The rain held off for the Saturday renaming and dedication ceremony of the J. Pleasant Hines Park and the Joe R. Wynn Pool in Southern Pines. Friends, family, and community members gathered to reminisce and celebrate the legacy of the two men who helped build a community.
Southern Pines Director of Parks and Recreation Greg Thompson opened the ceremony and declared the park an “asset to the spirit of Southern Pines itself.” Town Council member Debra Gray took the podium next, acknowledging Hines as the first mayor of West Southern Pines. She also remembered Wynn as a man who “left a mark on all of those he touched.”
Hines served as the first mayor of West Southern Pines from 1923 to 1927, a few years before it was dissolved into Southern Pines in 1931. It was originally one of the first black municipalities in North Carolina…