Congratulations to 2 of Bladen finest public servants, Dr. Pearly Hoskins and Hubert Kinlaw. Dr. Hoskins, a Bladen County native made a decision 30 years ago to return to Bladen (with a little encouragement) and provide medical service to an area that needed all the help we could get, first in a private practice and most recently as a valuable employee of Bladen County Hospital (Cape Fear Valley). She has been a solid rock providing health care services in this area. Thanks seems so inadequate. So, Thank You Very Much. She will be missed….No idea of her future plans, but selfishly, hope she remains in the area. She will not retire and go quietly into the sunset. She will be active in something, somewhere and will do well wherever and whenever. She has too much to offer to go home, sit down and do nothing. My guess, not in her DNA.
Hubert Kinlaw came to Elizabethtown 60 years ago to join Sampson Bladen Oil Company, a young man with a family, looking for an opportunity to remain in the county after a stint in the military. He found a good ‘fit’. Must have sold thousands of heating and cooling systems over the past 50 to 60 years, working full-time in a growing local business. He saw other needs and became a dedicated volunteer in the local rescue squad in its infancy, in the early days when providing services to this area was just beginning, and was in a state of change. A move was underway at the state level to requires more training, to go from a service long provided by funeral homes to local rescue squads, or a paid service, and it needed to be done. Funeral homes were basically providing the service because there was no one else to do the job. They had no training, and for the most part were not interested, they had another job to do. Many counties across the state were not prepared to step up financially and take on the obligation, especially small, rural counties. Hubert was one of a few locally that stepped up and gave their time and effort to the cause, an unpaid volunteer position. No doubt that interest led to him being appointed Assistant Bladen County Coroner, later as Coroner a position he recently departed, did not seek re-election.
Later the county did establish a paid service, but years after Rescue Squads were the only source…and still remain in operation. However, time constraints on volunteers is taking its toil.
Dr. Pearly Hoskins from the East Arcadia area and Hubert Kinlaw, from the Bladenboro (Sandy Grove Church) area, both deserve all the accolades…., 2 locally grown, devoted, public servants…
I am so glad I have had the opportunity, the privilege to have known them both….and be able to call them my friends…
The purpose of life in not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. Ralph Waldo Emerson
No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another. Charles Dickens
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. Mahatma Gandhi
robert g hester
910-876-2322
About Author
