April 10, 2015 Coats Museum News

It was March of 1952 and baseball was on the mind of many high school students. The Coats Yellow Jacket boys had defeated the Buies Creek team by 12 to 1. Russell Lamm had pitched three hit balls for six innings, and Billy Whittington blanked the visitors in the final frame. Gail Pope got 4 hits in 5 at bat. Rex Godwin slammed 2 for 3, and Hoover Johnson 2 for 4.

PFC. Robert G. Stewart, 175th Fighter and Interception Squadron, Rapid City AFB, Weaver, S.D., was home for a month with his family. He was son of Mr. Bob Stewart. Another young man from Coats, Fred Ennis, was home from Fort Knox to see his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Joel Ennis. While these young men were in town, some folks were leaving town. Mrs. Haywood Roberts, Jack Brock and Clifton had attended the funeral of their Uncle H.V. Moulton in Norfolk, VA.

Mrs. W.R. Langdon had headed up the “Letter Friends” where N.C. ladies in HD Clubs corresponded with foreign women. Surely another HD member of Banner HD Club, Mrs. Mamie Johnson, was sharing with her friends that her pretty daughter, Doris Johnson, was doing just fine at Woman’s College in Greensboro, NC where Doris had earned her name being placed on the honor roll (Daily Record April 1, 1952).

Master Don Stewart, young son of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Stewart, celebrated his sixth birthday with friends: Carolyn and Murray Phillips, Sharon Dorman, Peggy Pollard, Teddy and Johnny Malone, Ken Stewart, Faye Byrd, Jeanette Stewart and Gregg Ennis.  Elsewhere, Kitty Willis and Mrs. W.C. Norris were improving in their health.

Am I alone in remembering the entertainment that was brought into the public schools for the enjoyment of the entire school population? At many of those events, students were called to come to the stage to be a part of the entertainment. Were you ever one of those called to come out of the audience and onto the stage? In 1952, the Sanderson Acrobatic Team gave a great performance for the Coats students. Can you recall the faces of any of these young students that were asked to perform with the Sanderson Acrobats--Rudolph Miller, W.M. Allen, Lundy Denning, J.B. Jernigan, Dorsey Daniel, and Ralph Denning were selected to perform on the trampoline? Were no girls called to the stage? Did girls wear jeans or slacks to school in 1952?

Mr. Joe Veasey’s 10th grade English class presented a chapel program titled the “The Last Laugh”. Bobby Smith played Ted; Joe by T.J. Barnes; Lela -Dorothy Stewart; Peggy – Allie Mae Barnes; Willie-Victor Byrd; Ma-Helen Sears; announcer-Donald Blalock, and Gloria Wilmoth gave a devotional.

Some girl students were involved in a baseball game with Angier in which Lela Ruth Cobb did most of the pitching. Josephine Johnson replaced her in the last inning. Josephine had 5 runs and Lela Ruth made 4. The score was 29-9 (Daily Record April 7, 1952). Was it baseball or softball that the girls played?

The next issue of the Daily Record printed that jurors were summoned for the Grand Jury for May. Graham Byrd, C.E. Allen, Hubert Williams, Erwin Holder, and Nelson Ennis had that duty. Mt. Pisgah Negro School had consolidated with four other black schools into the new Erwin School that was yet to be named. The Mt. Pisgah School was to be sold on the following Monday when it burned. The two acres of land were bought by A.R. Royal of Erwin for $600.00.  Elsewhere, Mrs. Delmer Ennis of Route One, Coats was elected vice president of the Harnett County HD County Council at the 10th District meeting (Daily Record April 8, 1952).

Did you ever go the Linden High School? In 1952, the boys of the Coats baseball team were defeated by the Linden team by 11-7. Holmes, Mason and Turlington were great hitters and Lamm and Whittington pitched for Coats (Daily Record April 11, 1952). The paper did not list the players’ first names which is almost as sad as not having the names of individuals on the back of old photos that are brought into the museum.

Mr. and Mrs. P.D. Glover and children, Peggy and Judy, Mr. and Mrs. W.M. Allen and Bobby and Kenneth and Mr. and Mrs. A.F. Turlington had attended the Orton Gardens over the weekend. Was there an Azalea Festival in Wilmington in 1952? I do know that the paper printed that there was to be on Friday evening a BBQ pork and chicken supper to help pay for the seats in the gymnasium (Daily Record April 17, 1952).

For those of you who have been reading the museum news since 2009, do you remember that the Coats School community has had to raise money to complete building projects at the school before? The Coats Community Woman’s Club raised money in 1921 for the lights in the first brick building and for auditorium seats in that same 1920 brick school. Did they ever have to raise money to pay for sports uniforms and an activity bus? I do know that there is a plaque which listed the names of some of the people who gave money to help pay for the bleachers.

Who remembers Edwin Stewart? He was an outstanding student from Coats when there were County Field Days in which graded competitions between the schools in the county in academics and various relay games. This time Edwin made the news for doing a convincing job in the play “Claudia” given at the Little Theater in Dunn.

For over a year the volunteers have been preparing for an event at the museum to showcase our local veterans’ military memorabilia from the Korea through Afghanistan wars. The collection on display is quite impressive. We are planning to have an open house in November for the public to say thank you to the veterans that served in the military in that time frame. We are now attempting to compile the names and military information about men and woman veterans who were in service from 1950 to present day. The information such as where and when you enlisted, the branch of service, rank, stationed at, combat duty, citations and awards, and interesting facts or stories.

 We had also asked for military stories so the museum can publish them in a book entitled Defenders of the Red, White and Blue. This book will contain stories from veterans of all wars even those shared from generation to generation. For the story to be in the book, we must have the veterans do their part in writing it and getting it to the volunteers at the museum.

We have also had many veterans come by the museum to share their stories via a camera interview with Lynda Butler or Ted Penny. We began the military collections in 2001 and sadly, most of the videoed veterans of WWII and the Korean era are now deceased. This is a must do if you are a veteran of military service; so if you are camera shy, write your story for the book.

This week we appreciate Carolyn Norris Wagner for giving a wonderful collection of old photographs believed to be in the Norris family. Does the name George Norris ring a bell with anyone? A big thank you also goes to Robie and Lynda Butler for cleaning and painting our fountain and benches. Thank Patsy Avery and Sandy Howard for a great choice of paint colors. H.L. Sorrell and Lynda Butler gave the shrubbery a good spring clipping. It takes much sweat and hours of volunteering to keep the museum operating and looking loved.

 Friends of Becky Adams continue to honor her husband, Dennis Adams, with memorials to the Coats Museum. We really appreciate the following who have given this past week: Jess and Michelle Alphin, Linda Kimbrough and Sandra C. Byrd. We also thank H.L. for remembering Jerry Tyndall with a donation to the Coats Museum Endowment which will help maintain the museum in future years if needed.