Greg Barnes, a former Fayetteville reporter and longtime ABC11 reporter, has passed away. He was 73 years old. He was surrounded by family and friends at the time of his passing in his Lumberton home. Greg spent thirty-four years covering the Fayetteville and Sandhills regions for WTVD, according to John Clark of WTVD. He was known for delving deeply into each subject.
A “old school” Eyewitness News reporter, Greg, came to the conclusion that the best way to tell a news story is from the perspectives of people who are affected by it. I’m honored to have worked with and known him as a friend and colleague until his retirement in 2017, John Clark wrote.
Greg covered a wide range of stories for ABC11 out of Fayetteville, including Hurricane Hanna and tracking soldiers from Fort Bragg to Saudi Arabia.
Greg Barnes Career
In 1983, Greg Barne started working for ABC11 Eyewitness News as the bureau manager in Fayetteville. He was especially well-known among Eastern North Carolina and Fayetteville viewers of WTVD, and he received recognition for his coverage of the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg and its deployments to Panama and the Persian Gulf. Among the greatest points of his career, he considers covering the 82nd Airborne.
Barnes stated that the death of Shaniya Davis, a five-year-old girl whose mother sold her to a drug dealer in order to pay off a drug debt, was the most tragic event he covered. Barnes also stated that he started thinking about retiring after the death of his close friend and colleague, famous WTVD anchor Larry Stogner, who went away after a brief illness.
At the time of his retirement, Barnes quipped that he and his wife Lynne were talking about their vacation and touring plans, and that he would soon be “assigned to Oak Island, counting grains of sand.” Before going to work at WTVD, Barnes worked for WECT in Wilmington for two years. In 1993, he received the “Roy Hardee” Award from the Associated Press.
