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Wanda and Roy Williams to serve as grand marshals of King Apple Parade

Roy Williams is pictured speaking to a Women Helping Women luncheon in November 2022. The Hall of Fame basketball coach and his wife, Wanda, will serve as grand marshals in the King Apple Parade on Labor Day. [LIGHTNING FILE PHOTO]

By Lightning Reports, Published: August 13, 2024

Roy Williams, one of the most decorated coaches in college basketball, and his wife, Wanda, will serve as grand marshals of the N.C. Apple Festival’s King Apple Parade, the festival's Board of Directors announced Tuesday.

Both natives of Western North Carolina, Roy and Wanda own a home in Kenmure. Wanda is the daughter of Fred and Cleo Jones. Her father grew up in Crab Creek and graduated from Flat Rock High School. Fred Jones's memoir, “Darkness Comes in the Morning,” detailed the lives of his parents, who were descended from the Jones line that first came to Henderson County between 1870 and 1880, and from the Stepp and McCall families, whose roots in the area date to the late 1700s.

Wanda’s family moved to Asheville in 1955 when she was 5. After her parents bought a farm in Mills River, she attended Mills River School in grades 6, 7 and 8. The family still owns “the Farm of Three Sisters,” named for Wanda and her sisters.

Wanda and Roy met in ninth grade Algebra I class at T.C. Roberson High School in 1964. They both went off to UNC at Chapel Hill and began dating there. After they married in 1973, they lived in Asheville for five years. They have two children and four grandchildren living in the Charlotte area. They returned to North Carolina in 2003 and spent 20 years in Chapel Hill, where Roy coached the Tar Heels to three national championships.

Roy — called Coach by former players and  Ol’ Roy by many fans — is a Biltmore boy, attending school there until two schools consolidated for the 1961-62 school year. He attended T.C. Roberson from 1964 until his graduation. After he graduated from UNC, Williams landed his first coaching job, at Owen High School in Black Mountain. He coached basketball, golf and football before returning to Chapel Hill as an assistant under Dean Smith for 10 years. He accepted the head coaching job at Kansas in 1988 before coming home to his alma mater in 2003. Coach Williams has logged a total of 903 wins, guided teams to nine Final Fours and won national championships in 2005, 2009 and 2017.

He became a Henderson County landowner when he joined friends in 1995 to invest in the Kenmure golf community. At a time when Wanda and Roy were looking for property to build a vacation home, Kenmure had just purchased the adjacent area known as Berwick Downs, and they bought a lot. 

In time for Christmas of 2012, the couple built and moved into their house in Flat Rock as a vacation/future retirement home.

“We are happy to be here, using Flat Rock as our permanent address, although we spend time in other places seasonally,” Wanda said upon accepting the grand marshal honor. “We enjoy Little Rainbow Row and alternatively spend time on an island off the coast of Charleston, home of the original Rainbow Row.

“We love the Flat Rock Playhouse, Hendersonville, the Friday night car shows, local restaurants, the bears, the ice cream trail, apples in all their forms and the ability to stroll or cruise Main Street,” she added. “We are excited to be part of the Apple Festival and look forward to viewing it from the inside out.”

The King Apple Parade will be held on Labor Day beginning at 2:30 p.m. Applications for entries are now accepted at www.ncapplefestival.org. Those interested in renting a professional float may contact the Apple Festival office at 828-697-4557.