DATE: Saturday, October 11, 1997            TAG: 9710110684

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY                    LENGTH:   81 lines

FRED FEARING, MAN WHO PUT ELIZABETH CITY ON GLOBAL MAP

Say you're from Elizabeth City and chances are somebody will reply, ``That's where they have the party for the boaters.''

Then often follows the question: ``Do you know that Fred Fearing.''

More and more often in more and more places in the world, it's happening.

With a lot of help from Fred Fearing and the Rose Buddies, Elizabeth City has become a star on the map - not only for boaters but for many people who never have hoisted a sail.

This town on the banks of the Pasquotank has been written about in hundreds of newspapers and magazines. It shows up with great regularity in the popular listings of ``the 100 best'' places to visit, to live, to retire.

There's nobody to thank for this but Fred Fearing.

Today is Fred Fearing Day in his hometown. The public is invited to stop by the Waterworks Deck at 4:30 p.m. today and thank him for his efforts.

Although he's certainly outspoken and sometime irascible, Fearing almost purrs when he talks about Elizabeth City or Nags Head. He's a walking encyclopedia of local history. His house a block off Main Street is a repository of old newspapers, photographs and postcards - all well-worn references to the past.

Fearing comes from a family well known in the region. But, like most folks in Eastern North Carolina, he had to work for a living.

He once earned $5.85 a week playing semi-pro ball and showed some real promise in center field. Instead of trying to go with the big leagues, he opted for a more stable life as a city mail carrier. He stayed with the post office 34 years. It's all that walking, he said, that accounts for his agility at age 83.

Baseball was his first love until it got him a scholarship to Louisburg College during the tough years of the Great Depression. There he met the real love of of his life, his wife Florence.

Florence Fearing died in 1982 after suffering with debilitating arthritis. But she's still very much a part of Fred Fearing's life. He takes her flowers every Sunday morning and has a long talk with her at the cemetery.

It was on a lonely Sunday afternoon the year after her death that the Rose Buddies came into being. Fearing and the late Joe Kramer walked out of First Methodist Church together and, on a whim, they decided to go down to the public boat docks and visit with the folks on the boats.

The rest is history that has been documented many times. Kramer's rose garden produced the blossoms that inspired the name Rose Buddies when they were handed to the women on the visiting vessels.

When Kramer died, his family transplanted his roses to the waterfront, where they bloom every year for the boaters.

Fearing has continued the traditions of the Rose Buddies with the help of volunteers. The ritual includes a party with wine and beer, cheese and chips, when there are enough boats spending the night. But, even if there are only one or two, Fearing shows up to welcome them and sometimes even invites folks to his home on Fearing Street, a few blocks from the city docks.

Over the years, the visitors have included many a well-known person. One, television weatherman Willard Scott, sent Fearing a golf cart. The cart has become Fearing's favorite mode of transportation, and he'll often take a visitor on a quick tour around town.

Fearing will be honored today for his boosterism and hard work that has made Elizabeth City's name better known. But his volunteer work started a long time ago.

As a young man, he coached young baseball players and served on the Elizabeth City Boys Club board. He was on the Louisburg College board for a number of years and served on the board of the Museum of Natural History.

Many local people know his voice from the time he was the announcer for ball games at old Memorial Field off Parsonage Street from 1947 to 1964.

``I tell you, people I've never seen in my life call me by name,'' he said recently.

It's flattering, he said, to get all the attention. But that's not why he does what he does.

``I never want to live without doing something every day,'' he said recently. ``I couldn't stand doing nothing.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot

Television weatherman Willard Scott sent Fearing, left, a golf cart.

The cart has become Fearing's favorite mode of transportation, and

he'll often take a visitor on a quick tour around Elizabeth City.

Color Photo

Fred Fearing

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