Norman McCorkle will be the featured speaker at Historic Salisbury Foundation’s Third Annual Sacred Places Tour on Saturday, March 19. The introduction will be given at 9:15 a.m. at Thyatira Presbyterian Church located at 220 White Road.

McCorkle is a native of Rowan County, having grown up in Thyatira Presbyterian Church. Following his graduation from Shenandoah University with majors in history and music, he attended Wake Forest University for Graduate School under a scholarship from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. McCorkle worked much of his life at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History in Columbia, S.C., where he researched and wrote inscriptions for official state historical markers. He also worked for the State of South Carolina Budget and Control Board in 1996, and from 1996 to 2011 was employed as a mailroom supervisor at Consolidated Systems.

Thankfully, much of Thyatira’s history has been preserved through the work and leadership of McCorkle. He served as president of Thyatira Presbyterian Church Memorial Association from 2012 to the present, which oversees the church museum (which will be open to visitors throughout tour hours), cemetery and the church history. McCorkle has also spent countless hours recording the history of the church and his family. His first publication was “The McCorkle and Related Families,” which was published in 2008 and traces the lineage of the McCorkle family back to 1460. He is the author and compiler of the book “Thyatira Memories,” which was published in 2013, and numerous articles in the “Journal of the Rowan County Genealogical Society” and in “Pee Dee Magazine.” He is a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Rowan County Genealogical Society, and he was inducted into the Shenandoah University Hall of Fame in 2016.

McCorkle will highlight the McCorkle family history at Thyatira in his presentation, “Norman’s 8th Generation Great Grandmother.” Following the 9:15 a.m. introduction, there will be a self-guided tour featuring eight historic churches in the Western portion of Rowan County including Woodleaf, Cleveland and Mount Ulla from 10 a.m. to  4 p.m.

Advanced tickets are $10 per person. Tickets ordered online or by phone will be held under your name at will call located at Thyatira Presbyterian Church. Day of tickets will be available at Thyatira Presbyterian Church in Salisbury and St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Woodleaf for $15. The Sacred Places Tour is sponsored by Windsor Gallery Jewelers.

For more information regarding this tour, call the Historic Salisbury Foundation office at 704-636-0103 and like its Facebook page to stay up to date regarding all HSF events.

Tour sites

• Back Creek Presbyterian Church, 2145 Back Creek Church Road, Mount Ulla

• Christ Episcopal Church, 3430 Old US HWY 70, Cleveland

• Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church, 435 Carson Road, Woodleaf

• Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Saint Andrews Church Road, Woodleaf

• Saint George’s Episcopal Church, 9170 Cool Springs Road, Woodleaf

• Third Creek Presbyterian and Cemetery, 2055 Third Creek Church Road, Cleveland

• Thyatira Presbyterian Church and Cemetery, 220 White Road, Salisbury

• Unity Presbyterian Church, 885 Woodleaf-Barber Road, Cleveland