Miniature horse, oversized legacy
Plus: Ohio likes its odds of keeping tennis tournament; Surprise ABC inspection leads to fine in Plaza-Midwood; CMS superintendent and assignment maps expected this week; Tom Cruise attends concert
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Tributes pour in for Brandy the Marvelous Miniature Horse, who brought comfort and joy to hundreds around the region in need of a listening ear and a warm nuzzle
John and Kay Daughtry marveled at the peace and joy their miniature therapy horse, Brandy, gave to people in nursing homes and retirement homes as well as students in schools and families at the Ronald McDonald House. Brandy died last week at age 13. (Photo courtesy of Liz Kearley)
by Cristina Bolling
Kay Daughtry was in the throes of grief after the death of her niece in 2011 when, as a lifelong equine lover, she decided there might be something that could help her cope — a miniature horse, bred to serve as an assistance or therapy animal.
She had plans to visit three miniature horse farms in search of the perfect companion. At one of the farms, 18-month-old Brandy walked right up to Kay. And that was that.
“I know it sounds cliché, but she picked me out,” Daughtry says. “She was a magical little horse.”
Brandy died on May 7 at the age of 13 from an ailment called laminitis — a painful and often fatal condition of the hoof that’s a common cause of death among horses.
Miniature horses often live past 30, so Brandy’s sudden illness and death despite specialty treatment at N.C. State University were shocking not only to Daughtry and her husband, John, but to scores of those who knew and loved her through the hundreds of visits she’d made over the last decade to nursing homes, retirement communities, schools, Ronald McDonald Houses and private homes. Brandy, who often wore frilly outfits, was regularly featured on local TV stations and in newspapers. Spectrum News once called her an “everyday hero.”
Online tributes poured out as news spread last week, with people sharing their stories about how Brandy had provided comfort, joy and peace to themselves or loved ones.
Comments on Facebook included:
“So hard to believe! She touched so many lives. … She will be missed by all of us at Pineville Rehab! Thank You for sharing your girl with us!”
“She made people smile and children laugh. So grateful for her time on earth.”
“She brought us joy and laughter by nibbling my husband’s fingers looking for McDonald’s french fries. I hope heaven has fries. Rest easy, Brandy.”
For nearly 10 years, Brandy the Marvelous Miniature Horse made roughly 160 visits a year — free of charge — to groups and facilities as far away as Salisbury and Kings Mountain. When a group wanted to make a donation to Brandy, John and Kay asked them to instead send the money to the Anna Gordon Memorial Endowed Scholarship at the University of Alabama in honor of Kay’s niece, Anna Gordon, or to the non-profit Cookies for Kids Cancer.
“We’ve seen many, many people who were in bed or wheelchair-bound, and here they were, almost vacant with almost no life in their faces, and Brandy would just walk up to them, and she would know exactly how to size them up and what to do,” Kay Daughtry says.
Nursing home visits would mean checking in with 40 or more patients. Sometimes Brandy would lay her head on patients’ beds and let them stroke her head or her mane, or nuzzle up to their arms or neck. As a young horse, she’d gone through special training to be a therapy horse at the Mark Hausman Training Center in Waxhaw.
Brandy had a special way with kids, too. She’d sit patiently with autistic children who were hesitant to read out loud in front of other people. She delighted students at schools, one day dressing up as “Thing 1” for Dr. Seuss Day at Indian Land Elementary.
Once, a 90-year-old woman sat straight up in her nursing home bed and started crying when Brandy came in. “She thought she’d never see a horse again,” John Daughtry says.
Another time, a daughter asked if Brandy could make a house call to surprise her mom who was dying.
“She lit up like a Christmas tree,” Kay says. “She immediately started to soft-talk to Brandy, and Brandy would put her nose right up to the woman’s face, and they would talk to each other.”
Residents of nursing homes would often light up when Brandy would walk in the room, said Kay and John Daughtry. (Photo courtesy of John Daughtry)
At one nursing home, a former Marine who was a double-amputee softened each time Brandy came in the room. “He didn’t say anything to us, but to her, he’d say, ‘Oh Brandy, you’re exactly what I needed today,’” Kay Daughtry recalls.
Kay, a retired teacher, and John, a retired photographer, built an 8-foot by 10-foot child’s playhouse with a front door and two windows in the backyard of their south Charlotte home for 255-pound Brandy, complete with a small chandelier. The U.S. Department of Agriculture considers the miniature horse breed to be a pet breed, not livestock, and the Daughtrys live in a regular suburban neighborhood.
“Most minis grow up around big dogs and big horses. I wanted everything to be petite for her,” Kay Daughtry says.
Kay took special delight in dressing Brandy up according to the seasons — flowered bonnets with bunny ears at Easter time, Western-style bandanas and straw hats around the Fourth of July, and always little shoes from Build-a-Bear Workshop, which fit her perfectly and kept her from slipping on vinyl or tile floors.
“She had 20 pairs,” Kay says.
Brandy had a packed calendar, right up until the month of her death.
She averaged 160 community visits a year, John Daughtry said, and had 17 booked for this month alone.
Kay says she learned something new from Brandy every day, and in the days since Brandy’s death, the lessons have continued — lessons about what Brandy meant to the community around them.
“She lived a life encouraging other people that made them remember her well,” John Daughtry said.
Added Kay: “She was my perfect princess.”
Cristina Bolling is managing editor of The Ledger: cristina@cltledger.com
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Ohio officials say they were told Cincinnati is ‘still a front-runner’ to hang onto big tennis tournament proposed for Charlotte
Told of a proposal to move a top tennis tournament to Charlotte, officials in Ohio sound confident about their ability to hang onto it.
And the economic development director in the county where the Western & Southern Open is played says that the tournament’s owner, Beemok Capital, told him that the Cincinnati area is “still a front-runner.”
In a public presentation to city and county leaders in Charlotte last week, Beemok Capital said it is considering building a $400M tennis facility in west Charlotte and moving the tournament there — which it said would be an economic development boon. The company asked for public funding of 1/3 of the cost, or about $133M. Local leaders sound enthusiastic about the idea, which they learned about weeks or months ago, before last week’s public presentation. (Ledger readers learned about it when we reported it last month.)
But media reports in Ohio suggest that officials there aren’t viewing the Charlotte proposal with alarm, and that they have been working with Beemok on plans for a $150M renovation of the tennis facility in the suburban town of Mason — with $50M of public money. State and local governments have nearly all of that portion rounded up, though $22.5M of it hinges on the adoption of Ohio’s budget, according to the Journal-News of Butler County, Ohio.
It added:
[Warren County Economic Director Matt] Schnipke said that Wednesday’s headlines didn’t shock him and that the proposal doesn’t change how local officials plan to move forward. He told the Journal-News that the tournament’s fate has not been decided yet “by any stretch of the imagination.”
“We’ve always kind of known that we’re going to be in a competitive mode and (that it wasn’t) necessarily a done-deal that it would stay here locally in the Warren County and Cincinnati Area. We’ve known that,” Schnipke said. “From what we are hearing and where we see things right now, it’s definitely not a done-deal that it is leaving. It’s still very much just a possibility.”
When asked about the Wednesday proposal, Beemok Capital said it had “great respect” for Mason, but the company also said it’s “evaluating a number of options” before making major investments in the tournament’s infrastructure.
Schnipke said he remains hopeful that the tournament will stay in Mason and was assured by Beemok Capital that they’re still a front-runner.
“They have told us that they would like to find a scenario to make it work in Mason. Obviously, they’ve got the legacy here, the history (and) the facilities in place, even though they’re gonna need some expansion,” Schnipke said.
The tournament has been in the Cincinnati area since 1899 and in Mason since 1979.
It’s common in economic development for companies to play cities off against each other to try to secure the best deal. Beemok is hoping for an answer on whether Charlotte can assemble a package this summer, and it plans to make a decision later this year. —TM
ABC files: CMPD busts Jackalope Jacks for messy record-keeping and not having a recycling bin
Our latest installment examining how North Carolina’s liquor laws are enforced takes us to Plaza-Midwood and to longtime neighborhood bar Jackalope Jacks.
The bar used to be in Elizabeth but moved to Commonwealth Avenue in Plaza-Midwood a few years back.
And it’s there that two officers from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police’s ABC unit showed up on Sept. 22, 2022, at about 10:30 p.m. to check on Jackalope Jacks’ liquor-license compliance.
As usual, nobody can tell the story of what happened next better than the officers’ own report, on file with the ABC Commission in Raleigh. So we’ll let one of the CMPD officers pick up the narrative:
Upon our arrival, I spoke to the suspect … who advised she was the only one working and she was in charge at the time. I asked [her] to show me the ABC invoices. [She] took me to the office and showed me a large pile of invoices that were on top of the desk and all over the office mixed with several other invoices and purchase receipts from other items. I explained to her that all ABC invoices should be separated in order and could not be mixed with other invoices.
But if you thought messy piles of invoices was all CMPD found, you’re wrong. It gets worse. The report continues:
During this inspection, I also noticed there was only one garbage bin behind the bar. Garbage and recycling were being mixed. I asked [her] about the recycling, and she advised she was not recycling at the time and that it was her fault.
The report lists the two violations as “fail recycle” and “segregation of records.”
Records show Jackalope Jacks agreed to pay a $1,000 fine. The ABC Commission approved the settlement last month. —TM
Related Ledger articles:
“ABC files: Oops, Gold Club bouncers return from a Food Lion beer run as a CMPD detective walks in” (🔒, April 21)
“Amelie’s fined $2,500 by ABC after macaron Facebook post” (🔒, Dec. 13, 2019)
“ALE threatened to haul Whitewater Center CEO to jail” (🔒, Dec. 4, 2019)
CMS news incoming: new superintendent, new student assignment maps expected this week
It’s a big week for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, which is expected to release two big pieces of information:
◼️ The school board’s selection of a new superintendent. CMS has been without a permanent superintendent since a little more than a year ago, when the board fired Earnest Winston. The Charlotte Observer reported that the school board is expected to vote on a new superintendent at a public meeting this week.
There is no regular meeting of the school board this week, but there’s an “emergency meeting” scheduled tonight at 8:15 p.m. The agenda says “The Board will open the session and immediately enter into closed session.” The board could also hold a meeting later in the week. A vote to hire a new superintendent must be held in public, but board members are allowed to deliberate on personnel matters in private.
◼️ New school assignment maps today? The CMS planning department says on its website that the final draft revisions for south Charlotte schools “will be shared on Monday, May 15.” There could still be changes, but a vote is approaching: There’s a public hearing scheduled for May 23, with a school board vote expected June 9.
—TM
You might be interested in these Charlotte events
Events submitted by readers to The Ledger’s events board:
THURSDAY: SouthPark After Five, 5-9 p.m., Symphony Park. Free live music, food trucks & drinks, & hands-on art experiences are coming to Symphony Park at SouthPark After Five on May 18. Enjoy music from Landslide Fleetwood Mac Tribute Band. Plus, work on a special SouthPark coloring book with Broken Crayons CLT! This event series will continue every Thursday through June 1. Free.
MAY 19-21: Enneagram Workshop: The Three Instincts (Subtypes), Friday 6-9 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. & Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at The Enneagram Center, Charlotte. This workshop provides an understanding of your Enneagram type and how your instinctual biases operate in combination with it. Learn where you spend your time and energy and how to bring it into balance. $295.
JUNE 3: National Trails Day, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m, various locations. Be a part of our region’s largest celebration of trails and the outdoors. On June 3, join members of the Thread Trail staff to experience some of their favorite trails through a variety of FREE guided hikes and bike rides throughout the day! Space is limited on these guided adventures and advance registration is requested. Free.
◼️ Check out the full Ledger events board.
➡️ List your event on the Ledger events board.
In brief:
Cooper vetoes abortion bill: Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a bill Saturday that would ban nearly all abortions in North Carolina after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Republican leaders in the General Assembly hope to override the governor’s veto, perhaps as soon as this week. Existing law bans abortions after 20 weeks. (Associated Press/WFAE)
Concert-goer Tom Cruise in Charlotte: Tom Cruise was spotted in Charlotte on Friday night at the Janet Jackson concert at PNC Music Pavilion. Jackson posted a photo of herself and Cruise and wrote: “T, it was so good seeing you and nice spending some time together.”
Paramedic dies on duty: A Charlotte paramedic died on duty Saturday of a medical emergency, Medic said. Mark Hayes began working at Medic in 1997. (WBTV)
Chick-fil-A renovations: The Chick-fil-A in South End will close for several months in 2024 for renovations, including adding a second drive-thru lane. (Axios Charlotte)
Restaurant relocates: Soul Gastrolounge has found a new location off East Sugar Creek Road, north of NoDa, after closing in Plaza-Midwood last year. (Team coverage: Axios Charlotte, Biz Journal, CharlotteFive)
Taking stock
Unless you are a day trader, checking your stocks daily is unhealthy. So how about weekly? How local stocks of note fared last week (through Friday’s close), and year to date:
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Staff writer: Lindsey Banks; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire, CXN Advisory; Contributing photographer/videographer: Kevin Young, The 5 and 2 Project