1on1 with Jon Evans

Beth Troutman met one president and campaigned with another. She hosted nationally syndicated television shows, appeared on network news programs and anchored newscasts in North Carolina’s largest media market. Then she walked away, telling God she would “listen to His call”. The 2018 Azalea Festival Queen explains why working in Haiti is the best assignment of her life.

Chip Mahan bought a book to learn how to run a bank. It worked. He rose to leadership positions in two companies, then took the bold step to launch the world’s first internet-only bank. Mahan's most-recent success story, Live Oak Bank, survived tough times during the recession and is now flourishing along with its’ spinoff, nCino.  The entrepreneur shares his stories of success, falling short, and the challenges ahead for banks to survive.  

Lyberty Anderson will tell you transferring from the University of Virginia to UNC Wilmington saved her life. Lyberty has achieved unparalleled success on the golf course. But the game of life became much tougher for Lyberty to play, leading to depression and thoughts of suicide. But a phone call, a change of scenery and two years later, this new college grad is ready for a much brighter future.

Nina Repeta spent six years playing Katie Holmes’ big sister on Dawson’s Creek. With fans celebrating the 20th anniversary of the show’s debut, the East Carolina University grad looks back at how she got the part of Bessie Potter, why Dawson’s Creek remains popular around the world decades later, and the decision she and her husband Mike made to raise a family in Wilmington after the show ended.

Monica Caison has spent more than 20 years hiking through woods, turning over rocks and brush, trying to find missing persons. She founded CUE Center for Missing Persons in 1994 and has grown it into a national organization, supporting families whose loved ones have disappeared.  Caison had to first find her own way, overcoming a troubled childhood to raise a family and become a lifeline to strangers desperate for her help.

Eddie Biedenbach was not a “prized recruit” coming out of high school near Pittsburgh. But hard work made him an All-ACC basketball player at North Carolina State. When he became an assistant coach, Biedenbach recruited players that led the Wolfpack to a pair of national championships. As a head coach, he took UNC Asheville to new hoop heights before retiring in Wilmington with several records to his credit.

The release of the movie Chappaquiddick is refocusing attention on the tragic story involving Sen. Ted Kennedy. Kennedy’s car ran off a bridge in July 1969, killing senate aide Mary Jo Kopechne. Many believe the incident kept Ted Kennedy from ever winning the White House. June Davison’s former husband Leo Demore covered the crash for the Cape Cod News, and later wrote the best-selling book Senatorial Privilege: The Chappaquiddick Coverup. Davison shares her memories of her late husband’s dogged determination to find the truth about what happened in the days, weeks and years that followed the crash.

Johnson Britt took us through the murder case of the two men accused of killing Michael Jordan’s father in PART ONE, explaining how investigators gathered evidence against Daniel Green and Larry Demery. In PART TWO, the District Attorney goes through the trial process of convicting both men. Britt also speaks to Green’s continued attempts to win a new trial, along with other high-profile cases that have come across his desk in almost a quarter-century of holding office.

Johnson Britt had just become District Attorney in Robeson County, when he was thrust into the spotlight. Britt had the responsibility of prosecuting Daniel Green and Larry Demery, the two men charged with killing NBA superstar Michael Jordan’s father. James Jordan had pulled off the road to sleep while driving from Wilmington to Charlotte, when Green and Demery shot and killed him. In the first of a two-part interview, Britt talks about the evidence gathered against Green and Demery, dealing with the national media attention, and his meeting with Michael Jordan before testimony began.

Most Americans watched the events of September 11, 2001 unfold on television. Dick McGraw lived it from inside the Pentagon. As the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, McGraw was working in the Pentagon at 9:37am when terrorists crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the building, killing 125 people inside and 59 on board the plane. McGraw recounts what happened that day, and the next three years serving his country here and in Afghanistan.