December 1, 2017 Coats Museum News
It was a new year-1967. It was the year that race riots struck more than 100 cities and the U.S. and Soviet space programs experienced tragedies. During a ground test at Cape Kennedy, a flash fire inside an Apollo space capsule killed three American astronauts: Virgil Grissom, Edward H. White II and Roger B. Chaffee. Twiggy, the very thin boyish-looking model became the darling of the U.S. fashion world. Singles bars went into full swing across America. Nehru jackets were worn only a few times. Hula-hoops had made a short-lived comeback and in 1967 they were loaded with metal beads that made an odd whirring sound. “The Flying Nun’ was an ABC TV hit. There were 100 million telephones in the U.S. and Americans consumed 12 billion cases of beer in 1967. There were 700,000 welfare clients in New York City. Mickey Mantle hit his 500th career homerun. Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first black US Supreme Court justice. There were 200 million people in the U.S. The world’s first successful heart transplant was performed in Cape Town, South Africa (Dickson, Paul-From Elvis to E-Mail, New York: Federal Street Press, 1999, Springfield, MA. pp. 156-162).
Locally, the Pope Distributing Company had moved its center from the old Cly-Beau Store on Coats Main Street to a new 17,000 square foot building off Crawford Road. The distribution center supplied merchandise to the Pope’s chain of 5-10-25 Cent stores of which William “Bill” Pope was president (Daily Record Jan. 3, 1967).
The Department of Defense had called for the Draft of 11,900 for the army in March 1967--1,000 more than the February quota. Jack Ruby’s body was returned to Chicago after he had died of a blood clot due to complications of cancer. Ruby was the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President John F. Kennedy.
In Dunn, the ground was broken on Thursday for the construction of a $2,230,054.00 hospital to be built in Dunn. In Coats, Joe Taylor had been designated as manager of Terre Hill Mfg Co. as of February 6, 1967. One of the 43 projects of the State Highway Commission was for 0.159 miles of grading, bituminous concrete binder and surface, and curb and gutters on NC 55 in Coats from a point 1450’ north of the south city limits, northerly to a point 2470’ south of the northern city limits (Daily Record Jan. 5, 1967).
Mrs. Leanor “Lena” Stephenson of Route 1, Angier, had died on Thursday. Her funeral services were held at Bethel PB Church and cemetery. She was survived by Marvin, Milliard, Wilbur, Lenzie and Levander Stephenson. Mrs. Mollie Jones was her sister. She had been a member of Bethel for forty years (Daily Record Jan. 6, 1967).
Another death announcement was recorded in the local Daily Record. It was for Worth Bagley Stewart, 68, of Akron, Ohio and formerly of Coats. Worth was the son of the late Claud D. Stewart and Julia Bailey Stewart. Mr. Stewart was buried in the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church Cemetery following his services there. He was survived by brothers-Guy, Latta, Alfred, Victor, Herbert and sister, Callie Brown (Daily Record Jan. 9, 1967)
A great amount of trivia can be written for that family. For examples-which one of those brothers owned the Ford and later Chrysler car dealership in Coats? Which other one of them worked there? Why was Mr. Worth buried in the Ebenezer cemetery? At what schools did Mr. Worth’s father Claud D. Stewart teach and which one did he serve as principal? What crossroads was named after Mr. Stewart’s mother?
This I do know. If someone wished to prepare food for the Stewart family, the IGA had some good prices. Four long loaves of bread were one dollar for all four. One pound can of coffee was 59 cents and IGA cake mix was 29 cents a box (Daily Record Jan. 11, 1967). Question-could this be purchased at the IGA in Coats?
Old man death seemed content to hang around Coats in January. Nassie Barnes, 78, expired on Thursday. His funeral services were held at Bethel Church and burial was in the Barnes Cemetery. He was survived by his wife, Evelyn M. Barnes; five daughters-Mrs. Roscoe Parrish, Mrs. Tom Wilmoth, Mrs. Paul Clayton, Mrs. Tyson Cobb, and Mrs. John Ingram. Mrs. Kay Johnson was a foster daughter. Dennis and Wallace Barnes were his sons. Elmond and Carvis were his brothers while Mrs. Kittie Godwin and Mrs. Mabel Langdon were his sisters (Daily Record Jan. 16, 1967).
The Chase Manhattan Bank announced that it would lower its prime interest rate to 5.5 from 6% (Daily Record Jan. 26, 1967). Wonder why?
Picketing of the Erwin Mills by the Textile Workers Union of America was in the fourth day of its strike (Daily Record Jan. 30, 1967).
Rebecca June Honeycutt, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James R. Honeycutt, was engaged to marry Sergeant Kenneth Dewitt Cohen, USMC. Becky was a 1964 graduate of ECC and was employed by the United Delegation to NATO, Paris, France (Daily Record Feb. 7, 1967). Many of you will know Becky Honeycutt from her graduating from Coats High in 1960 where she was an outstanding student and basketball player.
The groundbreaking of the Terre Hill Mfg. Co. was to be held on Feb. 14th. The woman’s lingerie company was to employ about 175 workers (Daily Record Feb. 13, 1967). Do you agree that is a good size plant for a small town? Did the number of employees grow at a later date?
Susan D. Johnson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Glenn W. Johnson, was to marry Wilson Ray Lewis, son of Mr. and Mrs. Hassell Lewis, on March 19 at Sansom Presbyterian Church (Daily Record Feb. 13, 1967).
Two more area citizens had died. James Henry Norris of Route 4, Dunn had died on Tuesday. He was father of Lathan Norris (Daily Record Feb. 15, 1966).
Miss Florence Stanton, of Route 1, Coats, had died on Tuesday at the home of Rev. R.O. Byrd (Daily Record Feb. 20, 1967).
Private James E. Tart, son of Mrs. Ruth Tart and husband of Susan Tart, had completed a supply specialist course at the Army Quartermaster School, Fort Lee, VA (Daily Record Feb. 20, 1967).
Miss Carol Yvonne Stanley of Route 3, Dunn and daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Earl Stanley, was engaged to William Loran Little of Fort Bragg. Miss Stanley was a 1960 graduate of Coats High and of Watts Hospital School of Nursing (Daily Record Feb. 20, 1967).
The Dean’s List from Campbell College had recognized five students from Coats- Sondra Lynn Ennis, Elmer T. Malone, Larry Phil Rose, Sue Ellen Turlington, and Larue Doan Coats (Daily Record, Feb. 20, 1967).
Eastwood W. Gregory, 28, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ira Gregory of Coats, had been appointed the rank of Warrant Officer (WO I) while he was serving with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. His wife Dixie was a 1955 Coats High graduate (Daily Record Feb. 21, 1967).
A group of Coats men who had been very involved in community and beyond were members of the Coats Council No. 417 Order of U.A.M. They had visited with Four Oaks Council No. 337. The members were J.D. Norris, Owen Bennett, Mack Parrish, James T. Allen, Jack Stewart, Stedman Ray, Garland Johnson, Graham Byrd, Jesse Parker, and Linwood Pleasant (Daily Record Feb. 23, 1967).
Once again several families in Coats were confronted with the pain of losing a dear one. The family of Robert Allen, 22, Airman 2-C of Ohio, was killed after being hit by a car. Mrs. Lunar Allen of Coats was his grandmother (Daily Record Feb. 23, 1967).
The second family touched with death was that of Mrs. Alice Strickland Taylor, 60, of Route 1, Coats. She had died on Wednesday. Mrs. Taylor was the wife of Robert L. Taylor and mother of two daughters-Miss Christine Taylor and Mrs. Maxine Wilbourne (Daily Record Feb. 27, 1967).
The Erwin Mills employees went back to work after a 31-day strike (Daily Record Feb. 23, 1967).
Most of the N.C. counties had active clubs of East Carolina College students to serve as personal messengers between campus and hometowns. In Harnett County, Brent Adams, son of Mr. and Mrs. Hoover Adams, was chairman and Charles Malone, son of Mrs. Ted Malone, was vice chairman. Sandra Flowers, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher Flowers, was secretary (Daily Record Mar. 3, 1967).
Have you ever served as a juror on a criminal case? Possibly Bobby Wayne Pope, John Donald Pleasant or Julius Pleasant had their chance for the Mar. 13, 1967 Criminal Court (Daily Record Mar. 3, 1967).
The US troops had suffered their heaviest casualties of the war in Vietnam in the first week of March when 1,617 were killed, wounded or missing (Daily Record Mar. 9, 1967).
Dr. Charles and Mrs. Ennis of Clayton came by and donated a couple of his books and talked a bit about his Ennis genealogy. Being that Becky Ennis Adams has been working on Ennis genealogy for decades; it was no problem for her to pull just the right notebooks in the Research Library to share with Dr. Ennis. A special thank you goes to this couple for the books and the generous donation they gave to the museum.
Another thank you goes to Tom and Barbara Todaro from Willow Spring who brought his brother Bob and sister-in-law Carol from New York to tour the museum and present the volunteers with two DVD’s containing color and black and white photos he had taken in 2012 of the old Coats High School.
Robie Barefoot of Fuquay came by to inquire about the old Stephens Hardware store on Main Street Coats. From our businesses notebooks, the volunteers concluded that Stephens closed its Coats doors around 1978-79. Mr. Barefoot had a tool apron with the Stephens logo that he plans to place in the Fuquay Museum.
Another Coats Museum Endowment memorial has been given for Grace S. Penny by one of our generous board members. Thank you, Ralph and Lorena Denning, for your continued support of the Coats Museum.
It was a new year-1967. It was the year that race riots struck more than 100 cities and the U.S. and Soviet space programs experienced tragedies. During a ground test at Cape Kennedy, a flash fire inside an Apollo space capsule killed three American astronauts: Virgil Grissom, Edward H. White II and Roger B. Chaffee. Twiggy, the very thin boyish-looking model became the darling of the U.S. fashion world. Singles bars went into full swing across America. Nehru jackets were worn only a few times. Hula-hoops had made a short-lived comeback and in 1967 they were loaded with metal beads that made an odd whirring sound. “The Flying Nun’ was an ABC TV hit. There were 100 million telephones in the U.S. and Americans consumed 12 billion cases of beer in 1967. There were 700,000 welfare clients in New York City. Mickey Mantle hit his 500th career homerun. Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first black US Supreme Court justice. There were 200 million people in the U.S. The world’s first successful heart transplant was performed in Cape Town, South Africa (Dickson, Paul-From Elvis to E-Mail, New York: Federal Street Press, 1999, Springfield, MA. pp. 156-162).
Locally, the Pope Distributing Company had moved its center from the old Cly-Beau Store on Coats Main Street to a new 17,000 square foot building off Crawford Road. The distribution center supplied merchandise to the Pope’s chain of 5-10-25 Cent stores of which William “Bill” Pope was president (Daily Record Jan. 3, 1967).
The Department of Defense had called for the Draft of 11,900 for the army in March 1967--1,000 more than the February quota. Jack Ruby’s body was returned to Chicago after he had died of a blood clot due to complications of cancer. Ruby was the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President John F. Kennedy.
In Dunn, the ground was broken on Thursday for the construction of a $2,230,054.00 hospital to be built in Dunn. In Coats, Joe Taylor had been designated as manager of Terre Hill Mfg Co. as of February 6, 1967. One of the 43 projects of the State Highway Commission was for 0.159 miles of grading, bituminous concrete binder and surface, and curb and gutters on NC 55 in Coats from a point 1450’ north of the south city limits, northerly to a point 2470’ south of the northern city limits (Daily Record Jan. 5, 1967).
Mrs. Leanor “Lena” Stephenson of Route 1, Angier, had died on Thursday. Her funeral services were held at Bethel PB Church and cemetery. She was survived by Marvin, Milliard, Wilbur, Lenzie and Levander Stephenson. Mrs. Mollie Jones was her sister. She had been a member of Bethel for forty years (Daily Record Jan. 6, 1967).
Another death announcement was recorded in the local Daily Record. It was for Worth Bagley Stewart, 68, of Akron, Ohio and formerly of Coats. Worth was the son of the late Claud D. Stewart and Julia Bailey Stewart. Mr. Stewart was buried in the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church Cemetery following his services there. He was survived by brothers-Guy, Latta, Alfred, Victor, Herbert and sister, Callie Brown (Daily Record Jan. 9, 1967)
A great amount of trivia can be written for that family. For examples-which one of those brothers owned the Ford and later Chrysler car dealership in Coats? Which other one of them worked there? Why was Mr. Worth buried in the Ebenezer cemetery? At what schools did Mr. Worth’s father Claud D. Stewart teach and which one did he serve as principal? What crossroads was named after Mr. Stewart’s mother?
This I do know. If someone wished to prepare food for the Stewart family, the IGA had some good prices. Four long loaves of bread were one dollar for all four. One pound can of coffee was 59 cents and IGA cake mix was 29 cents a box (Daily Record Jan. 11, 1967). Question-could this be purchased at the IGA in Coats?
Old man death seemed content to hang around Coats in January. Nassie Barnes, 78, expired on Thursday. His funeral services were held at Bethel Church and burial was in the Barnes Cemetery. He was survived by his wife, Evelyn M. Barnes; five daughters-Mrs. Roscoe Parrish, Mrs. Tom Wilmoth, Mrs. Paul Clayton, Mrs. Tyson Cobb, and Mrs. John Ingram. Mrs. Kay Johnson was a foster daughter. Dennis and Wallace Barnes were his sons. Elmond and Carvis were his brothers while Mrs. Kittie Godwin and Mrs. Mabel Langdon were his sisters (Daily Record Jan. 16, 1967).
The Chase Manhattan Bank announced that it would lower its prime interest rate to 5.5 from 6% (Daily Record Jan. 26, 1967). Wonder why?
Picketing of the Erwin Mills by the Textile Workers Union of America was in the fourth day of its strike (Daily Record Jan. 30, 1967).
Rebecca June Honeycutt, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James R. Honeycutt, was engaged to marry Sergeant Kenneth Dewitt Cohen, USMC. Becky was a 1964 graduate of ECC and was employed by the United Delegation to NATO, Paris, France (Daily Record Feb. 7, 1967). Many of you will know Becky Honeycutt from her graduating from Coats High in 1960 where she was an outstanding student and basketball player.
The groundbreaking of the Terre Hill Mfg. Co. was to be held on Feb. 14th. The woman’s lingerie company was to employ about 175 workers (Daily Record Feb. 13, 1967). Do you agree that is a good size plant for a small town? Did the number of employees grow at a later date?
Susan D. Johnson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Glenn W. Johnson, was to marry Wilson Ray Lewis, son of Mr. and Mrs. Hassell Lewis, on March 19 at Sansom Presbyterian Church (Daily Record Feb. 13, 1967).
Two more area citizens had died. James Henry Norris of Route 4, Dunn had died on Tuesday. He was father of Lathan Norris (Daily Record Feb. 15, 1966).
Miss Florence Stanton, of Route 1, Coats, had died on Tuesday at the home of Rev. R.O. Byrd (Daily Record Feb. 20, 1967).
Private James E. Tart, son of Mrs. Ruth Tart and husband of Susan Tart, had completed a supply specialist course at the Army Quartermaster School, Fort Lee, VA (Daily Record Feb. 20, 1967).
Miss Carol Yvonne Stanley of Route 3, Dunn and daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Earl Stanley, was engaged to William Loran Little of Fort Bragg. Miss Stanley was a 1960 graduate of Coats High and of Watts Hospital School of Nursing (Daily Record Feb. 20, 1967).
The Dean’s List from Campbell College had recognized five students from Coats- Sondra Lynn Ennis, Elmer T. Malone, Larry Phil Rose, Sue Ellen Turlington, and Larue Doan Coats (Daily Record, Feb. 20, 1967).
Eastwood W. Gregory, 28, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ira Gregory of Coats, had been appointed the rank of Warrant Officer (WO I) while he was serving with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. His wife Dixie was a 1955 Coats High graduate (Daily Record Feb. 21, 1967).
A group of Coats men who had been very involved in community and beyond were members of the Coats Council No. 417 Order of U.A.M. They had visited with Four Oaks Council No. 337. The members were J.D. Norris, Owen Bennett, Mack Parrish, James T. Allen, Jack Stewart, Stedman Ray, Garland Johnson, Graham Byrd, Jesse Parker, and Linwood Pleasant (Daily Record Feb. 23, 1967).
Once again several families in Coats were confronted with the pain of losing a dear one. The family of Robert Allen, 22, Airman 2-C of Ohio, was killed after being hit by a car. Mrs. Lunar Allen of Coats was his grandmother (Daily Record Feb. 23, 1967).
The second family touched with death was that of Mrs. Alice Strickland Taylor, 60, of Route 1, Coats. She had died on Wednesday. Mrs. Taylor was the wife of Robert L. Taylor and mother of two daughters-Miss Christine Taylor and Mrs. Maxine Wilbourne (Daily Record Feb. 27, 1967).
The Erwin Mills employees went back to work after a 31-day strike (Daily Record Feb. 23, 1967).
Most of the N.C. counties had active clubs of East Carolina College students to serve as personal messengers between campus and hometowns. In Harnett County, Brent Adams, son of Mr. and Mrs. Hoover Adams, was chairman and Charles Malone, son of Mrs. Ted Malone, was vice chairman. Sandra Flowers, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher Flowers, was secretary (Daily Record Mar. 3, 1967).
Have you ever served as a juror on a criminal case? Possibly Bobby Wayne Pope, John Donald Pleasant or Julius Pleasant had their chance for the Mar. 13, 1967 Criminal Court (Daily Record Mar. 3, 1967).
The US troops had suffered their heaviest casualties of the war in Vietnam in the first week of March when 1,617 were killed, wounded or missing (Daily Record Mar. 9, 1967).
Dr. Charles and Mrs. Ennis of Clayton came by and donated a couple of his books and talked a bit about his Ennis genealogy. Being that Becky Ennis Adams has been working on Ennis genealogy for decades; it was no problem for her to pull just the right notebooks in the Research Library to share with Dr. Ennis. A special thank you goes to this couple for the books and the generous donation they gave to the museum.
Another thank you goes to Tom and Barbara Todaro from Willow Spring who brought his brother Bob and sister-in-law Carol from New York to tour the museum and present the volunteers with two DVD’s containing color and black and white photos he had taken in 2012 of the old Coats High School.
Robie Barefoot of Fuquay came by to inquire about the old Stephens Hardware store on Main Street Coats. From our businesses notebooks, the volunteers concluded that Stephens closed its Coats doors around 1978-79. Mr. Barefoot had a tool apron with the Stephens logo that he plans to place in the Fuquay Museum.
Another Coats Museum Endowment memorial has been given for Grace S. Penny by one of our generous board members. Thank you, Ralph and Lorena Denning, for your continued support of the Coats Museum.