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WSSU radio announcer finds new life, new love after life-threatening illness j JgEC'l\1 ID I III CHRONIC LE On September 4. 1999, Bill Franklin, renowned radio per sonality and longtime voice of Winston-Salem State University sports on WSNC, suffered a heart attack while on the air during a football game with ?Catawba College. Five days after his heart surgery, one of the first faces he saw. as she stood at the foot of his hospital bed. was that of a woman he only vaguely remem bered. Therein lies the beginning ;of a love story. As Franklin tells it, he and Juanita Lucille Lewis had met briefly in a Washington. D.C., suburb. Franklin was shopping in a store where she worked. She had given him her phone num her, but Franklin never called. In the 26 years that would pass since their chance meeting, Juanita married and raised two sons. Franklin also married, raised three daughters and is raising a 12-year-old son. Both marriages ended in divorce. Jujraita later moved to Win ston-Salem. She had heard Bill Franklin on the radio but did not know it was the Bill Franklin she had met more than two decades ago. She just hap pened to be looking at a televi sion news report about Franklin's heart attack and saw his face. She wasn't sure but she thought the man she saw in the report was the same man .she had met so long ago. Franklin picks the story up from here. "I fodnd out she had gone to the wrong hospital ini tially," said Franklin. "But she kept searching until she found where I was." Franklin later learned that she had prayed for his recovery with members of his family four nights straight. "When I woke up. her face was one of the first I saw." he remembers. Franklin said his realization about who Juanita was came to him during a conversation the two had about bygone days. Franklin said he began to talk about his younger days in the Washington, D.C., area and the places he frequented. He men tioned a store where he used to shop. "Then she said '1 worked there.' Then 1 started talking about an incident that took place at the store one day when 1 was there shopping. She said, '1 remember that day."' 'Franklin said she deseribed to him what he wore that day, the car he was driving and the fact that he had a little girl with him. She also reminded him that she had given him her phone number and that he never called. "It all came back in that instant as though it happened yester day." Franklin said After spending more quality time with each other. Franklin recalled. "We went back to the sidewalk where we first met 26 years ago, hugged and kissed and this time we got it rights" Bill and Juanita were married the Saturday after Thanksgiv ing, thankful they had found each other again after all those years. Lawmakers return under threat of suit HY DICK PETTYS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS __ ATLANTA Georgia law makers convened a new session Monday under threat of a feder al lawsuit over the state flag and its Confederate symbol, touch stone of a new generation of civil protests across the South. The Senate Republican leader said the suit, threatened over the weekend, sounded sus piciously like a ploy by Democ rats to move the fight from the Statehouse to the courthouse and thereby dodge a divisive and politically costly vote on the question. "Everything that I see and hear is that the Democratic Party in the Legislature is avoid ing dealing with the Hag," said Sen. Eric Johnson of Savannah. "They want to put it on the bal lot. they want it to be decided by the courts anything but accept ing the responsibility of doing their legislative duty." Rep. Calvin Smyre, D Columbus. chairman of the House Rules Committee and highest ranking black member of the House, insisted there is no relationship between the lawsuit and the legislation to remove the Confederate fighting banner to the state Hag. "It's another avenue of trying to achieve the same goal and to get the same results, but there is no direct correlation," said Smyre. He said there "may be some discussion" among legislators about waiting for the court suit before dealing with the flag but he added, "I would think that it's going to be very difficult to abdicate our responsibilities because of the lawsuit." Senate Majority Leader Charles Walker, highest ranking black in that chamber, said the lawsuit is "an added incentive" for lawmakers to act. "1 believe this matter should be resolved this year. Any compromise we reach must be done with honor and finality this year, this ses sion lawsuit or no lawsuit." The sponsor of the bill to change the flag. Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D-Atlanta, said he was disappointed to hear a suit dis cussed and added, "There will be no litigation, I pray, until the legislative session is over. There should be no discussion of liti gation." Brooks said he doubts a law suit would be successful because judges have held in the past that flags are a state matter. Further, Brooks said, talk of a lawsuit could give lawmakers cover to avoid discussing the issue. The Confederate symbol was added to the Hag in 1956 during unrest among white Southerners over school desegregation. For mer Gov. Zell Miller tried but failed to remove the symbol in 1993. Atlanta attorney Emmett Bondurant announced last week he will challenge the symbol in a federal court suit, using U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a veteran civil rights figure, as a plaintiff. As in South Carolina last year and in Georgia eight years ago, changing the flag remains a bitter, polarizing issue. Flag defenders call it a symbol of Southern valor. Opponents call it a reminder of racial hatred. Polls show significant contin ued opposition to changing the flag and legislative Democrats fear a vote to remove the rebel symbol could cost rural whites their legislative seats and turn majority control of the Legisla ture to Republicans in the elec tions of 2002. Gov. Roy Barnes, at the mid point of his term and facing re election in two years, has kept his distance from the question, saying legislators have asked him to butt out while they dis cuss it privately. Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D Atlanta, a veteran civil rights activist and sponsor of the bill to change the flag, said he is "cautiously optimistic." But House Speaker Tom Murphy, D-Bremen. said the new effort is as doomed as Miller's 1993 attempt. "Near as I can tell, I do not believe the votes are there," he said. While the flag stood to dom inate the agenda, returning law makers also faced a new round of education reform and a series of proposals to restrict teen dri ving, spawned by a rash of deaths in the metro area. After hard-fought elections in November and with both par ties looking ahead to the sum mer's redistricting session to redraw legislative and congres sional seats, no one seemed to know just what to expect from the 40-day lawmaking period that, with breaks and recesses, will stretch through mid-March. "Predicting the General Assembly is like predicting the weather," Barnes said. "It's not , an exact science." Barnes will offer part two of the education initiatives that he began last year, although it is less far-reaching and less likely to incite the kind of partisan fighting he encountered in pass ing the initial legislation. This year's effort is expected to focus on ways to attract and keep good teachers, with per haps some lengthening of the middle school day. Last year's bill amounted to a wholesale change for school systems throughout Georgia, including steps to reward schools for posting good student scores and to punish them for performing poorly. Among the proposals advanced for teen drivers is one the governor is mulling to bar teens from driving in metro counties unless they are 17 or accompanied by an adult. The driving age outside the region would remain 16. Alston from page A 7 missed, there was a collective - ahhh! I forgot what was going on around me as 1 watched them have such a good time. Three boys and a basketball now had expanded to four, soon to be six. And then another boy (white), apparently traveling with family and friends to sup port the visiting team (Ferris State), losing this night, jumped in. Although he was a long way from home, in a strange gym with his team losing, he tofi would be running up and down the court. Here they were, blacfc and white, short and not so tail, friends and strangers having 3 good time. I am glad I didn't leave the stands during half time. Watch ing those boys have fun waS worth the price of admission and a reminder that the dream (k Martin Luther King, Jr. is still worth making a reality. Bill and Juanita Franklin ?. HAWS from page A / ensure that residents would not go cold. Bill Andrews said. Andrews singled out a public housing high rise in High Point where residents had to be moved to other units "because of heating problems, "We have never had such things in Winston-Salem," Andrews said. "There are some in our communi ty that would like to make this a political or other issue." In other HAWS news, Wayman Williams, project manager for HOPE VI, announced that about 13 contractors are being consid ered for the remaining phases of the HOPE VI redevelopment pro ject. HAWS fired the last contrac tor after lines of communications between the company and the agency went dead. Williams said a contractor should be chosen by early March. He also said the first phase of HOPE VI, a seniors facility, was about a month behind schedule because of recent bad weather. Gymnast from paA3 "Without my family, I would not be able to be in gymnastics. I thank them for allowing me to be involved even though sometimes I ; could get hurt." said Maya. "Gym nastics is a joy. but practicing for three hours on Monday, Wednes day and Fridays is tiring and some times fun. I thank my family for supporting me through these years." Salem Gymnastics is the 2000 Level Four state champion, and Maya Horton's score certainly con tributed to the team's vault score. Custodian Jrom pane A3 After returning to Winston Salem in 1956. Hauser served terms as keeper of finance for Psi Phi Chapter of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, treasurer of the Prince's Feather Garden Club and as executive secretary of the Win ston-Salem State University Alumni Association. While serving as chairman of Mhe WSSU Athletic Committee, he served time as assistant secretary treasurer of the CIAA. where he developed the CIAA's 1.6 Rule, which they used to admit athletics J to their institutions. Prior to his decision to run for ?a seat in the N.C. House of Repre sentatives in 1981. he served as treasurer of the Forsyth County Senior Democrats and the treasur er of the 5th District Senior Democrats. During his second term in the Legislature. Hauser served as treasurer of the N.C. Legislative Black Caucus. Since Hauser's retirement in 1977, he has earned more than 15 Million Dollar Club Medals from the NAACP for urging citizens to take memberships in the NAACP. A person must get others to buy memberships worth $1,000 or more to become a Million Dollar Club member. In addition to the above, he has served as the admin istrator of the estate of three fam ilies, and has power of attorney and the handling of the affairs of two individuals who spent more than 11 years in nursing homes. Hauser has not been sanc tioned or removed from holding any of the above offices for the mishandling of the finances of any of the above organizations. We'll waive the monthly service charge for 6 statement cycles* when you sign up for Business Quest Checking. Business Quest provides premium banking services and the flat monthly service charge saves you money too. Call or come by your nearest ? O First Citizens branch. Then count the ways Business Quest can improve your bottom line. Working for your business every day. Business Quest" Checking ? 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Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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