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Parade marshals synonymous with poultry
by Jule Hubbard
(Photo caption) Jule Hubbard/staff photo-Marshals for this Saturday's Wilkes County Christmas Parade are Blake Lovette, far left, and his brother and sister-in-law, Pete and Wilma Lovette. They live in Wilkesboro.
Members of a family closely aligned with the chicken industry and other areas of life in Wilkes County have been named marshals for the annual Wilkes County Christmas Parade through the Wilkesboros this Saturday.
They are brothers Pete and Blake Lovette and Wilma Lovette, who is Pete's wife, all of Wilkesboro.
Blake and Pete Lovette were among the seven children of the late C.O. and Ruth Bumgarner Lovette of Millers Creek. The late Fred Lovette, oldest of the seven and co-founder of Holly Farms, played a key role in bringing together owners/operators of 16 poultry companies to form Holly in 1961.
Pete, Blake and brothers Gene Allen, Rex and Billy Wade Lovette retired after long careers in the poultry industry. Rex and Fred died before Springdale, Ark.-Tyson Foods Inc. acquired Holly in 1989. The others worked at Holly and Tyson.
Billy Wade Lovette lives in McQueenie, Texas, and Gene Alan and Rex Lovette are deceased. Their sister, the late Bonnie Lovette Rhodes of Wilkesboro, also had a long career at Holly.
Pete and Blake Lovette said the values that C.O. and Ruth Lovette instilled in their seven children included a keen work ethic. They said the children learned to work together on the family farm in Millers Creek and maintained this in later years, partly to honor their parents.
Pete and Wilma Lovette
Pete Lovette went to work at Holly Farms after graduating from Appalachian State University in 1956.
His 43-year career at Holly was interrupted after his first seven months when he was drafted in 1957. After attending Naval Officers Candidate School, Lovette was assigned to San Diego, Calif.
He proposed to the former Wilma Everhart of Winston-Salem, his college sweetheart at ASU, and they were married at Home Moravian Church in Winston-Salem in 1957, before they moved to San Diego.
When Lovette was honorably discharged from the Army in 1960, he and Mrs. Lovette moved back to Wilkes and he returned to work at Holly. Lovette was in charge of sales and marketing at Holly from 1968-1973. The Holly Farms branding program was started during this time.
He became treasurer of Holly in 1973. Among other things, Lovette was in charge of Tyson's sales to the military after Tyson acquired Holly.
On several occasions in his career with Holly and Tyson, Lovette turned down opportunities that required moving away from Wilkes.
He has been active in several poultry associations.
Lovette served on the Wilkes Community College Endowment Board for 20 years, was chairman of the board's budget committee for many years and was active in raising money for WCC.
At Wilkesboro Baptist Church, Lovette has served as a deacon and chairman of the deacons, as chairman of the personnel committee and as a full-time Bible teacher. He also was on the General Board of the N.C. Baptist Association and was a trustee at Wake Forest University.
Mr. and Mrs. Lovette both are still active at Wilkesboro Baptist Church.
With a bachelor of arts degree and a master's degree in education from ASU, Mrs. Lovette taught school while they lived in San Diego, at WCC for 20 years and at Wilkes Central High School for two years.
She is on the boards of the Wilkes Heritage Museum and the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame and has been active in other organizations.
The Lovettes have two grown children, Lynn Lovette Sazama of Southern Pines and Mark Lovette of Lititz, Penn., and four grandchildren. Mark Lovette works for Tyson.
Blake Lovette
Blake Lovette went to work in quality care for Holly Farms after graduating from North Carolina State University in 1965.
Lovette became a Holly plant manager in Temperenceville, Va., two years later. He returned to Wilkes in 1976 when he was named Holly's executive vice president.
In 1978, Lovette left Holly and moved to Russelville, Ark., to be executive vice president of Valmac Industries Inc. He was named chief executive officer a year later. Lovette developed a line of prepared products for Valmac during his six years with the poultry company.
He left Valmac to work for Perdue Farms in 1985, where he served as president of Perdue's Shenandoah Products Corp. Lovette returned to Holly Farms in 1988 as Holly's president and chief operating officer after the death of his brother, Fred Lovette.
Lovette held this top Holly position through the period in which Tyson Foods acquired Holly. He left Tyson in the fall of 1990 when he bought Lovette Egg Co. from Wilkes native Terry Bumgarner.
Lovette renamed the company, which his father started, the Lovette Co. He owned and operated the wholesale meat and poultry distributor until he sold it to Omaha, Neb.-based ConAgra Poultry Co. in 1998.
Lovette was president of ConAgra from 1998 until he retired in 2003, the same year Pittsburg, Texas-based Pilgrim's Pride became the nation's second largest poultry producer when it acquired ConAgra.
Lovette joined the Pilgrim's Pride Board of Directors on Jan. 1, 2004. Pilgrim's Pride filed for bankruptcy in December 2008 and this year agreed to sell a 64 percent share in the company to Brazil-based JBS SA under a plan for exiting bankruptcy.
Lovette still is on the board of Morris & Associates Inc., which makes refrigeration equipment used in the poultry and other industries. He also works as a consultant in the poultry industry. Lovette owns Foothills Auto Spa at the intersection of U.S. 421 West and N.C. 16 North.
Lovette serves as chairman of the Wilkes Economic Development Corp. He was chairman of the Wilkes Regional Medical Center Board for eight years.
He is a member of the First United Methodist Church of North Wilkesboro and has been a strong supporter of the Rainbow Center of Wilkes, Health Foundation, Yadkin River Greenway, Old Wilkes Inc. and other local organizations.
Lovette's wife of 45 years, Wilkes native Julia Wooten Lovette, died in December 2008. Mrs. Lovette was also active in the community.
Their children are Sena Lovette Brown of Russellville, Ark., Angela Lovette Ware of Winston-Salem and Amy Lovette Lankford of Madison, Ala. Lovette has six grandchildren. |
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