Jimmy Wayne coming home for parade

Jimmy Wayne’s returning to his native Kings Mountain to celebrate the holiday season.

The author, actor and country singer is grand marshal of the Home for Christmas Parade at 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7. The celebration includes more than 100 entries including Santa Claus, Mayor Scott Neisler and other elected officials, and the Kings Mountain High Marching Mountaineers.

The parade’s just the beginning of the celebration. When it’s over, the community’s invited to Patriots Park to visit Santa’s workshop, a downtown holiday market, winter wonderland, fantasy light show and Christmas lights at the park.

Line-up for the parade begins at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7 on East Gold Street near Mountain Rest Cemetery. The parade proceeds downtown, turning right on South Battleground Avenue and right again on U.S. 74 near the overhead bridge on King Street. It disbands on East King Street near KFC.

Here’s what Wayne has to say about his work and coming to Kings Mountain this week:

His Lifetime movie “Every Other Holiday” was released last year.

“I had a great time filming that. It was my first speaking role. I’ve performed in several movies, but this one was my first speaking role which was great and I got to work with people like Dee Wallace, who was the mom in ‘E.T.’”

His song and book “Paper Angels” is also a film.

“They’re playing that again this year on UP-TV and you can also find it on other, I don’t know the exact apps or channels, but you’ve just gotta Google it. I’m real excited that they’re continuing to play Paper Angels because it’s such an important song and book. It was inspired by the Angel Tree project right there in Shelby. So when people see that movie Paper Angels, they can see themselves that that movie was inspired by the Salvation Army in Shelby.”

What life is like for him right now.

“I do a lot of keynotes for organizations and corporations… just doing a lot of that. Working on some other projects that I haven’t been able to talk about yet but we’ll be getting to that soon I hope.”

His mom recently passed away on the night before his birthday.

“Growing up in Cleveland County, she was a single mom who struggled extremely hard. My prayers go out to all the single moms out there taking care of these kids this Christmas. I know exactly what that’s like by watching my mom struggle. I hope that people will donate to the Salvation Army and help these moms feed these kids and clothe these kids and help them out.

His music sometimes reflects his foster care experiences.

“It was not my initial intent because I wanted to get away from all that and never look back. But when I realized how many people can relate to my story, I thought it was my responsibility to talk about my story and give them some hope and try to inspire people to get involved and maybe volunteer or donate.”

When he visits Kings Mountain, it’s family time.

“When I come home, I go see my family and make sure I spend as much time with them as possible My friends understand that. They understand I don’t get to see my family but two or three times a year.”

He looks forward to being grand marshal of the Christmas parade.

“I was honored to do that. I just like being home. Being around the folks from North Carolina. The folks from Shelby and Kings Mountain and Gastonia. I just like being around them. It’s fun to be around them, fun to eat the food and drink the sweet tea. Just fun being around them. I enjoy it. You get away from home and you move away to Nashville and it’s never home. It’s a residence. The old saying that there’s no place like home, that is the truth. When you’re a kid, you can’t wait to get out because there’s not much going on. But when you get out, you can’t wait to get back.”

His memories of Christmases during his childhood.

“When I think of Cleveland County and I think of Christmas, I think of receiving Christmas gifts through the Salvation Army there… that would be the very first thing that comes to mind when I think of Christmas and home. The Salvation Army provided my family with clothes and food and my first guitar when I was 14.”

You can reach Wade Allen at 704-669-3331 and follow him on Twitter @wadeallenstar.