Ashe County’s Renaissance woman, Gayle Winston, stood before close friends and county dignitaries at the Chamber of Commerce Tuesday afternoon as she has honored as a recipient of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

The award is the highest honor a North Carolina citizen can receive and is given out at the governor’s discretion. It is typically given out to honor an individual who has made some type of special achievement or contribution to the community. To date, over 13,000 North Carolina citizens have received the award.

Rep. Cullie Tarleton, who nominated Winston for the exalted recognition, was hand to present the award to Winston.

“If ever anyone has earned this prestigious award, it is Gayle Winston,” Tarleton said. “She is the personification of the real, true renaissance woman.”

Tarleton explained that he has nominated four fellow Tar Heels during his tenure as a a member of the State House of Representatives and said that he nominated Winston because of her accomplishments in the county’s hospitality and tourism industry.

“Anyone who has made the kind of contributions she has made deserves this recognition,” Tarleton continued. “She has made a terrific impact on the hospitality industries in Ashe County and Winston-Salem.”

Winston’s involvement and promotion of the arts in the High Country were also factors that Tarleton took into consideration when he decided to nominate Winston for the award.

Tarleton said: “It is a very prestigious award and those who receive it have to earn it and Gayle Winston has done that.”

Winston will join notable company as a recipient of the award. Fellow North Carolinians Maya Angelou, Billy Graham, and Michael Jordan are just a handful of state celebrities who have received the award since its conception in the 1960s.

Winston, a tenth generation Ashe County resident, said that she learned of her nomination only a few days before the ceremony took place. She had recently celebrated her 80th birthday and explained that the award came as a shock.

“I had the best 80th birthday party over at the Ashe Civic Center and all of this has just been wonderful.”

Winston continued: “It’s terrific, I’m quiet surprised. I don’t think that I deserve this (award) but I’m glad that some people do.”

Winston was born just of West Jefferson and spent much of her childhood in Ashe County. She went on to complete a degree in journalism from Bridgewater College in Virginia where she was editor of her school newspaper. Although she had aspirations of travelling the world as a globetrotting reporter, Winston became sidetracked with play production by a coworker while working at Time Magazine. Winston became entrenched within theatre production during her stay in New York, furthering her creative prowess.

After marrying television director Ron Winston, she returned to Ashe County in the 1970s and purchased her family’s former homestead in Grassy Creek and transformed the property into a profitable farming enterprise.

Winston went on to own and operate the Glendale Springs Inn and also purchased the property which would become the River House Inn in 1988. The inn was become nationally renowned for its French cuisine and as an entertainment venue.

Beyond her undertakings in fine dining in Ashe County, Winston also oversaw the operations of two establishments in Virginia and still owns the Old Salem Tavern in Winston-Salem.

Winston is constantly looking to expand the River House’s influence in Ashe County and hopes that it can serve the High Country as a focal point for all cultural institutions.

“I would love to see the River House become the center for all the arts, including the visual, performing, and written arts,” Winston said. “That’s a personal goal of mine.”