Remembering Wyvis Oxendine Sr., A Native American Educator, County Commissioner And Entrepreneur

For a man who didn’t seek acclaim, Wyvis Oxendine Sr. had a tendency to stand out.

“You would not forget Wyvis Sr. the first time you met him,” said his son, Wyvis Oxendine Jr. “I don’t care if it was a little joke, a little story that he told, when he walked into the room, you knew that his presence was there.”

Wyvis Jr. and his mother sat side-by-side on the tan sofa in the family’s soft-lit living room in the small town of Maxton — not far from the North Carolina-South Carolina state line — on a recent afternoon. The hum of passing cars from the nearby highway punctuated their conversation.