January 17, 2025 Coats Museum News
Let’s travel down memory lane and see who recalls what happened in our area on January 17th and 18th in 1968. Do you recall that an ice and snow storm covered so much of our area that schools were closed for days? There was no county water in the rural areas of Coats and individuals sought outside sources to flush their commodes with some seeking out frozen creeks or springs as water sources. Non electric means were sought to heat the rooms. Fireplaces were the only source of heat and cooking for some families fortunate enough to have one. The scenery created by this weather event was that worthy of a Christmas card but the consequences of it brought death and hardships to many.
However, in March of 1995, Rev. and Mrs. Jesse Mooney were congratulated for the birth of their second grandson. Mr. Fernie Lee had celebrated his 84th birthday at his home in Coats with all his family. Belle Williams in her “Notes from Coats’ wrote that many in Coats were ill. Olene Ennis, Lucille Wood, Malcolm Stewart, Jr., Earl Ragan, Annie English, Lula Martin and Lucy Weaver were among those mentioned. Several deaths were also noted and they were Stonewall Turlington William A. “Tom” Tart, Hollie Dennis, and Owen Cobb were those who had recently died.
Dennis Pope, Coats Utilities director, had resigned after 21 years with the town. A conflict over overtime had apparently played a role in Dennis leaving. Pope was considered an asset to the town (Daily Record Mar. 30, 1995).
Coats has long been recognized for its outstanding baseball and softball teams and rightly so. The Coats girls’ softball team defeated the East Lee team by 5-0. Katura Surles, Lori Denning, Beth Williams, April Pleasant, Taylor Matthews, Erika Gregory, Meagan Royal and Latoya Walden helped bring the win.
The boys’ baseball team lost but the team had three hits-a double by Gil Stephens and singles by Jonathan Tart and Jeffrey Stewart (Daily Record Mar. 31, 1995).
Death visited the Suggs family of Bailey’s Crossroads. Gartha Suggs, 58, had died at the UNC Hospitals. He was a retired car salesman and a son of Vada Messer and the late Elton Suggs. Services were held at the Suggs Cemetery with Rev. Pete Norris, Jr. officiating and with burial in the cemetery. Surviving him were a son, Gartha Ray Suggs, Jr., two brothers-Earl and Roger Suggs. His two sisters were Lottie Norris and Edith Koons. Candice Suggs and Megan were his granddaughters.
Coats students learned about their heritage by attending the Heritage Day at the Coats Senior Center. Lundy Denning demonstrated making pottery; Rebeth Mitchell made butter in an old pottery churn by using a manual dasher; Eloise Lee showed the students a skirt that her mother, Mrs. Willis Pope, had made her. She explained how her mother use scraps to make quilts.
Thomas and Belle Williams demonstrated how water was pulled from a well with a bucket and tickle. Mrs. Mitchell also showed students how to make homemade biscuits in a bread tray with flour, buttermilk and lard (Daily Record Apr. 3, 1995).
The Grove II voting place had no handicapped accessibility that was made more obvious when Keith Stone and David Gomerdinger arrived in wheelchairs at the entrance to the polling place (Daily Record Apr. 4, 1995).
H.L. Sorrell, Jr., Chairman of both the Harnett County Board of Commissioners and the Eastern N.C. County Council, called on the N, .C. Department of Commerce to give grants on the need based formula. He cited that the 43 eastern counties containing 2.5 million people needed help in solving their many problems. The distressed area had 350,000 people who lived below the poverty level. He stated, “Anyone who does not consider the statistics about the needs in Eastern, NC would be taking a cold- hearted view of the welfare of their fellow Citizens.” He pleaded for the greater part of the funds to be distributed for infrastructure and housing needs (Daily Record Apr. 5, 1995).
In the same issue, Patsy’s Beauty Den had been chosen as the CACC Business Focus of the Week. Patsy established the business in 1970 and was a 1968 graduate of Coats High School. She was joined in business by Diane Williams Parker and Kris Norris Royals.
We are so saddened to hear about the cancer diagnosis of one of our very first supporters of the museum when he came forth with mannequins for us to use during our many open houses to discover what was available in the community that we could showcase in our original two room museum. Please say a daily prayer for Andy Byrd who is an amazing teacher in the Harnett School system and youth worker at Ebenezer Presbyterian Church.
Let’s travel down memory lane and see who recalls what happened in our area on January 17th and 18th in 1968. Do you recall that an ice and snow storm covered so much of our area that schools were closed for days? There was no county water in the rural areas of Coats and individuals sought outside sources to flush their commodes with some seeking out frozen creeks or springs as water sources. Non electric means were sought to heat the rooms. Fireplaces were the only source of heat and cooking for some families fortunate enough to have one. The scenery created by this weather event was that worthy of a Christmas card but the consequences of it brought death and hardships to many.
However, in March of 1995, Rev. and Mrs. Jesse Mooney were congratulated for the birth of their second grandson. Mr. Fernie Lee had celebrated his 84th birthday at his home in Coats with all his family. Belle Williams in her “Notes from Coats’ wrote that many in Coats were ill. Olene Ennis, Lucille Wood, Malcolm Stewart, Jr., Earl Ragan, Annie English, Lula Martin and Lucy Weaver were among those mentioned. Several deaths were also noted and they were Stonewall Turlington William A. “Tom” Tart, Hollie Dennis, and Owen Cobb were those who had recently died.
Dennis Pope, Coats Utilities director, had resigned after 21 years with the town. A conflict over overtime had apparently played a role in Dennis leaving. Pope was considered an asset to the town (Daily Record Mar. 30, 1995).
Coats has long been recognized for its outstanding baseball and softball teams and rightly so. The Coats girls’ softball team defeated the East Lee team by 5-0. Katura Surles, Lori Denning, Beth Williams, April Pleasant, Taylor Matthews, Erika Gregory, Meagan Royal and Latoya Walden helped bring the win.
The boys’ baseball team lost but the team had three hits-a double by Gil Stephens and singles by Jonathan Tart and Jeffrey Stewart (Daily Record Mar. 31, 1995).
Death visited the Suggs family of Bailey’s Crossroads. Gartha Suggs, 58, had died at the UNC Hospitals. He was a retired car salesman and a son of Vada Messer and the late Elton Suggs. Services were held at the Suggs Cemetery with Rev. Pete Norris, Jr. officiating and with burial in the cemetery. Surviving him were a son, Gartha Ray Suggs, Jr., two brothers-Earl and Roger Suggs. His two sisters were Lottie Norris and Edith Koons. Candice Suggs and Megan were his granddaughters.
Coats students learned about their heritage by attending the Heritage Day at the Coats Senior Center. Lundy Denning demonstrated making pottery; Rebeth Mitchell made butter in an old pottery churn by using a manual dasher; Eloise Lee showed the students a skirt that her mother, Mrs. Willis Pope, had made her. She explained how her mother use scraps to make quilts.
Thomas and Belle Williams demonstrated how water was pulled from a well with a bucket and tickle. Mrs. Mitchell also showed students how to make homemade biscuits in a bread tray with flour, buttermilk and lard (Daily Record Apr. 3, 1995).
The Grove II voting place had no handicapped accessibility that was made more obvious when Keith Stone and David Gomerdinger arrived in wheelchairs at the entrance to the polling place (Daily Record Apr. 4, 1995).
H.L. Sorrell, Jr., Chairman of both the Harnett County Board of Commissioners and the Eastern N.C. County Council, called on the N, .C. Department of Commerce to give grants on the need based formula. He cited that the 43 eastern counties containing 2.5 million people needed help in solving their many problems. The distressed area had 350,000 people who lived below the poverty level. He stated, “Anyone who does not consider the statistics about the needs in Eastern, NC would be taking a cold- hearted view of the welfare of their fellow Citizens.” He pleaded for the greater part of the funds to be distributed for infrastructure and housing needs (Daily Record Apr. 5, 1995).
In the same issue, Patsy’s Beauty Den had been chosen as the CACC Business Focus of the Week. Patsy established the business in 1970 and was a 1968 graduate of Coats High School. She was joined in business by Diane Williams Parker and Kris Norris Royals.
We are so saddened to hear about the cancer diagnosis of one of our very first supporters of the museum when he came forth with mannequins for us to use during our many open houses to discover what was available in the community that we could showcase in our original two room museum. Please say a daily prayer for Andy Byrd who is an amazing teacher in the Harnett School system and youth worker at Ebenezer Presbyterian Church.