Between the pages, a lifetime of stories: David Whisenant’s new book is out

SALISBURY — During a journalism career that spanned 32 years, David Whisenant collected more than a lifetime of stories from the people and places he covered. Now he’s sharing those stories with the rest of us.

His book, “Chasing the Story,” is available now at South Main Book Company or on Amazon for pre-order with delivery after Oct. 22. A book signing is on the calendar for 4-6 p.m. Oct. 22 at South Main Book Co. as well.

Whisenant spent the majority of his career with WBTV out of Charlotte, but most in Rowan County know him as “the” local reporter, with an office on North Main Street in Salisbury and a lifelong history here where he grew up. He was classmates with former Sheriff Kevin Auten, and because his family is from here, he is well versed in the history and knows most of the folks that cross his path.

Which makes some things about his career easier, but not all. Among the things he covered was crime, and there were times he had to write about arrests of friends, and that had its challenges. But as he himself notes, reporters do not do what they do because it’s personal, they do it because they are called to keep the community informed.

“I have come to believe that I was called to this,” he said in an interview about the new book. “I believe God gave me the gifts he did so that I could share these stories, to provide information that, if it’s done right, will help someone.” Over the years, he realized “Hey, I’m good at this. Yes, there were things I wasn’t so good at or that I had to learn, but some of this I’m really good at,” and he believes it was what he was meant to do. Along the way he believes he made friends with some, but got along with nearly all he met.

So when he decided to hang up his reporter’s hat, it was not quite time to stop sharing the stories.

A former co-worker, Molly Grantham, put him in touch with Betsey Beaven Thorpe in Charlotte to see if she thought the idea of a book of his stories had merit. Thorpe worked with Grantham on her own books, and Grantham thought she might be a good fit for Whisenant.

Not only did she like the outline they discussed, but she signed on as editor. Whisenant remembered at one point Thorpe wrote the name of each chapter on an index card and asked him to put them in order, and “I looked at the cards on the table and I said, ‘this is it. This is my life, right here, in these 15 index cards.’”

Throughout the process of creating the more than 200-page collection, in addition to several copy editors, a cover designer and printer, Whisenant had one more assistant, his wife, Jtan. The two met in college and have been partners and best friends since.

“She would read chapters and make suggestions and I would listen to what she had to say,” he said.

He said Thorpe didn’t actually change any of the content, but she would “suggest moving this paragraph before that one, that type of thing.” And he spent a lot of time reviewing his work at the station, watching and listening. He researched to be sure the names and details were correct, because “I’d remember the essentials, but when I would go back and watch the tapes, I would be reminded of details that I hadn’t remembered.” He wanted, he said, to be sure as much as possible that everything is accurate.

Looking back at his career and the stories he has covered, “I know I was blessed to be able to tell them all.” And as he reviewed them for the book, he said some stories he had forgotten also came back to him. Sometimes, he could remember details and faces but not names, and that’s not because the stories didn’t matter, but because there have been so many of them.

Reflecting on it all, he said there was praise, but there was criticism. One of the criticisms he got was that he was “doing a story for the ratings. But I never did. That never crossed my mind. I didn’t pay attention to that kind of thing because that was not my motivation.” He added that he often heard the news only covers negative things, “and that’s not true, either. If I made a list of all the things I covered, there would be as much good as bad, if not more. For some reason, it’s the bad things I guess people remember.”

The chapters of the book are primarily about stories he covered, one of his favorites being about “the goat boys.” Two young boys decided they would “rent out their goats to people who needed them to come and help clear fields. And when I got there, they said ‘let us show you how we ride the goats.’ Well, they got on the goats and the goats bucked them off. I couldn’t help but laugh. When I got back to the station, they said ‘oh we can’t show this, its cruelty to animals.’ I said what do you mean? The goats are fine, it’s the boys getting kicked off and landing in the dirt. We eventually aired it and it was fine.” He still laughs about it.

The story that hit him the hardest, he said, that will likely stay with him forever, was the Erica Parsons case.

“I covered that story for 10 years,” he said. “From start to finish.” He said when Erica was first reported missing, he was talking with investigators, including lead investigator Chad Moose from the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, “and it was clear something was off, something was wrong.” When he covered the two adults charged with Erica’s death in the courtroom, he zoomed in on Casey’s eyes, and “they were just black. She showed no emotion, and her eyes were just empty. There is something very bad there.”

“I was incredibly diligent about requesting the autopsy results in that case,” he said. “One day, I was sitting in my car, working on another story on the computer, and I got the email with the autopsy results. And it suddenly became very real. I mean, I had heard the results, had them described to me, but here they were in black and white, spelled out clearly by the top independent expert. That was hard.” That case is broken up into three separate chapters through the book.

He also devotes a chapter to his own father, who committed suicide when David was 27. It divided his life into “before and after,” but over the years, it has become a way for him to talk with others about the importance of mental health and about “talking to someone, anyone, instead of making that choice.” It has become a focus point for him.

In all, Whisenant said there may be a second book, because there are some stories still to share that he didn’t include this time around. But mostly, he’s grateful for the way people have invited him into their lives, have trusted him and the response already to the book.

Whisenant said he hasn’t always been aware of the impact he has had. It finally hit him “when I retired.” After retirement, he said there were a number of awards and honors and he is honestly humble when he says he didn’t see it. “It did eventually become clear that I have made a contribution,” he said.

In retirement, he says, like many others he knows who retired before him and still stayed active, he is busy. He spends more time with his granddaughters, continues to work at his church, has participated in numerous events as master of ceremonies or emcee or, most recently, as moderator at a political forum for the Rowan Chamber of Commerce, and he has no doubt there will be more than enough to fill his time.

Right now, add book signings to his to-do list, and perhaps once more, author.

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