EDITOR’S NOTE: Everyone has a story — some more well-known than others. Across Western North Carolina, so much history is buried below the surface. Six feet under. With this series, we introduce you to some of the people who have left marks big and small on this special place we call home.
Linwood Crump (1944-2005) was given the honorific “The Mayor of Shiloh” for his service to the people of his neighborhood. Exemplifying selflessness, Crump’s servitude was recognized a year after his death with the renaming of the Shiloh Community Center. He is buried in Asheville’s Sunset Cemetery.
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Linwood Crump was born to Rev. Emerson Crump and Dora Lee Logan on Sep. 1, 1944, in Newport News, Virginia. Before Linwood turned age 10, the Crump family would head southwest, leaving their coastal Virginia home for one in the Western North Carolina mountains. Of his 60-year life, Crump spent more than 50 years in the Shiloh neighborhood in Asheville.
In his youth, Linwood attended Stephens-Lee High School at the same time as WCU basketball legend and NBA player Henry Lee Logan. Stephens-Lee was a school for African American students in Asheville until it closed in 1965, the year that Logan graduated. Crump had graduated the year prior.
Crump married Lucille Marie Lytle on Aug. 28, 1965. “Lucille,” according to a post on the Find a Grave website, “was a devoted wife, mother, sister, friend, Nana of a lot of grandkids and great-grands, as well as an auntie to a lot of nieces, nephews, great nieces, great nephews, and most importantly she was a true servant of God!”
The Crump’s were practicing members of Rock Hill Missionary Baptist Church. Due to his faith, his obituary stated, “He was full of life and never met a stranger; he was a devoted husband and father.”
During his working years, Crump was employed by Eaton Cutler Hammer. He retired due to health complications in 1991.
Coach Crump, as he would have been known to many children, instructed them in several sports including basketball, baseball and football.
Crump gained a praiseworthy moniker through his activism on behalf of his neighborhood. “Affectionately known as the ‘Mayor of Shiloh,’” Asheville Parks and Recreation (APR) explains, “he was an outspoken voice for the community and never shied away from taking community issues to City Hall.”
“He was known for his advocacy in neighborhood improvement and his interest in the welfare of children. He worked to fight drugs and crime,” according to a post on Asheville.com from 2006. “Much of his work and volunteer time was spent at the Shiloh Community Center.”
Linwood Crump Shiloh Community Center
Asheville began to close its segregated schools in the 1960’s including the aforementioned Stephens-Lee High School. Without students and educators occupying the halls, Asheville Parks and Recreation (APR) decided to use the spaces as community venues.
Shiloh Elementary was one of these reminted recreation centers. With the assistance of over $500,000 in federal grants, APR finished their retrofitting of the former school in 1980. The freshly revamped space was used for “programs for all ages in the center and leased space to other nonprofit organizations focused on health and wellness,” according to APR’s website.
Since then, many additions and restorations have been undertaken at the Shiloh Community Center, as it came to be known. Around 2000, APR added a playground and walking trail.
“In 2022, APR completed a major renovation that updated much of the outdoor space with a new playground, outdoor fitness equipment, repaved walking trail, new basketball court, improved ballfield drainage, and more,” The APR website states. “The indoor gym and fitness center were also renovated and solar panels added to the building’s roof.”
APR goes on to call the recreation complex “an integral part of the community’s cultural and social fabric.”
The Shiloh Community Center, where he tirelessly served, was renamed in Crump’s honor on Jul. 15, 2006. Today it is known as the Linwood Crump Shiloh Community Center.
The community venue was most recently updated in 2019 with additions including a new playground, basketball court, a repaved walking path and improvements to the ballfield.
Linwood’s Legacy
“The Mayor of Shiloh” Linwood Crump died at 3:35 p.m. on Jun. 19, 2005, at the age of 60. Crump’s funeral was held at his church before his body was laid in Sunset Cemetery.
Then Mayor of Asheville Terry Bellamy attended Crump’s funeral, stating before the audience, “Every neighborhood in the city of Asheville needs a Linwood.”
Lucille followed her husband on Sep. 21, 2021, at the age of 74.
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