The 2015 inductees to the Martha Guy Hall of Legends of Avery County are Nancy Stroupe Morrison and Dr. Charlie Baker.
The induction ceremony will take place on Sunday, Sept. 13 at 1:30 p.m. at the Chapman Center on the Cannon Hospital Campus.
Carolina Barbeque will cater the meal. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door and can be obtained from the Williams YMCA, the Avery County Chamber of Commerce, or from individual Legends committee members. Children twelve and under are free.
Nancy Stroupe Morrison
Nancy Stroupe Morrison will be inducted under the stewardship category for her outstanding service to the people of Avery County. She was associated for many years as publisher/editor with the High Country newspapers, The Avery Mountain Times and The Avery Journal-Times. She also was the publisher of All About Women.
Morrison used her publications as a force for good. She spearheaded a six-month fundraising campaign that resulted in the purchase of two K-9 units for the Avery County Sheriff’s Office. She was instrumental in the passage of the “No Felons for Sheriff” NC Constitutional Amendment. She was founding chairman and is current chairman of the Drug Abuse Resolution Team, whose efforts resulted in drug treatment courts for Avery and Watauga counties.
She has served on numerous community and civic boards, including the Avery County Chamber of Commerce (current president), The Woolly Worm Festival Committee (she designed the current worm!), the MAY Coalition (current president), Williams YMCA, Avery Community Foundation, Grandfather Mountain Highland Games (advisor), Newland High Alumni Association (founding and past president), Newland Business Association (past president), Crossnore Community Enhancement, and many others.
Morrison is married to Bruce Morrison, owner/publisher of Running Journal and former chief operating officer of Jones Media. She has one daughter, Danica Goodman, who together with Sheriff Kevin Frye, recently won the Y’s Dancing With The Stars competition. Since her retirement from the newspapers, Morrison has reinvented herself as an artist, primarily in watercolor, and has her work in galleries and homes from coast to coast, including a quilt square in the National Museum of Folk Art in New York City.
Dr. Charlie Baker
Dr. Charlie Baker will be inducted under the medical category for his healthcare service to the people of Avery County. Although he grew up in Charlotte and lived in Vermont, Charlotte, and Pittsburgh during his training, he and his wife Ann always felt drawn to the mountains of North Carolina. They settled in Crossnore because they felt it would be a good place to rear their children and Baker liked the Sloop Memorial Hospital and its staff. He has been dedicated to providing the best in medical care to the people of this region ever since.
Baker has served on the Board of Directors of all the hospitals in which he has worked – Sloop, Cannon, and the Appalachian Hospital System – continuously for over 30 years. He was instrumental in getting the Williams YMCA established at Cannon Hospital and serves on its Board of Directors. He has been on the Avery County Child Protection Team, is the physician advisor for the Avery School Health Nurses and is the medical director for the Avery County Health Department. His office has been a fulltime teaching site for students from the UNC Medical School.
The Bakers have three children, Daniel, Alice, and Kate. They recently celebrated their 43rd wedding anniversary with a trip back to Edinburgh, Scotland, where they were married.
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