Hall of Honor recognizes 5 CCS graduates

Sep. 20—LENOIR — The Hall of Honor program recognizes Caldwell County graduates who have made significant contributions to their profession and/or community and who have maintained exemplary character throughout their experiences and careers beyond high school.

The inductees this year are Trilla Stallings Annas, Keith Smith, Ross McNairy Tolbert, Lloyd Monroe Rash (posthumously), and Eric Church.

Caldwell County Schools will present the 19th annual Hall of Honor banquet at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 26, at the JE Broyhill Civic Center.

Tickets for dinner and the induction ceremony are $25 each and are available at the Education Center, 1914 Hickory Blvd. SW, Lenoir, through Sept. 22. For more information, call 828-728-8407.

The inductees for 2022 are as follows:

Trilla Stallings Annas

Trilla Stallings Annas was born to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Stallings of Lenoir on Feb. 26, 1933. She graduated from Hudson High School in 1951. Two weeks after graduation, she accepted a temporary position with the Welfare Department. That assignment led to a full-time career, and she advanced to the position of Administrative Officer in the Caldwell County Department of Social Services. On her 30th anniversary, the Caldwell County Board of Commissioners designated it "Trilla Annas Day."

Upon her retirement in 1996, fellow employees named a board room in her honor. Along the way, she took courses at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute, served on the Caldwell County Heritage Committee, and represented DSS on the Employment Security Commission's Job Service Employer Committee. In 1987, she was named the Most Valuable Employee in the Northwestern District of the North Carolina Social Services Association.

Annas has also been active in civic, church, and community service. She was a charter member and president of the Granite Falls Business and Professional Women's Club, where she arranged leadership training programs and mentored young women beginning their careers. She also served her church, Whitnel United Methodist Church, as a Sunday School teacher and member of various committees/councils. Annas has been active with the United Way, Cancer Drive, Salvation Army Board of Directors (secretary), and the American Heart Association. After she retired, she served on the Appalachian RSVP Advisory Board, Granite Falls Branch of the State Employees' Credit Union, Council for Women, Council for Aging (former chairman), Yokefellow Board of Directors (secretary and president), Adult Life Program (president), Caldwell County Social Services Board, and Senior Tar Heel Legislature.

When her husband, Edwin Annas, joined other men in his community to form Sawmills Fire & Rescue, Annas worked with their wives to raise funds, dispatch calls, and provide support services.

For service to her community, Annas has received the following awards: Granite Falls Woman of the Year (1992), Orin Whitener Award (2010), L. A. Dysart Award (2014), and Order of the Long Leaf Pine (2016). She has also been recognized with numerous awards by the American Heart Association and the Granite Falls BPW Club.

Keith Smith

Keith Smith grew up in the Baton Community of Caldwell County, where he was valedictorian at Baton Elementary School and an honor graduate of the final class of Hudson High School. Smith attended the Governor's School of North Carolina in Choral Music and a summer music program on scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he studied with Conductor Lara Hoggard. He studied Voice with Martha Flowers and Conducting with Robert Porco, and sang and soloed with the University Chamber Singers, Carolina Choir, and UNC Men's Glee Club at the University, where he majored in Music. Smith has sung with the National Opera Company based in Raleigh and with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus, under the direction of Robert Shaw. Smith performed in the outdoor drama, "The Lost Colony" under the Direction of Broadway Director Joe Layton. In the summer of 1984, Layton selected Smith as part of an elite group of singers for the Roanoke Revelry, a Celebration of 400 Years of English America, during which he sang for Princess Anne of Great Britain and Walter Cronkite. While on Roanoke Island, Smith played a lead role in a collaborative Roanoke Island/New York City Opera Company Production of Gian Carlo Menotti's "The Medium," directed by New York City Opera Director, Steve Presnell.

Smith contemplated relocating to New York City but made a conscious decision to remain and try to make a difference in the Unifour Area of North Carolina, which he loves. Over the past 45 years, Smith has now been involved in over 200 plays at the professional, regional, community, school, and church levels, serving in the capacity of everything from actor to music director, director, playwright, and/or producer. He has directed music at several area churches and has directed the Chorus at Baton Elementary School and taught Music and Drama at Morganton Day School and Hickory Christian Academy. Smith has written and produced/directed several multimedia plays and performed them for thousands of school children at the J.E. Broyhill Civic Center and other venues throughout the Unifour Area. He is the recipient of 14 Willy Awards including the Doug Carter Award, recognizing his significant contribution to Theatre in Caldwell County. He is a Kay Award Winner as an Actor at Hickory Community Theatre. Smith is the founder and executive artistic director of Wind & Woods Productions, which produces the Annual Home for Christmas Concert at the HUB Station. He founded and directed the Youth Ensemble Singers (YES) of Caldwell County, for young ladies between the ages of 8 and 18; Smith's vision was for the ensemble to serve the dual purpose of instilling an awareness of and love for traditional choral music while encouraging the girls to help each other develop and foster their confidence and self-esteem. Smith assembled and directed a senior men's chorus for the North Carolina Senior Games Silver Arts competition, and the group was selected best in the state. He was involved extensively with the annual Loving Lenoir Concert and was recognized with a Pinnacle Award for his achievements in the Arts. For many years, Smith was privileged to collaborate with his dear childhood friend, Gregory Knight, who is also a member of the Caldwell Schools Hall of Honor.

Smith is the director of the Caldwell Men's Chorus and the director of Dinner Theatre for the town of Hudson, where he was featured in a televised segment of Carl White's "Life in the Carolinas." He was selected as Hudson Man of the Year in 2006. He now is happy to work in Customer Service for the town of Hudson.

Ross McNairy Tolbert

Ross McNairy Tolbert ("Mac") was born in 1938 to Jessie Sherrill and Sherman Tolbert. He and his four sisters attended Oak Hill and Lenoir public schools. Although his father died when he was five years old, Tolbert inherited his father's musical talent, which later was nurtured by Captain James Harper and Captain Ralph Ostrom of the Lenoir High School band. Tolbert credits those two men and the world-class experience they created with exposing him to the tuba and his career as a professional musician.

Immediately after graduating from high school at age seventeen, Tolbert was selected to join the prestigious United States Military Academy Band at West Point. During his three years at West Point, Tolbert played for President Eisenhower's second inaugural parade as well as a guard of honor for Queen Elizabeth and was fortunate to study with the legendary William Bell, principal tubist of the New York Philharmonic. At age twenty, Tolbert won an audition to become the principal tubist of the New Orleans Philharmonic (later the New Orleans Symphony), and at twenty-eight years old, he was offered the principal tuba position with the Minneapolis Symphony (later the Minnesota Orchestra).

Tolbert put down roots in Minnesota, and for thirty-seven years, he devoted his energy, commitment, and skills to that orchestra. He was elected by his peers to serve on numerous committees, including several important music director search committees. Tolbert established the Minnesota Orchestra-Zellmer Trombone Competition which awarded substantial assistance to outstanding young trombone students. He also was a founding member of the Chamber Brass Players which provided musical outreach to elementary students.

Tolbert always has dedicated a large portion of his time to teaching. He has been on the affiliated faculty of the University of Minnesota, St. Olaf College, Macalester College, and the University of Redlands. His students have gone on to careers as solo artists, in major orchestras, jazz performance, and composing. He is proud of their achievements as well as the thousands of concerts and hundreds of National Public Radio broadcasts and recordings in which he performed.

Despite retiring in 2004, Tolbert continues to practice and perform weekly trios and quartets with former colleagues.

Lloyd Monroe Rash (posthumous)

Lloyd Monroe Rash was born in Lenoir. He graduated from Lenoir High School in 1930 and from Eastman College with a degree in Accounting.

Starting as an accountant for Lenoir Furniture Company in 1951, his career accelerated within the furniture manufacturing industry, which led to positions as Director of United Veneer Company and Vice President of Harper Furniture Company. He also served as Secretary and President of Southland Home Furnishing Company, Inc.

Rash provided leadership as a civic and political leader of the community. He was a County Commissioner from 1959 to 1965. Rash served as Caldwell County Admiral for the USS North Carolina Battleship Commission. He was also a member, director. and president of Lenoir Rotary Club. Many other service-minded organizations benefited from his leadership.

In his retirement, he served as president of the Blackwelder Hospital and later president and treasurer of the Blackwelder Foundation. Hunting and golfing were two of his favorite recreational activities. He was also active with the First Methodist Church throughout his life, where he held many leadership roles.

Eric Church

Kenneth Eric Church was born on May 3, 1977 in Granite Falls. A 1995 graduate of South Caldwell High School, he went on to earn a degree in marketing from Appalachian State University before moving to Nashville to pursue a music career.

Church's musical journey first began at the age of 13, when he started writing songs and taught himself how to play the guitar. While a student at South Caldwell High School, he performed gigs around town and at dive bars across North Carolina. After moving to Nashville, Church eventually signed with Sony/ATV and Capitol Records. His first studio album, Sinners Like Me, was released in 2006 with his breakout album, Chief, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 2011. He has since earned numerous RIAA certifications for his full discography, which as of 2022 also includes albums Carolina, The Outsiders, Mr. Misunderstood, Desperate Man and the three-part Heart & Soul, plus more than 30 Gold, Platinum and multi-Platinum certified singles.

A multi-ACM and CMA Award winner (including the 2020 award for CMA Entertainer of the Year), Church has also earned numerous GRAMMY nominations while amassing a passionate fanbase around the globe known as the Church Choir. His live shows are renowned for their marathon length across several sold-out arena tours as well as multiple headlining stadium shows, including a 2019 concert at Nashville's Nissan Stadium, where he broke the venue's concert attendance record with more than 56,000 fans in attendance and became the first artist to sell out the venue with a solo lineup.

Church also uses his platform to give back, with the Chief Cares Fund organized together with his wife, Katherine Church, in 2013 and administered by the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. The CFMT is a registered 501©(3) non-profit that serves over 2.5 million people with charitable giving, helping Chief Cares make a difference in ways that matter. Church and his wife have been able to use Chief Cares to impact lives not only in the United States, but also around the globe.

Thus far, donations have been used to aid underprivileged families and children throughout Tennessee and Church's home state of North Carolina, as well as to help an orphanage in Nepal get beds, clothing, and offer schooling to children that would otherwise never get the chance. The fund also delivered bibles and aid to Haiti and helped fund the Humane Society's no-kill animal shelters with funds that go toward operational costs.