The NEW BERN
PUBLISHED WEEKLY
IN THE HEART OP
EASTERN NORTH
CAROLINA
Si Per Copy
VOLUME 2
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1959
NUMBER 34
Only a very small percentage of
the millions of Americans who ad
mired President Franklin D. Roose
velt ever had the privilege of chat
ting informally with him.
One of the fortunate few was
Highway Patrolman Oscar Brock,
who works out of the New Bern
office and has covered the beat in
Pamlico county for years. Down
that way they’ll tell you they’ve
got the perfect patrolman, and ful
ly intend to keep him.
Brock was serving as a signal
man on the Battleship Iowa, when
FDR sailed from Norfblk, Va., for
a momentous conference abroad
with Winston Churchill and Joseph
Stalin. ■
The round trip to and from this
foreign rendezvous, counting the
time spent by Roosevelt in the con
ference, embraced 22 days. Brock’s
duties as a signalman placed him
in close proximity to the Presi
dent’s quarters, and he saw him
frequently.
“Mr. Roosevelt seemed to enjoy
his conversations with members of
the crew,” says the popular patrol
man. “As you know, he was as
sistant secretary of the Navy under
Josephus Daniels during World
War I. While he was on board our
vessel he displayed a lot of in
terest in the Iowa.”
“One day,” Brock recalls, “Roos
evelt was seated on the bridge with
his close friend and trusted advis
or, Harry Hopkins. The two were
reading. We were curious to know
the names of the books they had,
and I found out, with a pair of
binoculars I had -on the bridge
with me.”
It developed that Hopkins was
perusing a volume that dealt with
certain phases of a government re
port. On the other hand. President
Roosevelt who dearly loved mys
tery, stories was reading a novel
entitled “Murder Enters The Pic
ture.” Each of them—the President
and Hopkins—^was satisfying his
literary tastes, right smack in the
middle of the ocean.
Brock says that a torpedo fired
by, of all things, a practicing
American boat, came pretty close
to the bow of the Iowa and caused
quite a scare. It was suggested to
President Roosevelt that he retire
from the bridge, but he declined to
seek cover.
Another well known patrolman,
Lt. Tom Brown—once stationed in
New Bern but now at Greenville—
has pleasant memories of FDR too.
Brown came in contact with him
several times at Elizabeth City, Ra
leigh and Asheville.
Tom remembers Asheville best.
“It had been raining,” he says, “but
Roosevelt refused to don a rain
coat. He remarked that he ought
to be able to stand the weather if
the rest of the folks there could.
“Just as the President started to
make his speech, the sun broke
through and a beautiful rainbow
I formed over the mountains. It was
a majestic sight, and Roosevelt
made the most of it. He incorporat
ed it in the opening lines of his
address, saying with a solemn face
and a flourish of the hand—‘I see
a rainbow in the sky.’ ”
After Roosevelt’s death. Lieuten
ant Brown continued to play a part
in the protection afforded two oth
er Presidents, Truman and Eisen
hower. He was the key man locally
when Truman visited New Bern on
the Sunday following his election.
And he also took part in the strict
surveilance that was arranged for
Ike’s inauguration.
It’s a small world, and at the
last Presidential inauguration, the
man who gave Brown and others
their instructions in Washington
was New Bern’s own Captain John
Sullivan of Washington’s MetropoU
tan Police Force.
Before the day of the inaugura
tion, Sullivan and Brown had quite
a bull session discussing New Bern-
ians who were boyhood chums of
DREAM HOUSE-^Perhaps no dwelling in New Bern is more
admired than this one at Gull Harbor on East Front street.
Visitors to the city can thank Dr. Charles H. Ashford, who
had it moved, in poor repair, all the way across town and
restored from shabbiness to Rs present quaint and charm
ing loveliness. Talk about vision and ingenuity, the local
physician displayed plenty of it in this instance.—Photo by
Wilton Block.
New Bern Has a Great Deal
To Be Thankful for This Year
New Bernians may not fully ap
preciate the many blessings be
stowed upon them by God, but for
that matter very few people do.
Even so^ citizens of this pictures
que and 'oft-times backward first
State Capital seem to be, for the
most part, a fairly grateful lot as
they approach the annual observ
ance of Thanksgiving.
Dame Nature has spared us the
ravages of another devastating hur
ricane. And, considering the fact
that just one of the big blows here
in recent years did 15 million dol
lars damage, this alone is some
thing to open our collective hearts
in gratitude.
We have been saddened by the
passing of some of our nicest folks
—some by illness and others by
accidents. Giving up those who are
useful and beloved is never pleas
ant, but the important thing is liv
ing in such a manner that when
you come to die there will be a con
sciousness of real loss to the com
munity.
Major fires are happily absent
from our statistics for the year
that has elapsed since last Thanks
giving. There have no epidemics—
no great catastrophe of one sort dr
another. Any or all of these things
John’s and more recently friends
of Tom’s.
Incidentally, just before the in
auguration a crackpot in New York
threatened to assassinate Eisen
hower and disappeared. “In less
than 30 minutes,” says Brown, “ev
ery officer in Washington had a
photograph of the man.”
Knowing Presidents, or protect
ing them, is interesting business.
could have occurred, as they have
in other towns.
Economically speaking, business
could have been some better and
certainly much worse. The same
applies to agriculture—a vital seg
ment of Craven county’s liveli
hood. New Bernians should, if they
don’t, ever share the concern of
their rural neighbors for good
CRAVEN’S FINEST
crops and satisfactory prices for
those crops.
Industry didn’t give us much of
a tumble on new ventures, but at
least we managed to hang on to
the old standbys. Unemployment
remained at a low figure, and
there weren’t too many people
seeking a job who coiddn’t get
work to do, if not the work of their
choice.
Those who seriously doubted the
much-ballyhooed appeal of Tryon
Palace discovered between last
Thanksgiving and this one that the
historic restoration most certainly
can attract thousands of visitors to
the city. There may be waning in
terest in years to come, but as of
now the Palace is bringing" out
siders here from far and wide—
fram every state in the Union and
most foreign countries.
First and foremost, according to
a sample survey conducted by The
Mirror, New Bernians are thankful
for their health. Netiher wealth nor
fame nor power brings us humans
the honest-to-goodness joy that
simply being physically fit does.
Health alone may not assure us of
happiness, but the guy with ulcers
no doubt would like to try it for
awhile.
With all Americans, New Bern
citizens can be thankful this
Thanksgiving for the continuance
of peace. Admittedly, it’s a rather
uneasy peace, but compared with
what the mortal mind can envision
in the event of atomic war, it’s not
to be sniffed at.
Slowly but surely, it seems to
us. New Bernians are becoming
more cognizant of the fact that the
(Continued on back page)