James Donald (Donnie) Bumgarner was born at the old Wilkes Hospital, Inc. in North Wilkesboro and grew up in Wilkesboro, North Carolina and has an interest in writing about his memories both great and small of Wilkesboro when he grew up there as a child. He is married to Patsy Wingler Bumgarner and they have two sons, Jonathan and Joseph Bumgarner and five grandchildren, Winnie, Daisy, Frannie, Annabel and Samuel.
Donnie received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Religion and Social Work from Campbell College in 1970 and a Master of Social Work Degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1976. He worked for the Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina, Inc. in Thomasville as a Social Worker for two years and for the Wilkes County Department of Social Services for some forty years. He was Director of the Department of Social Services for nearly twenty-seven years.
Growing up Donnie remembers Wilkesboro as a vibrant and busy little town nestled in the foothills of western North Carolina. He has many fond childhood memories of family and friends, adults who were wonderful role models, as well as some humorous individuals, all now of a bygone day who were instrumental in shaping and molding him into the person that he was to become. He feels the Lord assigned him his portion and cup and made his foot secure growing up in Wilkesboro where the boundary lines fell for him in pleasant places and he received a delightful inheritance.