December 28, 2018 Coats Museum News
Next week will mark the beginning of 2019 but you the readers of the Coats Museum News will revisit the happenings of a new year-1974 as recorded on the pages of newsprint. It was the year in which Nixon resigned and Gerald Ford became the new president. News reported that Exxon and all of the major oil companies showed sharp rises in the fourth-quarter income from 1973- in the range of 50 to 70 percent. Daylight savings times went into effect year-round in an effort to minimize the effects of the energy crisis.
New fads and trends touched the lives of many and one was the introduction of digital watches which showed their faces everywhere. Rowdyism became a problem at sports events. Drunken baseball fans had caused a forfeit in Cleveland as the drunken fans went onto the field to attack the players. People bought books with nothing in them except blank pages and called the books The Nothing Book.
Words and phrases heard and shared were those such as smoking guns (the metaphor for anything in the White House Watergate scandal. It turned out to be a tape) and expletive deleted (stand-in for obscenities in the White House Watergate tapes). Full, free and absolute (terms of the pardon that President Gerald Ford gave President Nixon) was recorded for all future generations to read from a dark period in our history.
Hank Aaron had hit his 715th home run breaking the forty-seven year-old record of Babe Ruth. Mrs. Martin Luther King, Sr., mother of the Civil Rights leader, was shot and killed in church by an insane gunman. The cost of mailing a first- class letter increased to ten cents. Electricity rates rose a record 30 percent during 1974 and inflation exceeded 10 percent while unemployment climbed 7 percent. NBC paid 10 million dollars for one airing of the movie The Godfather and charged $225,000 a minute to run commercials during the airing. Consumer prices rose 12.2, the largest since 1946 (Dickson, Paul From Elvis to E-Mail. Massachusetts: Federal Street Press 1999, pp.201-210).
Rose Funeral Home had opened a location in Coats. They had served Coats for 68 years from the Benson location (Daily Record Jan. 3, 1974).
Mr. and Mrs. Roscoe Turner had been married for 70 years and they were still crazy about each other was what folks said when they met the couple. The couple had been married since January 6, 1904. Mrs. Turner was the former Nolie Catherine Williams, daughter of William Graymon Williams “Bill Dad” who had lived to be 102 years-old. Turner was the son of Elder Williams G. Turner whose wife had lived to be 101 years-old. Both had vivid memories of life in the early days when travel was by horse and buggy. Their nine children were Mrs. Nora Moss, Marvin Turner, Howard Turner, Lincoln Turner, Mrs. Christine Gibson, Mrs. Alphine Gorman, Mrs. Daphne Cannady, Haywood Turner, and Shirley Massad (Daily Record Jan. 4, 1974). That was 44 years ago. Are any of these children living in 2018? Coats had not been incorporated as a town when the couple married.
This is I do know. Kenneth O’Neal, star athlete in his high school days at Coats High, had taken a full-time job as a Coats policeman. Officer O’Neal, who had married the former Faye Denton of Coats, was the son of Iva O’Neal. He had worked previously for the Wake County Sheriff Department and Raleigh Police Department. Haywood Penny of Coats had accepted the position of Street and Water Superintendent for the town according to Water and Street Commissioner Joe Tart. Penny was a longtime civic leader and was the husband of the former Imogene Pollard and they were parents of Tim and Donna (Daily Record Jan. 18, 1974).
Do you know why people have different colors of eyes, skin and hair? Do you understand why one sibling may have blue eyes and blonde hair while another has blonde hair and brown eyes? Why do people in the Far East have distinctive hair, skin and eye coloring? I had very few students with red hair. I had a beautiful one with dark red hair and the best I can remember she was the only student in her class with hair that color. Her name was Marie and I recall she had the most pleasant disposition. A few years later this 1973 Coats High graduate would have her engagement announced by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. David R. Williams. Emily Marie was to marry Sgt. William D. Hall in February at her home (Daily Record Jan. 18, 1974).
Dr. Moses Jones, a friend of the Coats Museum, presented the museum a book of his research of his family’s genealogy. This genetic authority explained how environment over a long period of time resulted in the changes in the shape of the nose and skin coloration. His book in the museum is amazing reading.
A Coats man was called an “Energy Brain”. The Coats native, Carsie Denning, Sr. was director of the Division of Plant Operations for the NC Department of Instruction. He had been a key figure in the state energy savings. Mr. Denning was a seventeen –year veteran at his job. He had earned his degree at NC State University (Daily Record Jan. 22, 197
Joe Odom of Coats, who played the piano and gave a comedy routine, tied for first prize in the Winter Festival Ceremony held at the Sandhills Community College at Southern Pines (Daily Record Jan. 31, 1974).
Coats has many with musical talent. Don Ennis, a professional sax player, is a lifelong friend and fellow member at Ebenezer Presbyterian Church. Don’s mom, Beulah Barbour Ennis, was a talented pianist who played at Fred Turlington’s Store where locals loved to attend dances. Don’s sister, Jeanine, was an Air Force wife and followed her husband around the globe. She spent time in Colorado where he was on the faculty at the Air Force Academy. She taught voice lessons and was in demand to perform wherever she lived.
Don has played the sax since his high school days and shared with me much information about his connection to Clyde Stone and several other 1950-60 entertainers. Don recalled that Clyde Stone had worked in the Erwin Mills during that period. Clyde had a country-rock radio show in Coats through the WCKB radio station. Clyde had a good friend, Gerald Young, who was a guitarist in the Bill Joe Austin Band that played at the Benson American Legion Dance.
Don remembered that Clyde Stone booked Don’s first band and played bass guitar for the jobs he booked. The band was called The Rhythm Riders and later changed the name to the Trebles. It was formed in 1958. The members of the band were guitarist and vocalist Tommy Taylor, drummer Gerald Byrd (later replaced by Terry Snipes), guitarist Larry Herring (later replaced by Jerry Autry). bass guitarist Runt Suggs (later replaced by Clyde Stone) and, of course, Don played saxophone. The band disbanded in 1961 when Tommy Taylor was drafted into the military.
This band played for the 1960 and 1961 Junior and Senior proms at Coats High. For one and a half years they played at the Clinton American Legion dance, the Benson Mule Days, the Jim Thornton Club, Homer Briarhopper Club, two Robert Morgan Fundraisers and three appearances on the Teenage Frolic in the summer of 1960 with one being a prime time back to school special.
Don graduated from Campbell and has retired from Kraft Food Industries but he has not retired from playing his saxophone. He plays at clubs in Myrtle Beach and is in demand to play in community events, churches and other clubs. Coats has ever right to be proud of Don and the many other talented musicians who had their start at Coats High School. Can anyone share with the museum or me information about other bands made up of Coats folks?
When you think of Boy Scouts, do you usually think of male leadership? In 1974, Mrs. Isobel T. Wolf of Coats had been voted the highest award available to females in the scouting program. She was awarded the Silver Fawn for Distinguished Service to Boyhood. The award was presented at the Occoneechee Council Annual Banquet held at Meredith College in Raleigh (Daily Record Feb. 12, 1974).
A name that most will recognize is Earl Denning. The January 13, 1974 edition of the Daily Record recorded that Pack and Troop 779 led by Cub Master Earl Denning had displayed the handicrafts stressing universal friendships for scouts. The Coats scouts also won a trophy for having the best float for Farmer’s Day Parade.
How many of you took piano lessons? Do you have any of the sheet music from which you practiced? Hilda Williams Pope dropped by the museum to donate sheet music from her childhood when she was taught by Mrs. Gladys Stewart Fuquay. Some of native Coats citizens will recall Gladys was the wife of Dr. Garner Fuquay and will remember that the couple was killed in an accident while visiting relatives across the Cape Fear River. Hilda also gave the museum a 1999 Christmas ornament which was given to charter club members of First Citizens Bank. Who remembers that First Citizens Charter Club?
Jimmy Vaughn became involved with the museum in early 2000 when he agreed to serve with Ruth Cobb Upchurch in locating and identifying older houses in Coats. The two were a joy and the volunteers were so saddened when Jimmy was killed in an automobile accident. His brother, Eddie Vaughan, later came into the life of the Coats Museum as a board member and Sunday tour volunteer. Eddie was a newspaper man and has a love of history that he shares with the museum by donating and loaning items for display along with financial support to operate the museum. This week, he remembered Jimmy’s wife, Betty Vaughan, with a memorial following her death last week. Thank you goes to Eddie and the Vaughan (Vaughn) family for supporting the museum. Yes, there is a story behind why Eddie spells his named differently than his brother Jimmy did.
Next week will mark the beginning of 2019 but you the readers of the Coats Museum News will revisit the happenings of a new year-1974 as recorded on the pages of newsprint. It was the year in which Nixon resigned and Gerald Ford became the new president. News reported that Exxon and all of the major oil companies showed sharp rises in the fourth-quarter income from 1973- in the range of 50 to 70 percent. Daylight savings times went into effect year-round in an effort to minimize the effects of the energy crisis.
New fads and trends touched the lives of many and one was the introduction of digital watches which showed their faces everywhere. Rowdyism became a problem at sports events. Drunken baseball fans had caused a forfeit in Cleveland as the drunken fans went onto the field to attack the players. People bought books with nothing in them except blank pages and called the books The Nothing Book.
Words and phrases heard and shared were those such as smoking guns (the metaphor for anything in the White House Watergate scandal. It turned out to be a tape) and expletive deleted (stand-in for obscenities in the White House Watergate tapes). Full, free and absolute (terms of the pardon that President Gerald Ford gave President Nixon) was recorded for all future generations to read from a dark period in our history.
Hank Aaron had hit his 715th home run breaking the forty-seven year-old record of Babe Ruth. Mrs. Martin Luther King, Sr., mother of the Civil Rights leader, was shot and killed in church by an insane gunman. The cost of mailing a first- class letter increased to ten cents. Electricity rates rose a record 30 percent during 1974 and inflation exceeded 10 percent while unemployment climbed 7 percent. NBC paid 10 million dollars for one airing of the movie The Godfather and charged $225,000 a minute to run commercials during the airing. Consumer prices rose 12.2, the largest since 1946 (Dickson, Paul From Elvis to E-Mail. Massachusetts: Federal Street Press 1999, pp.201-210).
Rose Funeral Home had opened a location in Coats. They had served Coats for 68 years from the Benson location (Daily Record Jan. 3, 1974).
Mr. and Mrs. Roscoe Turner had been married for 70 years and they were still crazy about each other was what folks said when they met the couple. The couple had been married since January 6, 1904. Mrs. Turner was the former Nolie Catherine Williams, daughter of William Graymon Williams “Bill Dad” who had lived to be 102 years-old. Turner was the son of Elder Williams G. Turner whose wife had lived to be 101 years-old. Both had vivid memories of life in the early days when travel was by horse and buggy. Their nine children were Mrs. Nora Moss, Marvin Turner, Howard Turner, Lincoln Turner, Mrs. Christine Gibson, Mrs. Alphine Gorman, Mrs. Daphne Cannady, Haywood Turner, and Shirley Massad (Daily Record Jan. 4, 1974). That was 44 years ago. Are any of these children living in 2018? Coats had not been incorporated as a town when the couple married.
This is I do know. Kenneth O’Neal, star athlete in his high school days at Coats High, had taken a full-time job as a Coats policeman. Officer O’Neal, who had married the former Faye Denton of Coats, was the son of Iva O’Neal. He had worked previously for the Wake County Sheriff Department and Raleigh Police Department. Haywood Penny of Coats had accepted the position of Street and Water Superintendent for the town according to Water and Street Commissioner Joe Tart. Penny was a longtime civic leader and was the husband of the former Imogene Pollard and they were parents of Tim and Donna (Daily Record Jan. 18, 1974).
Do you know why people have different colors of eyes, skin and hair? Do you understand why one sibling may have blue eyes and blonde hair while another has blonde hair and brown eyes? Why do people in the Far East have distinctive hair, skin and eye coloring? I had very few students with red hair. I had a beautiful one with dark red hair and the best I can remember she was the only student in her class with hair that color. Her name was Marie and I recall she had the most pleasant disposition. A few years later this 1973 Coats High graduate would have her engagement announced by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. David R. Williams. Emily Marie was to marry Sgt. William D. Hall in February at her home (Daily Record Jan. 18, 1974).
Dr. Moses Jones, a friend of the Coats Museum, presented the museum a book of his research of his family’s genealogy. This genetic authority explained how environment over a long period of time resulted in the changes in the shape of the nose and skin coloration. His book in the museum is amazing reading.
A Coats man was called an “Energy Brain”. The Coats native, Carsie Denning, Sr. was director of the Division of Plant Operations for the NC Department of Instruction. He had been a key figure in the state energy savings. Mr. Denning was a seventeen –year veteran at his job. He had earned his degree at NC State University (Daily Record Jan. 22, 197
Joe Odom of Coats, who played the piano and gave a comedy routine, tied for first prize in the Winter Festival Ceremony held at the Sandhills Community College at Southern Pines (Daily Record Jan. 31, 1974).
Coats has many with musical talent. Don Ennis, a professional sax player, is a lifelong friend and fellow member at Ebenezer Presbyterian Church. Don’s mom, Beulah Barbour Ennis, was a talented pianist who played at Fred Turlington’s Store where locals loved to attend dances. Don’s sister, Jeanine, was an Air Force wife and followed her husband around the globe. She spent time in Colorado where he was on the faculty at the Air Force Academy. She taught voice lessons and was in demand to perform wherever she lived.
Don has played the sax since his high school days and shared with me much information about his connection to Clyde Stone and several other 1950-60 entertainers. Don recalled that Clyde Stone had worked in the Erwin Mills during that period. Clyde had a country-rock radio show in Coats through the WCKB radio station. Clyde had a good friend, Gerald Young, who was a guitarist in the Bill Joe Austin Band that played at the Benson American Legion Dance.
Don remembered that Clyde Stone booked Don’s first band and played bass guitar for the jobs he booked. The band was called The Rhythm Riders and later changed the name to the Trebles. It was formed in 1958. The members of the band were guitarist and vocalist Tommy Taylor, drummer Gerald Byrd (later replaced by Terry Snipes), guitarist Larry Herring (later replaced by Jerry Autry). bass guitarist Runt Suggs (later replaced by Clyde Stone) and, of course, Don played saxophone. The band disbanded in 1961 when Tommy Taylor was drafted into the military.
This band played for the 1960 and 1961 Junior and Senior proms at Coats High. For one and a half years they played at the Clinton American Legion dance, the Benson Mule Days, the Jim Thornton Club, Homer Briarhopper Club, two Robert Morgan Fundraisers and three appearances on the Teenage Frolic in the summer of 1960 with one being a prime time back to school special.
Don graduated from Campbell and has retired from Kraft Food Industries but he has not retired from playing his saxophone. He plays at clubs in Myrtle Beach and is in demand to play in community events, churches and other clubs. Coats has ever right to be proud of Don and the many other talented musicians who had their start at Coats High School. Can anyone share with the museum or me information about other bands made up of Coats folks?
When you think of Boy Scouts, do you usually think of male leadership? In 1974, Mrs. Isobel T. Wolf of Coats had been voted the highest award available to females in the scouting program. She was awarded the Silver Fawn for Distinguished Service to Boyhood. The award was presented at the Occoneechee Council Annual Banquet held at Meredith College in Raleigh (Daily Record Feb. 12, 1974).
A name that most will recognize is Earl Denning. The January 13, 1974 edition of the Daily Record recorded that Pack and Troop 779 led by Cub Master Earl Denning had displayed the handicrafts stressing universal friendships for scouts. The Coats scouts also won a trophy for having the best float for Farmer’s Day Parade.
How many of you took piano lessons? Do you have any of the sheet music from which you practiced? Hilda Williams Pope dropped by the museum to donate sheet music from her childhood when she was taught by Mrs. Gladys Stewart Fuquay. Some of native Coats citizens will recall Gladys was the wife of Dr. Garner Fuquay and will remember that the couple was killed in an accident while visiting relatives across the Cape Fear River. Hilda also gave the museum a 1999 Christmas ornament which was given to charter club members of First Citizens Bank. Who remembers that First Citizens Charter Club?
Jimmy Vaughn became involved with the museum in early 2000 when he agreed to serve with Ruth Cobb Upchurch in locating and identifying older houses in Coats. The two were a joy and the volunteers were so saddened when Jimmy was killed in an automobile accident. His brother, Eddie Vaughan, later came into the life of the Coats Museum as a board member and Sunday tour volunteer. Eddie was a newspaper man and has a love of history that he shares with the museum by donating and loaning items for display along with financial support to operate the museum. This week, he remembered Jimmy’s wife, Betty Vaughan, with a memorial following her death last week. Thank you goes to Eddie and the Vaughan (Vaughn) family for supporting the museum. Yes, there is a story behind why Eddie spells his named differently than his brother Jimmy did.