September 7, 2018 Coats Museum News
Who remembers the late Eugene Stewart? He is credited for instructing so many of Harnett County’s pilots. In fact in the museum’s Research Library, we have a notebook filled with pictures of pilots who grew up in Coats and many of them were taught by Eugene. He even made TV and paper coverage of his celebrating his eightieth birthday with doing 80 plus aerial loops. Eugene and Mary have three children and they are all licensed pilots. The June 8, 1972 edition of the Daily Record printed that Miss Lou Ann Stewart, 16, had earned her pilot license. She was the fourth in the family to fly a small aircraft. Her father Eugene had instructed her. Eugene had been flying since 1939 and instructing since 1941.Lou Ann’s brothers Don and Ken Stewart had preceded her in getting their pilot licenses. Lou Ann was a junior at Coats High School and had made her solo flight on a Cessna 130 from the Erwin Airport.
In that same edition of the Daily Record, it was printed that Mrs. Reba Frances Parrish of Route 3, Benson had died on Wednesday at Rex Hospital. Her services were at Rose Funeral Home Chapel and burial was in the Johnson Memorial Church Cemetery. Surviving were her husband, Roscoe Parrish; two daughters, Mrs. Carolyn Matthews and Miss Teresa Parrish; her stepmother, Mrs. Evelyn Barnes; her four sisters-Mrs. Pearl Ingraham, Mrs. Clydia Wilmoth, Mrs. Marie Clayton and Mrs. Etta Cobb. Her two brothers were W.E. and D.O. Barnes.
Another Grove family touched by death was that of Herbert (Red) Causey. The seventy-two year-old man had died on Monday. Surviving him were four daughters-Mrs. Inez Poole, Mrs. Bonnie Roberts, Mrs. Dorothy Fox, and Mrs. Mary Moffitt. His son was Herbert Causey, Jr. Mrs. Maude Dickerson of Butner was his sister. Services were at the Coats Baptist Church where Rev. Howard Beard officiated. He was interred at the Lakeside Memorial Gardens (Daily Record June 14, 1972).
Gustave M. Stewart has been recorded in history as being one of the early transporters of students to the Coats School Grove District #3 from the Turlington Crossroads Grove District #4 area. He made a frame for his two mule wagon and covered it with black cloth for protection against the elements. A door was at the rear of the wagon. A long bench on both side accommodated 18 to 20 children who rode the “jitney”. There was a large gong that Mr. Stewart rang as he approached a rider’s home to announce his arrival. “Maude” and Nell”, the two large mules, began their trip at 7:00 each morning and arrived at school in time for the riders to meet the 8:30 tardy bell. What do you think Mr. Stewart was paid for this transportation opportunity? It is recorded that he was paid forty dollars each month for his transportation system. How long did Gustave Stewart operate this transportation system? His daughter Brookie Stewart shared with the Coats Reunion Project in 1985 that Gustave carried students for one year and had likely resulted in the Turlington District #4 enlarging to a five-room school (Sorrell, Together We Leave 1985).
You may be wondering what does this have to do with the news that we are revisiting in 1972. The Daily Record, February 5, 1972 edition reported that Cora Turlington Stewart, widow of Gustave Stewart, had died at the age of 93. She had died at Rex Hospital on Monday. Her funeral services were held on Wednesday afternoon from the home. Survivors were two daughters-Miss Brookie Stewart and Mrs. Vara Hardee and a daughter-in-law, Mary E. Stewart. (Mary Stewart taught school at Coats School where she retired.)
A note of interest about Cora Turlington Stewart is that Mark Valsame has Cora Turlington Stewart’s death date on July 3, 1972 in the Stewart Genealogy Section of the Heritage of Coats, NC. Cora was the sister to Stuart Turlington and Mary Turlington Bain (Oscar). Cora, Mary and Stuart were children of Devereaux Turlington, son of Andrew Jackson Turlington (son of Willis Turlington who bought the 2300 acres of land at Turlington Crossroads from the Dushee Shaw heirs). Nancy Isabella Turlington, Devereuax ‘s sister, married James Thomas Coats, the town’s founder.
That family’s genealogy covers many years and most of us know several of the descendants from the Stewart and Turlington families, but how many of us know when Coats had its first Blue Grass Festival? According to the June 27, 1972 edition of the Daily Record, it was in 1972 and J.D. Norris was spokesman for the event.
A death caused by an automobile accident touched a man from Coats. Mrs. Florine Stone Champion had died near Dillon, SC and was the wife of Seaton Champion of Route 1, Coats (Daily Record July 3, 1972).
We have often been asked why Coats School was once referred to as Coats Union School. Was it when all the other schools in Grove Township consolidated with Coats? The large brick Oakdale School on the Old Fairground Road was the last school to shut its doors and send its students to Coats in 1950.
Most of our first schools in Grove were one and two room buildings with the exception being Oakdale, Turlington and Coats. The first school in Coats was one room and was located in the middle of a cotton patch according to a picture we have in our Research Library. We tease that if students misbehaved, the teacher could send them out to pick a sack of cotton. However, that was surely not the case because most of the schools delayed school openings until the crops were out of the fields. Coats had a 5 room school and a two room edition in 1914 which is the Research Library and Theater Room at the Coats Museum. When school trucks came on the scene and the 1920 brick building opened, parents whose children attended the country schools-Penny, Sorrell, Parker, Gregory, and Turlington-one by one asked for their children to attend Coats School and eventually they closed and all consolidated with Coats.
In 1972 consolidation was a hot issue. Plans were being studied for the construction of three new high schools. A bond issue to finance the schools was to be submitted to the voters on October 3, 1972. Did it pass? I do know that the marriage of Kay Lewis and Charles R. Stephenson took place at the Coats Church of God (Daily Record July 12, 1972).
The Alphin Brothers Portion Pak Meat Plant was a big and rapidly growing enterprise. The brothers were the sons of Lula Sorrell Alphin who grew up in the Sorrell School area on Red Hill Church Road (Daily Record July 21, 1972).
Sharon LaRue Poole and Lynwood Thornton had been married on June 15th at the Coats United Methodist Church at a 4:00 candlelight service (Daily Record July 31, 1972).
Harry H. Halstead had died in Lumberton at the Veterans Hospital. He was the husband of Doris Johnson Halstead, a Coats native. Other survivors were two children –Bill Halstead and Susan Halstead. Mrs. Doris Halstead was niece of Mrs. Mary Penny Coats. Was she the niece who had lived with Mrs. Coats along with her own daughter, Louise Coats, mentioned in an earlier column?
The Lions Club had planned a light bulb sale. The club president was Hayes Beasley and the group had met at Luke’s Restaurant in Coats (Daily Record Aug. 1, 1972).
Death is always a sad event and the death of a young person is often hard to understand. Such was the case when the students at Coats High School were saddened to learn that William Lee Gaskin, 16 year-old Coats student, had drowned at Howard’s Pond (Daily Record Aug. 2, 1972).
Jim Holshouser had visited the Charles Ennis farm to see tobacco harvested and to campaign for governor of NC (Daily Record Aug. 8, 1972).Charles Ennis of Coats was appointed to the FHA Committee and Ronald Coats, mayor of Coats, had attended a Democratic meeting in Lillington (Daily Record Aug. 16, 1972).
Good news came to the Graymon Powell household. Coats High senior Marc Powell had competed for a scholarship (Daily Record Aug. 18, 1972). Have any of you had a chance to reconnect with Marc and Jean since they have retired to his family’s home place. They have renovated the place and it looks great. He has really had an interesting life after graduation.
Dudley Langdon dropped into the museum to share a collection of 1930 Progressive Farmer papers for the volunteers to evaluate and a large, black clothes bag with Coats High School in yellow letters printed upon it. He thinks it might have been a fundraiser items for the school. Does anyone remember such a fundraiser? A big thank also you goes to Norman Coe who donated many of his military items that we look forward to adding to our collection from the Korean to the Vietnam Wars. Norman always has interesting stories to share with the volunteers.
Visit our coatsmuseum.com website to learn more about the Coats area history from old records. The Coats Museum News from earlier Daily Records is also on the webpage.
Who remembers the late Eugene Stewart? He is credited for instructing so many of Harnett County’s pilots. In fact in the museum’s Research Library, we have a notebook filled with pictures of pilots who grew up in Coats and many of them were taught by Eugene. He even made TV and paper coverage of his celebrating his eightieth birthday with doing 80 plus aerial loops. Eugene and Mary have three children and they are all licensed pilots. The June 8, 1972 edition of the Daily Record printed that Miss Lou Ann Stewart, 16, had earned her pilot license. She was the fourth in the family to fly a small aircraft. Her father Eugene had instructed her. Eugene had been flying since 1939 and instructing since 1941.Lou Ann’s brothers Don and Ken Stewart had preceded her in getting their pilot licenses. Lou Ann was a junior at Coats High School and had made her solo flight on a Cessna 130 from the Erwin Airport.
In that same edition of the Daily Record, it was printed that Mrs. Reba Frances Parrish of Route 3, Benson had died on Wednesday at Rex Hospital. Her services were at Rose Funeral Home Chapel and burial was in the Johnson Memorial Church Cemetery. Surviving were her husband, Roscoe Parrish; two daughters, Mrs. Carolyn Matthews and Miss Teresa Parrish; her stepmother, Mrs. Evelyn Barnes; her four sisters-Mrs. Pearl Ingraham, Mrs. Clydia Wilmoth, Mrs. Marie Clayton and Mrs. Etta Cobb. Her two brothers were W.E. and D.O. Barnes.
Another Grove family touched by death was that of Herbert (Red) Causey. The seventy-two year-old man had died on Monday. Surviving him were four daughters-Mrs. Inez Poole, Mrs. Bonnie Roberts, Mrs. Dorothy Fox, and Mrs. Mary Moffitt. His son was Herbert Causey, Jr. Mrs. Maude Dickerson of Butner was his sister. Services were at the Coats Baptist Church where Rev. Howard Beard officiated. He was interred at the Lakeside Memorial Gardens (Daily Record June 14, 1972).
Gustave M. Stewart has been recorded in history as being one of the early transporters of students to the Coats School Grove District #3 from the Turlington Crossroads Grove District #4 area. He made a frame for his two mule wagon and covered it with black cloth for protection against the elements. A door was at the rear of the wagon. A long bench on both side accommodated 18 to 20 children who rode the “jitney”. There was a large gong that Mr. Stewart rang as he approached a rider’s home to announce his arrival. “Maude” and Nell”, the two large mules, began their trip at 7:00 each morning and arrived at school in time for the riders to meet the 8:30 tardy bell. What do you think Mr. Stewart was paid for this transportation opportunity? It is recorded that he was paid forty dollars each month for his transportation system. How long did Gustave Stewart operate this transportation system? His daughter Brookie Stewart shared with the Coats Reunion Project in 1985 that Gustave carried students for one year and had likely resulted in the Turlington District #4 enlarging to a five-room school (Sorrell, Together We Leave 1985).
You may be wondering what does this have to do with the news that we are revisiting in 1972. The Daily Record, February 5, 1972 edition reported that Cora Turlington Stewart, widow of Gustave Stewart, had died at the age of 93. She had died at Rex Hospital on Monday. Her funeral services were held on Wednesday afternoon from the home. Survivors were two daughters-Miss Brookie Stewart and Mrs. Vara Hardee and a daughter-in-law, Mary E. Stewart. (Mary Stewart taught school at Coats School where she retired.)
A note of interest about Cora Turlington Stewart is that Mark Valsame has Cora Turlington Stewart’s death date on July 3, 1972 in the Stewart Genealogy Section of the Heritage of Coats, NC. Cora was the sister to Stuart Turlington and Mary Turlington Bain (Oscar). Cora, Mary and Stuart were children of Devereaux Turlington, son of Andrew Jackson Turlington (son of Willis Turlington who bought the 2300 acres of land at Turlington Crossroads from the Dushee Shaw heirs). Nancy Isabella Turlington, Devereuax ‘s sister, married James Thomas Coats, the town’s founder.
That family’s genealogy covers many years and most of us know several of the descendants from the Stewart and Turlington families, but how many of us know when Coats had its first Blue Grass Festival? According to the June 27, 1972 edition of the Daily Record, it was in 1972 and J.D. Norris was spokesman for the event.
A death caused by an automobile accident touched a man from Coats. Mrs. Florine Stone Champion had died near Dillon, SC and was the wife of Seaton Champion of Route 1, Coats (Daily Record July 3, 1972).
We have often been asked why Coats School was once referred to as Coats Union School. Was it when all the other schools in Grove Township consolidated with Coats? The large brick Oakdale School on the Old Fairground Road was the last school to shut its doors and send its students to Coats in 1950.
Most of our first schools in Grove were one and two room buildings with the exception being Oakdale, Turlington and Coats. The first school in Coats was one room and was located in the middle of a cotton patch according to a picture we have in our Research Library. We tease that if students misbehaved, the teacher could send them out to pick a sack of cotton. However, that was surely not the case because most of the schools delayed school openings until the crops were out of the fields. Coats had a 5 room school and a two room edition in 1914 which is the Research Library and Theater Room at the Coats Museum. When school trucks came on the scene and the 1920 brick building opened, parents whose children attended the country schools-Penny, Sorrell, Parker, Gregory, and Turlington-one by one asked for their children to attend Coats School and eventually they closed and all consolidated with Coats.
In 1972 consolidation was a hot issue. Plans were being studied for the construction of three new high schools. A bond issue to finance the schools was to be submitted to the voters on October 3, 1972. Did it pass? I do know that the marriage of Kay Lewis and Charles R. Stephenson took place at the Coats Church of God (Daily Record July 12, 1972).
The Alphin Brothers Portion Pak Meat Plant was a big and rapidly growing enterprise. The brothers were the sons of Lula Sorrell Alphin who grew up in the Sorrell School area on Red Hill Church Road (Daily Record July 21, 1972).
Sharon LaRue Poole and Lynwood Thornton had been married on June 15th at the Coats United Methodist Church at a 4:00 candlelight service (Daily Record July 31, 1972).
Harry H. Halstead had died in Lumberton at the Veterans Hospital. He was the husband of Doris Johnson Halstead, a Coats native. Other survivors were two children –Bill Halstead and Susan Halstead. Mrs. Doris Halstead was niece of Mrs. Mary Penny Coats. Was she the niece who had lived with Mrs. Coats along with her own daughter, Louise Coats, mentioned in an earlier column?
The Lions Club had planned a light bulb sale. The club president was Hayes Beasley and the group had met at Luke’s Restaurant in Coats (Daily Record Aug. 1, 1972).
Death is always a sad event and the death of a young person is often hard to understand. Such was the case when the students at Coats High School were saddened to learn that William Lee Gaskin, 16 year-old Coats student, had drowned at Howard’s Pond (Daily Record Aug. 2, 1972).
Jim Holshouser had visited the Charles Ennis farm to see tobacco harvested and to campaign for governor of NC (Daily Record Aug. 8, 1972).Charles Ennis of Coats was appointed to the FHA Committee and Ronald Coats, mayor of Coats, had attended a Democratic meeting in Lillington (Daily Record Aug. 16, 1972).
Good news came to the Graymon Powell household. Coats High senior Marc Powell had competed for a scholarship (Daily Record Aug. 18, 1972). Have any of you had a chance to reconnect with Marc and Jean since they have retired to his family’s home place. They have renovated the place and it looks great. He has really had an interesting life after graduation.
Dudley Langdon dropped into the museum to share a collection of 1930 Progressive Farmer papers for the volunteers to evaluate and a large, black clothes bag with Coats High School in yellow letters printed upon it. He thinks it might have been a fundraiser items for the school. Does anyone remember such a fundraiser? A big thank also you goes to Norman Coe who donated many of his military items that we look forward to adding to our collection from the Korean to the Vietnam Wars. Norman always has interesting stories to share with the volunteers.
Visit our coatsmuseum.com website to learn more about the Coats area history from old records. The Coats Museum News from earlier Daily Records is also on the webpage.