28-02-2025
Longtime Gibsonville mayor looks back on 31 years of service
GIBSONVILLE, N.C. (WGHP) — Leonard Williams, better known as Lenny, had a rough start.
He lost his mom at just six years old, and with 13 siblings, he didn't make it to class. When he was 9, two teachers near rural Enfield said he was too smart not to go to school.
They walked three miles to teach him, and he went on to be his high school's valedictorian.
He's never forgotten how much they believed in him. At 91, he's officially retired as mayor from the city of Gibsonville after 30 years of service.
Williams stepped down as mayor in late January just a day after his 91st birthday. FOX8 visited him at his old stomping grounds at a building now named for him.
Inside, it was only fitting to head to the dais to the seat he occupied as mayor of Gibsonville for 23 years. He was an alderman for eight years before that.
'I resigned on the 26th … but I feel a little bit different because … you come in here for a purpose,' he said.
His purpose is what drove him from the rural area near Enfield where he was raised to NC A&T State University and then Fairleigh-Dickinson University in New Jersey. His first career was with the IRS, which transferred him back to Greensboro.
He recalled during his studies at NC A&T that staff at the historically Black university warned students that some of the rural areas like Gibsonville still held racist beliefs. He found that to be true.
'Jack's Barbecue discriminated. They didn't let people of color come,' he said.
It didn't deter him. He became friends with the eatery's namesake, Jack Rook, who died in 2003 at 75.
'As far as I'm concerned, there wasn't a better person in Gibsonville than Jack,' he said.
Williams, who grew up in the country, made a home in Gibsonville.
It wasn't long before he was recruited for the planning board and rose in the ranks to alderman and then mayor.
He watched the town grow from 4,000 to 10,00, brought the town the transit system, lobbied for a $2.1 million multipurpose center and much more.
Before he officially stepped down, he was asked to stay.
'I am going to stay right in the same house I'm in now unless the traffic gets too bad,' he said.
Even at 91, he still drives much to the chagrin of his daughter, Evelyn.
'I told my daughter, 'I know you don't want me to drive, but I got to go see my friend,'' he said.
His best friend died last year, and he promised to make sure to check on his wife.
That sums up who Williams is and what he hopes people will remember him as.
'I want them to think about me as somebody who's willing to help just about anybody,' he said.
Williams received the highest civilian honor, the Order of the Longleaf Pine, in 2017 for his decades of service.
He also says he isn't done. He's going to talk to as many young people as he can to inspire them to make a difference even if things are rough.
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