportunities including the American Underground startup hub (two locations in Durham, one in Raleigh) as well as solar/alternative energy real estate investments.

Michael earned a B.S. in Mathematical Economics from Hampden-Sydney College and a Masters in Trust and Investment Management from Campbell University.

Goodmon is an advocate and leader of the Durham and Triangle communities and serves on several boards to encourage growth, entrepreneurship and community development. These boards include: AJ Fletcher Foundation; Fletcher Academy; Frank Hawkins Kenan Board of Advisors; East Durham Children’s Initiative; Healing Place of Wake County; Downtown Durham, Inc.; NC Rails to Trails; CAHEC; and Leadership Triangle.

Louise “Scottie” Stephenson worked at Capitol Broadcasting Company longer than anyone in history (only recently surpassed by Board Chair & COO Jim Goodmon). Stephenson spent 58 years at CBC, serving the last forty-nine as Corporate Secretary and as a member of the company’s Board of Directors.

Scottie was hired at WRAL-AM Radio in 1944, where she wrote ad copy, answered phones, posted the daily casualty list during WWII, gathered birth announcements from the local hospital and became the “Lost & Found” lady on Fred Fletcher’s morning show.

Stephenson never went to college but was a veritable encyclopedia of knowledge. She could do it all: when an accountant was needed, she balanced the books; when reports had to be filed with the FCC, she studied the detailed requirements and submitted the information with perfection.

“I don’t know how we could have done what we’ve done without Scottie Stephenson,” said CBC President & CEO Jim Goodmon.

Following her radio days, Scottie’s role with the company expanded when Capitol Broadcasting set its sights on television. She was the only female on the five-person team that won the FCC license for WRAL-TV in the early 1950s.

Stephenson helped research and gather a veritable mountain of documents for WRAL’s application—3,000 pages in all. During the arduous 75-day hearing in Washington, DC she underwent hours of grueling questioning and never flinched. In the end, Scottie Stephenson was instrumental in Capitol Broadcasting winning the Channel 5 license and coming home victorious.

Once the license was won, Scottie set out to organize the new station’s workforce. She was the first person on the station payroll and by the time WRAL-TV went on the air in 1956, she had created job descriptions for almost every position. As WRAL’s startup staff was hired, Scottie worked wherever she was needed—serving as Administrative Assistant to the President and taking on temporary positions in the Traffic, Sales and Personnel departments.
Scottie used her newly-attained regulatory knowledge to become the station’s in-house FCC expert. She was responsible for all FCC filings, a cumbersome task that included reams of paperwork and technical detail.

Stephenson made an impact on the community as well, working as an advocate for the arts and the underprivileged. She spent 16 years on the board of the Tammy Lynn Center for profoundly and severely retarded children. She volunteered for the Raleigh Fine Arts Society and the North Carolina Symphony and chaired the Communications Committee of the Raleigh Junior Women’s Club.

One of her favorite projects was the Raleigh Golden Years Annual Holiday Celebration at the Convention Center. Scottie coordinated the festivities for over four decades and saw the luncheon grow from 50 to over 1,500 people.

Scottie received many accolades during her career, including Business and Professional Woman of the Year by the YWCA. She was also the charter recipient of the Junior Women’s Club Outstanding Working Member award. The Raleigh Little Theatre even named its outdoor amphitheater after her to honor years of service to the organization.

As Stephenson’s years at the company grew, CBC had to create gifts to recognize her record-setting tenure at the annual long-term employees’ luncheon. She so far outranked others in longevity that the company presented her with several unique rewards, including a marked parking space near the building entrance.

After Scottie’s death, CBC President Jim Goodmon permanently affixed her name to a parking spot at company headquarters on Western Boulevard; it was a reminder of her legacy and contributions. Goodmon said he wanted future employees to always ask, “Who is Scottie Stephenson?” and thus learn her story of determination, quality and excellence.

Louise “Scottie” Stephenson died April 15, 2002 after a brief illness. She was 80.