Debra Morgan shares memories of Charlie Gaddy during memorial service
I stand here today for what is one of the
greatest honors of my life to eulogize a man I
so deeply loved and admired
I'm proud to say I was one of Charlie's young
people those in the newsroom who hung the moon on
Charlie's advice and guidance
Back in the day we typed our scripts on these
big typewriters
They had really big keys and you had to push
down really really hard to be able to go through
5 pages plus the carbon copy in between
So that's how we wrote our scripts
Tom Suter loved those typewriters did not want to give
them up
But that's the way we wrote our scripts and producers
would write the scripts usually first
Charlie would either handwrite the changes to start or he
would start all over
Invariably you would hear him call out we can't say
that
And then he'd proceed to teach us all why we
needed to carefully choose our words so as to be
conversational factual you would always have questions and not to
play favorites
As so many of us did that are here today
I try to model my career after his his attention
to detail
His deep respect for the people watching
His love of being right in the middle of everything
going on
His sincerity his friendly demeanor
People were drawn to Charlie
They trusted him implicitly
Back in 2016 Charlie told me he had written what
is basically his autobiography
He self-published at Kinko's
And he shares stories in here that are often funny
but they talk a lot about how his family shaped
him into the man the journalist and the husband that
he became
It's quite a raid very philosophical and as I said
very funny
For example we've heard about his athletic prowess already from
Reverend Stanley
And uh There's a picture in here that was in
the yearbook
I realize y'all can't see this very well but here's
Charlie in this football uniform here
Yes he flat out admitted in this he was not
athletic
In fact he just said quote I was not good
But the principal thought even if Charlie was not the
star player he sure would make a good model for
the new school uniforms
Charlie joked that the boys didn't even know how to
put the pads on
Maybe he couldn't play but he sure looked the part
He grew up in the big band era and loved
to dance and he especially loved to dance the Shag
And as Reverend Stanley said and as I learned this
morning he actually taught Shag in Sunday school
But in his book he shares a warning
If you are ever in England don't ever ask a
young lady if she shags
Unless you are prepared to duck
One time I asked him Charlie how do you know
And he just laughed out loud put his arms around
me and gave me that all-knowing grin
Charlie grew up during a time when radio was a
conduit for events happening across the country and across the
globe
He reminds all you young people there was no TV
back then so he listened from Bisco as World War
II raged
He recalls hearing Edward R
Murrow reporting from London in vivid detail of Germans bombing
the city and Charlie said I believe it was during
that time that a seed was planted in my imagination
that broadcasting would be an almost magical thing to do
Those seeds he planted back then later bloomed and became
seeds for so many of us here today
He was a mentor a friend a leader a confidant
And he was all of those things to everyone in
the newsroom producers the crew reporters photographers and staff alike
Charlie treated everyone with the same warmth the same respect
and generosity
That caring nature translated to when he was on TV
too
While Charlie was fastidious with his scripts he could easily
ad lib and that's where he had some of his
most memorable moments
One such moment the compassion he showed walking through the
rubble of the Raleigh tornadoes interviewing the victims not long
after the storm had blown through
Charlie left the studio to see it for himself to
talk to the people in person and most importantly try
to comfort a community that had just lost everything
This was Charlie Gaddy
He knew when to be a balanced unbiased journalist and
when to have a heart and to relate to real
people
It was what we loved about him
It was what the people watching at home loved about
him
He was so down to earth and just said what
was on his mind which was most likely what everyone
else was thinking at home
That blend of Southern charm confidence and friendly sincere delivery
made him really feel less of a broadcaster and more
like a trusted neighbor
He lived by this pledge to his viewers that he
made
If you don't respect your audience enough to give it
to them straight then please don't call yourself a news
journalist
Forgive me he wrote but I am proud to have
been recognized as an honest broker of the news
Now despite his penchant for the truth he was known
to tell a little white lie every now and again
especially when it came to protecting his young people
My husband Scott was serving in the Navy overseas when
I first started at WREL and Charlie took it upon
himself to look after me
If people came up to him to ask about me
especially the ones he called the boys he would always
say you know her husband is a black belt in
karate
You better not mess with her
I I suspect they were probably more worried about Charlie
than they were worried about Scott but as the decades
passed he would always remind Scott of that story
Charlie loved it
I loved it
In later years we would sit and we would talk
for hours
Ever the storyteller he loves swapping tales such as talking
about how he met Nancy or growing up in Bisco
or what his favorite nieces were up to
One time before Nancy became so ill he invited a
few of us over for a little dinner party
Charlie was always impeccably dressed even when he was casual
So this evening he was wearing a classy Hawaiian shirt
and white slacks
He was so handsome
He had such a great presence and I thought he
could sit on the anchor desk and today deliver the
news not missing a beat
Little did we know later in the evening he would
pull out his microphone and tape machine
He started singing and he sang mostly country songs reminding
me a little bit of Johnny Cash
It was absolutely wonderful
Just when I thought Charlie couldn't be even more charming
Many of us here today wanted to take care of
him as these years have passed and our visits were
always a mission to give our best to this person
who always cared so much for us
Yet we all left feeling that Charlie filled up our
hearts again guiding inviting
Advising and lifting us up
Charlie wrote this book back in 2010 and I have
read it cover to cover now many times
I'm so um thrilled to get to know him better
by reading this
Some of his musings are so poetic
It starts off this is my story this is my
song from an old hymn he sang in church and
bisco
He goes on to write the lyrics seem to describe
what life is like
Life it seems to me is a combination of a
story that is what happened to us day to day
good or bad
And a song those wonderful periods when it seems that
cares are suspended temporarily and we are infused with joy
energy and dreams
We must enjoy those moments
He talks a lot in his book about a trip
that he made with a Raleigh fly fisherman to northern
China which is truly a story in itself but he
describes the rough waters the camping Russian soldiers on the
opposite banks and the beautiful kind people he met
Then he shares a side story that happened years later
after his trip
A woman from Durham sent him a letter about how
she was traveling to China alone
She was distraught
She was crying in a train station because she had
missed her train to Beijing and would now miss her
flight to come back to America
A young Chinese man using perfect English saw she needed
help and figured out how to get the woman on
the next train and change her flight
She dried her tears and they began to chat while
waiting for the train
The young man asked where in the United States she
was from
She told him North Carolina
He asked what city She replied Durham
He asked how far that was from Raleigh and she
said very near
He then asked Do you know Charlie Gaddy Well she
excitedly said that she watched him every night on TV
but didn't know him personally
Out of a billion people in China sure enough she
had run into this helpful man who was one of
Charlie's interpreters years earlier
What an example of how Charlie's genuine kindness left an
impression wherever he went
You know people call Charlie the Walter Cronkites of Raleigh
right We've all heard that
There is a picture of Charlie and Walter in this
book
It has the caption Walter came to support Save Our
Sounds and gave a major speech
He added Walter loves vodka on the rocks and can
drink you under the table
Again I would ask him Charlie how do you
Oh gosh I will miss his laugh and those big
hugs
As sad as we are today with the loss of
our dear friend it may help us to know Charlie's
thoughts of what he's doing right now
He wrote one of my concepts of heaven would be
to sit once again at my mother's table
He described a happy place wonderful food snap beans pear
salad cornbread dumplings biscuits peach flapjacks
Boy the list went on and on
And tickles with his brother and sister
Once the giggling started it was contagious he wrote
When he had enough of the commotion Daddy would always
say right if everything is so funny in just a
minute I'll send you out in the yard and you
can just look up a pine tree and laugh all
you want to
Well the thought of that just led us to more
hysterics and Charlie continued those were happy times
And this
A line in a poem Charlie wrote in 2008 called
The Porch swings of Bisco
The shadows lengthen on my life
I await my turn by the riverbank
Before I cross
I'd like one more chance just to rest in the
memories of a summer night in a porch swing in
bisco
That's how I'm choosing to remember Charlie
In that porch swing in bisco
Rest in peace my dear friend