Editor’s note: A letter in last week’s edition was signed by George-Anna Lovett but was not written by her. While it is our policy to verify letters, some that — based on our experience — appear authentic and are somewhat benign are published without being verified. This time we made a mistake, and apologize.

To the editor(s), the people of the Sylva area, its law enforcement officials, and the George-Anna Lovett imposter, from the real George-Anna Lovett, who does also happen to be the wife of William C. Lovett, M.D., regarding the theft of my identity and the forging of my signature:

Apparently, I have become the victim of identity theft with a new twist. Someone is forging my signature, but so far it has not been to use a credit card, gain money from my bank account, nor to obtain goods for which I will be made responsible. It is a pitiful attempt to try and steal something from me which has no price tag, and cannot really be stolen, bought, or even borrowed. Someone out there believes that George-Anna Lovett and in parentheses (Mrs. William C. Lovett, M.D.) must have more clout, respectability, credibility, and a better reputation than they do themselves in our wonderful little community. How sad for them!

There are letters that bear my name, which are signed by someone who is not me, that are arriving in the mail to the editors of local newspapers. One was mistakenly printed in the May 4-10 edition of the Smoky Mountain News. Someone from The Sylva Herald happened to call me to verify the letter received and this was how I became alerted to the situation.

I do not place blame on the newspaper, and both newspapers have agreed to publish a real letter from me. I’m sure that this will now cause them both to review their acceptance policies to make sure that such things do not happen again. Perhaps there will even be some follow-up stories on this subject later as things unfold.

These letters are possibly circulating elsewhere within the community, as well, and I have no control over that. Fortunately, the signature looks nothing like my own, and I am hoping that this problem will end here and now when public attention is brought to this appalling tactic being used. I am choosing to alert the public to this as it could be happening to other people out there who are unaware. Perhaps it is happening to people who are not in town right now and the letter writer feels that those folks would never know that their names are being used in such a way. I am choosing this opportunity to make it known to the person who has done this that I reported this to law enforcement officials who said that they will be checking on the legal statutes regarding this.

If it isn’t considered a crime to use another person’s name in this way, I think it should be. How could this letter writer think that neither Dr. Lovett nor I would find out about this, especially in such small towns as Sylva or Venice, Fla (where Dr. Lovett practices medicine)?

I will be doing what I can on my own to find out who is doing this, too. It would be nice if this person would just go ahead and do the right thing (this time) and come forward themselves, apologize, and face the music. They have hurt rather than helped their cause by resorting to the use of such deceitful and unlawful tactics. I already have some ideas about how someone may have gotten some of the personal information about myself and my family. Concerned others have agreed to do what they can to help me find out who wrote the letter, as they feel it is a wrong, low thing to do, too.

Though whoever it is seems to know some details about our lives, including the fact that our children are home-schooled, they obviously don’t know me personally at all. We have been a home-schooling family for going on 11 years, and the fact that we do home school has nothing to do with any problems that we have had with North Carolina schools or the public school system here. It has more to do with our educational philosophies, our lifestyle choices, and the way that we choose to live as a family, more than anything else.

Another thing that this person doesn’t know about me is that I don’t usually include my husband’s name or title on my letters unless he is signing, too. (Guess they didn’t dare forge a doctor’s signature. Most of the people who have done that have ended up serving time.) On those occasions when I do write a letter from both of us, I would type it as Dr. and Mrs. William C. Lovett. Having it appear (as the letter writer did) as Mrs. William C. Lovett, M.D., would then give me the title of doctor, which I am not, and have never really wanted to be anyway. I also do not make it a habit to ride on my husband’s lab coat tails in order to try and gain more respect or credibility within the community, to achieve better social status, or simply to announce to the world that I am a doctor’s wife. Though that fact may come up in personal conversations at times, I feel perfectly confident that I can earn respect on my own merit, using my own name, and whatever titles are mine to use. Status has never been something that I have thought much about one way or another. As a matter of fact, anyone who really knows me knows that I married that fine, ethical man in spite of the fact that he is an M.D., not because of it.

So, I am letting all within the Sylva area know there is some poor, lost soul out there who is apparently so ashamed and embarrassed by their own name and self-perceived ill social status within this community that they felt a need to pretend they are me! It is a bit funny when I think about some of the times that I wished I were not me. It is probably just some out of control, NIMBY person who has already been using other such unscrupulous, underhanded and possibly illegal tactics to promote their crusade. Maybe they have done something to hurt their own reputation or behaved badly at public meetings revolving around this issue and made some enemies. Perhaps they fear or have had some sort of personal repercussions from the opposing side, and wanted those folks to focus their attention upon mine or Dr. Lovett’s names instead. It’s wonderful to have great passion and conviction about any issue, but it’s important to express it in ways that will help, rather than harm, one’s own cause.

This person who is pretending to be me obviously enjoys having people speaking for them, as they gave someone named Randy Deitz great praise for speaking for a number of “them.” As you can probably tell by this letter, the real George-Anna Lovett (who does not require her husband to share his professional title with her) does not enjoy having anyone speak for her, write for her, nor sign for her — especially without her express permission to do so. I found it quite ironic (and absurdly hypocritical) to see that this person wrote “... three commissioners are evidently opposed to a landowner’s right to the free use of his own property ...,” while at the same time they were taking free use of someone else’s name, identity, and signature to voice those words!

They also stated that they “recently moved to the area, in part to live in a place where traditional community values still prevail ....” Ha ha! Maybe some of those will rub off on them someday if they stick around and make friends instead of enemies here.

I have been coming to this area since a toddler in 1958 and always wanted to own a house and live here. It finally happened for me. Besides the mountains, the woods, and the streams, I have always loved the local folks and made some good friends here over the years. I have always admired their honesty, outright directness, and general good common sense about what’s right and wrong and what’s fair in their dealings with others. The letter writer who used my name also went on to express this thought: “Mr. Randy Dietz spoke for all of us when he expressed his resentment of a tiny group of new people trying to run things for the rest of us.” I can’t help but laugh to think that this person is actually complaining about someone running things in their life while presenting themselves as me in a letter, and then even signing my name like it was their own!

I thank the newspapers for allowing me the right to express my indignation, and for helping me to set the record straight to the public. I have been reading the various tirades in the news from opposing sides about the shooting range and hadn’t really thought too much about it one way or another yet. Maybe it’s because so many of us might unconsciously be closet NIMBY’s in the first place. After all, this isn’t happening in my backyard. We don’t even live near where the letter writer lives. But, since this person has now brought my attention to the issue, perhaps I should consider the whole thing more seriously now. On the one hand, I don’t know that I would agree that we need to have another shooting range, if there are already others around — and I don’t particularly care for guns or the noises they make. But, if I did wish to publicly express my opinion about it one way or the other, perhaps having a shooting range over that way might be a good idea. Hmmmmmmmm .... Maybe if there’s one over there, it would ensure that I didn’t have one in my backyard over here on the other side of town! I must say that this imposter has at least caused me to think more about this whole shooting range issue now.

Forgive me for being flip, but one must maintain their sense of humor, particularly when they are feeling a bit angered over something as bizarre as this. Never underestimate the general public, especially when they are convinced they are right! Now ... back to my low-profile, low-key, live-and-let-live life, in my favorite, quiet, happy little town.

George-Anna Lovett
(the REAL one this time!)