DUNN - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Community Outreach Committee Chair
Frederick Lincoln "Link" Wray, Jr. (May 2 1929 - November 5, 2005) American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and vocalist was born in Dunn, NC and first came to popularity in the late 1950s. Building on the over driven, distorted electric guitar sound of early electric blues records, his 1958 instrumental hit "Rumble" by Link Wray and his Ray Men invented the power-chord, the major modus operandi of modern rock guitarists, making possible punk and heavy rock. He was the first to use intentional distortion in a rock and roll recording. Rolling Stone Magazine placed Wray at number 45 of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. In 2013 he was announced as a nominee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Link Wray was the first Native American rock star with "Rumble" selling over a million copies in 1958. Link Wray has been inducted into the Native American Music Hall of Fame, North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, Rockabilly Hall of Fame, Washington (DC) Area Music Association, Southern Legends Hall of Fame and many more. He has been featured in the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of the Native American Indian "Up Where We Belong" exhibits in both Washington, D.C. and New York City.
Link Wray Day has been declared by Governor's Proclamation in the states of Maryland and North Carolina. He is honored by his hometown of Dunn with the annual "Link Wray Music Festival," an event held in May of each year of the weekend of his birth. Dunn is proud to be the hometown of such an honored and accomplished musician.
Job Titles:
- Immediate past President
- Campbell University Representative
William Carey Lee was born in Dunn on March 12, 1895. He attended Wake Forest and North Carolina State Universities, but left the latter to enroll as a second lieutenant in the U. S. Army. After serving 18 months in Europe and earning the rank of captain, Lee returned stateside, graduated from N.C. State and from the U.S. Army Officer's School two years later.
Upon returning from World War I, his enthusiasm for the parachute and glider troops he had seen in Germany led to the development of the Parachute Test Platoon. In March 1942, the Provisional Parachute Group, only a year old and led by Lieutenant Colonel Lee was reconstituted as the Airborne Command. Within the year, three parachute regiments were added to the army's airborne forces and the Airborne Command Headquarters relocated to Camp Fort Bragg, NC, the now Brigadier General Lee in command.
In August of 1942, the Army's first airborne divisions were formed, the 82 nd and the 101 st. Major General Lee was put in command of the new 101 st Airborne Division. After a year of training, General Lee and his paratroopers departed to England where they were, in General Lee's words, to have a "rendezvous with destiny."
In 1944, General Lee was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. In February of that same year, he suffered a heart attack and retired from the Army shortly afterward. Sadly, he never realized the chance to jump into battle with his men.