Dolly Has Halifax singing 9 to 5

Dolly has Halifax singing '9 to 5'
New music venue may employ 2,500
Thousands attend the groundbreaking for Carolina Crossroads Music and Entertainment District, just off Interstate 95 in Halifax County. Backers promise thousands of jobs.
Staff Photo by Chuck Liddy


Jerry Allegood, Staff Writer
With "I Saw the Light" and a revival's fervor, Dolly Parton and brother Randy on Friday launched a $129 million country music complex that residents hope will be the salvation of a stagnant economy.
An estimated 10,000 people turned out for a groundbreaking of the Carolina Crossroads Music and Entertainment District, just off Interstate 95 in Halifax County. They thronged a stage built on the site of a 1,500-seat theater that will be the centerpiece of the 750-acre complex, meant to compete with Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Branson, Mo.

"I wouldn't have missed this for anything in the world," said Dolly Parton, who brought along a cadre of Grand Ole Opry veterans. "You're definitely going to be in for some great entertainment."

Many hoped they would also be in for some great jobs. Backers say 2,500 people eventually will work at the complex. "It's going to bring much-needed employment," said Freda Sexton of Roanoke Rapids, who held a large "I love you Dolly" sign.

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"It will change the whole face of the community," said Alton Anderson, a Weldon physician.
Roanoke Rapids, a town of about 17,000 near the Virginia border, is on one of the country's busiest interstates. But for years, the region's economy has sagged as residents have seen their jobs shipped abroad. While North Carolina's urban centers have thrived, Roanoke Rapids and other rural areas have seen their young people leave, their downtowns decay and their hopes wither.

Population in what the Census Bureau calls the Roanoke Rapids micropolitan area -- the town and the outlying areas dependent on it -- declined from 79,456 in 2000 to about 77,352 in 2005. Projections had called for a decline of 2.6 percent by 2010.

'Economic engine'

Boosters say that with the addition of motels, stores and recreational activities, Randy Parton's project will become a major tourist attraction and bring in some of the thousands of cars that speed by each day. Some see the entertainment and service industry jobs as a way to overcome setbacks from the loss of textile jobs that largely built the area.

"It's going to break the region wide open," Dan Brown, head of the Roanoke Rapids Sanitary District, said in an interview after the ceremony. "We're going to convert a farm into an economic engine."

He said the area once had about 3,000 textile jobs. "There is literally zero now," he said.

The old textile mills downtown are disappearing. A smokestack stands over rubble around one mill that is being demolished. Several blocks away, the red brick buildings of another are shuttered and silent.

Brenda West, whose family has operated West and Sons Garage across the street from the closed plant since 1976, said the area was bustling with people and traffic when the textile plants were operating.

"People would leave their cars here," West said in the garage office. "That parking lot over there would be full."

Now, she said, there is talk of making the plant site into apartments or condos, another transition from the neighborhoods of small houses where mill employees lived.

Beverly Massey put up a "Welcome Carolina Crossroads" message on the sign in front of her small gift shop in Roanoke Rapids. She said she hoped the entertainment center would bring more people into town and into her shop.

Gladys Mobley, who was helping out in the store Friday, worked at a J.P. Stevens plant for 15 years. She remembers when textile employees kept businesses along Roanoke Avenue bustling. "Roanoke Rapids has been dormant for so long, it needs something to liven it up," she said.

Cheers for Parton

Outside town, Dolly Parton, who has been expertly working crowds since she joined Porter Wagoner's television show in 1967, was hard at work.

The audience politely applauded entertainers including Jim Ed Brown, Helen Cornelius, Jan Howard, Ray Pillow, Jeannie Seely and Billy Walker. Only when Dolly bounded onto the stage did they break into cheers.

She told the crowd she would be on a television program next week with Elton John. "I don't know what kind of dress he's going to wear, but mine's going to be gold and white," she said.

The Partons sang "God Bless America" and "The Star-Spangled Banner" and took turns at the microphone with the other performers for "I Saw the Light."

"It's unbelievable that we're going to be better than Branson, Mo.," Roanoke Rapids Mayor Drewery N. Beale told the crowd.

Staff writer Jerry Allegood can be reached in Greenville at (252) 752-8411 or jerrya@newsobserver.com.