‘It’s time,’ so Fountain decides to retire [The Daily Southerner, Tarboro, N.C.]

Dec. 31--A long-time Tarboro insurance agency owner is calling it a career today, capping off more than 46 years at being his own boss.

Whit Fountain, 72, of Tarboro agreed to have his stake in his Tarboro insurance firm, Fountain, Roberson, Anderson Agency Inc., bought out by his partners Edward Roberson III and Sammy Anderson.

"It's time. I'm 72 years old, and there are some other things I'd like to do."

Fountain ran his own insurance agency for 24 years, beginning in 1963 when he said he bought the firm that a relative ran in town. Since then, and since his merge with Roberson in 1987, and Anderson in 2003, Fountain has had the insurance business on East Saint James Street for nearly five decades. Now at 119 E. St. James St., it originally was on the other side of the street, in what is now attorney Bo Simmons' office.

"It's been wonderful" staying in business in town for that long, he said. "Everybody knows exactly where I am" because he has been at more-or-less the same place for so long, Fountain added.

In his retirement, Fountain said that he expects to tend to his hobby of gardening, and also do "a little traveling" within the next few years.

He also plans to remain active as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Edgecombe County Memorial Library.

When he bought the business in 1963, Fountain said that "I literally fell into this," not planning to own it as long as he had. A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate who majored in history and minored in French, back then he said he "couldn't find a job" nearby when he came back home. Now the agency Fountain leaves behind has grown to have eight employees, selling fire, casualty, life and health insurance.

Recalling a humorous story about his time on East Saint James Street, Fountain remembered one time in the '70s seeing a man chase a chicken in the parking lot of what is now Providence Bank. The man was Louis Perry, and Fountain added that it "would've been nice" to have had a camera of some sort to catch that moment, a chase which lasted around 15-20 minutes.

"I said then that (Tarboro) is a country town" where a man like Perry, a bank executive, could be seen doing that, he said. Fountain added that he did not ever learn what happened to that chicken.

Fountain has been married to his wife Mary Alice for 49 years. Both are originally from Leggett, and have two children who both live in Charlotte.

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