January 17, 2020 Coats Museum News
The year on the calendar continued to display that it was 1982. AT&T had agreed to divest itself of all twenty-two of its Bell Telephone operating systems to conclude an eight-year antitrust suit. Air Florida Flight 90 had taken off from Washington National Airport in a snowstorm before it slammed into the 14th Street Bridge spanning the Potomac River. Fatalities totaled seventy-seven. Dramatic television coverage of the rescue and rescue attempts had made it one of the most graphic air tragedies of the television era. Another Washington tragedy occurred during that same snow storm when the Metro subway suffered its first accident with fatalities. Ground was broken for a memorial to honor the 58,002 Americans killed in the Vietnam War (Dickson, Paul. From Elvis to E-Mail. Massachusetts: Federal Street Press. 1999, p. 258).
How saddened the Coats residents must have been that death had claimed Percy E. Parrish, husband of the late beloved Mrs. Edna Parrish and son of the late Jesse Herman Parrish and Lula Evelyn Dorman Parrish. He had died at the N.C. Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill on Sunday. Percy had worked for Coca-Cola, farmed, and driven a truck for H.P. Johnson Oil Co. in Dunn. Parrish’s services were in the Rose Funeral Home Chapel and burial was in the Coats City Cemetery. Surviving him was son, Wayne Parrish, of Coats (Daily Record Jan. 25, 1982). Was Mr. Parrish handicapped? If so, does anyone know what caused his handicap?
This I do know. The Recreation Commissioner for the Coats Town Board was Frances Avery who had recommended to the full board that they hire Don Ennis, part-time director, and Barry Butts, part-time assistant director, with a salary of $5,000 for Ennis and $4,500 for Butts (Daily Record Jan. 26, 1982).
The Coats Police Department was rebuilding its force after losing almost all its officers last fall after Ron Peters resigned. Chief Ken Parker was taking applications to fill a fifth slot on the force (Daily Record Jan. 26, 1982).
Sewage problems were so severe in Coats that the town board had sought emergency status for the town that mandated the town to obtain a suitable wastewater system. The step removed some of the funding snags that existed. Tim McKinnie, water commissioner, displayed a town map showing where trouble spots were in raw sewage and wastewater at ground water. In 1982, the town still had a number of outhouses inside the city limits. There were substandard septic tanks and some old wells were being used as septic tanks, and approximately 30 residents were not hooked up to the town’s public water system (Daily Record Jan. 26, 1982).
The Coats Happy Helpers 4-H Club held a meeting at the home of James and Ann Lee to enlist new members and set up a plan for the year (Daily Record Jan. 27, 1982).
Locally, a legend of a man had died on Thursday. Clem Howard Godwin, a Coats grocer and businessman, was buried in the Coats Cemetery following services by Rev. Howard Beard in the Rose Funeral Home Chapel. His survivors were two sisters- Mrs. Alice Godwin White and Mrs. Florence Grimes (Daily Record Jan. 29, 1982).
Mrs. Esther Beard, mother off Rev. Howard Beard, had died on Thursday. The Coats resident was 86 years old (Daily Record January 29, 1982). Mrs. Beard was born in Washington, D.C., daughter of the late Joseph Faunce Tasker and Harriett Tasker (Daily Record Feb. 2, 1982).
Mrs. Juanita Hudson addressed the Olde Towne Arts Club at Johnson’s Restaurant in Dunn. Juanita spoke on the “Windows of the World” (Daily Record Feb. 2, 1982).
Dr. Linda Robinson of Coats spoke for the Campbell University Seminar ‘82: Examining Women in the World. Dr. Robinson received her MD from UNC School of Medicine. Her mother was a professor of history at Campbell. Dr. Robinson and her husband, Fred Henry Robinson, were parents of one daughter (Daily Record Feb. 2, 1982). Who knows when their twin boys came along?
Mrs. Callie Ennis Adams, Route I, Benson, died on Thursday at BJMH after short illness. She was daughter of the late Nady Ennis and Ola Stewart Ennis. Her funeral was at the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church with burial in the church cemetery. Surviving Mrs. Adams was her husband, George Robert “Rob” Adams. Her three daughters were Mrs. Janie Denning, Mrs. Bobbie Owens and Mrs. Freda Johnson. Her five brothers were Aldridge, Roy, Jerry, Jarvis, and Billy Ennis and her seven sisters Mrs. Irene Grimes, Mrs. Iris Blankenship, Mrs. Ada Brady, Mrs. Mildred Meisel , Mrs. Louise Johnson and Mrs. Catherine Farless (Daily Record Feb. 5, 1982). Question- who was the seventh sister not named?
Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Sorrell, Sr. of the Turlington Crossroads area celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary (Daily Record Feb. 8, 1982).
William T. Johnson, known as “Bill”, had died in Oxford at the age of 63. He was the son of Mrs. Mae Blackwelder Johnson Coats of Coats. Surviving him were his wife, Rowena Elliott Johnson and children-Troy and Julius Johnson, and Delores Johnson Moss (Daily Record Feb. 8, 1982).
How many of you remember the log cabin house that was located next to the Coats Senior Center? All the buildings on that lot came down recently for the new building projects in progress now in 2020. This was Blackwelder property and when I was a school girl riding past it on the school bus, the log cabin was always a place of intrigue.
A lady who had been around for more than nine decades died at BJMH at the age of 92. Mrs. Leona Stewart Turner was from the Dunn area. The Harnett County native was the daughter of William Ira Stewart and Kizzady Williams Stewart. Elder Luther Wilson Turner, Sr. was her late husband (Daily Record Feb. 11, 1882).
At the Coats Town Board meeting, cablevision and tighter animal control animal laws were approved in Coats (Daily Record Feb. 12, 1982).
The railroad that had helped put Coats on the map was no more. Gone was the train that had once jumped the tracks and crashed into the depot. Gone was the train that crashed into a truck and killed the two inhabitants as they sat in it on the tracks. Gone was the train that hit the candy truck that resulted in candy being strewn all about to the delight of the town youngsters. Gone was the train that had killed a young man as he lay on the tracks late at night. No more was the train that cost a man his leg as he slipped while boarding a moving train. No more whistles and bells to mark time for those in the classrooms, businesses and fields of corn, tobacco and cotton. No more friendly waves from those special men who were inside that monstrous iron machine and only the memories of Mr. Jesse Parrish and his crew wagon checking out the safety of the tracks. No more pickups and drop offs at the old depot. Andrew Coats, W.E. Nichols, J.D. Pope, A.K. Gunter, Mrs. Billie Keene, and Mrs. Rachel Barnes are names etched into the ledgers of the old train depot. What was left in 1982? There were piles of crossties- some which might have replaced some of the original ones that had been cut at the old Stewart Turlington sawmill at Turlington Crossroads (Frances Wood Stewart 2004, Garland Whittington 2003, and Lentis Sorrell 1992).
How were the trains powered? Was it wood, steam, coal energy that sent the train rolling down the tracks? In your western movies do you ever recall seeing a raised water tank near the depot? Do you have specific memories of the train coming through your town? Those of you who attended the 1985 Coats School Reunion project, do you remember Herbert Johnson playing the harmonica version of the train coming through Coats? Share your train story with your children so memories of the train will not be gone as is the train today.
Mr. and Mrs. P.J. Johnson of Coats who lived near the old Durham and Southern Railroad had announced the marriage of their daughter Lois Ann Johnson to Glenn Ray Smith, son of Jerry Smith (Daily Record Feb. 17, 1982).
Good news also came to Helen Miller Butts. William Pope, President of Pope Distributing Co., promoted Helen to Warehouse Manager. She had worked with the company for 25 years. The Coats United Methodist Church celebrated its 30th anniversary. John David Norris and Gordon Owen Bennett received plaques to acknowledge the church’s appreciation for the men’s roles in founding the Coats Methodist Church in February of 1952. Those on the arrangement committee were Rev. Tom Melvin, Sue Penny, Carolyn Barnes, Ted Penny and Jerry Tyndall, Photographer (Daily Record Feb. 17, 1982).
The Coats Board of Commissioners had adopted a resolution honoring assistant Connie B. Penny after she resigned to pursue family duties at the Penny Minnow Farm (Daily Record Feb. 18, 1982).
Governor Jim Hunt reappointed Gerald Hayes to the NC Judicial Council. Hayes, a law partner in the firm of Stewart and Hayes, was president of the Harnett County Bar Association and a Chairman of the Harnett County Board of Education. Hayes was Coats native and the son of Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Hayes, Sr. of Coats (Daily Record Mar. 2, 1982).
Mr. and Mrs. Larry Douglas Flowers of Coats announced the birth of Brian D. Flowers (Daily Record Mar. 3, 1982). The members of the Red Hill PFWB Church decided to brick their building through donations and from friends of the church. The church had been at its present site since the turn of the century and had been added to and changed on several occasion (Daily Record Mar. 9, 1982).
Gov. Jim Hunt appointed Jeff Stewart, president of Guaranty State Bank, to the board of trustees of the College Foundations. Stewart was a native of Coats and graduate of Coats High School and UNC Chapel Hill. His parents were Mr. and Mrs. Tony Stewart. His wife, Linda Turlington Stewart, was daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H.A. Turlington, Jr. Jeff and Linda and eighteen months old Bill resided in Durham (Daily Record Mar. 9, 1982).
If you have a son, grandson or relative who earned Eagle rank in the Boy Scouts 779, please get that information to Kevin Pope or Marc Powell. The information can be shared at the Coats Museum on Thursdays or Sundays. A copy of the recognition program and the name of the Eagle project are needed. Don’t leave an Eagle left out of the Coats Museum records.
It was a fun and informative time at the museum last week. Lenny Parker, CHS Class of 1973, dropped in and we always learn more about the work of the SBI and his assignments there. Lenny is another descendant of the town’s founder and we appreciate Lenny and his financial support. You will be reading more about Lenny in later columns.
The year on the calendar continued to display that it was 1982. AT&T had agreed to divest itself of all twenty-two of its Bell Telephone operating systems to conclude an eight-year antitrust suit. Air Florida Flight 90 had taken off from Washington National Airport in a snowstorm before it slammed into the 14th Street Bridge spanning the Potomac River. Fatalities totaled seventy-seven. Dramatic television coverage of the rescue and rescue attempts had made it one of the most graphic air tragedies of the television era. Another Washington tragedy occurred during that same snow storm when the Metro subway suffered its first accident with fatalities. Ground was broken for a memorial to honor the 58,002 Americans killed in the Vietnam War (Dickson, Paul. From Elvis to E-Mail. Massachusetts: Federal Street Press. 1999, p. 258).
How saddened the Coats residents must have been that death had claimed Percy E. Parrish, husband of the late beloved Mrs. Edna Parrish and son of the late Jesse Herman Parrish and Lula Evelyn Dorman Parrish. He had died at the N.C. Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill on Sunday. Percy had worked for Coca-Cola, farmed, and driven a truck for H.P. Johnson Oil Co. in Dunn. Parrish’s services were in the Rose Funeral Home Chapel and burial was in the Coats City Cemetery. Surviving him was son, Wayne Parrish, of Coats (Daily Record Jan. 25, 1982). Was Mr. Parrish handicapped? If so, does anyone know what caused his handicap?
This I do know. The Recreation Commissioner for the Coats Town Board was Frances Avery who had recommended to the full board that they hire Don Ennis, part-time director, and Barry Butts, part-time assistant director, with a salary of $5,000 for Ennis and $4,500 for Butts (Daily Record Jan. 26, 1982).
The Coats Police Department was rebuilding its force after losing almost all its officers last fall after Ron Peters resigned. Chief Ken Parker was taking applications to fill a fifth slot on the force (Daily Record Jan. 26, 1982).
Sewage problems were so severe in Coats that the town board had sought emergency status for the town that mandated the town to obtain a suitable wastewater system. The step removed some of the funding snags that existed. Tim McKinnie, water commissioner, displayed a town map showing where trouble spots were in raw sewage and wastewater at ground water. In 1982, the town still had a number of outhouses inside the city limits. There were substandard septic tanks and some old wells were being used as septic tanks, and approximately 30 residents were not hooked up to the town’s public water system (Daily Record Jan. 26, 1982).
The Coats Happy Helpers 4-H Club held a meeting at the home of James and Ann Lee to enlist new members and set up a plan for the year (Daily Record Jan. 27, 1982).
Locally, a legend of a man had died on Thursday. Clem Howard Godwin, a Coats grocer and businessman, was buried in the Coats Cemetery following services by Rev. Howard Beard in the Rose Funeral Home Chapel. His survivors were two sisters- Mrs. Alice Godwin White and Mrs. Florence Grimes (Daily Record Jan. 29, 1982).
Mrs. Esther Beard, mother off Rev. Howard Beard, had died on Thursday. The Coats resident was 86 years old (Daily Record January 29, 1982). Mrs. Beard was born in Washington, D.C., daughter of the late Joseph Faunce Tasker and Harriett Tasker (Daily Record Feb. 2, 1982).
Mrs. Juanita Hudson addressed the Olde Towne Arts Club at Johnson’s Restaurant in Dunn. Juanita spoke on the “Windows of the World” (Daily Record Feb. 2, 1982).
Dr. Linda Robinson of Coats spoke for the Campbell University Seminar ‘82: Examining Women in the World. Dr. Robinson received her MD from UNC School of Medicine. Her mother was a professor of history at Campbell. Dr. Robinson and her husband, Fred Henry Robinson, were parents of one daughter (Daily Record Feb. 2, 1982). Who knows when their twin boys came along?
Mrs. Callie Ennis Adams, Route I, Benson, died on Thursday at BJMH after short illness. She was daughter of the late Nady Ennis and Ola Stewart Ennis. Her funeral was at the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church with burial in the church cemetery. Surviving Mrs. Adams was her husband, George Robert “Rob” Adams. Her three daughters were Mrs. Janie Denning, Mrs. Bobbie Owens and Mrs. Freda Johnson. Her five brothers were Aldridge, Roy, Jerry, Jarvis, and Billy Ennis and her seven sisters Mrs. Irene Grimes, Mrs. Iris Blankenship, Mrs. Ada Brady, Mrs. Mildred Meisel , Mrs. Louise Johnson and Mrs. Catherine Farless (Daily Record Feb. 5, 1982). Question- who was the seventh sister not named?
Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Sorrell, Sr. of the Turlington Crossroads area celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary (Daily Record Feb. 8, 1982).
William T. Johnson, known as “Bill”, had died in Oxford at the age of 63. He was the son of Mrs. Mae Blackwelder Johnson Coats of Coats. Surviving him were his wife, Rowena Elliott Johnson and children-Troy and Julius Johnson, and Delores Johnson Moss (Daily Record Feb. 8, 1982).
How many of you remember the log cabin house that was located next to the Coats Senior Center? All the buildings on that lot came down recently for the new building projects in progress now in 2020. This was Blackwelder property and when I was a school girl riding past it on the school bus, the log cabin was always a place of intrigue.
A lady who had been around for more than nine decades died at BJMH at the age of 92. Mrs. Leona Stewart Turner was from the Dunn area. The Harnett County native was the daughter of William Ira Stewart and Kizzady Williams Stewart. Elder Luther Wilson Turner, Sr. was her late husband (Daily Record Feb. 11, 1882).
At the Coats Town Board meeting, cablevision and tighter animal control animal laws were approved in Coats (Daily Record Feb. 12, 1982).
The railroad that had helped put Coats on the map was no more. Gone was the train that had once jumped the tracks and crashed into the depot. Gone was the train that crashed into a truck and killed the two inhabitants as they sat in it on the tracks. Gone was the train that hit the candy truck that resulted in candy being strewn all about to the delight of the town youngsters. Gone was the train that had killed a young man as he lay on the tracks late at night. No more was the train that cost a man his leg as he slipped while boarding a moving train. No more whistles and bells to mark time for those in the classrooms, businesses and fields of corn, tobacco and cotton. No more friendly waves from those special men who were inside that monstrous iron machine and only the memories of Mr. Jesse Parrish and his crew wagon checking out the safety of the tracks. No more pickups and drop offs at the old depot. Andrew Coats, W.E. Nichols, J.D. Pope, A.K. Gunter, Mrs. Billie Keene, and Mrs. Rachel Barnes are names etched into the ledgers of the old train depot. What was left in 1982? There were piles of crossties- some which might have replaced some of the original ones that had been cut at the old Stewart Turlington sawmill at Turlington Crossroads (Frances Wood Stewart 2004, Garland Whittington 2003, and Lentis Sorrell 1992).
How were the trains powered? Was it wood, steam, coal energy that sent the train rolling down the tracks? In your western movies do you ever recall seeing a raised water tank near the depot? Do you have specific memories of the train coming through your town? Those of you who attended the 1985 Coats School Reunion project, do you remember Herbert Johnson playing the harmonica version of the train coming through Coats? Share your train story with your children so memories of the train will not be gone as is the train today.
Mr. and Mrs. P.J. Johnson of Coats who lived near the old Durham and Southern Railroad had announced the marriage of their daughter Lois Ann Johnson to Glenn Ray Smith, son of Jerry Smith (Daily Record Feb. 17, 1982).
Good news also came to Helen Miller Butts. William Pope, President of Pope Distributing Co., promoted Helen to Warehouse Manager. She had worked with the company for 25 years. The Coats United Methodist Church celebrated its 30th anniversary. John David Norris and Gordon Owen Bennett received plaques to acknowledge the church’s appreciation for the men’s roles in founding the Coats Methodist Church in February of 1952. Those on the arrangement committee were Rev. Tom Melvin, Sue Penny, Carolyn Barnes, Ted Penny and Jerry Tyndall, Photographer (Daily Record Feb. 17, 1982).
The Coats Board of Commissioners had adopted a resolution honoring assistant Connie B. Penny after she resigned to pursue family duties at the Penny Minnow Farm (Daily Record Feb. 18, 1982).
Governor Jim Hunt reappointed Gerald Hayes to the NC Judicial Council. Hayes, a law partner in the firm of Stewart and Hayes, was president of the Harnett County Bar Association and a Chairman of the Harnett County Board of Education. Hayes was Coats native and the son of Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Hayes, Sr. of Coats (Daily Record Mar. 2, 1982).
Mr. and Mrs. Larry Douglas Flowers of Coats announced the birth of Brian D. Flowers (Daily Record Mar. 3, 1982). The members of the Red Hill PFWB Church decided to brick their building through donations and from friends of the church. The church had been at its present site since the turn of the century and had been added to and changed on several occasion (Daily Record Mar. 9, 1982).
Gov. Jim Hunt appointed Jeff Stewart, president of Guaranty State Bank, to the board of trustees of the College Foundations. Stewart was a native of Coats and graduate of Coats High School and UNC Chapel Hill. His parents were Mr. and Mrs. Tony Stewart. His wife, Linda Turlington Stewart, was daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H.A. Turlington, Jr. Jeff and Linda and eighteen months old Bill resided in Durham (Daily Record Mar. 9, 1982).
If you have a son, grandson or relative who earned Eagle rank in the Boy Scouts 779, please get that information to Kevin Pope or Marc Powell. The information can be shared at the Coats Museum on Thursdays or Sundays. A copy of the recognition program and the name of the Eagle project are needed. Don’t leave an Eagle left out of the Coats Museum records.
It was a fun and informative time at the museum last week. Lenny Parker, CHS Class of 1973, dropped in and we always learn more about the work of the SBI and his assignments there. Lenny is another descendant of the town’s founder and we appreciate Lenny and his financial support. You will be reading more about Lenny in later columns.