Family, friends help mark Benny Parsons Highway

If friends and family are the measure of a man, Benny Parsons was successful beyond measure.

About 400 of them gathered Thursday at Rendezvous Ridge -- A Benny Parsons Vineyard in Wilkesboro, N.C., to dedicate a stretch of U.S. 421 in his honor. Just the way Parsons would've wanted it, there was plenty of laughter and few tears as they remembered the 1973 NASCAR champion who passed away Jan. 16 from complications due to cancer.

Wilkesboro mayor Norman Call probably put it best when he said during his remarks, "I never met anybody who did not like Benny Parsons."

Parsons graduated from West Wilkes High School in 1959. It was his classmates who began a petition to get the road named after him, and he learned of the decision to do so a few months before his passing. According to his son, Keith, a former team public relations representative in NASCAR, Parsons was well pleased.

"He was very excited about it," Parsons said. "He thought it was kinda neat that Junior Johnson has his highway and he [had his]. .. He cared about this county ... this community ... these people here, family friends. It never strayed too far from his heart. He was a part of Wilkes County, and it was a part of him.

Benny Parsons Highway will stretch from the Maple Springs community to the line separating Wilkes and Watauga communities in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's close to where Parsons grew up, but not too close.

"It's close, as the crow flies," Parsons said. "Where he grew up, there are no straight roads. Parsonsville is up in the hills."

North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley was the keynote speaker for the ceremony, and appeared to take great delight in being teased about his wrecking a race car during an appearance at Lowe's Motor Speedway a few years ago. During his 10-minute speech, Easley laughed as he remembered the time he called Parsons, and although the two had been chatting away like long-lost friends, it took Parsons a few minutes to realize he was talking to the governor.

"The eastern part of this highway [in Wilkes County] is dedicated to Junior, and the western part to BP," Easley said. "I don't want any of you young folks out there to think you've gotta drive like either one of them ... or me, for that matter. Dedicating this highway to Benny Parsons is a good way to recognize all that he has given to North Carolina as a citizen and civic leader.

"He was a great driver, a great competitor and he was a great, great champion. But BP was best known for driving, eating and talking ... and sometimes, he did all three at the same time."

Phil Parsons, Benny's brother, spoke and several other of Parsons' contemporaries in the NASCAR garage attended the event, including Junior Johnson, former broadcast partner Ned Jarrett, Mike Staley (former owner of North Wilkesboro Speedway) and Judy Allison, wife of fellow NASCAR legend Bobby Allison. The band, cheerleaders and flag corps from West Wilkes High School set a festive mood on the sunny and crisp afternoon.

It was just the kind of day that Parsons would have relished.

"He would have loved it," Keith Parsons said. "Getting together with family and friends is what he always wanted to do. He loved doing that. I don't know if he would appreciate all the pomp and circumstance as much. He probably would've just as soon we all sit down and eat, have a good time and try some of his wine."