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VALLEY — Valley native Darryl Peebles will be a featured artist at the upcoming Fall Into the Arts fall show presented by the Valley Arts Council the weekend of November 2nd and 3rd at Valley Community Center. Peebles is what could be called a Renaissance man.

He grew up in the Langdale community, and graduated from Valley High and Auburn University. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Divinity degree from the Wake Forest Theological Seminary. He served four congregations and communities as a minister for close to half a century, serving at many weddings and funerals, along with organizing and fundraising to meet whatever need was there to be addressed.

He has spent much of his life in Graham, North Carolina, where he helped establish the Allied Churches of Alamance County by writing a grant proposal for initial funding. He has served his community as a firefighter since 2001 and was named Firefighter of the Year in 2004.

Peebles helped develop a CROP Hunger Walk into one of the largest in the nation. He even rode a bicycle from his home in North Carolina to Alabama to support efforts to combat hunger. He helped director Frank Frost in producing a CROP film that was nationally distributed and received a Cine Golden Eagle award, which recognizes excellence in storytelling and originality across multiple platforms and genres. This led the governor of North Carolina to recognize him for his volunteer efforts to better the lives of his fellow man. He has produced a 90-minute movie entitled “A Place for All Times.”

Peebles has authored some books and many articles over the years while serving in a number of civic groups. He competed in track and field events until he was 55 years old.

One of his more entertaining talents is that of being an illusionist. He once demonstrated this as a guest on the Jay Leno Show. For some 40 years he wrote, produced and directed, sold and recorded ads for WSMI. He’s also been into acting, appearing in a version of The Three Blondes – Carol Channing, Dolly Parton and Marilyn Monroe, portraying an aging man in a short film by Ian McClerin called “Cantilever” and was in a Goody’s TV commercial with NASCAR drivers Richard Petty and Tony Stewart. He’s also acted with Lance Henriksen of “Aliens” fame, Valerie Azlynn and Jason Cook in “Dark Awakening” and with Kevin Sorbo in “From Here to Forever.”

One of Peebles’ most interesting activities was to take part in a global tour. In 2017 he was part of “Link the World With Love Through Service.” Over some 63 days and 156 presentations, the tour spanned four continents, 12 nations and 36 cities. Pebbles is well known to followers of YouTube, where he had produced and edited more than 1,600 daily entries.

“Darryl is favorite son of the Valley, and we are looking forward to having him back here as our special guest for our Fall Into the Arts Holiday Show and pre-holiday sale,” said Valley Arts Council President Suzie Britt. “We are also looking forward to our upcoming show. We think it’s going to be one of our best. We are hoping for a big turnout inside the Community Center’s Community Room on Saturday and Sunday, November 2nd and 3rd.”