February 10, 2023 Coats Museum News
There was a time when the Primitive Baptist Churches were the most attended in the Coats Community. In fact, Preacher Tom Coats, the town’s namesake, built a Primitive Baptist Church in Coats and gifted it to the Coats community and appropriately named it Gift.
Another Primitive Baptist Church in the area is Bethel which has one of the largest church cemeteries in the Coats-Barclaysville area. It has a board of directors who continue to keep the church and cemetery in excellent condition. It was in this cemetery that Esther A. Cobb, 94, of Coats was buried. She had died on Friday and her services were held at the Rose and Graham Funeral Home Chapel. Rev. R.O. Byrd and Rev. Jesse Mooney officiated with her burial in the Bethel PB Church Cemetery. Her survivors were Clara Barbour, Lila Adams, Ruth Upchurch, and Algie Cobb (Daily Record Mar. 30, 1992).
Can you only imagine the changes that Mrs. Esther Cobb and Mrs. Laylon Turington witnessed during their long lives in the Coats community? Think about it. Both ladies lived before the Wright Brothers’ flight and both saw the results of the NASA program.
Both ladies knew what it was like to wash clothes in a washtub and line dry them but lived long enough to see clothes washed and dried automatically inside their houses. They lived from a time when not one sprig of grass grew in the yard to the time when grass seeds were sewn, fertilized and mowed with odd looking cutting machines that were operated by professional lawn care people.
They lived from the time that one went to the bathroom in the outhouse and cooked inside to the time that patios and gazebos were built to eat on the outside and bathrooms were built to be used on the inside. They could recall the days of transportation on a surry to the travel on an SUV; days of a bicycle to the days of a Harley; days of cooking a 15 pound turkey in several hours to cooking one in an hour in a turkey fryer.
If you could have asked them what changes have shocked them most, what do you think their answer might have been? Do you think it would be the types of clothes worn or not worn by people or the ink art injected into the flesh to make tattoos?
I do know that another birthday was celebrated in Coats. Mrs. Eula P. Byrd of Coats celebrated her 90th at the Coats Sr. Center. She was the widow of the late Willie Byrd and the daughter of the late William Graymon “Bill Dad” Williams. She was one of 13 children and had one sister, Evie Ennis, still living who was older than she and one brother, Hester Williams, a little bit younger. She was looking forward to being 91. After all, her father Bill Dad lived to be 102 years old (Daily Record Mar. 26, 1992).
The Grove area lost another resident on Friday, March 20th. Phyllis Cooper, 60, had services held at the Red Hill PFWB Church with Revs. Billy Smith and Rossie Blackmon officiating. Burial was in the Ennis Cemetery. Her mother, Ethel Cooper and three siblings – Thomas Cooper, Barbara Allen and Betty Hudson- survived her (Daily Record Mar. 30, 1992).
On the other side of Coats another death was shared to the community. Curtis Barbour, 61, of Route 3, Dunn, had expired on Wednesday morning. In the same edition of the Daily Record it was printed that Coats had lost one of its pioneer citizens. Mrs. Evie Williams Ennis, 96, had died on Tuesday. Surviving her were Eleanor Barnes, Lucille, Athleen and Jackie, all of Smithfield. Her surviving siblings were Hester Williams and Eula Byrd, both of Coats (Daily Record Apr. 1, 1992).
Johnson and Norris Real Estate in Coats, owned by Herbert Johnson and J.D. Norris, was formed in 1951 and in 1992 it was picked as Business Focus of the Week by the CACC (Daily Record Apr. 1, 1992).What a difference those two businessmen made.
A softball game between the Yellow Jackets and Dunn Middle School proved victorious for the Jackets by a score of 5-4 (Daily Record Apr. 2, 1992).
The “Notes” disclosed that the daughter of Lane and Teresa Gregory was the first girl born in the Gregory family in a generation. Mary Elizabeth Gregory was named for her Aunt Mary Gregory Stevens, the last girl born in the Gregory family. Mary Elizabeth had an 18 month older brother Adam Gregory who in 2023 is an attorney with offices near the Lane’s Seafood and Steakhouse in Johnston County off Stephenson Road. However that was not the only good news that was shared with the public. Lane had received his PhD in Occupational Education from NCSU (Daily Record Apr. 2, 1992).
Wonder how old Adam Gregory was when he earned his pilot’s license? This I do know. Thessie Daniel and her daughter Lynda Daniel and granddaughter Joyce Johnson had visited Hawaii and while there they had gone snorkeling, surfing and mountain climbing (Daily Record Apr. 2, 1992). Did that “they” include Miss Thessie?
Coats citizens of all ages turned out to plant Bradford pears along N.C. 55 as the first phase in the beautification project sponsored by the Coats Area Chamber of Commerce. The second phase would include trees on NC 27. The third phase was to be the downtown area. The trees were purchased from contributions from chamber members, private citizens and the town board (Daily Record Apr. 7, 1992).
Another death had occurred in Coats on Tuesday. Thomas Edison Hughes, 64, had died on Tuesday. His funeral services were held at the Rose and Graham Funeral Chapel with Rev. Sexton Vann officiating. Burial was in the Red Hill PFWB Church. His survivors were his widow-Pearl Griffin Hughes and children-Stanley, Kraig, James and Evelyn Moore. His siblings were Erving, Emery, Lyda (?) Byrd, Ila Mae Byrd, Edna, Betty, and Ruby (Daily Record Apr. 8, 1992).
The Coats Lion Club planned to sponsor the Franzen Brothers Circus at the Coats Junior Order Fairgrounds while the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church began Holy Week with the observance of Maundy Thursday. Rev. Warren Bock was the church minister (Daily Record Apr. 10, 1992).
Time seems to pass faster and faster the older we get. It seems just yesterday that Rev. Warren Bock was so involved in the Coats community working with the elderly. He died on February 3, 2019 but our love for him remains. I am sorry that I did not tell him how much we appreciated him.
When death takes a loved one before you are prepared to give them up, it takes the reaching out of friends to make the transition bearable. H.L would be in tears by the number of people who have reacted to his death. The sharing of memories of how they knew him was expressed in almost every sympathy card that our family has received. Many of his friends knew that the museum was the last big project he headed up and donations continue to come to support the museum.
The family and the museum volunteers wish to thank Joe and Lalia Turlington, John and Marsha Comeau, Keith and Linda Sorrell, Susan Stewart and Bob and Faye Etheridge and the North Carolina Community Foundation. Your support is so appreciated.
There was a time when the Primitive Baptist Churches were the most attended in the Coats Community. In fact, Preacher Tom Coats, the town’s namesake, built a Primitive Baptist Church in Coats and gifted it to the Coats community and appropriately named it Gift.
Another Primitive Baptist Church in the area is Bethel which has one of the largest church cemeteries in the Coats-Barclaysville area. It has a board of directors who continue to keep the church and cemetery in excellent condition. It was in this cemetery that Esther A. Cobb, 94, of Coats was buried. She had died on Friday and her services were held at the Rose and Graham Funeral Home Chapel. Rev. R.O. Byrd and Rev. Jesse Mooney officiated with her burial in the Bethel PB Church Cemetery. Her survivors were Clara Barbour, Lila Adams, Ruth Upchurch, and Algie Cobb (Daily Record Mar. 30, 1992).
Can you only imagine the changes that Mrs. Esther Cobb and Mrs. Laylon Turington witnessed during their long lives in the Coats community? Think about it. Both ladies lived before the Wright Brothers’ flight and both saw the results of the NASA program.
Both ladies knew what it was like to wash clothes in a washtub and line dry them but lived long enough to see clothes washed and dried automatically inside their houses. They lived from a time when not one sprig of grass grew in the yard to the time when grass seeds were sewn, fertilized and mowed with odd looking cutting machines that were operated by professional lawn care people.
They lived from the time that one went to the bathroom in the outhouse and cooked inside to the time that patios and gazebos were built to eat on the outside and bathrooms were built to be used on the inside. They could recall the days of transportation on a surry to the travel on an SUV; days of a bicycle to the days of a Harley; days of cooking a 15 pound turkey in several hours to cooking one in an hour in a turkey fryer.
If you could have asked them what changes have shocked them most, what do you think their answer might have been? Do you think it would be the types of clothes worn or not worn by people or the ink art injected into the flesh to make tattoos?
I do know that another birthday was celebrated in Coats. Mrs. Eula P. Byrd of Coats celebrated her 90th at the Coats Sr. Center. She was the widow of the late Willie Byrd and the daughter of the late William Graymon “Bill Dad” Williams. She was one of 13 children and had one sister, Evie Ennis, still living who was older than she and one brother, Hester Williams, a little bit younger. She was looking forward to being 91. After all, her father Bill Dad lived to be 102 years old (Daily Record Mar. 26, 1992).
The Grove area lost another resident on Friday, March 20th. Phyllis Cooper, 60, had services held at the Red Hill PFWB Church with Revs. Billy Smith and Rossie Blackmon officiating. Burial was in the Ennis Cemetery. Her mother, Ethel Cooper and three siblings – Thomas Cooper, Barbara Allen and Betty Hudson- survived her (Daily Record Mar. 30, 1992).
On the other side of Coats another death was shared to the community. Curtis Barbour, 61, of Route 3, Dunn, had expired on Wednesday morning. In the same edition of the Daily Record it was printed that Coats had lost one of its pioneer citizens. Mrs. Evie Williams Ennis, 96, had died on Tuesday. Surviving her were Eleanor Barnes, Lucille, Athleen and Jackie, all of Smithfield. Her surviving siblings were Hester Williams and Eula Byrd, both of Coats (Daily Record Apr. 1, 1992).
Johnson and Norris Real Estate in Coats, owned by Herbert Johnson and J.D. Norris, was formed in 1951 and in 1992 it was picked as Business Focus of the Week by the CACC (Daily Record Apr. 1, 1992).What a difference those two businessmen made.
A softball game between the Yellow Jackets and Dunn Middle School proved victorious for the Jackets by a score of 5-4 (Daily Record Apr. 2, 1992).
The “Notes” disclosed that the daughter of Lane and Teresa Gregory was the first girl born in the Gregory family in a generation. Mary Elizabeth Gregory was named for her Aunt Mary Gregory Stevens, the last girl born in the Gregory family. Mary Elizabeth had an 18 month older brother Adam Gregory who in 2023 is an attorney with offices near the Lane’s Seafood and Steakhouse in Johnston County off Stephenson Road. However that was not the only good news that was shared with the public. Lane had received his PhD in Occupational Education from NCSU (Daily Record Apr. 2, 1992).
Wonder how old Adam Gregory was when he earned his pilot’s license? This I do know. Thessie Daniel and her daughter Lynda Daniel and granddaughter Joyce Johnson had visited Hawaii and while there they had gone snorkeling, surfing and mountain climbing (Daily Record Apr. 2, 1992). Did that “they” include Miss Thessie?
Coats citizens of all ages turned out to plant Bradford pears along N.C. 55 as the first phase in the beautification project sponsored by the Coats Area Chamber of Commerce. The second phase would include trees on NC 27. The third phase was to be the downtown area. The trees were purchased from contributions from chamber members, private citizens and the town board (Daily Record Apr. 7, 1992).
Another death had occurred in Coats on Tuesday. Thomas Edison Hughes, 64, had died on Tuesday. His funeral services were held at the Rose and Graham Funeral Chapel with Rev. Sexton Vann officiating. Burial was in the Red Hill PFWB Church. His survivors were his widow-Pearl Griffin Hughes and children-Stanley, Kraig, James and Evelyn Moore. His siblings were Erving, Emery, Lyda (?) Byrd, Ila Mae Byrd, Edna, Betty, and Ruby (Daily Record Apr. 8, 1992).
The Coats Lion Club planned to sponsor the Franzen Brothers Circus at the Coats Junior Order Fairgrounds while the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church began Holy Week with the observance of Maundy Thursday. Rev. Warren Bock was the church minister (Daily Record Apr. 10, 1992).
Time seems to pass faster and faster the older we get. It seems just yesterday that Rev. Warren Bock was so involved in the Coats community working with the elderly. He died on February 3, 2019 but our love for him remains. I am sorry that I did not tell him how much we appreciated him.
When death takes a loved one before you are prepared to give them up, it takes the reaching out of friends to make the transition bearable. H.L would be in tears by the number of people who have reacted to his death. The sharing of memories of how they knew him was expressed in almost every sympathy card that our family has received. Many of his friends knew that the museum was the last big project he headed up and donations continue to come to support the museum.
The family and the museum volunteers wish to thank Joe and Lalia Turlington, John and Marsha Comeau, Keith and Linda Sorrell, Susan Stewart and Bob and Faye Etheridge and the North Carolina Community Foundation. Your support is so appreciated.