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Butch Evans to rock Playhouse New Year’s
By Adlen W. Robinson
For the Forsyth County News
If you have been a resident of
Forsyth County for awhile, the name
Butch Evans is probably already very
familiar to you. On the other hand, if
you are relatively new to the area,
take note.
This fabulous and locally famous
rocker and his band are teaming up
with some other performers for what
promises to be an amazing concert
experience. Mark your calendar and
plan on attending The Great
American Rock and Roll Revival on
New Year’s Eve at the Cumming
Playhouse. Instead of ringing in the
New Year, plan on rocking in 2006
with an entertaining show featuring
three acts: An award winning Elvis
impersonator, the fabulous Sock
Hops, and of course, Butch Evans
and the Buckheads.
Born in Atlanta in 1947, Evans
said his earliest memories involve his
love for music. When he was only 10
years old, like so many other
Americans, Evans saw Elvis perform
on the “Ed Sullivan Show.” After that,
Evans would lip sync Elvis songs to
any neighborhood children who
would listen. When he was in school
at Cumming Elementary, Evans said
he got his first taste of the thrill of
performing in front of a live audi¬
ence. It was at a Girl Scout Sock Hop
in the Cumming Elementary gymna¬
sium, and the year was 1961. When
the Girl Scout leader turned her back,
Evans jumped onstage, grabbed the
microphone and began singing and
dancing before the crowd of stunned
holidays
brighter for area children
Annual ‘Shop with a Cop ’ effort set for Dec. 15
By Stephen Gurr
Staff Writer
Local law enforcement
officers will trade gun belts
for gift wrap for a day this
month, as cops play Santa
during the Fraternal Order
of Police’s annual “Shop
with a Cop” program, now
in its 13th year.
Those who want to be
Santa’s helpers can donate
to the charitable program,
which tries to raise about
$10,000 each year to buy
Christmas presents for about
100 underprivileged elemen¬
tary school kids.
“The children love it,”
says Brooke Mantha, a
deputy with the Forsyth
County Sheriff’s Office and
secretary for the FOP’s
Lanier Lodge 82. “They
really like shopping with an
officer in uniform.”
Besides providing a bet¬
ter Christmas for needy chil
dren, “Shop with a Cop”
helps with community rela¬
tions, Mantha says, building
trust between the public and
Seminar set to families with
By Debbie Gilbert
FCN Regional Staff
The holiday season is sup¬
posed to be a time of joy. But
for people who recently have
lost a loved one, the celebra¬
tions may ring hollow. On
Dec. 6, the Hospice of
Northeast Georgia Medical
Center in Gainesville will
offer a free seminar on coping
with grief during the holidays.
The session is scheduled
from 6 to 8 p.m. at the hospice
office on Limestone Parkway,
next to the New Horizons
North nursing home. Advance
registration is required.
“We’re here to provide
support,” said Robert
Gillespie, bereavement coun¬
selor for the hospice. “People
often come into seminars like
this thinking no one else has
ever experienced what they’re
feeling.”
Grief is hard enough at any
time of year, but it’s especially
poignant on occasions such as
Thanksgiving and Christmas,
when the entire family tradi¬
tionally gathers. People may
not know whether to acknowl¬
edge the deceased person’s
absence or to carry on as if
nothing is different.
0 Holiday parties also may
• V %
elementary students. Moments later,
the gymnasium erupted with cheers.
“I got such a positive reaction — I
thought it was a great feeling,”
laughed Evans.
Upon graduating from high
school, Evans was drafted into the
U.S. military and served in Vietnam
for two years. After a few years in the
workforce, Evans said he had had
enough of the traditional life he was
leading.
“I just took a hard look at my life
and realized that what I really wanted
to do was to play music — that is
when I got serious about my career in
music,” said Evans.
Evans’ first real hit came after a
tragedy occurred in Forsyth County.
In January 1972, Deputy Bill Cantrell
and Reserve Officer Larry Mulkey
were murdered while in the line of
duty. The crime rocked the communi¬
ty and Evans said it hit home with
him as well. “Bill Cantrell was
always telling me to do something
with my life,” remembered Evans.
He was my friend, and he was a
preacher too — most everybody liked
him.
As a tribute to Cantrell, Evans
wrote “Big Bill Cantrell,” a song
about his friend, the fallen police offi
cer. Evans made 1,000 copies of the
single which featured only the singer
songwriter playing his 12-string gui
tar and crooning the haunting melody
about his friend. The public respond
ed positively, and the song became a
local hit immediately. Evans’ musical
career was officially bom.
Evans became known in the
Atlanta area shortly after that
the men and women of law
enforcement.
“We want them to see us
as friends that can help
them, rather than the bad
guys they want to run away
from,” Mantha said.
Children are selected
through referrals from
school counselors and every
effort is made to make sure
they aren’t benefiting from
any other holiday charity,
Mantha said,
On Dec. 15, about 30
officers with the sheriff’s
office, as well as Cumming
police and the state proba¬
tion office, will be assigned
to shop with kids or their
parents starting at 7 p.m. at
the Cumming Wal-Mart.
Mantha says that when
parents are doing the
shopping, sometimes they
choose clothing, food and
other essentials over toys,
but “we try to encourage
them to get at least one
toy.”
‘We’ve even had officers
dip into their own pockets to
make sure they get toys.”
Bereavement seminar
What: group session on coping with grief
during the holidays
When: 6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 6
Where: Hospice of Northeast Georgia
Medical Center office on Limestone Parkway
in Gainesville
Cost: free, but registration required
Contact: (770) 533-8528
be awkward. “It’s not unusual
for the bereaved person to
start crying at the dinner table
and run into the bathroom,
and people are yelling through
the door offering suggestions
to make her feel better,
Gillespie said.
“They need to recognize
that grief is a natural part of
life. It’s not a problem to be
‘fixed. Iff
Hospice chaplain Ruth
Demby said everyone
responds to grief differently.
Ask the grieving person
what would be helpful,” she
said. “Do they want to be
alone? Or do they want you to
just sit beside them quietly?”
Demby said the worst
thing a bereaved person can
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Photo/Ron Logan
Butch Evans, of Butch and The Buckheads, displays a guitar at the
Cumming Playhouse that he purchased in the early 3 1960s. *
Forsyth County hit when he instigat
ed the movement to save the Fox
Theater in Atlanta. It was 1973, and
plans were being solidified to tear
down the Fox which was badly in
need of repairs,
“I just could not believe they were
going to tear that beautiful landmark
down,” exclaimed Evans. “So, I
wrote a song about it and it helped
the public become aware of what was
happening and after that, a movement
began to save the Fox — there can be
a lot of power in a song.
The local FOP has seen
the program grow substan¬
tially with the growth of the
county since Shop with a
Cop started in Forsyth in
1993.
Mantha says setting
higher fund-raising goals for
the program is “always a
hope” for the lodge, which
has just under 30 active
members.
“As the lodge grows in
numbers, we possibly will
be able to accomplish that,”
she said. An annual golf
tournament and corporate
donations from Wal-Mart
and other area businesses
make up a large portion of
the program’s budget.
Anyone wishing to
donate to the Shop with a
Cop program may call
Deputy Brooke Mantha at
(678) 249-4492 or send a
check made out to the
Lanier Lodge Fraternal
Order of Police Shop with a
Cop Program to P.O. Box
1374, Cumming, GA 30028.
All donations go directly to
the program.
do is try to suppress grief and
continue on as usual, ertgag
ing in the holiday whirl of
shopping, baking and decorat
ing. “We need to be realistic
with our expectations,” she
said.
For some people, such
chores may help them take
their mind off their pain.
“But for others, going .
through the motions of the
holidays can make them feel
worse,” Gillespie said,
It’s important for them to
understand that they’re not
obligated to attend events or
participate in activities if
they’re not up to it. Yes, they
will feel guilty because they
think they’re letting people
down, but that’s |iuman nature
Evans has written more than 100
songs in his career.
“I write songs that do things —
they might make you smile or make
you cry — but hopefully they cause
you to have some sort of an emotion¬
al response,” said Evans.
With his band, Butch Evans has
performed all over Atlanta for
decades. In the early 3980s, the band
went on an overseas tour playing in
Germany, England, and in Saudi
Arabia. They have played venues
ranging from a few hundred people to
Incident reports
Editor’s note: The
ing items were taken
reports on file with the Forsyth
County Sheriff’s Office.
Jewelry stolen*
during funeral,
widow reports
A Namon Wallace Drive
woman said someone stole
jewelry from a box kept in her
bedroom, possibly during her
late husband’s funeral.
According to Forsyth
Sheriff’s incident reports, the
woman said that she had the
funeral for her husband in her
house on Nov. 17. On Nov. 25,
the woman went to look for
her “good jewelry” kept in a
blue box in her bedroom. She
said bracelets, rings and a soli¬
taire with a combined value of
about $5,700 was missing
from the box.
The woman said the funer¬
al was the only time when
people outside of her family
would have had access to her
bedroom. There was no sign
of forced entry.
Man found asleep
in van Wednesday
faces drug charges
A man faces drug charges
and it’s OK.’
For the bereaved person,
the anniversary of a loved
one’s death almost always
brings emotions back to the
surface. That makes it doubly
hard if the death occurred on
or near a holiday, because a
once-festive occasion forever
becomes associated with the
death.
But rather than avoiding
the holidays altogether,
Demby said there are ways to
honor the deceased person
during the celebrations.
“You can make a new tra¬
dition,” she said. “Light a can¬
dle or make a special orna¬
ment in memory of your loved
one. Tell funny stories about
things the person did on holi¬
days in the past. It’s especially
important for children to hear
such stories, so they get a
sense of family history.”
Gillespie said adults often
try too hard to put on a brave
face and create a happy
Christmas for the children.
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Gingerbread Bay 1 Get Latte
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Offer expires December 31,2005. Offer valid at
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(Hwy. 306 south of 369). 678-455-5558
m
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS —Thursday, December 1,2005
Butch and
The Buckheads
Special appearance by
The Sock Hops and other
surprise guests.
New Year’s Eve, 9 p.m.
Tickets now on sale.
Cost: Adults — $35
Groups of 25
or more — $25
more than 20,000 at
Stadium in Roswell.
The multi-talented band plays
variety of music, but Evans
their music as old-time rock and
from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.
“I love to listen to jazz; I
rock and roll; and when I
music, it is folksy,” said Evans.
Recently, Evans celebrated
58th birthday. Perhaps more
tantly to this talented rocker,
calculated that he has played
music at 4,000 events. More
anything else, Evans said he hopes
keep doing what he has done so
cessfully for more than
decades. After all, what is better
making a living doing what you
to do?
Tickets to the Great
Rock & Roll Revival are going
For more information, call
Cumming Playhouse at (770)
9178 or visit their Web site
www.playhousecumming.com.
after he was found sleeping in
a van on Mary Alice Park
Road on the morning of Nov.
23.
According to incident
reports, a deputy on patrol
about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday
saw the van pulled off the side
of the road and investigated. A
man inside was apparently liv¬
ing in the van, according to
reports.
When deputies were given
consent to search the van, they
found suspected marijuana
and approximately 40 tablets
which the man said were mor¬
phine tablets he got from a
now-deceased friend.
Frank B. Wallis, 55, of
Dawsonville, was arrested and
charged with possession of
morphine and possession of
marijuana.
Woman says she
may know who
stole saddle
An Alpharetta woman
reported a saddle worth
$2,000 stolen, possibly by
someone she knows.
According to incident
reports, the woman told a
deputy last week that she last
saw the Stubben Siegfried
VSSG saddle in July and
noticed it missing Nov. 22. A
But it’s a mistake to hide their
sadness.
“Children learn to grieve
by watching the adults,” he
said, “By being (strong and
silent,’ you’re telling the child
it’s not OK to talk about it and
have emotions,
As a grief counselor, the
most common question
Gillespie hears is, “When does
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PAGE 3A
witness came forward to say
she had seen another woman
using the saddle. The
ed saddle thief claimed to
have been given permission
use the saddle by the owner,
which the owner later denied.
Sheriff’s officials were
given the name and possible
location of the suspect, a
description of the saddle and
the saddle’s serial number.
No arrests were made at the
time of the report.
Appliances
$4,750 taken
from new house
Someone broke into a
just-completed home in the
Enclaves at Nicholson
Landing subdivision and
stole appliances valued at
$4,750 a few days before the
owners were scheduled to
move in, according to sher¬
iff’s reports.
According to reports, the
burglary was discovered
about 2 p.m. Sunday. The
appliances were last seen
about 5 p.m. four days
A refrigerator, stove,
dishwasher and microwave
were stolen. Damage also
was done to the hardwood
floors in the kitchen and a
mailbox.
it stop hurting?
“You don’t ‘get over’ a
loss. You leam to live with it,”
he said. “The feelings may
decrease in frequency and
intensity, but they can re
emerge many years later.”
But with the support
family and friends, he said,
many people do leam to enjoy
the holidays again.