LUMBERTON – Award-winning Bill Norment, a colorful character in his day, captured the largely rural world of Lumberton and Robeson County during the second half of the 20th century in stark black and white.

Norment served as a longtime photographer – as well as sports editor, city editor, associate editor and editor emeritus – with The Robesonian. He worked for the Lumberton newspaper for more than five decades before his death at age 66 in 1998.

His legacy is being remembered during the weekend with a special photo exhibit – “Bill Norment: A Legacy in Black and White Photographs” – 2-5 p.m. on Sunday at the Robeson County History Museum, 101 S. Elm St.

Admission is free.

The public is invited, and light refreshments will be offered.

“William Douglas Norment was one of North Carolina’s great photographers,” the History Museum states in a news release promoting the special exhibit.

Some knew him simply as “Billy Doug.”

But Norment’s photos gave life – a corresponding visual component – to the print stories that adorned the pages of the Robesonian over the week during his career.

According to the release, the History Museum was able to procure the Norment collection courtesy of a gift from his children. Photo journalism was shot in black and white during Norment’s newspaper tenure, and his collection of enlarged and printed works reflect that era from the days of yesteryear.

“This isn’t routine newspaper work. It’s art,” Scott Bigelow, vice president of the museum, said in a news release.

“Viewers will see a range of Bill’s work, including sports, law enforcement, family and feature photography,” Faye Middleton, who hung the exhibit, said in the news release. “There is also a collection of historical photos and a selection of his professional work.”

Donnie Douglas, a former sports editor and former top editor at The Robesonian, said when he first arrived at the newspaper that Norment was the staff photographer.

“He was an accomplished photographer,” Douglas said Wednesday. “From my memory, he was kind of a grandfatherly figure in the newsroom. He got along well with people. He had a good eye for photography. And he was always helpful. He stayed holed up in the darkroom. He was a real pleasure to be around but not someone to bring attention to himself. That was his nature.”

In 1974, the N.C. Press Association named Norment Photographer of the Year. He was also selected as Southern Photographer of the Year during his extensive tenure at the paper.

In 1958, a series of Norment’s photographs of the Lumbee Indians historical rout of the Ku Klux Klan was published in Life magazine and distributed worldwide, the news release said. The KKK had tried to intimidate Lumbee tribal members in Maxton, but the Robeson County-based Indians fought back at what is remembered as the Battle of Hayes Pond.

They drove the Klan out of town.

Mike Doares, past president of the History Museum, helped move the Norment collection from his Lumberton home to the museum. It was Doares and his wife, Monica, who organized the collection for exhibit.

“When I was in high school,” Doares said in the release, “Bill paid me $5 for sports photographs. That was a lot of money then, and he was great to work for.”

Bigelow worked for Norment as a reporter at The Robesonian.

“Bill was a master photographer,” Bigelow recalled, “and in those days, that meant he was a master of the dark room. He was a patient and soft-spoken teacher.”

“Bill had a great eye as viewers of this exhibit will see,” Bigelow said in the release.

A near life-long resident of Lumberton, Norment attended Catawba College where he played football and served as editor of the school newspaper.

He also served his country in the Army.

Norment participated in Golden Gloves boxing, and he was known to be an avid radio-controlled model airplane enthusiast.

“I think everybody liked Bill and appreciated the work he did,” Douglas said. “He was a little bit of an institution in Lumberton.”

Reach MIchael Futch by email at [email protected]