Invited Guests | NC Azalea Festival

April 12-16, 2023

COUNTDOWN:

Days

Hours

Minutes

Invited Guests
April 2023

Trot Nixon -
MLB Baseball Player

Frances Weller -
WECT Anchor

Margaret Weller Stargell - Willie Stargell Foundation

Harold Davis -
U.S. Army Korean War Veteran

Adm. Daryl Caudle -
U.S. Navy

Karolyn Martin-
Miss North Carolina 2023

Ana Brown -
2023 Official Artist

2023 Queens Court

Anna Claire Musick

Miss Metrolina

Elizabeth O’Brien

Miss Central Carolina

Jordan Garrick

Miss Piedmont

Tori Kaitlyn Gross

Miss Randolph County

Taylor Loyd

Miss Statesville

Kate White

Miss Thomasville

Hannah Welborne-Lewis

Miss Sandhills

Rachel Townsend

Miss Fayetteville

2023 Keydet Escorts

Garrett Petruskie

Jack Mion

Joseph Egbo

Nick Cabell

Peyton Simpson

Sam McCrary

Thomas Champion

Thomas Marlow

Guests to Note

Each year the Azalea Festival highlights a few individuals as Official Invited Guests.
Stars, celebrities, and heroes alike – from afar and right here locally – are honored during Festival events.

The Festival has hosted the following notable guests (this is just a small sampling!):
Barbara Alyn Woods, Kevin Frazier, President Ronald Reagan, Adrian Wood
Also…Michael Jordan, Kerri Walsh Jennings, Chad Michael Murray, Hilarie Burton, and more!

OFFICE HOURS: M-F 9:00AM – 5:00PM

910.794.4650

info@ncazaleafestival.org

5725 Oleander Drive, Unit B7
Wilmington, NC 28403

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PRIVACY POLICY

Trot Nixon - MLB Baseball Player

Trot Nixon is beloved in Boston because in 2004 he helped break the “Curse of the Bambino,” leading the Red Sox to their first World Series Championship in nearly a century. But his athletics career began, blossomed and returned to his beach-bound roots of Wilmington, North Carolina.

Born in Durham, Christopher Trotman Nixon grew up terrorizing opponents on the diamonds and gridirons of the coast. His senior year, he led New Hanover to a state’s Eastern finals in football by breaking the school passing records set by fellow North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame inductees Roman Gabriel and Sonny Jurgensen.

He led his baseball team to the 1993 AAAA state championship by hitting 12 homers and driving in a state-record 56 runs at the plate and posting a 12-0 record and a 0.40 earned run average as a pitcher. The Red Sox made him the No. 7 overall pick of the MLB draft, while NC State signed him to an athletics scholarship as a quarterback.

At the last possible moment, he chose to follow his baseball dreams, a decision he never regretted as he rounded the bases on a 12-year major league career that included 137 home runs and 555 RBIs with three different organizations.

Nixon is most identified with the Red Sox, after working his way through the minor league system as its top prospect, debuting in 1996 and becoming the team’s Opening Day right fielder in 1999. Appreciated by fans for his always-scrappy play, Nixon settled into his role and was named the team’s co-Rookie of the Year that season.

As the Red Sox fought hard to erase their famous curse, Nixon came back from an injury to provide clutch performances in the playoff run. In the four-game sweep of St. Louis in the World Series, he posted a .357 batting average, including three doubles, and drove in the decisive runs in two of the four wins.

In 42 career postseason games, Nixon hit .283 with six home runs and 25 RBIs.

After retiring in March 2009, Nixon and his wife Kathryn returned to Wilmington where he enjoys watching sons Chase and Luke play multiple sports. Chase is a sophmore baseball player at N.C. State and his brother Luke will be joining him there to play ball as a freshman in the fall.

Known for giving back to his community, Trot generously volunteers his time and talent to countless orgamizations, including the Miracle League. An athlete of strong faith and family connections, Nixon returned to Boston for the 2018 American League Division Series to throw out the first pitch and raise money for North Carolina families affected by Hurricane Florence.

Trot was Inducted into the Wilmington Sports Hall of Fame in 2012 and then inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2020.

Margaret Weller Stargell - Willie Stargell Foundation

Margaret Weller-Stargell, a native of Wilmington, North Carolina, is a graduate of North Carolina State University. She has been employed at Coastal Horizons Center, Inc. since 1985, where she began her work in counseling. In 1995, she became the Executive Director of the organization, and serves today as the corporation’s President and CEO. Coastal Horizons Center, Inc., nationally accredited through CARF, is Southeastern North Carolina’s largest private, non-profit human services organization providing behavioral health and primary health care services. Coastal Horizons Center is headquartered in Wilmington and serves 57 counties in North Carolina.

Mrs. Weller-Stargell was a 2018 StarNews Media Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. In 2019 she was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine by the State of North Carolina. It is the highest award for state service granted by the Office of the Governor to individuals who have shown extraordinary service to the state. She has served on several boards, including the Board of Trustees of New Hanover Regional Medical Center (NHRMC), as well as the North Carolina Medical Care Commission. In July of 2020 she was appointed by Governor Roy Cooper to the Andrea Harris Social, Economic, Environmental and Health Equity Task Force, on which she currently serves. Governor Cooper also appointed Mrs. Stargell to the North Carolina Council for Health Care Coverage in November of 2020. She was appointed to serve as a member of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ (DHHS) Waiver Advisory Committee (DWAC) and more recently served as Chair of this statewide board. She is a member of the Cape Fear Community College Foundation Board and Mrs. Stargell also currently serves as Vice President of Trillium Health Resource’s Provider Network Council.

Margaret Weller-Stargell is the President of the Willie Stargell Foundation, a private non-profit organization that raises money to assist those living with kidney disease. Mrs. Weller-Stargell is the widow of the late National Baseball Hall of Fame Member, Willie Stargell. Since its inception, the Willie Stargell Foundation has raised funds to fight kidney disease and improve patient care in honor of her late husband, who spent his 21-year career in Pittsburgh, with the Pittsburgh Pirates! The Willie Stargell Foundation’s mission is to honor the legacy of Willie Stargell by giving hope through research, patient care and treatment for those living with kidney disease. Mrs. Weller-Stargell is the twin sister of WECT News Anchor Frances Weller and the daughter of the late Fritz and Katherine Weller