‘She’s not really what I expected.’ Tagging along with NC’s first lady.
The small woman, neatly dressed and clearly happy to see a celebrity in her town of Laurinburg, stood off to one side on the town’s Main Street as North Carolina first lady Kristin Cooper shook hands in the crowd.
“She’s not really what I expected,” the woman said. “I heard several people say to her, ‘We know you’re in a hurry so if we could get a picture…” and you know what she said? She said, “I’m not in a hurry. I don’t have anywhere else to go. Come on over. Is this your daughter?’ I mean, people like her usually don’t act that way with people like us, from small towns. She really seems to care.”
Kristin Cooper is known in Raleigh for her quick sense of humor, for not taking herself too seriously, for occasionally driving herself to the grocery store (Gov. Roy Cooper’s security isn’t crazy about that, but the first lady flexes her independence as she can.) She’s also know for speaking her mind on social issues, particularly those involving children.
A lawyer, she is guarded in public, funny in private, first a mother to three daughters and spouse to a governor who has been in public life for more than 30 years.
Kristin Cooper takes seriously the pledge she made to visit all 100 counties of North Carolina, and Laurinburg, in Scotland County about 75 or 80 miles south of Raleigh, is No. 90 on the list. Sometimes, yes, the visits amount to town hall meetings or heavily organized receptions. But the first lady seems to prefer the visits where she’s meeting folks and talking and listening.
Scotland is struggling with a lack of employment opportunities and the poverty that results. Laurinburg is its biggest town. This day, the first lady is touring the main business drag, which is decorated for Christmas. Kristin Cooper wanders through shops, picks up a pair of flashy socks for her husband’s Christmas present, talks to merchants, asks people how they’re doing and looks at them intensely when they share some hard times.
In every community she’s visited, she’s found surprises that amazed her (Indian Mounds), stunned her with their beauty (Great Dismal Swamp) or left her wanting more time (Old Salem). One even challenged her culinary gumption. (“I passed on the bear stew,” she said of one site out West.)
And yes, broke her heart.
“In Northampton County, we heard about people coming to the police station looking for food,” she said. “Another place, a teacher told us about a child who was crying because her stomach hurt. When the teacher asked what was wrong, she said, ‘I haven’t had anything to eat.’ And we heard about one child who got a backpack of food to take home, and he had to share it with his family.”
The folks in Laurinburg were telling their own stories, but most seemed just surprised and appreciative that the first lady would not just come to their town, but would stay and talk and not hesitate to have a one-on-one conversation about their most personal trials.
She shook hands and took pictures and the mayor was mighty pleased to have a chance to get the town up front in the Laurinburg Exchange or nearby Fayetteville Observer.
But quietly, in those conversations with mothers and children, Kristin Cooper was getting personal stories, stories that would resonate with her and stay on her mind and be shared back in Raleigh in ways that perhaps could encourage politicians to consider the human consequences of their actions. Stories of hardship, some of triumph. She asked for them. She heard them.
“She really seems to care,” that woman downtown had said. And she does.
This story was originally published December 14, 2022 at 5:30 AM with the headline "‘She’s not really what I expected.’ Tagging along with NC’s first lady.."