?urp hy Carnagl* Library 4-73
Peachtree SCraat
Murphy, N.C., 28906
Miss North Carolina ??
Linda McRae. Miss Cherokee
County, will leave on Sunday about
noon for Charlotte, the site of the Miss
North Carolina beauty pageant. Mrs.
Elvia Blakemore will accompany her
as chaperone. Sponsored by the
Murphy Jaycees, Linda will be in the
evening gown part of the contest on
Wednesday night, the talent judging
an Thursday night and the Dathing
suit competition on Friday night. The
finals of the weeklong pageant will be
held on Saturday night. For her talent
presentation, Linda will be singing an
original folk spiritual accompanied
by a guitar. Daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Robert McRae of Route 3, Murphy,
she is a student at Western Carolina
University at Cullowhee. (Weaver
Carringer Photo)
Son Shot,
Father Held
Winning
Golfers
Post 73
Ed Rogers, 44, was fatally
wounded at his home Sunday
morning. His father, 71-year-old
Will Rogers, is being held in
Cherokee County Jail on a
charge of murder.
Cherokee Sheriff Blain
Stalcup. who investigated the
incident, said both had served
as law enforcement officers in
the past, the elder Rogers both
as Cherokee deputy sheriff
and as a Murphy policeman, the
younger man as a town
officer.
Sheriff Stalcup quoted Will
Rogers as saying that his son
entered the room where Willand
his wife. I.illie Dockery Rogers,
were on Sunday morning about
10 o'clock. The Rogers home is
located on Conaheeta Street.
The officers said the elder
Rogers said his son began
beating his mother and
demanding money. "He said Ed
had something in his hand but
he couldn't tell what it was at
first. Sheriff Stalcup said.
"Will said she asked him to
help her and he went into the
other room and got his pistol."
The sheriff said Will Rogers
told him that when he
returned he saw that the object
in his son's hand was a knife and
that Edd was bending over his
mother, who was lying on a bed.
The officer said Rogers said he
shot his son in the back at that
instant with a .380 caliber
automatic pistol.
The younger Rogers was
taken to Providence Hospital,
where he died about two hours
later.
Funeral services were held
Tuesday afternoon at Grape
Creek Baptist Church,
officiated by the Revs. Harvey
Dockery and Howard Killian.
Burial was in the church
cemetery. Ivie Funeral Home
was in charge of arrangements.
Pallbearers were Tommy
Dockery, Robert Whitener,
Garland Dockery, Russell
Henslev, Douglas and Danny
Chastain.
A preliminary hearing is
scheduled for the elder Rogers
in Cherokee District Court here
in Murphy on next Tuesday.
The first golf tournament of
the season for men was held at
Cherokee Hills Golf Course on
Harshaw Road last Saturday
afternoon.
It was a best-ball event,
with foursomes playing as a
team and the lowest score on
each hole carded by a member
of the team recorded as the
team score for that hole.
The winning team was
made up of Carlton Thompson,
captain; Dr. W.R. Gossett and
Elmer Kilgore, all of Murphy,
and Earl Jackson of Hayesville.
They set a Mistering pace for
the other four teams entered in
the tournament, turning in a 73
for the challenging 18-hole
course, one over par.
Trophies will be awarded to
each member of the winning
team at the covered dish supper
to be held at the clubhouse on
Saturday night, sponsored by
the Women's Golf Association.
All club members are invited
and urged to bring chairs and
food enough for their family.
Trophies for the bridge
marathon will also be awarded
at the supper.
Saturday afternoon a
tournament will be held at the
couse for teenage boys, entry
fee $1. Tee-off time will be one
o'clock and trophies will be
awarded to the winners. Teen
golfers should register before
Saturday at the clubhouse.
Posthumous Awards
Marine PFC Thomas Edward Brown, killed in
action in Vietnam on Nov. 25,1968, was posthumously
awarded the Vietnamese Military Merit -Medal and
the Gallantry Cross with Palm in ceremonies
conducted May 24 at the home of his brother, Melvin
Brown, right, who accepted the decorations. Making
the presentation was Maj. T.W. Hancock, Jr., Marine
Inspector-Instructor for the Chattanooga area.
The Cherokee Scout
18
PAGES
154 Per Copy
2 Sections
and Clay County Progress
Volume 79 ? Number 43 ? Murphy, North Carolina, 28906 - Second Class Postage Paid At Murphy, North Carolina ? Thursday, June 10, 1971
Ferebee Leaves $3.8 Million Estate
Percy B. Ferebee left an estate
valued at $3,846,957, according to an
inventory which has been filed with
the Cherokee County Clerk of Court's
office.
Ferebee's wealth had been the
subject of much speculation since his
death last Dec. 30 at the age of 89. His
will was filed soon after his death but
his executor and trustee, Wachovia
Bank and Trust Company, was given
until Monday to file an inventory of
Ferebee's estate.
According to that inventory, the
bulk of Ferebee's estate is $2.6 million
worth of stock in Wachovia
Corporation. It lists his real estate as
valued at $936,685 and his personal
property, including the Wachovia
stock, at $2,914,272.
Ferebee , originally from
Elizabeth City, N.C., came to
Andrews about 1915 as a surveyor
with the U.S. Forest Service. Within a
few years, however, he had gone into
several business ventures, including
iron mining, newspapering and
insurance, and bought completley
the Citizens Bank.
This had grown to a sizeable
banking operation, with offices in
several Western North Carolina
towns, before it merged with
Wachovia in January, 1970.
Ferebee's will leave the sum of
$12,500 to five relatives in his native
Eastern North Carolina and the sum
of $50,000 to one, Mrs. Florence Flood,
a sister-in-law.
The sum of $10,000 is to be
invested for the benefit of Rado
Thomas and her daughter Hethie
Thomas Moore, who were servants at
the Ferebee home in Andrews.
Ferebee also left his sister, Verna
Ferebee Tarkington, the use of the
Andrews home for the remainder of
her lifetime and $100,000, which is to
be invested for her benefit.
The rest of his estate is to be
divided with half going to the Percy
B. Ferebee Endowment and the other
half to be divided equally among his
three granddaughters, Florence
Ferebee Herbert, Janet Ferebee and
Susan Ferebee.
The will says the endowment
shall be used for charitable,
scientific, literary or educational
purposes." It adds that at least part
of the money should go for giving
scholarships and grants-in-aid to
worthy and talented young people of
this area who want to go to college.
Ferebee's will also leave 6,000
acres in the Nantahala Gorge to the
United States of America for a park in
memory of his wife and only child,
James B. Ferebee, who died last
year.
Attorney Dies
Fred Oscar Christopher, a
prominent Murphy attorney,
collapsed at his law office
Wednesday morning with a
heart attack. He was declared
dead on arrival at Providence
Hospital.
Christopher was 82 years
old and had practiced law in
Murphy for well over SO years.
At the time of his death he was
the senior partner of the law
firm of Christopher & Hoover,
which he formed with Lonnie
Hoover in 1968.
Ivie Funeral Home is in
charge of funeral
arrangements, the time of the
service not decided at this
writing.
A native of Murphy,
Christopher graduated from
Murphy High School in 1912 and
then went to Chapel Hill to the
University of North Carolina's
law school, where he graduated
and was admitted to the state
bar in 1917.
A veteran of World War I,
he represented Cherokee in the
N.C. House in the 1921-22
Legislature. He was the
attorney for the Town of
Murphy in the 1930's and 40's
and was Cherokee County's
attorney from 1962 to 1966.
Christopher also served as
solicitor for the Cherokee
County Recorder's Court.
At the time of his death,
Christopher was president of
the Cherokee County Bar
Associationand president of the
30th Judicial District Bar
Continued on Page 2
Free Rubella
Shots Sunday
The Lions of Cherokee County will sponsor
free rubella vaccinations for children Sunday
afternoon in four locations - Murphy Health
Center, Andrews Health Center, Hiwassee
Dam School and Ranger School.
A doctor will be on handat each location
and the shots will be administered by public
health nurses.
Children up through the age of 12 are
urged to get the shots.
Rubella, which is German measles, is a
mild childhood disease for thechildwho gets it.
But if a pregnant woman gets rubella, her
child may be born dead or withserious
defects.
A rubella epidemic in 1964 spelled tragedy
for 50,000 babies and doctors fear another if
children are not vaccinated against the
disease.
Recreation Program Begins
Murphy has recreation
director, now to head up a
recreation program just
beginning at the Rock Gym.
The Murphy Lions Club and
the New Careers program of
Four Square Community Action
have combined to install Roy
Cagle of Marble as the town
recreation director.
Randall Shields, who heads
New Careers, says Cagle will
work at the Rock Gym part of
the time in the recreation
program and will also be
attending classes in recreation
technology at Tri-County Tech
two days a week, enrolled in a
two-year course.
Shields said there are 16 in
all in the recreation program,
some from each of the golf
courses and also from Andrews
and the Macon County
Recreation Park.
In addition, Cagle will have
two assistants this summer in
the recreation program. John
[>. Bay less* and Bryan Coward,
w orking as interns in a program
administered through the John
C. Campbell Folk School at
Brasstown.
A Lions Club spokesman
said the club is providing
needed equipment and the gym
will be open from 8 a.m. to S
pjn.. Monday through Friday,
for use by schoolchildren in
Murphy.
The recreation program, he
said, will be both athletics and
crafts and will not just be a
Summer project, but will
continue year-round.
The Lions sw imming pool at
the Rock Gym opened last
Friday for the Summer seasor
and will be open each afternoon
seven days a week.
Fred O. Christopher
....I960 photo
Tri-Tech
Building
Funded
Congressman Roy A.
raylor announced last Friday in
Washington that the
Appalachian Regional
Commission has approved a
zrant of $289,000 for a new
building and renovation of old
buildings at Tri-County
Technical Institute.
Tech President Holland
McSwain said Tuesday that the
entire cost of the building
program will be $389,000, with
state funds of $75,000 and
Cherokee County's $25,000
already approved.
"We're waiting on a man
from Raleigh to come up next
week to work out the details of
the inside of the building,"
McSwain said. Architect Eric
Townson will then make
working drawings, he said,
which will have to be approved
by state officials in Raleigh
before the job goes up for bids
"We hope to advertise fot
bids sometime the latter part of
July," McSwain said, witt
construction to start in late
August or September
Construction time will be about
a year, he said.
The new building will be
located in front of the old
Peachtree Prison building
which houses much of the school
now. It will have offices,
classrooms, a small
auditorium, a bookstore and
studentcenter.
McSwain said as part of
theproject the bars on the
windows of the old prison
building will probably be
removed. That building will be
connected to the new one, he
said, with a covered walkway.
Percy Ferebee...at Magnavox groundbreaking ceremony. April 1965
County Manager Discussed
The Cherokee Count}' Board
of Commissioners discussed the
hiring of a county manager in
their meeting Monday.
Gene Farmer, president of
the Cherokee County Chamber
of Commerce, brought the idea
before the commissioners, who
talked about it for a while and
then put it aside until later.
Farmer said Macon County
already has a county manager
and Graham is now looking for
one. "The counties which are
making the most progress have
a manager," he said, pointing
out that such a man would
insure efficiency in the
operation of county
departments and would make it
his business to find out about
all state or federal grants
available to the county.
His salary would be in the
$12,000 to $15,000, a year range.
Farmer said, but one federal
grant that the county would
have otherwise missed would
pay for his services.
The commissioners did not
seem hostile to the idea but
were plainly bothered by the
political balance in the
Cherokee Courthouse, which
can swing one way or the other
every four years.
Chairman Jack Simonds
said if the county manager was
just another political
appointment, it would not be
worth hiring one, .Some way
would have to be found, the
commissioners thought, so that
the county manager, with his
expensive training, would be
kept even though the political
make-up of the board might
change.
In other matters, the
commissioners discussed the
county garbage disposal
problems at length but took no
formal action. Murphy Town
Clerk Charlie Johnson met with
them and said if the joint
county-town landfill is to
continue at Texana, a chain-link
fence will probably have to be
erected to satisfy health
regulations at a cost of about $5
$6,000.
The commissioners and
Johnson then talked of buying
another site to use as a landfill
and talked of the countywide
junk car cleanup. Simonds
suggested, and it was accepted,
that the Soil Conservation
Service be asked to make a
study of possible landfill sites
around Murphy.
The new fiscal year begins
July 1 and the commissioners
expect to hold a work session
sometime later this month to
hammer out the final version of
the county budget and set the
property tax rate.
During their meeting , they
got budget requests from
several organizations. Also
several road petitions were
accepted and forwarded to the
State Highway Commission.
Commissioners voted to
take bids on air-conditioning the
courtroom, the job to be paid for
from the legal facility money,
which is made up of fees
collected as part of court costs
paid by defendants.
Houston Ledford of
Andrews, present chairman of
the Social Services Board, was
reappointed to the board to
serve for another three years.
Commissioners voted to pay
$14,631 to Mitchell Engineering
Co. for the new metai hangar
erected at the county airport.
The money was given by the
state to the county for
improvements at the airport
and as Commissioner W.T.
Moore said, the hangar "didn't
cost the county a cent."
Bell Mountain Water Project
Jimmy "Rogers of Hayesville,
left, and Ernest Dowdy and Fred
Rhinehart of Hiawassee, Ga. were in
the office of Georgia's Gov. Jimmy
Carter (right) recently as Carter
signed a bill setting up the ben
Mountain Water Authority. The Bell
Mountain system, to be built with a
loan from the Farmers Home
Administration, will serve about 500
rural homes in both Towns County,
Ga. and Clay County. Tentative
approval has been given for the loan
but actual construction of the systcn*<
will not start until adequate wells are
drilled, two in day and three on the
Georgia side. Bids were opened on the
drilling May 28 and an Atlanta firm
was low bidder.