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GATESVILLE – The 2024 Gates County Lions Club Christmas Parade will honor its oldest current member.

Edsel Eure, age 91, joined the Lions Club in June of 1987.

“I count my top important things in life as attending church and worshiping Jesus Christ, and helping people through the Lions Club,” Eure said.

For a long period of time, Eure was one of the main cooks for the local Lions Club, especially when it came to frying chickens for a fundraiser they conducted every December.

He has also helped out with another annual event….hosting the blind during their fishing trips to the Outer Banks.

“That was a blessing to go and help them enjoy and have such a good time while they fished,” Eure recalled.

While he admits that his age has caused him to cut back on his volunteer work with the Lions Club, he still likes what he sees with the current membership.

“They’re doing an excellent job,” Eure noted.

Born and raised on the family farm near today’s Tar Heel BBQ, Eure himself farmed for a while before finding other employment…first as a salesman for Sears, then as an insurance salesman, and as a tour bus driver.

“Yep, I tell everybody that I traveled six million miles behind the wheel of a bus, and one million miles behind an ornery old mule,” he laughed.

Eure is a father to a daughter and two sons.

“I’ve got something that a trillion dollars can’t buy…a loving family that I’m mighty proud of,” he stressed.

Now, Eure spends his days at home on Silver Springs Road near Sunbury. He is a former member of Cool Spring Baptist Church and a current member of Abundant Hope Church.

The Gates County Lions Club Christmas Parade is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 14 in downtown Gatesville.