THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 10, 1995 TAG: 9502090174
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Janie Bryant
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
When Angela J. Thigpen, a former Miss Portsmouth Seawall Festival, caught the bouquet at Pat Southall's wedding last month, it G1PCHAT10 Thigpen was no empty gesture.
Thigpen and her fiance, Oscar and Grammy Award winner, Peabo Bryson, plan to marry.
But for now Thigpen is on the tour of ``Raisin,'' the Tony Award winning musical based on ``A Raisin in the Sun.''
Bryson also is among the cast, which includes Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire and gospel star Lynette Hawkins.
Thigpen plays medical student Benethea Younger.
But don't tell Thigpen to break a leg. Cast members may be a little sensitive to that right now.
En route to a recent performance in Louisville, Ky., the cast's bus flipped over in West Virginia.
Fortunately Thigpen had decided to fly and wasn't on the bus.
The show went on, she said. But ``the first opening night . . . the orchestra was in slings.''
Thigpen is the daughter of Katherina and John Thigpen of Southampton.
In 1954, Harry Lynn Hopewell Jr. was part of Wilson High's state championship team.
But Hopewell hasn't rested onathletic laurels.
Last fall, he was included in a Worth magazine article featuring their pick of the country's ``Top 60 Financial Advisors.''
The 57-year-old is president of The Monitor Group Inc. in Falls Church, a private practice he started in 1980.
His career as a financial and investment advisor was a mid-life career change for the Portsmouth G2PCHAT10 Hopewell native.
He traveled to more than 40 countries as a communications engineer with the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1960s.
He earned a master's in business administration from Harvard in 1968.
Hopewell was appointed to serve on the Gov. George F. Allen's Commission on Champion Schools.
His mother, Charlotte Hopewell, who lives in Elizabeth Manor, retired as principal of John Tyler Elementary School. His late father was a founder of The Circle Restaurant. by CNB