July 26, 2019 Coats Museum News
In 1978, there were ten words and phrases that were very popular. Read a few to see if you recall hearing or saying them. “Boat people” referred to the Indochinese refugees from Communism. “Off the wall” appeared to be a squash/handball term that became a description for the odd and unusual. ” “Moi” from the mouth of Miss Piggy, this French pronoun became a term of vanity. “Hot tubbing” was what one did in a hot tub, formerly known as soaking. “Intelligent typewriter” was when word processing met the old technology. Were there computers in 1978? Recall from an earlier column that IBM had introduced a 64,000-bit memory chip.
There are many people in the Coats community who have warm memories of Melvin, Thessie and Dorsey Daniel. Godly neighbors, quick sense of humor, family oriented and hardworking were only a few of their characteristics. In June of 1978, death robbed the community of another Daniel to carry on this family’s characteristics. Melvin Matt Daniel, 8, of Raleigh, had died on Monday at the NC Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill. His funeral services were held at the Wynn Funeral Home Chapel with burial at Montlawn Memorial Park. His mother, Mrs. Ann Critcher Daniel, and his father, Dorsey Wade Daniel, Sr., survived him. His siblings were Wade and Alex Daniel and Danette Ouber and Anna Daniel .Mrs. Thessie Daniel was his paternal grandmother while Mrs. Tempie Denning was the great-grandmother (Daily Record June 20, 1978).
“Hello World” to the son of Danny and Vickie Byrd Glover. He was born at BJMH on June 20. Mrs. Vada Glover and Mr. and Mrs. Ed Byrd were the grandparents (Daily Record June 22, 1978).
The Coats High Class of 1938 commemorated its 40th year. The class members met at Howard Johnson’s Restaurant in Dunn. Mrs. Chester (Edna) Ennis was in charge of the arrangements. Dr. and Mrs. Norman A. (Mildred Harmon) Wiggins , Mr. and Mrs. Charles (Annie Ruth Wood) Turlington, Mr. and Mrs. Earl Stewart, Mr. and Mrs. A.K. Gunter, Mr. and Mrs. Homer Williams, Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Stewart, Mr. and Mrs. John L. Sorrell, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Thurman Godwin, Mrs. Lottie Gregory Lewis, Mrs. Ruby Johnson McLamb, Mrs. Gretchen Wick, Mrs. Violette Godwin and Mrs. Ella Footman, a former teacher, attended the event (Daily Record June 22, 1978).
Dr. Donald and Dr. Ann Moore attended the State Democratic Convention in Raleigh where Dr. Ann Moore, a talented vocalist, sang the “Star Spangled Banner” to open the convention (Daily Record June 26, 1978).
Elsie Darlene West, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse West, Jr., was to marry Lynwood Keith Parker, son of Mr. and Mrs. William H. Parker of Four Oaks (Daily Record June 27, 1978).
One of the favorite stores that my dad patronized was in Benson. The store was the Walmart for many farmers for decades. To young children it was a candy store around Christmas time. This was the place that had candy by the bushel baskets and parents would go there to purchase large bags of it to stuff the Christmas stockings.
There were yellow, pink, chocolate and vanilla bonbons that seemed as large as golf balls to little tots. There could be found square coconut candies in similar colors and flavors. One can never forget the large clusters of chocolate covered peanuts and gelatin orange slices or large multi-flavored gum drops. These are not to be confused with the smaller ones that children used to decorate the hog thorn bush twigs to make miniature Christmas trees for table tops.
Chocolate drops filled with creamy white filling looked like little mountains. Some of you might remember the ribbon colored hard candies or the seeded raisins in boxes covered in cellophane. Even boxed dried dates were sold. English walnuts, Brazil nuts, apples, oranges and tangerines were added to all the stockings, or did you have an old box to be filled by old St. Nick?
I do know that Mr. Ralph Medlin was a family favorite; they grew up with my mom in the Elevation Township. I was sent to Medlin and Dorman’s as a teenager to pick up things that Dad needed on the farm and he did not want to leave the field to make the trip. Somehow I never liked or felt comfortable doing that chore for my dad. I felt that was a boy or man’s store but how times have changed.
Mr. Ralph Medlin died in the UNC Hospitals exactly five years after my mother. Ralph was the son of Daniel and Fannie Grimes Medlin. He had married Nora Mae Dorman and they were parents of Dan and Harold Medlin. Mrs. Ruth Stewart of rural Coats and Mrs. Belle Bailey of Bailey’s Crossroads were his sisters. Mr. Medlin was a distinguished merchant and leader in the Benson community. He was one of the owners of Santa’s supermarket and most of us did not know that until age robbed us of a Christmas fantasy (Daily Record June 29, 1978).
Prior to school coming to a close at Coats, Lisa Fuquay was recognized by the Coats School faculty as the “Student of the Year” for which she received a large engraved trophy. Lisa was also awarded the English and Beta Club Scholarship Awards (Daily Record June 29, 1978).
Miss Versie Carter of Coats was crowned Miss Harnett County Indian Princess. She sang for her talent (Daily Record July 3, 1978). What a beautiful student she was of mine.
Miss Carol Hawley, a sophomore at Coats High, had served as a page for Governor Jim Hunt. Carol was also helping to plan the new consolidated school’s English Department (Daily Record July 6, 1978).
Question –why did we not have a consolidated school in the Coats, Erwin, Dunn area until 1985.
It was a sad time at the Trogden household in July. David, 15, had drowned while swimming in the Cape Fear River. Larry Ammons had tried unsuccessfully to save David. Young David was the son of David and Sandra Poole Trodgen (Daily Record July 10, 1978).
I don’t remember David’s drowning but I do have very distinct memories of Sandra. She was a very organized lady and could get things done with such perfection. She always helped with her 1961 class reunions and would have a very detailed class reunion booklet containing all the addresses and current info for her classmates. My last memory of Sandra was when the Coats Museum was raffling off a 1998 Buick to raise money for the Coats Museum. When she heard about the raffle, she rushed home from Raleigh to meet the deadline to buy tickets. Her Poole ancestors have lived in the Coats area for many generations. Sadly, Sandra died a few months ago.
The Rev. Ronald L. Thompson had assumed his duties as pastor of the Lord’s Temple PFW Baptist Church (Daily Record July 13, 1978). Where was this church?
I do know that Mrs. Doris Bowden Tart had died on Saturday. The lady from near the Bailey’s Crossroads area had her services held at Prospect Church and Cemetery. Her husband was Lawrence Tart and sons were Mike, Mark, Jim and Jonathan Tart. Mrs. Bessie Bowden was her mother and siblings were Haywood, D.F., Jack, Sherrill and Harold, Mrs. Lucille Steele and Mrs. Pat (?) Denning. Some may recall that Mrs. Edna Baker and Mrs. Gertrude Wright were half-siblings (Daily Record July 17, 1978).
Another lady from Coats had died but little information was reported other than she was Mrs. Martha Faulkner, 63, who had died on Wednesday and was survived by two sons (Daily Record July 27, 1978).
Happy Birthday was in order for Donald Jones of Coats who was celebrating his 30th birthday (Daily Record July 27, 1978).
Summer baseball was in season. Coats had defeated Angier 11-5 in the first game of Area II Little League Tournament held in Erwin. Terry DiBella was the winning pitcher and J. Ferguson and Stacy Johnson, Jr. were leading hitters (Daily Record July 28, 1978).
What an amazing last Sunday and Thursday at the Coats Museum. We had a descendant of Richard Ryals drop by the museum with a couple of her friends. She is the granddaughter of the late Theddy Ryals who was a popular merchant in Coats whom I recently wrote about in the column, but Teresa R. Turnage had no idea of her connection to Richard Ryals who had owned much land in the Erwin area. How impressed she will be when she has a chance to go through the museum’s Ryals genealogy. We enjoyed a second visit from Vickie Stewart Blow from Dunn as she shared additional information on her Stewart Line.
It is really such a small world as we saw when a former highway patrolman from Raleigh toured the museum and shared that his family was connected to the Strickland clan but most interesting was that Ralph Denning was visiting the museum and he discovered that the gentleman’s son and his son work at the same fire station in Raleigh.
How blessed I felt to have two of my first students visit the museum on Thursday. Dana Coats Byrd, a descendant of Preacher Tom Coats, gave a memorial for Mrs. Belle Williams who was Dana’s Grandmother Myrtle Nordan Coats’ dear friend at the Senior Center. Dana always lights up the museum with her joyous spirit.
Susan Hawley Cannady, daughter of Principal Joe Hawley and former Triton High English who currently teaches English Comp at Campbell University, honored the memory of her brother Joey Hawley with a memorial plaque in the Kress and Nell Penny Williams Exhibit Hall. Thank you goes to Susan for remembering her much loved brother.
Thank you to all our special donors who make a difference in the life of the museum. A special thank you also goes to Preston “Jack” Johnson as he endures the intolerable heat of summer to ensure that the museum grounds look loved for our many visitors.
In 1978, there were ten words and phrases that were very popular. Read a few to see if you recall hearing or saying them. “Boat people” referred to the Indochinese refugees from Communism. “Off the wall” appeared to be a squash/handball term that became a description for the odd and unusual. ” “Moi” from the mouth of Miss Piggy, this French pronoun became a term of vanity. “Hot tubbing” was what one did in a hot tub, formerly known as soaking. “Intelligent typewriter” was when word processing met the old technology. Were there computers in 1978? Recall from an earlier column that IBM had introduced a 64,000-bit memory chip.
There are many people in the Coats community who have warm memories of Melvin, Thessie and Dorsey Daniel. Godly neighbors, quick sense of humor, family oriented and hardworking were only a few of their characteristics. In June of 1978, death robbed the community of another Daniel to carry on this family’s characteristics. Melvin Matt Daniel, 8, of Raleigh, had died on Monday at the NC Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill. His funeral services were held at the Wynn Funeral Home Chapel with burial at Montlawn Memorial Park. His mother, Mrs. Ann Critcher Daniel, and his father, Dorsey Wade Daniel, Sr., survived him. His siblings were Wade and Alex Daniel and Danette Ouber and Anna Daniel .Mrs. Thessie Daniel was his paternal grandmother while Mrs. Tempie Denning was the great-grandmother (Daily Record June 20, 1978).
“Hello World” to the son of Danny and Vickie Byrd Glover. He was born at BJMH on June 20. Mrs. Vada Glover and Mr. and Mrs. Ed Byrd were the grandparents (Daily Record June 22, 1978).
The Coats High Class of 1938 commemorated its 40th year. The class members met at Howard Johnson’s Restaurant in Dunn. Mrs. Chester (Edna) Ennis was in charge of the arrangements. Dr. and Mrs. Norman A. (Mildred Harmon) Wiggins , Mr. and Mrs. Charles (Annie Ruth Wood) Turlington, Mr. and Mrs. Earl Stewart, Mr. and Mrs. A.K. Gunter, Mr. and Mrs. Homer Williams, Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Stewart, Mr. and Mrs. John L. Sorrell, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Thurman Godwin, Mrs. Lottie Gregory Lewis, Mrs. Ruby Johnson McLamb, Mrs. Gretchen Wick, Mrs. Violette Godwin and Mrs. Ella Footman, a former teacher, attended the event (Daily Record June 22, 1978).
Dr. Donald and Dr. Ann Moore attended the State Democratic Convention in Raleigh where Dr. Ann Moore, a talented vocalist, sang the “Star Spangled Banner” to open the convention (Daily Record June 26, 1978).
Elsie Darlene West, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse West, Jr., was to marry Lynwood Keith Parker, son of Mr. and Mrs. William H. Parker of Four Oaks (Daily Record June 27, 1978).
One of the favorite stores that my dad patronized was in Benson. The store was the Walmart for many farmers for decades. To young children it was a candy store around Christmas time. This was the place that had candy by the bushel baskets and parents would go there to purchase large bags of it to stuff the Christmas stockings.
There were yellow, pink, chocolate and vanilla bonbons that seemed as large as golf balls to little tots. There could be found square coconut candies in similar colors and flavors. One can never forget the large clusters of chocolate covered peanuts and gelatin orange slices or large multi-flavored gum drops. These are not to be confused with the smaller ones that children used to decorate the hog thorn bush twigs to make miniature Christmas trees for table tops.
Chocolate drops filled with creamy white filling looked like little mountains. Some of you might remember the ribbon colored hard candies or the seeded raisins in boxes covered in cellophane. Even boxed dried dates were sold. English walnuts, Brazil nuts, apples, oranges and tangerines were added to all the stockings, or did you have an old box to be filled by old St. Nick?
I do know that Mr. Ralph Medlin was a family favorite; they grew up with my mom in the Elevation Township. I was sent to Medlin and Dorman’s as a teenager to pick up things that Dad needed on the farm and he did not want to leave the field to make the trip. Somehow I never liked or felt comfortable doing that chore for my dad. I felt that was a boy or man’s store but how times have changed.
Mr. Ralph Medlin died in the UNC Hospitals exactly five years after my mother. Ralph was the son of Daniel and Fannie Grimes Medlin. He had married Nora Mae Dorman and they were parents of Dan and Harold Medlin. Mrs. Ruth Stewart of rural Coats and Mrs. Belle Bailey of Bailey’s Crossroads were his sisters. Mr. Medlin was a distinguished merchant and leader in the Benson community. He was one of the owners of Santa’s supermarket and most of us did not know that until age robbed us of a Christmas fantasy (Daily Record June 29, 1978).
Prior to school coming to a close at Coats, Lisa Fuquay was recognized by the Coats School faculty as the “Student of the Year” for which she received a large engraved trophy. Lisa was also awarded the English and Beta Club Scholarship Awards (Daily Record June 29, 1978).
Miss Versie Carter of Coats was crowned Miss Harnett County Indian Princess. She sang for her talent (Daily Record July 3, 1978). What a beautiful student she was of mine.
Miss Carol Hawley, a sophomore at Coats High, had served as a page for Governor Jim Hunt. Carol was also helping to plan the new consolidated school’s English Department (Daily Record July 6, 1978).
Question –why did we not have a consolidated school in the Coats, Erwin, Dunn area until 1985.
It was a sad time at the Trogden household in July. David, 15, had drowned while swimming in the Cape Fear River. Larry Ammons had tried unsuccessfully to save David. Young David was the son of David and Sandra Poole Trodgen (Daily Record July 10, 1978).
I don’t remember David’s drowning but I do have very distinct memories of Sandra. She was a very organized lady and could get things done with such perfection. She always helped with her 1961 class reunions and would have a very detailed class reunion booklet containing all the addresses and current info for her classmates. My last memory of Sandra was when the Coats Museum was raffling off a 1998 Buick to raise money for the Coats Museum. When she heard about the raffle, she rushed home from Raleigh to meet the deadline to buy tickets. Her Poole ancestors have lived in the Coats area for many generations. Sadly, Sandra died a few months ago.
The Rev. Ronald L. Thompson had assumed his duties as pastor of the Lord’s Temple PFW Baptist Church (Daily Record July 13, 1978). Where was this church?
I do know that Mrs. Doris Bowden Tart had died on Saturday. The lady from near the Bailey’s Crossroads area had her services held at Prospect Church and Cemetery. Her husband was Lawrence Tart and sons were Mike, Mark, Jim and Jonathan Tart. Mrs. Bessie Bowden was her mother and siblings were Haywood, D.F., Jack, Sherrill and Harold, Mrs. Lucille Steele and Mrs. Pat (?) Denning. Some may recall that Mrs. Edna Baker and Mrs. Gertrude Wright were half-siblings (Daily Record July 17, 1978).
Another lady from Coats had died but little information was reported other than she was Mrs. Martha Faulkner, 63, who had died on Wednesday and was survived by two sons (Daily Record July 27, 1978).
Happy Birthday was in order for Donald Jones of Coats who was celebrating his 30th birthday (Daily Record July 27, 1978).
Summer baseball was in season. Coats had defeated Angier 11-5 in the first game of Area II Little League Tournament held in Erwin. Terry DiBella was the winning pitcher and J. Ferguson and Stacy Johnson, Jr. were leading hitters (Daily Record July 28, 1978).
What an amazing last Sunday and Thursday at the Coats Museum. We had a descendant of Richard Ryals drop by the museum with a couple of her friends. She is the granddaughter of the late Theddy Ryals who was a popular merchant in Coats whom I recently wrote about in the column, but Teresa R. Turnage had no idea of her connection to Richard Ryals who had owned much land in the Erwin area. How impressed she will be when she has a chance to go through the museum’s Ryals genealogy. We enjoyed a second visit from Vickie Stewart Blow from Dunn as she shared additional information on her Stewart Line.
It is really such a small world as we saw when a former highway patrolman from Raleigh toured the museum and shared that his family was connected to the Strickland clan but most interesting was that Ralph Denning was visiting the museum and he discovered that the gentleman’s son and his son work at the same fire station in Raleigh.
How blessed I felt to have two of my first students visit the museum on Thursday. Dana Coats Byrd, a descendant of Preacher Tom Coats, gave a memorial for Mrs. Belle Williams who was Dana’s Grandmother Myrtle Nordan Coats’ dear friend at the Senior Center. Dana always lights up the museum with her joyous spirit.
Susan Hawley Cannady, daughter of Principal Joe Hawley and former Triton High English who currently teaches English Comp at Campbell University, honored the memory of her brother Joey Hawley with a memorial plaque in the Kress and Nell Penny Williams Exhibit Hall. Thank you goes to Susan for remembering her much loved brother.
Thank you to all our special donors who make a difference in the life of the museum. A special thank you also goes to Preston “Jack” Johnson as he endures the intolerable heat of summer to ensure that the museum grounds look loved for our many visitors.