“FRONIE, FRY ‘EM A COUPLE OF EGGS!”
© 2025 Terry Harmon
One of the most colorful characters of late 19th and early 20th century Watauga County, North Carolina was my great, great-grandmother’s first cousin, Newton Banner, who was known to many as “Uncle Newt.”
Newt and his wife, Sophronia “Fronie” Mast Banner, lived on George’s Gap near the old Cove Creek School in the Sugar Grove community. Newt was a carpenter by trade and built the Cove Creek Academy in the 1880s. He was also a rural mail carrier.
But perhaps Newt was best known for his wit and humor. Small in stature, he was big on fun and mischief. He was jovial and enjoyed telling jokes and pulling pranks. On one occasion, as he was walking up the road at Sugar Grove, he flagged down a Greyhound bus. The driver, thinking Newt wanted to ride, told him to get in. “Oh, no,” Newt said, “I don’t want a ride; I see you have Greyhounds advertised and I just wanted to speak for one of the first pups!”
On another occasion, according to the local newspaper, Newt tried to buy a bushel of indigo because he said the Blue Ridge was getting pale, and he wanted to give it another dip to brighten it up.
According to Nannie Greene in Community and Change in the North Carolina Mountains : Oral Histories and Profiles of People from Western Watauga County: “Newt had one pocket in his pants that he referred to as ‘the World.’ He never carried money in that pocket. If someone asked to borrow money he would show the empty pocket and say, ‘I don’t have a cent in the world.’”
Perhaps the funniest story concerning Newt was also recounted by Greene: As two preachers were taking a meal with Newt and Fronie in their home, Newt passed some beef tongue to them. One declined, saying, “I couldn’t possibly eat anything that came from the mouth of an animal!” Newt immediately turned to his wife and said, “Fronie, fry ‘em a couple of eggs!”
