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Jim Warlick, right, is pictured at the History Museum of Burke County in 2010, when he brought a presidential Resolute Desk replica for display.
Jim Warlick stands beside the 1963 Lincoln convertible, the second to last vehicle John F. Kennedy ever rode in. The vehicle was one of the items in Warlick's Oct. 14 virtual auction called "The American Presidential Experience."
Presidential memorabilia collector Jim Warlick studies some of the items he has brought to display at the History Museum of Burke County in 2016.
Jim Warlick (right) participates in the grand opening of an exhibit of some of his presidential memorabilia at the History Museum of Burke County in 2016. Warlick is sponsoring an upcoming exhibit at the museum that will feature local mill workers. With him is Judge Claude Sitton (second from left), the executive director of the museum.
Jim Warlick, right, hands out stockings to students at Mountain View Elementary School in 2019.
VIEW: Hear Jim Warlick speak about one of the last cars former US President John F. Kennedy ever rode in and its role in history. Just point your smartphone camera at the QR code, then tap the link.
Jim Warlick, a native of the Chesterfield community of Morganton, had a memorable 70th birthday.
Warlick was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine on his birthday during a celebration at the History Museum of Burke County, according to a press release from the Workers’ Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit founded by Warlick to honor local factory workers. The award is the highest honor bestowed by a North Carolina governor.
Warlick began collecting presidential memorabilia as a child and launched his hobby into a lifelong career, according to a previous News Herald article. While working as a campaign staffer for a US Representative from Asheville in 1980, he designed and sold presidential campaign buttons to pay his way to the national convention. The effort was so successful, he started a company called Political Americana to sell campaign items nationwide.
He later sold presidential memorabilia from a kiosk in a train station in Washington DC, which led to a store, then a chain of stores called White House Gifts. He collected enough memorabilia to open a museum in Branson in 2002, which he later transformed into a traveling exhibit called “The Presidential Experience” that was put on display in locations across the country.
“We recently rented one of our five Oval Office sets for two movies, one on LBJ, a documentary, and another for a movie which will debut in 2023,” Warlick said.
In this video from Bonhams' "The American Presidential Experience: The Collection of Jim Warlick."
In the last several years, he has made a concerted effort to honor the work of local textile, hosiery and furniture factory employees with the creation of the Workers’ Legacy Foundation. His primary inspiration for the project was his late mother, Mary Harrison Warlick, who worked as a sewing machine operator at Garrou-Morganton Full-Fashioned Hosiery Mills for 33 years.
The organization is working on several projects to highlight the area’s history of factory work, including an exhibit called “The Dignity of Work” featuring photos of people who worked in local factories and artifacts they used, which will be put on display at the History Museum of Burke County.
“I will install the exhibition the first two weeks in January that will run for two years,” Warlick said. “It will tell the history of mills and millworkers and have many photos and personal stories from video interviews I've done with former millworkers. It should bring pride to those who worked in Burke County's furniture, textile and hosiery mills.”
The foundation also plans to install a monument on the museum grounds by early January featuring three local hosiery, textile and furniture factory workers, including Warlick’s mother. He said the monument has been delayed for two years due to a shortage of high-end corten steel.
“During the pandemic, steel production ceased as steel mills were shut down,” Warlick said. “When they resumed operation, there was a huge backlog of steel orders to fill. We have been waiting for delivery for almost a year now.”
He said once the individual statues of the workers are completed in California, they will be shipped to South Carolina to be welded together and to receive a powder coating that will be baked on to prevent rusting and fading.
“It will then get shipped to Morganton, and a crane that can lift 4-tons of monument steel will be installed,” Warlick said. “The base of steel rods and brick patio surrounding the monument was installed this summer in anticipation of a dedication.”
He also is partnering with friend David Huff on a new foundation to honor George Masa, a Japanese immigrant who worked at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville at the turn of the last century and hiked and photographed the Blue Ridge Mountains.
“He became friends with John D. Rockefeller upon his visits to the Grove Park Inn, and fearful of the logging going on in the mountains, sent his photographs to Rockefeller and convinced him in funding the $5 million to start and preserve the land which is now Great Smokies National Park,” Warlick said. “He never was given citizenship as an American and died destitute and unknown in 1933. He has only recently been recognized for his contribution to the creation of the Great Smokies National Park and a recent historical landmark was dedicated in downtown Asheville. Our George Masa Foundation will give awards to students around America who contribute outstanding work in conservation and outdoor photography.”
Warlick said he was surprised to find out he’d been awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.
“That it was awarded by Gov. Roy Cooper, a friend for 30 years, gave it special meaning to me,” he said. “I never dreamed I would receive this, the highest award our state can give to a citizen. I am truly humbled, and I thank my many mentors and friends who helped inspire and be there for me along the way. My friend, mentor and hero, Claude Sitton of the Burke History Museum is a big part of any success I've accomplished in life.”
Sitton presented the award to Warlick at the event. The Workers’ Legacy Foundation shared a statement from NC Gov. Roy Cooper offering his congratulations.
"Jimmy, I'm grateful for everything you've done to help our state,” Cooper said. “Your dedication to preserving the history of our state and nation is so important, and it will last for years to come. I am honored to award you the Order of the Long Leaf Pine. Well deserved. You are joining the company of so many outstanding North Carolinians who have dedicated their lives to serving our great state."
Warlick said he has no plans to slow down or retire anytime soon.
“As (the) Langston Hughes poem said, ‘Life has been no crystal staircase’ for me, but I'm still turning and I'm still climbing. I believe what time I have left is to love others, and not self, but to do the best I can, every way I can, every day I can, and for every single person I can. I hope that in the years from now that I have left will not be the material things I have, but rather how many people I was truly able to help have a better life.”
Staff writer Tammie Gercken can be reached at tgercken@morganton.com.
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Jim Warlick, right, is pictured at the History Museum of Burke County in 2010, when he brought a presidential Resolute Desk replica for display.
Jim Warlick stands beside the 1963 Lincoln convertible, the second to last vehicle John F. Kennedy ever rode in. The vehicle was one of the items in Warlick's Oct. 14 virtual auction called "The American Presidential Experience."
Presidential memorabilia collector Jim Warlick studies some of the items he has brought to display at the History Museum of Burke County in 2016.
Jim Warlick (right) participates in the grand opening of an exhibit of some of his presidential memorabilia at the History Museum of Burke County in 2016. Warlick is sponsoring an upcoming exhibit at the museum that will feature local mill workers. With him is Judge Claude Sitton (second from left), the executive director of the museum.
Jim Warlick, right, hands out stockings to students at Mountain View Elementary School in 2019.
VIEW: Hear Jim Warlick speak about one of the last cars former US President John F. Kennedy ever rode in and its role in history. Just point your smartphone camera at the QR code, then tap the link.
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