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  • February 24, 2023
                                                                                              April 14, 2017 Coats Museum News
The calendar had displayed January 1962 when the Coats Woman’s Club held its regular meeting with Mrs. Ted Malone and Mrs. S.R. Moore as hostesses. The club voted to sponsor a Cub Scouts that was to be organized soon. Mrs. Ann Beasley was a new club member having returned to Coats recently from a three year military stay in Germany with her husband Godfrey.
Elsewhere a cradle shower was given for Mrs. Major Faircloth. Mrs. William Jackson and Mrs. Braston Messer were hostesses. The guests who attended were Mrs. O.F. West, Ruth West, Wilma Messer, Esther McLamb, Goldie Williams, Aldine Williams, Suzie Morgan, Mrs. Wade Campbell, Mrs. Billy Ray Ennis, Mrs. Carlos Stewart, Mrs. Harvey Jernigan, Mrs. Wade Norris, Oneator Norris, Mrs. Eva Moore, Mrs. Gertie Moore, Mrs. Clara Wood, and Mrs. Rosa Jackson. What do we call such showers in 2017?
Was this baby shower before the days of pampers, hand wipes, throw away burp bibs, room monitors and Baby Einstein videos and CD’s?  I do know that Mrs. Vance Hamilton, formerly of Coats, was honored on her birthday with a supper given by Mrs. Dallas Jones.
Lots of social announcements were being recorded in the January 19, 1962 Daily Record. Mr. and Mrs. Robert A.  McLamb had welcomed a daughter on January 18th. The mother was the former Gilda Cox. Michael Allan Wheeler was also born on January 19th. His parents were Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Jackson Wheeler, Jr. Mrs. J.D. Lamm, Mrs. Clayton Stewart, Mrs. C.A. Stewart and Mrs. Lessie Godwin were hostesses to a floating shower for Diane Ralph of Erwin. The event was held at the Coats Community Building and 34 people attended. Joseph A. Lee, Jr. of Coats served as an usher at the wedding of Diane Ralph and Billy Worth Lanier. Do you wonder why Coats ladies would give a shower for an Erwin girl?
The Oakdale HD Club met with Mrs. David Ennis and Mrs. Rena Ennis as hostesses. The Dale 4-H Club met at Arlene’s Beauty Shop. The following heard Bobby Franklin present a program: Wanda Lou Ennis, Jo Upchurch, Sue Johnson, Brenda Norris, Bonnie Norris, Pete Ennis, Sherrill Coats, Danny Norris, Donald Allen, Randy Allen, Janet Norris, Elsie Johnson, Glenda Norris, Daywood Ennis, Phil Ennis, Bruce Barefoot, Ronald Allen, Ricky Allen and Mrs. R.E. Allen.
While these young people were enjoying the experiences that the 4-H Club had to offer, John A. Ennis, Jr., fireman, US Navy and son of Mr. and Mrs. John A. Ennis, was serving aboard the anti-submarine warfare support aircraft carrier USS Essex deployed to Eastern Atlantic waters. They visited posts rarely seen by American navy men such as Southampton, England; Greenock, Scotland; Belfast, Ireland; Rotterdam, Netherlands, and Hamburg, West Germany.
Richard Wright, 8, son of Mr. and Mrs. M.S. Wright (Effie Gunter) had died. The young boy had been in ill health all his life. He was survived by siblings, Grant and Nancy, and his grandparents-Mr. and Mrs. A.K. Gunter and Mr. and Mrs. S.G. Wright (Daily Record Jan. 22, 1962).
Miss Carolyn Faye Foushee’s engagement to Victor Byrd, son of Mr. and Mrs. Lundie Byrd of Coats, was announced by her parents (Daily Record Jan. 20, 1962). Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Wayne Lloyd of Coats announced the birth of a son. The mother was the former Dorothy Godwin (Daily Record Jan. 31, 1962)
What about all these names appearing in the news in the first month of 1962? Did you recognize any of them? If not, do you recognize any of the folks that were named in the obituary of Joseph Hawkins Penny? Mr. Penny was 78 years old when he died in Chapel Hill Hospital. Reverend Howard Beard, Reverend Irvin Stephens, and Elder Sheperd Stephenson held the funeral services at the Coats Baptist Church. He was survived by his wife of over fifty years, Mrs. Louella Lassiter Penny. His children were Mrs. H. Lentis Sorrell, Mrs. Kress Williams, Mrs. Grace Carroll, Mrs. Eloise Jones, T.H. Penny, Joe Penny, Jr., Edwin Penny, Howard Penny, and Haywood Penny.  His siblings were Archie Penny, Victor and Jeff Penny, Mrs. Mary Coats and Mrs. Eli Turlington. Mr. Joe Penny was a retired farmer who had lived in the Coats community for 56 years (Daily Record Feb. 1, 1962).
Another prominent Coats resident, Mr. Zennie Poole, Sr., was a patient in the Veteran’s Hospital in Fayetteville where he had undergone surgery. Does anyone know more about his military experience? I do know that Allie M. Collier of Route 2, Angier, was nominated Outstanding Young Farmer of the Year by the Dunn Junior Chamber of Commerce (Daily Record Feb. 2. 1962).
Several family members of Lacy Langdon traveled to Mobile, Alabama for his wedding to Carol Guin. Mr. and Mrs. Merchant Langdon, Barbara and Clark Langdon, Mr. and Mrs. Leon Barefoot and Mrs. Mabel Barnes made the trip.
Several locals were hospital patients. Mrs. Betty Gregory, Mrs. Florrie Stewart and Timmy Earl Butts were named. Mr. and Mrs. Frank Mabry were new parents on February 6th.The same issue of the paper also wrote that the Coats WMU of Coats Baptist Church met and Mrs. E.T. Malone presided over the meeting attended by the following ladies: Mrs. Earl Ragan, Mrs. Effie Turlington, Mrs. Hazel Barnes, Miss Mattie Bain and Mrs. Thelma Johnson (Daily Record Feb. 6, 1962).
A new baby was in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Linwood Partin. The daughter was born on February 7th and the mother was the former Shirley McLamb (Daily Record Feb. 7, 1962).
Was the first week of the month the choice time to hold meetings for church and clubs? The Ladies Auxiliary of the Hodges Chapel Church met at the home of Mrs. Elbert Tripp. Mrs. Johnnie Miller, Mrs. J.W. Sorrell, Jr., and Mrs. Robert Jernigan assisted (Daily Record Feb.8, 1962).
The news was filled with birth announcements. Mr. and Mrs. Carson Gregory, Jr. were parents of a daughter on February 4th. The mother was the former Betty Sue Holder. Mr. and Mrs. James Felix Day also shared a birth announcement. The mother of the new daughter was the former Rosa Lee Dupree (Daily Record Feb. 13, 1962).
How many of you have old cameras stuck back in a drawer or on a closet shelf? We are often asked why people in pictures of long ago always looked so sour. Some say the look was really caused by the long amount of time it took to take a picture. We had a foreign visitor tell us that in some countries it was considered vulgar for a woman to smile in a picture.  I don’t know about that, but I do know it is absolutely amazing how cameras have changed over time. We had an exhibit of cameras when we first opened the Exhibit Hall in 2013. We had large, small, expensive and cheap ones. We even have a tiny spy camera. Like telephones, they have really changed in capabilities.  Beth Stanley Cole recently donated cameras and accessories that belonged to her grandparents Madeline and Bill Stanley. Thank you Beth for the Polaroid, the Instamatic, the flashbulbs and attachments-This is a wonderful addition to the museum’s collection. 
We also want to thank Mrs. Millie Harmon Wiggins for gifting a bonnet that belonged to her mother, Mrs. Bent Harmon.  Millie’s nephew, Clyde Ennis, Jr. also gave the museum some of his baby clothes. You should visit the museum to see how quickly Lynda Butler was able to work those items into some of our current exhibits. By the way, it was photos of the Harmon homestead that we had enlarged by Benton Card Co. so the pictures could serve as the backdrop of the implements from our past rural DNA.
We had a fun time watching Myrtle Bridges and her daughter, Janet, display some of her Depression glass collection into our newest exhibit. The display is really beyond beautiful. We were excited to have  Lorena and Ralph Denning and his sister Peggie and her husband Billy Pope dropped in in last Thursday to see Myrtle’s  Depression glass exhibit.
How many of you are aware that Peggie and Billy Pope gave the 1914 two room school to a group of Coats citizens to convert it, with much effort and love, into the Coats Museum.  Most visitors cannot believe that the museum was once the old green building down at the bottom of hill across from Coats School. That was a gift from Peggie and Billy that keeps growing.
Speaking of giving, we are so excited to add a new plaque to the exhibit hall donor wall.  It was given by Paul and Peggy Holliday Robinson who have been instrumental in researching and collecting volumes of Black American history from our area and beyond. Hardly a week goes by that the museum does not receive calls or visits by someone seeking help from Peggy or Desi Campbell in researching family genealogies. Thank you Peggy, Paul and Desi for all you do for the museum.
We are so looking forward to visitors from not only Coats but also some from other states in the next few weeks. Dr. Jones will be here on April 16th with a group from Georgia and several southeastern states and Mike Tocci is coming from Sparks, Nevada. We also look forward to the group coming from the Coats Senior Center on April 20th.