February 7, 2014 Coats Museum News
The final days of 1947 were fast approaching when it was published in the Dunn Dispatch Dec. 19, 1947 edition that Mr. and Mrs. Henry L. Johnson had announced the birth of a daughter on December 15th at Dunn Hospital. The mother was the former Bernice Rowland. Elsewhere, Miss Amy Rose Smith, daughter of Carlyle Smith, had married Ikey Cutts on December 6th in Lillington. He was a veteran of the infantry in Europe and was a graduate of Coats High School. The Junior Woman’s Club had held its monthly meeting at the home of Mrs. Charles Beasley with Mrs. Graham Byrd assisting. Miss Mildred Harmon presented a program on Christmas and Zenobia Surles gave an interesting piece on “Joys at Christmas Time”.
Some of the younger folks were also partying in town. Mrs. Percy Parrish entertained her son Wayne with a birthday party. Christmas stories were told to Jerry and Vickie Lee, Bland Fleming, Harry Roberts, Carolyn Phillips, Emma Lou Parrish, Harold Dixon, Larry Denning, Barbara Stewart, Robert Roycroft, and Grace Penny Carroll (Dunn Dispatch Dec. 19, 1947).
Enjoy the following letter published in the paper. “Dear Santa Claus, would you please bring me a ‘horseman doll’ and a nurse set? I am a little girl 8 years old and in the third grade. I have made ‘A’ Honor roll every month since I started to school. Don’t you think that I am a smart girl? Please be nice to all the children and don’t forget to come to my house. Goodbye. Gwendolyn Dixon” (Dunn Dispatch Dec. 27, 1947).
For those of you who may have put your pennies into the parking meters in Dunn, your pennies helped bring in $4,493 during the 15 weeks they had been on the streets (Dunn Dispatch Dec. 31, 1947).
The year was now 1948-the year of the Allied airlift and the Berlin blockade. This was the year of the Slinky, the coiled-wire stair–descending toy. Crude air-conditioning showed up in the top-of-the-line Detroit cars. Milton Berle “Uncle Miltie” became Mr. Television in part because people bought televisions just to watch him, and the entire family loved watching the horse operas such as Long Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy. The jazz era began with Miles Davis. The McDonald brothers began to franchise their name for hamburgers. An Oklahoma faith healer named Oral Roberts appeared on television and was heard on radio to gain converts and givers to his Healing Waters Inc. Ministry.
Numbers played a role in 1948. It cost 10 cents to ride the N.Y. City subway. The budget for Ed Sullivan’s “The Toast of the Town” was $1, 374 with $375.00 of that going for talent. The cost for the first fifteen months of the Marshall Plan was 16.8 billion dollars. Tuition for one year at Harvard was $455.00. A family-size Chevrolet sold for $1255 and the gas to fuel it cost 25.9 cents per gallon (Dickson, Paul. From Elvis to E-Mail, Springfield, Massachusetts: Federal Street Press, 1999, pp 24-31).
Dr. and Mrs. C. Garner Fuquay had a big Christmas day when all of Mrs. Fuquay’s family were guests-Mr. and Mrs. R.E. Langdon, Mr. and Mrs. Leon Talton, Mr. and Mrs. M.O. Phillips, Mrs. Exie Smith, and Mrs. T. D. Stewart. Mrs. Gladys Phillips, a commercial teacher at Coats, and her son, Kenneth, spent Christmas in Charleston, S.C. with her sister, Miss Grace Hogue. Mr. Leon Fuquay of Washington, D.C. was in town visiting his brother, Dr. C. Garner Fuquay. Mr. and Mrs. Garth Bowling of Indian Head, Maryland and Mr. and Mrs. Earl Williams of East Point, Georgia spent the holidays with their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Williams. Mr. and Mrs. Russ Carlton of Bridgeport, Connecticut spent Christmas with her mom, Mrs. Mattie Highfill. Miss Golda Smith of Rex Hospital was a visitor in Coats during the Christmas holidays. A surprise dinner was given at the home of Mr. and Mrs. L.O. Stephenson in honor of their 51st wedding anniversary. Miss Evie Fish, Miss Claudie Stephenson, Mrs. Irene Howard, Miss Lenora Stephenson, Mrs. Z.N. Dorman and S.M. Stephenson attended (Dunn Dispatch Jan. 2. 1948).
Surely with the cozy warm memories of Christmas with the family from near and far on their minds, it must have been impossible for those who shared the holidays with the Fuquays to accept the fact that their host and hostess-Dr. and Mrs. C. Garner Fuquay-were dead as the result of an automobile accident near Sanford. The accident also took the life of a third person, Dewey McNeill, a 29 year-old Sanford man. Dr. Cecil Garner Fuquay, 53, was a member of the Harnett County Board of Education, was a veteran of WWI, prominent dentist, and a leader in public affairs. He was a former mayor of Coats, member of the American Legion, the Masonic Club, and the Fellowship Club of which he was an organizer. He had practiced dentistry in Coats for 28 years. One son, Cecil who was a student at Wake Forest, survived him. Fuquay had several siblings-Leon, Secretary of the Federal Power Commission in Washington, D.C., Mrs. Masie Patterson of Chapel Hill, Mrs. Ida Kelly and Mrs. Edith Young of Angier.
Mrs. Fuquay was 45 years old and was the daughter of Lula Burt Stewart and the late Thomas D. Stewart. She had been born in the Holly Springs area of Wake County. She had attended Campbell College and the Trinity Conservatory of Music in Durham (Dunn Dispatch Jan. 5, 1948).
J.F. Blackman’s farm was up for auction. The farm was 2 miles from Coats and 2 miles east of Campbell College. The farm contained 22 acres of tobacco on one hundred acres, which had an electric line and mail service. It was on the highway leading form Stewart’s Store to Coats (Dunn Dispatch Jan. 7, 1948). Did you notice the selling points? Was that a lot of tobacco for a hundred acre farm?
A special thank you goes to the Coats High School Class of 1952 for their memorial donation to honor the memory of their classmate, Laura Ennis. Thank you also goes to Becky Adams for her memorial donation for William Marshall Wright and to Peggy Senter, Eric Fann and Jerry Richter for visiting us at the museum bearing more interesting items to be displayed later.
Help!! Rufus Mangum from Angier recently visited the museum and asked if we knew whether a wreck in the late 1940 or 50’s had killed or injured a number of Coats boys. He thought he remembered reading in a newspaper about the wreck and the article stated that it would cast doubt on whether Coats would have a boys basketball team that year. The Coats volunteers need help from someone who lived in those years who might recall what Mr. Mangum is remembering.
Many of you recall Bobby Fish from his outstanding years of playing sports at Coats High School. He has spent many years out in Wisconsin where he has a business but has been back to Coats several times this year. He has been visited us at the museum several times and the museum folks really appreciate his donation to the museum.
The final days of 1947 were fast approaching when it was published in the Dunn Dispatch Dec. 19, 1947 edition that Mr. and Mrs. Henry L. Johnson had announced the birth of a daughter on December 15th at Dunn Hospital. The mother was the former Bernice Rowland. Elsewhere, Miss Amy Rose Smith, daughter of Carlyle Smith, had married Ikey Cutts on December 6th in Lillington. He was a veteran of the infantry in Europe and was a graduate of Coats High School. The Junior Woman’s Club had held its monthly meeting at the home of Mrs. Charles Beasley with Mrs. Graham Byrd assisting. Miss Mildred Harmon presented a program on Christmas and Zenobia Surles gave an interesting piece on “Joys at Christmas Time”.
Some of the younger folks were also partying in town. Mrs. Percy Parrish entertained her son Wayne with a birthday party. Christmas stories were told to Jerry and Vickie Lee, Bland Fleming, Harry Roberts, Carolyn Phillips, Emma Lou Parrish, Harold Dixon, Larry Denning, Barbara Stewart, Robert Roycroft, and Grace Penny Carroll (Dunn Dispatch Dec. 19, 1947).
Enjoy the following letter published in the paper. “Dear Santa Claus, would you please bring me a ‘horseman doll’ and a nurse set? I am a little girl 8 years old and in the third grade. I have made ‘A’ Honor roll every month since I started to school. Don’t you think that I am a smart girl? Please be nice to all the children and don’t forget to come to my house. Goodbye. Gwendolyn Dixon” (Dunn Dispatch Dec. 27, 1947).
For those of you who may have put your pennies into the parking meters in Dunn, your pennies helped bring in $4,493 during the 15 weeks they had been on the streets (Dunn Dispatch Dec. 31, 1947).
The year was now 1948-the year of the Allied airlift and the Berlin blockade. This was the year of the Slinky, the coiled-wire stair–descending toy. Crude air-conditioning showed up in the top-of-the-line Detroit cars. Milton Berle “Uncle Miltie” became Mr. Television in part because people bought televisions just to watch him, and the entire family loved watching the horse operas such as Long Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy. The jazz era began with Miles Davis. The McDonald brothers began to franchise their name for hamburgers. An Oklahoma faith healer named Oral Roberts appeared on television and was heard on radio to gain converts and givers to his Healing Waters Inc. Ministry.
Numbers played a role in 1948. It cost 10 cents to ride the N.Y. City subway. The budget for Ed Sullivan’s “The Toast of the Town” was $1, 374 with $375.00 of that going for talent. The cost for the first fifteen months of the Marshall Plan was 16.8 billion dollars. Tuition for one year at Harvard was $455.00. A family-size Chevrolet sold for $1255 and the gas to fuel it cost 25.9 cents per gallon (Dickson, Paul. From Elvis to E-Mail, Springfield, Massachusetts: Federal Street Press, 1999, pp 24-31).
Dr. and Mrs. C. Garner Fuquay had a big Christmas day when all of Mrs. Fuquay’s family were guests-Mr. and Mrs. R.E. Langdon, Mr. and Mrs. Leon Talton, Mr. and Mrs. M.O. Phillips, Mrs. Exie Smith, and Mrs. T. D. Stewart. Mrs. Gladys Phillips, a commercial teacher at Coats, and her son, Kenneth, spent Christmas in Charleston, S.C. with her sister, Miss Grace Hogue. Mr. Leon Fuquay of Washington, D.C. was in town visiting his brother, Dr. C. Garner Fuquay. Mr. and Mrs. Garth Bowling of Indian Head, Maryland and Mr. and Mrs. Earl Williams of East Point, Georgia spent the holidays with their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Williams. Mr. and Mrs. Russ Carlton of Bridgeport, Connecticut spent Christmas with her mom, Mrs. Mattie Highfill. Miss Golda Smith of Rex Hospital was a visitor in Coats during the Christmas holidays. A surprise dinner was given at the home of Mr. and Mrs. L.O. Stephenson in honor of their 51st wedding anniversary. Miss Evie Fish, Miss Claudie Stephenson, Mrs. Irene Howard, Miss Lenora Stephenson, Mrs. Z.N. Dorman and S.M. Stephenson attended (Dunn Dispatch Jan. 2. 1948).
Surely with the cozy warm memories of Christmas with the family from near and far on their minds, it must have been impossible for those who shared the holidays with the Fuquays to accept the fact that their host and hostess-Dr. and Mrs. C. Garner Fuquay-were dead as the result of an automobile accident near Sanford. The accident also took the life of a third person, Dewey McNeill, a 29 year-old Sanford man. Dr. Cecil Garner Fuquay, 53, was a member of the Harnett County Board of Education, was a veteran of WWI, prominent dentist, and a leader in public affairs. He was a former mayor of Coats, member of the American Legion, the Masonic Club, and the Fellowship Club of which he was an organizer. He had practiced dentistry in Coats for 28 years. One son, Cecil who was a student at Wake Forest, survived him. Fuquay had several siblings-Leon, Secretary of the Federal Power Commission in Washington, D.C., Mrs. Masie Patterson of Chapel Hill, Mrs. Ida Kelly and Mrs. Edith Young of Angier.
Mrs. Fuquay was 45 years old and was the daughter of Lula Burt Stewart and the late Thomas D. Stewart. She had been born in the Holly Springs area of Wake County. She had attended Campbell College and the Trinity Conservatory of Music in Durham (Dunn Dispatch Jan. 5, 1948).
J.F. Blackman’s farm was up for auction. The farm was 2 miles from Coats and 2 miles east of Campbell College. The farm contained 22 acres of tobacco on one hundred acres, which had an electric line and mail service. It was on the highway leading form Stewart’s Store to Coats (Dunn Dispatch Jan. 7, 1948). Did you notice the selling points? Was that a lot of tobacco for a hundred acre farm?
A special thank you goes to the Coats High School Class of 1952 for their memorial donation to honor the memory of their classmate, Laura Ennis. Thank you also goes to Becky Adams for her memorial donation for William Marshall Wright and to Peggy Senter, Eric Fann and Jerry Richter for visiting us at the museum bearing more interesting items to be displayed later.
Help!! Rufus Mangum from Angier recently visited the museum and asked if we knew whether a wreck in the late 1940 or 50’s had killed or injured a number of Coats boys. He thought he remembered reading in a newspaper about the wreck and the article stated that it would cast doubt on whether Coats would have a boys basketball team that year. The Coats volunteers need help from someone who lived in those years who might recall what Mr. Mangum is remembering.
Many of you recall Bobby Fish from his outstanding years of playing sports at Coats High School. He has spent many years out in Wisconsin where he has a business but has been back to Coats several times this year. He has been visited us at the museum several times and the museum folks really appreciate his donation to the museum.