May 26, 2017 Coats Museum News
The year was 1962 and the faces most likely to be on the cover of magazines in that year were John Glenn, Pope John XXIII, Tennessee Williams, Edward M. Kennedy, Jack Nicklaus, Billie Sol Estes, Sophia Loren and Maury Wills.
In the Coats area, names and faces in the news were those such as Vickie Lou Lee, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David Victor Lee, and William Seymour Taylor who were married in the Coats Baptist Church. Some older readers may recognize that William was the son of Mr. J. H. Taylor who was principal of Coats Grove #3 from 1924 until Mr. Owen Odum returned in 1929.
Miss Katie Yates, Coats primary grade teacher, was a patient at Rex Hospital. Other news coming out of Coats shared that Sybil Beasley had returned to Coats for the wedding of her friend Vickie Lee. Harold and Betty Ellen Dixon had visited their sister Gwendolyn Stewart in Winston Salem. Evangeline Stewart of Charlotte had visited her mom, Mrs. Myrtle Stewart. Miss Mary Ellen Johnson had visited her Aunt Ruby Johnson McLamb for a week. Miss Norma Lee Johnson had returned to East Carolina College for the summer school. Mrs. Paul Turlington and Mrs. Woodrow Langdon had attended the Home Makers Week at NC State. The family of Mrs. Willie W. Wood had met at Pine Crest Community Building to help Mrs. Wood celebrate her 72nd birthday (Daily Record June 27, 1962).
Gerald Hayes, Jr., was named the 1962 state winner of the FFA supervised farming contest. Hayes was cited for having a 4-year income of $26, 536 from supervised projects. From that amount, $14,000 was profit. He saved $3,754 and invested$5,000. He cultivated 6 crops including 5 acres of tobacco. He also had produced beef and swine. It sounds like Gerald has always been a hard worker. The museum has Gerald’s FFA jacket shadowed boxed in the museum along with the State FFA magazine showing Gerald as a state officer.
How many of you have handed or looped green tobacco from sun up to sun down or until the tobacco barns were filled? Do you remember the morning dew getting into your eyes as the tobacco leaves were flipped over the sticks or maybe you recall all that black tobacco gum that had to be rubbed off with sand or scrubbed off with homemade lye soap or some other store bought soaps?
How many of you were on the farm when the tobacco sewing machine came onto the scene? Jesse Ray Mann of Coats had purchased a “sewing machine that will stitch” the green leaves on the tobacco sticks ready to be put into the tobacco curing barns. The machine had cost around $2,200. It consisted of a long, wide conveyor belt with the sewing machine at the end that used a needle to stitch the tobacco leaves onto the wooden tobacco sticks (Daily Record June 29, 1962).
Now, let me pose many questions. Do you think farmers came from near and far to see this new fangled gadget? Wonder if the females who usually worked in tobacco during the summer worried about having no summer income to supplement the budget for school clothes and supplies?
What and who was required to work this new invention? Who put the sticks onto this sewing machine and was the needle threaded before each stick was sown? Were the “handers” now called “placers” since they now placed tobacco onto a conveyor belt? Did they have a risk of the needle sewing their fingers? Where was the machine placed on the farm? Did it require electricity to move the conveyer belt and needle? Was the machine placed in the door of the barn by the farmer so the sticks of tobacco could be hung on the tobacco tiers? How did the placement of the machine effect the placement of the tobacco sleds that carried the green tobacco from the fields? Did the workers make the same money as those who worked the old way? Could more tobacco be barned in a day with the sewing machine? Last question- how many years were the sewing machines used before being replaced by some other means of barning tobacco?
This I do know. Mr. and Mrs. Fred Strickland were parents of a baby daughter who was born on June 27th. The mother was the former Hazelene Baker (Daily Record June 29, 1962).
A new school term had begun with J.C. Hawley as principal and Mildred Avery as his secretary. G.T. Proffit was the county superintendent. Mr. R. E. (Buck) Turlington, Mrs. O.K. Keene, Mr. D.E. (Daywood) Langdon, Mr. Mack Reid Hudson, and Mr. Herbert L. Johnson served on the Coats School Board. The Coats PTA officers were President Julia Stewart, Vice President Agnes Parrish, Secretary Virginia Penny and Treasurer Mary Cole.
The office assistants were Edna Andrews, Ralph Denning, Lynda Stewart, Faye Byrd, Wanda Kay Pollard, Ronald Stewart, Sue Wiggins, Linda Stone, Jimmy Gregory, Pat Cook, Joan Ivey, Gwen Flowers and Brenda Sorrell. Did Don Stewart and Ronald Coats also help out in the principal’s office?
This I do know is that the Echoing Memories of 1963 recorded that the seniors of 1963 had entered school in 1951. There were forty-eight anxious little ones who would climb the mountain of learning. They saw Ralph Denning and Faye Byrd serve as freshman marshals. The class had selected the “Rendezvous of the Stars” as their prom theme. They chose a blue stone with the old English “C” for their class ring. The group worked to raise money to finance their New York trip.
The yearbook staff found Faye Byrd working as editor-in-chief and Lynda Stewart as business manager. Those helping on the editorial staff were Sandra Wolf, Ronald Coats, Johnny Malone, Edna Andrews, Brenda Sorrell, Helen Norris, Waeford Pope and Bruce Faircloth, Those assisting on the business staff were Don Stewart, C.T. Clayton, Nesbit Fleming, Gwen Flowers, Ralph Denning, Thomas Stephenson, Wanda Pollard, Paul Collier, Dorothy Lawrence, and Dianne Denning. Ronald Coats and Sandra Wolf headed the “Spotlight.” H.L. Sorrell and Marie Salmon were sponsors for the groups.
Homecoming Queen was Teresa Byrd who was escorted by G.R. Stephenson. The FFA Sweetheart was Linda Ennis. Her court was made up of Sandra Flowers and Glenda Flowers. Mr. and Mrs. Personality for 1963 were selected by the faculty and the two students were R. Faye Byrd and Johnny Malone. The senior class picked Ronald Coats as class president, Larry Rose as vice president, and Edna Andrews as secretary. Co-treasurers were Wanda Pollard and C.T. Clayton. Lynda Stewart reported all class activities and Johnny Malone conducted assembly programs as the president of the Student Council. Don Stewart and Larry Byrd served as the other two officers.
The officers of the Beta Honor Society were Ralph Denning, Johnny Malone, Lynda Stewart, Billy Matthews, Don Whittington, R. Faye Byrd, and Dwight Keen. H.L. Sorrell as the sponsor chaperoned the group to the Beta Convention. The FHA officers were Lynda Stewart, Ann Ennis, Becky Ennis, Sandra Flowers, Barbara Strickland, Gayle Stewart, Sandra Wolf, Edna Andrews and Linda Ennis.
Thomas Stephenson headed up the FFA with help from his officers-Don Whittington, Larry Byrd, Sherrill Davis, Jimmy Gregory, Jerry Ferrell, Gary Denning, and G.R. Stephenson. Don O’Quinn and M.O. Phillips were advisors. The marshals were Chief Don Whittington, Sandra Wolf, Julia Taylor, R. Faye Byrd, Sandra Flowers, Linda Barefoot, and Dwight Keen (Echoing Memories 1963).
Mark your calendar for Saturday morning, AUGUST 5th, from 10-12 to attend a genealogy morning at the Coats Museum. If you are interested in updating your family’s genealogy by adding pictures, births, marriages, and deaths, the research library will be open while other families are invited to RESERVE a family table to share family records to start a family history. The attendees should contact older members of their families to help in preserving the family’s story. Genealogists Desi Campbell and Peggy Robinson will be on scene to help along with the museum volunteers.
The 2005 Coats Centennial Heritage Committee held several of these family genealogy days and was able to help families collect priceless information and pictures. Several of those families were the Ennis, Turlington, Dixon, Denning, Johnson Johnston, Sorrell, Godwin and countless families with connections to those families. The volunteers invite our locals to participate in this morning of family research.
We want to thank all who gave to the museum and endowment to honor Becky Adams on her birthday. The Thursday museum volunteers said their farewells with an ice cream fest to wish Kenny Cole the best of luck in his new job in Jamestown in Guilford County where history runs deep. Since 2010, as town manager, Kenny was always a supportive face at museum events on the Heritage Square.
One of our readers suggested that the Coats Museum phone number be mentioned in the article. Here goes—on Thursdays and Sundays-the number is 910 897-2525. Other days, a volunteer will answer at 897-4175, 897-5611 and 919 894-5017. Visit the museum via coatsmuseum.com.
The year was 1962 and the faces most likely to be on the cover of magazines in that year were John Glenn, Pope John XXIII, Tennessee Williams, Edward M. Kennedy, Jack Nicklaus, Billie Sol Estes, Sophia Loren and Maury Wills.
In the Coats area, names and faces in the news were those such as Vickie Lou Lee, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David Victor Lee, and William Seymour Taylor who were married in the Coats Baptist Church. Some older readers may recognize that William was the son of Mr. J. H. Taylor who was principal of Coats Grove #3 from 1924 until Mr. Owen Odum returned in 1929.
Miss Katie Yates, Coats primary grade teacher, was a patient at Rex Hospital. Other news coming out of Coats shared that Sybil Beasley had returned to Coats for the wedding of her friend Vickie Lee. Harold and Betty Ellen Dixon had visited their sister Gwendolyn Stewart in Winston Salem. Evangeline Stewart of Charlotte had visited her mom, Mrs. Myrtle Stewart. Miss Mary Ellen Johnson had visited her Aunt Ruby Johnson McLamb for a week. Miss Norma Lee Johnson had returned to East Carolina College for the summer school. Mrs. Paul Turlington and Mrs. Woodrow Langdon had attended the Home Makers Week at NC State. The family of Mrs. Willie W. Wood had met at Pine Crest Community Building to help Mrs. Wood celebrate her 72nd birthday (Daily Record June 27, 1962).
Gerald Hayes, Jr., was named the 1962 state winner of the FFA supervised farming contest. Hayes was cited for having a 4-year income of $26, 536 from supervised projects. From that amount, $14,000 was profit. He saved $3,754 and invested$5,000. He cultivated 6 crops including 5 acres of tobacco. He also had produced beef and swine. It sounds like Gerald has always been a hard worker. The museum has Gerald’s FFA jacket shadowed boxed in the museum along with the State FFA magazine showing Gerald as a state officer.
How many of you have handed or looped green tobacco from sun up to sun down or until the tobacco barns were filled? Do you remember the morning dew getting into your eyes as the tobacco leaves were flipped over the sticks or maybe you recall all that black tobacco gum that had to be rubbed off with sand or scrubbed off with homemade lye soap or some other store bought soaps?
How many of you were on the farm when the tobacco sewing machine came onto the scene? Jesse Ray Mann of Coats had purchased a “sewing machine that will stitch” the green leaves on the tobacco sticks ready to be put into the tobacco curing barns. The machine had cost around $2,200. It consisted of a long, wide conveyor belt with the sewing machine at the end that used a needle to stitch the tobacco leaves onto the wooden tobacco sticks (Daily Record June 29, 1962).
Now, let me pose many questions. Do you think farmers came from near and far to see this new fangled gadget? Wonder if the females who usually worked in tobacco during the summer worried about having no summer income to supplement the budget for school clothes and supplies?
What and who was required to work this new invention? Who put the sticks onto this sewing machine and was the needle threaded before each stick was sown? Were the “handers” now called “placers” since they now placed tobacco onto a conveyor belt? Did they have a risk of the needle sewing their fingers? Where was the machine placed on the farm? Did it require electricity to move the conveyer belt and needle? Was the machine placed in the door of the barn by the farmer so the sticks of tobacco could be hung on the tobacco tiers? How did the placement of the machine effect the placement of the tobacco sleds that carried the green tobacco from the fields? Did the workers make the same money as those who worked the old way? Could more tobacco be barned in a day with the sewing machine? Last question- how many years were the sewing machines used before being replaced by some other means of barning tobacco?
This I do know. Mr. and Mrs. Fred Strickland were parents of a baby daughter who was born on June 27th. The mother was the former Hazelene Baker (Daily Record June 29, 1962).
A new school term had begun with J.C. Hawley as principal and Mildred Avery as his secretary. G.T. Proffit was the county superintendent. Mr. R. E. (Buck) Turlington, Mrs. O.K. Keene, Mr. D.E. (Daywood) Langdon, Mr. Mack Reid Hudson, and Mr. Herbert L. Johnson served on the Coats School Board. The Coats PTA officers were President Julia Stewart, Vice President Agnes Parrish, Secretary Virginia Penny and Treasurer Mary Cole.
The office assistants were Edna Andrews, Ralph Denning, Lynda Stewart, Faye Byrd, Wanda Kay Pollard, Ronald Stewart, Sue Wiggins, Linda Stone, Jimmy Gregory, Pat Cook, Joan Ivey, Gwen Flowers and Brenda Sorrell. Did Don Stewart and Ronald Coats also help out in the principal’s office?
This I do know is that the Echoing Memories of 1963 recorded that the seniors of 1963 had entered school in 1951. There were forty-eight anxious little ones who would climb the mountain of learning. They saw Ralph Denning and Faye Byrd serve as freshman marshals. The class had selected the “Rendezvous of the Stars” as their prom theme. They chose a blue stone with the old English “C” for their class ring. The group worked to raise money to finance their New York trip.
The yearbook staff found Faye Byrd working as editor-in-chief and Lynda Stewart as business manager. Those helping on the editorial staff were Sandra Wolf, Ronald Coats, Johnny Malone, Edna Andrews, Brenda Sorrell, Helen Norris, Waeford Pope and Bruce Faircloth, Those assisting on the business staff were Don Stewart, C.T. Clayton, Nesbit Fleming, Gwen Flowers, Ralph Denning, Thomas Stephenson, Wanda Pollard, Paul Collier, Dorothy Lawrence, and Dianne Denning. Ronald Coats and Sandra Wolf headed the “Spotlight.” H.L. Sorrell and Marie Salmon were sponsors for the groups.
Homecoming Queen was Teresa Byrd who was escorted by G.R. Stephenson. The FFA Sweetheart was Linda Ennis. Her court was made up of Sandra Flowers and Glenda Flowers. Mr. and Mrs. Personality for 1963 were selected by the faculty and the two students were R. Faye Byrd and Johnny Malone. The senior class picked Ronald Coats as class president, Larry Rose as vice president, and Edna Andrews as secretary. Co-treasurers were Wanda Pollard and C.T. Clayton. Lynda Stewart reported all class activities and Johnny Malone conducted assembly programs as the president of the Student Council. Don Stewart and Larry Byrd served as the other two officers.
The officers of the Beta Honor Society were Ralph Denning, Johnny Malone, Lynda Stewart, Billy Matthews, Don Whittington, R. Faye Byrd, and Dwight Keen. H.L. Sorrell as the sponsor chaperoned the group to the Beta Convention. The FHA officers were Lynda Stewart, Ann Ennis, Becky Ennis, Sandra Flowers, Barbara Strickland, Gayle Stewart, Sandra Wolf, Edna Andrews and Linda Ennis.
Thomas Stephenson headed up the FFA with help from his officers-Don Whittington, Larry Byrd, Sherrill Davis, Jimmy Gregory, Jerry Ferrell, Gary Denning, and G.R. Stephenson. Don O’Quinn and M.O. Phillips were advisors. The marshals were Chief Don Whittington, Sandra Wolf, Julia Taylor, R. Faye Byrd, Sandra Flowers, Linda Barefoot, and Dwight Keen (Echoing Memories 1963).
Mark your calendar for Saturday morning, AUGUST 5th, from 10-12 to attend a genealogy morning at the Coats Museum. If you are interested in updating your family’s genealogy by adding pictures, births, marriages, and deaths, the research library will be open while other families are invited to RESERVE a family table to share family records to start a family history. The attendees should contact older members of their families to help in preserving the family’s story. Genealogists Desi Campbell and Peggy Robinson will be on scene to help along with the museum volunteers.
The 2005 Coats Centennial Heritage Committee held several of these family genealogy days and was able to help families collect priceless information and pictures. Several of those families were the Ennis, Turlington, Dixon, Denning, Johnson Johnston, Sorrell, Godwin and countless families with connections to those families. The volunteers invite our locals to participate in this morning of family research.
We want to thank all who gave to the museum and endowment to honor Becky Adams on her birthday. The Thursday museum volunteers said their farewells with an ice cream fest to wish Kenny Cole the best of luck in his new job in Jamestown in Guilford County where history runs deep. Since 2010, as town manager, Kenny was always a supportive face at museum events on the Heritage Square.
One of our readers suggested that the Coats Museum phone number be mentioned in the article. Here goes—on Thursdays and Sundays-the number is 910 897-2525. Other days, a volunteer will answer at 897-4175, 897-5611 and 919 894-5017. Visit the museum via coatsmuseum.com.