Courtyards at Southpoint
Louise
Born and bred a Carolina Tar Heel, Louise Caudle moved to Courtyards at Southpoint in January of 2022 to be closer to University of North Carolina sports, lectures, concerts and other events. She had been living in Raleigh almost 22 years.
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Louise was born in Monroe, N.C., and grew up just east of Monroe in a small town in Anson County, where both her mother and father were born and raised. She has two younger brothers, but she never got the sister she always wanted!
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She and her brothers loved being outdoors and spent a lot of time in the many acres of woods and fields owned by both sets of grandparents. “I enjoyed riding my bicycle, playing basketball with my brothers and riding horses with my cousins,” she said.
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Louise also loved reading and has fond memories of the bookmobile showing up at her house every two weeks.​​
Louise and Lina Blue
​​“When I was in second grade, I started baking biscuits, cookies and, soon thereafter, cakes,” she recalled. “I was inspired by my mother and my paternal grandmother, who were both great bakers and cooks. Spending time in the kitchen is still a favorite pastime. For me, preparing and enjoying a meal or a dessert with family and friends is one of the most rewarding ways to celebrate love and friendship.”
As a youngster, Louise would tell people she wanted to be the first woman president, but added it’s probably good she didn’t pursue politics. She does, however, remain dedicated to engaging, organizing and doing what she can to affect change for the betterment of our community, state and country.
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Planning to attend law school, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history at UNC Chapel Hill, but changed her mind after graduating and entered the master’s program at the UNC School of Journalism, launching a career in corporate communications and public relations.
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Her career has included working for the largest independently owned public relations firm in the Southeast, where she earned accreditation from the Public Relations Society of America and worked with corporations, government agencies, medical institutions and nonprofit organizations. Louise then went to work as community relations manager for a company contracted by the State of North Carolina to responsibly build and operate a low-level radioactive waste disposal facility. “The project was immensely controversial and, ultimately, funding was withdrawn, but the experience I gained was invaluable,” she said.
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Louise later joined a young clinical research organization as its first communications employee and left 21 years later as vice president of corporate communications, leading a team of about 25 employees. “I was blessed with a rewarding career that utilized my strengths and provided many opportunities to grow and learn,” she noted.
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You may have seen Louise walking around the neighborhood with Lina Blue, her 9-year-old cockapoo. It is her “fur baby and favorite four-legged companion,” she said. “I’m biased, of course, but she is smart as can be and the friendliest, most loving pup you’ll ever meet!”
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Louise is motivated by the fact life is short and trying to find ways to enjoy each day. She said she’s grateful to her parents for many reasons, “but especially for how they instilled in my brothers and me the value of always striving to be your best and the importance of hard work.”
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The best advice she ever received came from a mentor who often reminded her “every day is a new opportunity.” That advice, Louise added, has “proved invaluable throughout my professional and personal life, especially when facing adversity. It has helped me face challenges successfully and enjoy life more fully.”
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Her favorite vacation memories are lazy, relaxing weeks at North Carolina or South Carolina beaches, with family while growing up and later with friends and family. “There’s nothing better than sitting on a deck overlooking the ocean with a cup of coffee as the sun rises or a glass of wine or cocktail as the sun sets!”
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Louise spent five years living three miles from Wrightsville Beach, N.C. “It was somewhat like a five-year vacation,” she said. “My friends who lived elsewhere referred to my house as ‘Chez Louise’ and visited often.”
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In addition to baking, her hobbies include gardening, fitness, enjoying music and pulling for the Tar Heels.
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While growing up, Louise didn’t particularly like chores associated with gathering and preserving vegetables and fruits and weeding and mowing lawns. “As an adult, however, I do get great satisfaction and enjoyment from all the above,” she conceded.
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Louise believes the key to longevity is mobility, and she tries to work out five days a week with indoor cycling and some combination of strength training, Pilates and stretching. She also loves dancing, particularly ballroom dancing.
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Asked to recall a highlight of her life, she said: “It was wonderful to be able to become best friends with my mom after my dad passed away. I was always close to my dad, but came to a deeper appreciation of my mom once I realized (or accepted) how much the two of us were alike.”
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Louise noted she was a career-focused workaholic for 46 years. I “thought I’d struggle with finding fulfillment and filling time in ‘retirement.’ To my delight, that has not been the case at all. Turns out, moving to Courtyards at Southpoint was the perfect panacea to all those concerns! I feel extremely fortunate to live in such an active, vibrant community with wonderful neighbors.”
Claire + Gary
The old saying “the second time is a charm” certainly holds true for Claire and Gary Marlar.
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When they met, both had previously been married. However, they both agreed “getting married to each other is first and foremost in terms of being the best thing that ever happened” to either of them.
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The Marlars moved into their Courtyards at Southpoint home in July 2021 from North Port, Fla., where they had lived since 2019 and very much enjoyed fall, winter and spring. But the summers were hot and humid.
Summer weather, combined with Covid, made them think about being closer to family, and a decision was made to move back to North Carolina, where Claire’s two daughters live, and where they had called Pinehurst home for 13 years after Gary retired in 2006.​​
Gary and Claire
Claire was born in Trenton, N.J., and grew up in Washington Crossing, N.J., the site of George Washington’s 1776 crossing of the Delaware River to attack the Hessians. When she was a teenager, Claire’s family, including her younger brother, Jim, moved to Oxford, Miss.
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Gary, born in Poplar Bluff, Mo., grew up outside the small cotton, rice and soybean farming community of England, Ark. As a child, he learned to fish and hunt, loved to read and enjoyed high school sports.
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Claire and Gary met while they were both working in the Army Budget Office in the Pentagon. Gary occasionally visited Claire’s office to meet with other officers. “So, although we knew each other, we had only exchanged pleasantries,” he noted.
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In May 1989, they both attended an annual American Society of Military Comptrollers training conference in Jacksonville, Fla. “After the final night’s banquet,” Gary said, “several attendees decided to go to a night club across the river. I asked Claire to dance, and we ended up dancing and talking for the rest of the evening. After that evening, the die was cast. We began dating and were married on Nov. 30, 1991.”
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Between them, Gary and Claire have four children and four grandchildren. Claire’s daughter Suzanne lives just across Herndon Road.
When Claire graduated from Ole Miss, she had planned a career as a teacher, but after raising her daughters and two years of teaching in the Northern Virginia school system, she decided teaching was not her ideal career. She moved to a career in banking, which led to civil service work for the Army as a budget analyst in the Pentagon. In 1990, Claire accepted the position of director of resource management and plans for the Fort Belvoir Directorate of Information Management, a position she held until retiring in 1998.
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After graduating from Arkansas State University, Gary was commissioned as an armor officer in the U.S. Army. He served in various command and staff assignments in Germany, Vietnam and the United States before retiring from the Army as a lieutenant colonel in 1990.
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Following his retirement from the Army, Gary spent 16 years working in civil service program and budget positions. First with the Office of the Secretary of the Army and Office of Secretary of Defense (OSD) and then as director of program and budget of the U.S. Army Europe and 7th Army in Heidelberg, Germany, until 2006. Gary still works part-time from home as a financial systems consultant for the Army.
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Gary said the most interesting of all his jobs was his work in the OSD, where from 1996 to 2002, he managed the Operation and Maintenance, Defense-Wide appropriation that provided funding for the OSD staff and 27 defense agencies. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on our nation, he assumed added responsibility for managing the Defense Emergency Response Fund enacted by Congress to respond to the attacks.
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Claire and Gary said they have lived in too many places to mention, both in the United States and overseas, including the Panama Canal Zone, where Claire lived for over three years.
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While living in Germany, they visited many interesting and beautiful European places and made good memories, including having their twin grandsons visit several times. During those visits, Gary’s work prevented him from going everywhere with them, but Claire and the twins kept a busy travel itinerary. The one place they would “go back to over and over is the Bavarian region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland,” they said. “The scenery is beautiful, and the people are very interesting—not to mention the German food and beer!”
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However, they recalled a cruise that began in Sydney, Australia, and ended in Auckland, New Zealand, as “probably the most interesting vacation.” They were saddened to learn that less than 24 hours after they had been in Christchurch, New Zealand, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck the area, killing 185 people and injuring thousands.
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Claire and Gary love traveling and hope to travel as much as they can. “As we have gotten older, we prefer cruising to flying somewhere, renting a car, and changing hotels every few days,” Claire noted.
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In her spare time, Claire is active in her P.E.O. chapter, a philanthropic educational organization for women, and enjoys reading and spending time with the children and grandchildren. Gary likes to read, play golf, participate in sport shooting, and watch football and college basketball on TV.
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On an ideal day, they would wake up in some destination they have never visited or would love to revisit, have breakfast and begin exploring the area.
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Although Claire and Gary said finding each other is the best thing that ever happened to them, their children and grandchildren are “a close second,” they noted. “At our age, taking care of each other and staying in touch with children, grandchildren and friends keeps us going.”
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“We would be remiss,” they added, “in not mentioning our beloved puppy, Chloe, of 15 and a half years who recently crossed the rainbow bridge. We got her as an eight-week-old rescue and miss her very much.”
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Asked what makes Courtyards at Southpoint special, they said they “enjoy living in this small, close-knit community with friendly neighbors from diverse backgrounds. Living near some of our children and grandchildren is a bonus. We enjoy being near shopping, restaurants and the airport. We are also very thankful to have access to world-class healthcare.”
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If you happen to run into Claire and Gary, please be sure to thank them for their dedication and service to our country.
Art
After investigating several other retirement options, Art Chambers’ wife, Virginia, and daughter Jennifer discovered Durham’s Southpoint area and Courtyards at Southpoint in March 2020.
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Unaccompanied by Art, Virginia and Jennifer selected a building site and floorplan. “I never saw it,” said Art. He moved into his new home in February 2022.
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Art and Virginia, who has since passed away, were married 45 years. In addition to Jennifer, they had two other daughters — Ashley and Maggie.
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Born in New York City, Art moved to Yonkers, N.Y., with his parents, brother and sister when he was 5. He grew up there playing tennis, baseball and chess in his free time.
Art at his home.
​Art knew from a young age he wanted to become a doctor and, after graduating from Fordham Prep in Bronx, N.Y., received his B.S. degree from Duke University. He then moved to Charleston, S.C., and earned his M.D. degree from the Medical University of South Carolina.
While in Charleston, Art met Virginia, who was working in the Department of Biochemistry. They married in March 1976 and moved to Michigan, where Art trained in residency in emergency medicine at Michigan State University.
He retired having served as chief of emergency medicine at four hospitals in three states. Over the years, the Chamberses called Virginia Beach and Suffolk, Va., Rocky Mount and Edenton, N.C., and Tupelo, Miss., home.
Art recalled the “best” two jobs he ever had. Not surprisingly, the first was serving as an emergency medicine physician, because “I had a chance to do exactly what I had hoped to do.” The other “best” job was working as a salesman on a Good Humor ice cream truck.
“Although retired,” he admitted, “I miss teaching resident physicians, medical students, nurses and paramedics.”
Asked about the highlight of his life, he said: “I don’t know how, but I was able to convince Virginia to stay married to me for over 45 years and raise three wonderful daughters.” However, he added “I helped!”
Daughter Jennifer is an associate vice provost and assistant vice president at Duke University. Ashley lives in Tupelo, Miss., where she works at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, and Maggie, who has a doctorate in nursing practice, lives in Maryville, Tenn.
Art said he is inspired by the work being done by his daughters and other young adults to solve many of the world’s problems using intelligent efforts.
He enjoys following college basketball, while drinking bourbon and smoking the occasional cigar, long walks and aphorisms, especially Mark Twain’s.
The top three items on his bucket list are traveling with family whenever possible, reading and snow skiing “as long as my knees will let me.” An ideal day, he added, would involve “traveling with my daughters seeing other family and friends.”
Art recalled the best advice he ever received was to follow The Golden Rule. And also: “Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.”
The openness and mingling of neighbors at the frequent activities and clubs making up Courtyards at Southpoint is an aspect of this neighborhood Art appreciates. He said he also likes “simple walks.”
Betty
Betty Buller Whitehead was oblivious to the events taking place at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, because she was busy directing movers where to place furniture in her new Courtyards at Southpoint home.
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COVID prompted her decision to move here because the pandemic “destroyed the city lifestyle” she had come to enjoy in her Raleigh apartment. She had been living on the 17th floor with ceiling-to-floor windows overlooking Moore Square and the City Market. She loved being able to walk to all kinds of amenities, including the ballet, symphony, wonderful restaurants, the post office and library. Betty and her Golden Retriever/Spitz, Snowy, routinely walked the grounds of the North Carolina State Capitol at 7 a.m. But, she explained, “with the arrival of COVID, I felt like I was playing Russian roulette every time I got on the elevator.”
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Betty
​Betty was born in Manhattan, N.Y., but from the age of 3, grew up in Chatham, N.J., where she took ballet and piano lessons and participated on the swim and diving teams of her local private club. That club, built around the grounds of a pre-Revolutionary War three-and-a-half-acre farm pond, was where Betty learned how to play tennis on clay courts.
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She and her family, which included an older brother, moved to a citrus farm in California when she was in high school. Looking for something to do, she began volunteering at the local hospital — Scripps in La Jolla. Her volunteer work led to her first full-time job as a relief nursing unit clerk at Scripps the summer after graduation before she went to University of California, Los Angeles in the fall. She returned to that job each summer until she was a senior. While an undergraduate, Betty worked part-time in the Bone Research Laboratory at UCLA.
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Having lived in Chapel Hill from 2000 to 2017, she knew the Courtyards’ location was excellent. The lot she bought gave her both sunrise and sunset views from a single-story home, and buying a new home meant no remodeling, redecorating or replacing old systems.
The view from Betty's courtyard
Deciding she no longer wanted to pursue a career in physical therapy, Betty took a career placement exam, which suggested she would like and do well in the male-dominated field of hospital administration. She was one of three women in her Master of Public Health degree program in graduate school at UCLA.
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Her professional career included a year at the Hospital Association of Southern California and 10 years at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, where the physical and occupational therapy department, as well as other non-nursing professional departments, reported to her. She was responsible for linking the hospital-based School of Physical Therapy — one of the last in the country — to a college/university so the program could survive under new licensing requirements.
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In 1988, she and her late husband, Clay C. Whitehead, a physician, decided they didn’t want to raise children in Los Angeles and moved with their nearly 2-year-old son, Carlton, to St. Joseph, Mo. After their second son, Gavin, was born in 1990, Betty auditioned for and was cast in the role of M’Lynn in the local community theater’s production of Steel Magnolias. As a child, Betty had dreamed of pursuing an acting career but was not supported in that dream by her parents.
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“I had not acted since high school and had never held a leading role,” Betty said. “I used to take my script with me in order to run lines while I was walking the baby in his stroller up and down the sidewalks of our street. It was a huge learning curve and gave me a great deal of satisfaction to confirm that I did have the talent and skill necessary to use the magic of imagination to become someone else in order to tell her story on stage. I continued to act in productions in St. Joseph and also after we moved to Lincoln, Neb., in 1994.”
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In 2000, disenchanted with Lincoln, the family moved to Chapel Hill, an area she was familiar with, having earlier considered a position at Duke University Hospital.
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Betty said she is motivated by figuring out how to do something — for the first time or how to do it well. She noted she swam, dove and played tennis competitively. She also has sewn her own clothes, obtained Professional Association of Diving Instructors certification to Scuba dive, crocheted, written a play and remodeled, redecorated and designed houses and gardens.
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She and her husband really enjoyed traveling, having visited such places as Machu Picchu in Peru, L’Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, numerous European cities and Caribbean islands, Canada, Panama and Belize. She said her “most interesting vacation” was her honeymoon in France, when they spent a month treating themselves to many fine meals at Michelin Star restaurants and driving all over the country. They experienced everything from Paleolithic cave art and the mystery of stone circles to elegant chateaux of the Loire Valley and palaces like Versailles.
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In her free time, Betty likes to read, watch old/classic movies, play with photography and garden. “Any day that begins with coffee on my front porch listening to the birds sing and watching the colors of dawn light the sky, or ends with a spectacular sunset viewed from my courtyard qualifies as an ideal day,” she believes.
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Asked about the highlights of her life, Betty cited, among others, the joy of raising a family and many opportunities to experience the satisfaction of challenging work. She recalled bidding and making 7 no-trump with her bridge partner when she lived in Lincoln and learning the two-handed backhand in tennis while rallying with Jimmy Connors at UCLA. “It doesn’t get any better than that,” she noted, adding she has “enjoyed a very privileged life.”
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The best advice she ever received came from the leadership training director at Children’s Hospital who taught a unit called “I want my meat.” It was a lesson designed to emphasize the importance of asking for what you want, repeatedly, until you get it. “I have used that technique over and over again for the last 40 years,” Betty said.
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Currently, Betty’s son Carlton is a senior software engineer living in Cary and Gavin writes and produces his own podcast from Chapel Hill, having received a Doctorate of Fine Arts degree in dramaturgy from Yale.
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What does Betty like about our community? “Now that we finally have a connection to the ATT, I am going to really enjoy being able to walk in the shade year-round,” she said. “My courtyard overlooks the retention pond behind Martry, and I am daily intrigued by watching the wildlife that comes to it. Even though I don’t participate in the many social activities of the community, I have enjoyed meeting neighbors when they stop to chat while I’m working out in the yard.”
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Betty wants her neighbors to know she’s a “die hard” UCLA Bruins fan and has extended her allegiance to include the Tar Heels. “In my opinion,” she added, “Duke can go to the same place where the USC Trojans reside (after all, Duke did name themselves Devils)!”
Deborah
Deborah Hall, president and principal consultant for the Hall Group-HR Management LLC, joined the Courtyards at Southpoint community in April 2021, when she moved here to be closer to her younger sister, who moved to the area a year earlier.
“I love my neighbors,” she said. “This is the nicest community I have ever lived in.”
Deborah grew up in Mount Vernon, N.Y., just outside New York City, with her sister and an older brother, who now lives in Detroit. Her parents owned several local businesses. Her father “always offered support and guidance to his employees,” she said. “He had a huge impact on peoples’ lives, and I wanted to do that too.”
Deborah at home
She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in industrial psychology from Boston University and a Master of Science degree in human resources management from Trinity University in Washington, D.C. She has worked in human resources, operations and people management more than 30 years, including starting the Hall Group in 2016.
“I am very blessed professionally to have the career I have always wanted and work every day at what I have always wanted to do,” she said.
A special season in her career was a 17-year period working for a large association in Alexandria, Va., where she served as chief human resource officer and chief operating officer. During that time, she noted, “I was lucky to have the opportunity to travel a lot internationally.” She spent time working in the United Arab Emirates, China, India, Australia and Argentina and looks forward to revisiting some of the places she really enjoyed, such as Thailand, Japan and Italy.
Asked what inspires or motivates her, Deborah answered: “Professionally, bringing clarity, strategies and resolution to complex business and people issues. Personally, my family inspires and motivates me.”
The best vacation she ever took was when she rented a house in the Caribbean with family and friends. “The home came with a chef, housekeeper, butler, pool man and a chauffeur,” she reported. “The local food and drinks were fantastic, the service was incredible and the experience for all of us was amazing. Since that time, we have continued to rent homes with staff in other locations periodically.”
Deborah plays the piano and loves the theater, especially Broadway musicals and plays. She still is figuring out the local theater scene but added she has enjoyed a lot of outdoor concerts since moving here.
As she moves toward full retirement, Deborah still enjoys her work with the Hall Group. She currently works about 20 hours a week but said she plans to “retire fully next year, I think.”
In her spare time, she still is learning what this area has to offer by way of resources, retail, entertainment and volunteer opportunities. Deborah considers this time as the highlight of her life, explaining, “I get to march to the beat I hear in my soul.”
What’s the best advice she ever received? “I have two,” she said. “The quality of my life is going to be directly a result of the quality of my understanding,” and “Failure is not fatal, and success is not forever.”
Deborah lives here with her chiweenie — chihuahua/dachshund mix. “Even though my fur baby, Zoe, barks a lot at neighbors and other dogs, she is really sweet and lovable,” she stressed. “Feel free to say hello to her when you see her.”
Debbie
Debbie Bell described her June 2021 move to Courtyards at Southpoint from Little Rock, Ark., as “an act of faith.”
In May 2020, she explained, the cardiology clinic she was working in temporarily closed because of the Covid pandemic. Debbie’s best friend, Jo, had moved to this area earlier that year, so Debbie decided to take advantage of the closure and, donning her N95 mask, hopped on a plane to visit Jo in North Carolina.
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While they were driving around seeing the sites, Debbie stated, “I could live here,” but added she wanted a 55+ community and new construction. The day Debbie was flying back home, Jo found this community. “Epcon had not
Debbie among sunflowers
even started clearing trees yet,” Debbie noted, but “I made the down payment and on the flight back to Little Rock was thinking, ‘What have I done?’”
Debbie has a sister-in-law living in Virginia Beach, which was an added incentive in her decision to move here. Debbie’s daughter, Erin, lives in South Lake Tahoe. “As beautiful as it is, I cannot see myself living in California,” she added.
A year later, she retired from her job and moved to North Carolina. With the exception of Jo coming by weekly and Facetiming with construction progress reports, Debbie never saw her new home until one week prior to closing.
Debbie grew up in a northeastern Arkansas farming community. “Everyone knew everyone,” she recalled. “It was a very carefree childhood, and I spent a lot of time outdoors. I was an only child, but surrounded by a lot of family. Because I was an only child, I always had a dog. I can’t imagine life without a dog!”
Although she studied foreign languages in high school and college thinking she’d like a job that involved traveling, she chose a career in nursing and has never regretted that choice. “I was a critical care nurse for 20 years, mainly in cardiac, but also worked in trauma and rapid response,” Debbie said. “I even managed a medical intensive care unit for a couple of years, but missed hands-on patient care, so I continued my education and became an acute care nurse practitioner.”
Asked about the best job she ever had, Debbie — who had been working in an intensive care unit at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock — cited being hired in cardiology after completing her advanced practice registered nurse boards. “That was my dream job. I ran the congestive heart failure clinic, as well as a device clinic,” she said. Eleven years later, she retired to move to Durham.
“I drove a U-Haul truck here from Little Rock, loaded with plants that stemmed from my mother’s garden and both of my grandmothers’ gardens,” she noted. Debbie loves seeing her courtyard come together and enjoys watching the plants mature.
She also arrived with her four-legged children, Hobbes, Bandit and Dakota, and her Koi fish, most of which she’s had for years, one for about 20 years. “Yes, they all have names and are part of the family,” she stated.
Debbie has been instrumental in this community’s beautification project, which is a rewarding experience, she said. “We have a great team of neighbors who have contributed to the project. My passion with this project stems from the desire to make this neighborhood reach its full potential. The area was scalped and looked unfinished. Trees and shrubs are an important part of the ecosystem and need to be replaced. I wanted neighbors to walk down the street and have places to sit, visit with each other and just take in nature.” She wants her neighbors to know she is “always open to help with your garden projects or questions.”
When she’s not gardening, Debbie likes to read and travel, and she tries to visit someplace outside the country every year. She loves Europe and its history and has visited three regions in Italy. Her first trip to Rome in 2013 included a visit to Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli. “I could not believe how intact it was,” she said.
Asked if she has a bucket list, Debbie replied: “I lost my husband in 2009 at age 46. Our daughter was 13. I had already lost my mom a few years earlier. I realized how short life is and if you want to do something, you better get on with it. Outside of more travel, I want to see the Northern Lights and be as close to them as I can.”
Reflecting on her life, Debbie noted she is grateful for family and friends but feels she fulfilled her purpose in her nursing career. “I was lucky to find my dream job in cardiology” and “form strong connections with patients …. I pray I have helped people along the way and hopefully made a difference.”
Debbie said she loves this community. “We have a great group of people” that come from all over with different experiences and backgrounds. “We have a lot of fun in this neighborhood. We are much more than neighbors; we are friends.”
Karen
Most of Courtyards at Southpoint’s residents are familiar with Slack, our neighborhood collaboration tool, and therefore, most of us are already familiar with some of Karen Frankola’s contributions to our community. She is the person responsible for getting Slack up and running during the pandemic, when she felt it was important that we had a way to connect virtually.
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Karen moved here in December 2020 from just a few miles away, drawn by the prospect of no longer having to ride her bike on the street to get to the American Tobacco Trail. She also liked the idea of having a new house that would be fairly maintenance-free.
Karen on her travels
What she’s found since living here, she said, are people who are “really kind, caring and helpful. Also, everyone has such interesting backgrounds and skills. Such a wealth of knowledge!”
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Karen grew up near Pittsburgh, where she recalls her mother’s reprimands that she go outside. She dealt with these reprimands by going to the cemetery to read. She also remembers spending time riding her bike, swimming, playing tennis and sometimes interacting with her sister and two brothers.
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As a child, she envisioned a future as a journalist or a lawyer, or perhaps as a newspaper clippings clerk like Frankie in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. At age 10, she launched a career in journalism when she started writing Nosy News, a newspaper about family and neighbors.
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Over the years, Karen has followed many career paths. Among them she lists professor, Six Sigma Black Belt (quality control consultant), instructional designer/trainer for online courses, internal corporate communications, public relations, change management, video production and ghost writing for executives.
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Asked about her best or most interesting job, she said: “That’s really hard to answer since I’ve had so many. … I loved teaching journalism at the University of Missouri, which has an NBC TV station airing hours of daily news coverage with students.” Karen also cited her time at Deloitte, where, as director of global internal communications, she was able to travel the world, reporting from Singapore, New Delhi, Paris and Buenos Aires, among other places. “And a few years ago, I taught English to Czech adults in Prague,” she added.
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Karen said her “current favorite hobby is painting with the wonderful Maria Downton guiding us.” There have been other hobbies, as well. “A few years ago, when I thought I might retire, I took a stand-up comedy class and performed at Goodnights in Raleigh, but unfortunately, I don’t like staying up late, so I haven’t pursued that,” she explained. “I also took a knitting class at the same time and have forgotten everything.”
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Citing great beach vacations she and her siblings have been taking together over the last few years, she described her ideal day as “a mix of biking, working on a communal jigsaw puzzle, reading on the beach under an umbrella, along with a walk and boogie boarding, a nice seafood meal, board games, maybe trivia at the pub or an outing at a local museum.”
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Karen said she enjoys living in different places more than taking vacations. “Sightseeing is great, but I enjoy taking public transportation, shopping for groceries, going to meetups, etc. So, I would say my best time away was seven months in Prague in 2018. I made a lot of friends – Czech, American and other nationalities. I worked three days a week and spent the rest of the time travelling elsewhere alone or with friends.” Where else would she like to visit? “Pretty much everywhere, except war zones!”
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What has been the highlight of her life so far? “That’s really hard to answer,” she noted. “I’m guessing most people say their kids, which I don’t have, or marrying their spouse, who is now an ex for me.” She cited “a really extraordinary time in the fall of 2020. I had a friend in California who needed a transplant. Her insurance wouldn’t cover it unless she had a caregiver for six weeks afterwards. She wasn’t going to proceed because she didn’t have anyone who could stay with her 24/7. I went to LA, and in a time of great sadness and stress, it felt good to be able to help one person.” She admitted they had their ups and downs, “but hey, my friend is still alive today, so that’s what counts,” Karen stated.
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Karen has written a memoir about working at a steel mill when she was 18, which was the first year women were allowed to work there. “It’s called Girl of Steel for obvious reasons and also because of my difficult relationship with my father,” she said. “Despite having two agents, I have not been able to get it published. If it ever is, it will definitely be the highlight of my life.”
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Karen would like her neighbors to know if they ever need help with anything, especially anything technical or budget travel related, “please don’t hesitate to ask. But if you ever wonder why I seem to raise issues that make some uncomfortable, please understand that I identify primarily as a journalist and I am not Southern. A journalist’s motto is to ‘comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.’ Apologies in advance!”
Phyllis + Ed
Courtyards at Southpoint’s quiet, laid-back living, its proximity to the Streets at Southpoint Mall and downtown Durham, and the one-level floor plan drew Ed and Phyllis Green to this community, where they closed on their new home in December 2021.
They moved to North Carolina from Brambleton, Va., after 30 years of living in northern Virginia.
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Ed and Phyllis met during their freshman year at Virginia Tech. Phyllis was with friends when they ran into a group of Ed’s friends. Some of her friends knew some of his friends, and the two groups ended up hanging out together throughout their years at school.
Phyllis, celebrating her birthday, and Ed
“We never dated, though,” Phyllis noted. “That didn’t happen until a few years after graduation,” when each had moved to northern Virginia, where they reconnected. Fast-forward to last September, when Ed and Phyllis celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary.
The Greens are parents to Cassius and Aja, two pitbull mixes they described as “the friendliest, most lovable companions.” Three-and-a-half-year-old Cassius was adopted from a rescue organization in Virginia before Ed and Phyllis moved to North Carolina. Aja, nearly two, was adopted from a North Carolina rescue.
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Ed, a commercial construction manager, knew from an early age he wanted a career that combined his interest in art, science and math. “My fifth-grade teacher shared a picture of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater house, and I was hooked,” he explained. “I wanted to learn how to design and build the structure and others like it. My fifth-grade passion has carried through my current career path.”
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Phyllis, who loves animals and grew up wanting to be a veterinarian, said her sole reason for attending Virginia Tech was to eventually apply to the vet school. She recalled having several pets as a child, including dogs, gerbils, ferrets, “or whatever my mother would let me keep after bringing it home.” While an undergraduate, however, she did more research into the profession and decided not to apply to vet school.
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She started her career as a veterinary technician working in animal hospitals. She went on to obtain a degree in medical laboratory science and then initiated a start-up laboratory within a large veterinary practice. “For about 25 years, I was able to combine my two favorite interests: animal care and laboratory science,” noted Phyllis.
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Asked about career highlights, Ed cited construction of an underground parking garage and visitor center adjacent to the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., as one of his most interesting projects. The project was put on hold for the funeral of former President Gerald Ford, and Ed was responsible for escorting security service teams two days prior to the event and again the morning of the event. “I received a nice letter of recommendation/award from the Secret Service for my assistance,” he said. “The cathedral engineers hosted private tours for my team of the structure during the year-plus-long project duration,” he recalled. “We toured everything from the crypt up to the bell tower (the highest point in D.C.).”
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Phyllis remembers taking a hiatus from her job to volunteer as an aid to zookeepers at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. “I was fortunate to be able to assist, working with the giant pandas during my three years of volunteering,” she said. “It was an amazing opportunity to be able to witness the behind-the-scenes care of the animals. … I also got to put my laboratory science experience to work in another department and assist with the research in the study of a virus similar to HIV in African elephants.”
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The best vacation the Greens ever had was a week in Curacao to celebrate their anniversary last September. They stayed at a boutique resort, chosen for its reputation for excellent food, which is “very important,” they noted. While there, they met Good Morning America host Robin Roberts and her wife, Amber Laign, who were on their honeymoon. “We had dinner with them …, and it was a lovely four-hour conversation. We got a fabulous photo with them, and a mention on Robin’s Instagram.”
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The top three items on their bucket list are a trip to Fiji, an African safari in Tanzania and a visit to Tuscany, where Ed would take a cooking class and Phyllis would enjoy wine tasting.
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In his spare time, Ed, who claims to be a “foodie,” enjoys spinning, working out, reading science fiction and traveling throughout the Caribbean. His ideal day would be spent on a Caribbean beach, or “spinning with an ocean view, followed by an oceanfront breakfast.” It might also involve an ATV tour with a stop at a local restaurant for lunch, “a bourbon-tasting class during tea hour, a Michelin-star dinner followed with an after-dinner espresso martini, while listening to a jazz quartet for a few lazy hours.”
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On the other hand, Phyllis, whose interests include reading, working out with Peloton or in an indoor gym and exploring new restaurants, said her “ideal day is lounging on a beach with a good book.”
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The Greens are enjoying their friendly neighbors and the interesting lives of the people who make up this wonderful community. They look forward to attending future Speaker Series events at the clubhouse and to Ed’s retirement in the next five years, or sooner.
Jan + Rex
After living in Galveston, Texas, for 11 years, Jan and Rex McCallum moved into their new Courtyards at Southpoint home in June 2021.
This was their third move to Durham, where they’ve lived 30 of the last 44 years, “so we were coming home,” Jan noted.
The two met when they were 17 years old. Jan explained she met some third cousins at her grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary celebration. When she and her sister later went to visit their “new” cousins, one of those cousins, who was a close friend of Rex, introduced them. “We didn’t live in the same state until we got married (eight years and many other relationships in between), except for a one-semester overlap at two different schools in Tennessee,” she said.
Jan and Rex recently at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia.
Jan was born and raised in Paducah, which she described as “a wonderful river town in western Kentucky” and home of the National Quilt Museum. “I was very much a tomboy growing up and played lots of sports, especially swimming, baseball/softball and track,” Jan said. “We had a big yard that was always full of neighborhood kids. I had an incredible childhood!”
She has one sister, who was just a year behind her in school. Although her sister lives in Memphis, Tenn., the two remain close. They do a two- or three- week “Sassy Sisters” road trip every year, continuing their love of family road trips when they were young.
“On the Road with the Sassy Sisters, or something like that,” is the title of a book “I should be writing,” Jan noted. “Kim and I have been to all of the mainland states multiple times, and we typically avoid interstates, so we have really seen a lot of the country! We have some stories.”
Rex was born in Jackson, Tenn., and grew up in Henderson, Tenn., with a younger sister and brother. He loved to swim and play the usual sports, “although, not too well,” he conceded. Rex recalled “a great group of four friends growing up who did most things together.” One of his bucket list items is to visit with these friends each year.
As a child, Jan said she was “pretty sure I wanted to be an Army man when I grew up. I loved my GI Joe. Then I wanted to be an Olympic athlete. I’m positive that pharmacist was not on my list.”
However, after working as a lifeguard and in the hotel industry while in college, a pharmacist is what she became, practicing pharmacy for about 15 years. She followed that career by becoming a consultant for Creative Memories, a scrapbooking business. At age 55, she started pixAbilities, an international company that taught digital scrapbooking via a website and was the best and most interesting job she ever had, she said. FOREVER bought the company in 2016, but Jan continues to do consulting work for them.
Rex grew up thinking about a career as a physician, except for a brief three-year period when he considered engineering. He ultimately became a rheumatologist. Many of us recall his enlightening Courtyards at Southpoint Speaker Series presentation last March, when he addressed “Arthritis: If you live long enough, you’ll get it.”
He cited his role as chief medical officer at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, and his time as a faculty member at Duke University School of Medicine as the best/most interesting positions he ever held.
If Rex were to write a book, its title would be “Leading Physicians with Connection, Listening and Commitment.” He said he’s learned a lot about leadership by physicians over the last 25 years.
Jan and Rex have a son living in Wake Forest, and a daughter living in Austin, Texas. “We are blessed with four unique and talented grandchildren, who are, of course, smart and cute,” Jan noted. Elliot, who is 11, and 8-year-old Gray live in Wake Forest, while Morgan, age 6, and nearly 4-year-old Mac are in Austin.
When asked about their best vacation, Rex recalled a Baltic Sea cruise, with “fantastic ports of call and interesting history.” Jan, on the other hand, said: “Almost every trip I’ve taken has been special, so my usual answer is ‘the last one.’ Since I’m answering these questions in the Sydney airport after being in New Zealand and Australia for a month, I’ll stick with my usual answer.” This trip involved a two-week cruise with friends from Galveston, and the opportunity to see many Australian friends afterwards.
In addition to trying to see his childhood friends annually, Rex’s bucket list includes travelling to, and staying in, a hut over the South Pacific for a week, visiting several National Parks out west and yearly visits with his college and medical school friends. Jan’s list includes visits to Vietnam, the South Pacific and Switzerland, among others. She also hopes to see the Northern Lights, visit European sites with her sister where their father served during World War II and overseas travel with their children and their spouses.
Rex said his ideal day would involve eight hours of sleep, a few hours of reading, taking a walk in the neighborhood and visiting with friends, his children and grandchildren. He enjoys traveling and cited going to Owls’ Roost, their mountain home in North Carolina’s Ashe County, with family and friends as one of his “favorite things.”
Jan was asked about her ideal day. “Well, for sure it doesn’t start out early,” she noted. It would likely be at Owls’ Roost with friends and family. “Good food and a cocktail, time spent outdoors and lots of laughter and memory-making are required,” she stressed. In her spare time, Jan has many interests, including digital scrapbooking, photography, games, puzzles, walking, cooking, writing and more.
Rex said he is really enjoying the collegiality of the people in our Courtyards community, and the willingness of neighbors to support each other. Asked what else his neighbors should know about him, Rex admitted to a love of Star Trek, Star Wars, spy novels, space and cowboy books.
Jan noted the friendships they’ve made here and expressed her gratitude to those “who have so graciously volunteered to drive Rex to and from work these past eight months. We feel so grateful and so blessed to have landed here.”
Kevin + Molly
Attracted to the open floor plan, the first-floor master bedroom and screened-in porch, Kevin and Molly Devaney moved into the Courtyards at Southpoint in November of 2021. They considered buying an existing house when they started their search for a new place to settle, but when they had no luck finding what they were looking for, they began to consider new buildings.
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The Devaneys moved to Durham from New York, where they lived in Rome, home of Griffiss Air Force Base, and then Minoa and Fayetteville, both suburbs of Syracuse.
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​Their move to North Carolina was prompted by a desire to be closer to their three daughters — Katie, Jenny and Maggie — and their five grandchildren — Jack, Maddie, Gwen, Amelia and Beau, ranging in age from seven years to six months old.
Kevin & Molly Devaney in Rome
Kevin was born in Brooklyn, New York, but grew up in Massapequa on the south shore of Long Island. As a youngster, he enjoyed basketball and, while in high school, ran cross country.
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Molly, one of 10 children, grew up on the south side of Chicago, where she attended an all-girls high school and played on the volleyball team — which won the state championship in her senior year.
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Kevin and Molly met each other when they were students at Georgetown University, with their freshman dorms next door to each other. They dated throughout college and got married about a year after graduation.
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Following college, Kevin spent five years in the Air Force, mostly as a program manager, after a short stint at pilot training. He spent the rest of his career as an engineer or engineering manager, mostly in radar development. He recalls the highlight of his career being the summer of 2012, which he spent at the London Olympics providing technical support for a counter-drone system for the Royal Air Force. During this time, he was embedded with a ground-based air defense group, sleeping in a barracks and involved in all of the group’s activities.
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Molly spent most of her career teaching, the last 20 years or so as a high school social studies teacher.
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Asked about their most memorable vacation, they cited the summer of 2000, when they left their children with Kevin’s parents and spent a week and a half in Paris. If there was a museum, they saw it; if it had stairs, they climbed them; and they ate chocolate mousse every night.
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Someday, the Devaneys hope to make an Australia/New Zealand trip. They also want to travel to Alaska and Hawaii, the only U.S. states Molly has not visited.
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Kevin and Molly love playing pickleball, riding their bikes on the American Tobacco Trail and sometimes kayaking on Jordan Lake. Now that they live closer, they really enjoy being able to spend time with their kids and grandkids. “Any day we can spend with them is awesome,” they noted.
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Kevin and Molly said they feel lucky to have found this house and community, and added they really enjoy the friends they’ve made here and all the activities available to them.