The county “has ghosts of people and the things they did,” said Frances Shetley, 88. She believes a person’s energy persists after death. Shetley danced the maypole around the (now) large elm at the former Carrboro Elementary – today Town Hall. She later served two terms as an alderman there. “Citizens were entitled to be heard and if they had a problem they were entitled to be helped.” Born in Calvander, Shetley and her late husband bought land in 1955 that was then “way out in the county.” Needing some way to mark the property, Shetley bought a used tombstone to serve as a landmark. Shetley helped stop a big development effort near Anderson Park that would have destroyed the watershed; that effort is how she feels she most impacted Orange County.
