Elvis Presley performed at Williams on February 15, 1956, at 8:00pm. Other performers scheduled for the two-hour performance included Justin Tubb (son of Ernest Tubb), Benny Martin, and "Mother Maybelle" Carter with June Carter (later June Carter Cash). Though little more is known about the concert itself, it is known that he stopped at Brightwood Restaurant on Highway 70 en route to Greensboro after the concert, where he ordered a burger and a glass of milk. The booth where he sat has been preserved with a portrait overhead. The waitress who served him that night still works there. Buddy Rich also performed at the school in the 1950s. Poet and novelist Flannery O'Connor has also appeared at Williams, along with author Timothy Tyson, who wrote "Blood Done Sign My Name", 2005 summer reading selection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the inspiration of a movie by the same title released in the 1980s. William C. Friday, president of the University of North Carolina from 1956 to 1985, was the featured speaker at an awards assembly in the 1980s. Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel has also spoken at the school. Judge Henry Frye, the first African-American chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court also spoke at the school, as has Lonice Bias, mother of University of Maryland basketball player Len Bias.