Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 9, 1995 TAG: 9501090030
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
It was a mystery that left many Franklin Countians puzzled and husbands named Bennie looking over their shoulders.
Early in December, a billboard on U.S. 220 near Rocky Mount sported a freshly painted message.
In cursive writing on the top half of the large sign was the message: ``Bennie, Don't Come Home. You Forgot My Birthday Again - Irene.''
Painted just weeks before Christmas, the billboard sent reporters scrambling with visions of a cute holiday story dancing in their heads.
But Bennie and Irene could not be found.
The weekly newspaper in Rocky Mount tried to fish out the couple by publishing an article about the sign.
Still, no Bennie and Irene.
Carthan Currin, who owns the company that owns the sign, was contacted by reporters - and other inquisitive sorts - but could only say that he was sworn to secrecy by the person who purchased the billboard space.
Meanwhile, Bennies all over Franklin County were getting phone calls and pokes in the ribs.
``I got quite a number of calls from people wondering if it was me,'' said Franklin County High School Principal Bennie Gibson. ``I was safe, though. My wife is named Martha Sue.''
Bennie Russell, the county's fire marshal, got his share of questions, too.
``I've got plenty of mileage out of all this,'' he said. ``My wife's name is Cathy, but I started telling people at holiday banquets and things that her name was Irene. Heck, I can remember the mileage I had on my first car, but I can't remember our anniversary. I'd forget her birthday if it wasn't on the same day as my sister's.''
Gibson also said he got a kick out of the billboard.
``I thought it was real funny, especially since I wasn't the Bennie that was in trouble,'' he said.
The search for a Bennie and an Irene continued.
Just across the hollow from Bennie Russell's house in Boones Mill - a town not immune to the unusual - live Bennie and Irene Carter.
A reporter called Carter a few days after the billboard went up.
``Not me,'' he said. ``I've seen the sign, and my wife is named Irene, but I didn't forget her birthday.''
Was the billboard legit, or was it a hoax?
Turns out, Carter played a part in the story behind the message and didn't even know it.
His son, Mike Carter, and his daughter, Vanessa Meadors, came up with the idea for the billboard. Mike Carter and Vanessa Meadors co-own Carter's Fine Jewelers in Rocky Mount.
Two weeks before Christmas, the first part of the sign was marked out, and more was written underneath. It read: ``Bennie, The Diamond from Carter's Was Beautiful, Come Home! - Irene.''
Below that was the Carter's logo and directions to the business.
With a chuckle, Mike Carter said Friday that he was amazed at the gossip the billboard generated.
A woman in Boones Mill told a Carter family friend that she knew the Bennie and Irene on the sign and passed along some additional juicy details, he said.
Mike Carter said he used the first names of his parents because he feared a slander lawsuit if any other names were chosen.
He said he attended a seminar in Atlanta several years ago where a similar advertising campaign in Louisiana was featured.
``There's been a real good response to it,'' he said of the billboard.
``We've tried other things,'' he said. ``We put gemstones in a cake once and had people come in. If you got a piece of cake with a stone in it, you got to keep it for free and we'd set it. But we had to clean the carpet after that one.''
by CNB