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Oyster Festival Information
Included In Special Supplement
state and National Oyster Shucking Champ Cathy Carlisle will
appear on "Carolinas at Noon” Friday on WECT-TV 6 to pro
mote this weekend’s N.C. Oyster Festival. Celebrity judges for
Saturday’s state shucking championship will be Richard and
Jill Rogers of WWAY-TV 3. A supplement inside this issue
gives details of the festival.
I9B7
Southport Man Wins
Mackerel Tournament
Michael Clemmons claimed $25,000 Saturday
as winner of the U.S. Open King Mackerel
Tournament at Southport. The event set a
state saltwater fishing tournament record
with 544 boats entered. Story and photos on
Page 11-C.
Two New Area Golf
Courses Reviewed
Two more championship golf courses have
recently opened in the South Brunswick
Islauds. and there are at least si.x more on
the way. A review of The Pearl Golf Links
and Brick Landing Plantation can be found
on Page f»-R.
HoAn i> TcifiS fi'AOk
J . * ‘
:;iF'R INGF 7 f’l j in
J
Twenty-fifth Year, Number 48
IWICICinACON
1907 TMC BRUNSWICK BEACON
I m
Shallotte, North Carolina, Thursday, Octobers, 1987
62 Pages Including Supplement
25c Per Copy
Black Leaders Want
County Manager Fired
BV RAHN ADAALS
■‘That’s ju.st not enough.”
That was the Rev. Alphonza
Fiillwooti's respon.se .Monday to an
apology from Brunswick County
.Manager John Smith over an ethnic-
joke he told last month to a local
homebuilders group.
Representatives of the Cedar
Grove and Southport Branches of the
NAACP and the Bninswick County-
Citizens As.sociation appeared at
.Monday morning’s Brunswick Coun
ty Commissioners meeting to
“recommend” that Smith be fired for
telling an anecdote about a black
minister at the .Sept. 22 meeting of
the South Brunswick Islands
Homebuilders As.sociation iSBlHA)
in Calabash.
County officials, including Smith,
a.ssured black leaders that the inci
dent would not be repeated and en
couraged them to “put this behind
us.”
Commission Chairman Grace
Beasley also made a public apology-
on behalf of the county.
South Brunswick Islands
Homebuilders Association Program
Clvdirnuui Nick Newton, who had ar
ranged icr Smith to speas to uie
homebuilders, was also present at
the commission meeting to defend
the county- manager.
Newton, who was the first speaker
during the meeting’s public com
ments section, reiterated that
a.ssociation members were not of
fended by Smith’s joke.
Me said he felt the .SBIHA’s "rights
were violated" when association
member Kitty Nubel repeated the
joke to her husband. Richard .Nubei,
news editor of the State Port Pilot,
who in turn repoited the incident to
county commissioners in executive
ses.sion on Sept. 23.
Newton called Nubel’s handling of
the incident "unethical and an inva
sion of privacy.”
"Where does .sensationalism end?”
Newton asked reporters present at
Monday’s meeting.
However, while black leaders ad
mitted their information was l)a.i I
on news media accounts, tliey s.a .
they feel "this type of remark from a
county official does not do justice to
ser\-e and promote harmony among
all citizens of the county.” according
to a letter read by the Rev. Winston
E. Brown, president of the Southport
NAACP.
The letter to commissioners was
signed by Brown; the Hev. M.C. Her
ring, president of the Brunswick
County Citizens .Association; and
Cedar r.iuve N.AACP President
Jesse A. Lryant.
”We are strongly protesting such a
remark and attitude by any or ail
county officials,” the letter said. ’If
this statement is true, we recom
mend the county manager's employ
ment be terminated.”
Ms. Beasley agreed that the Board
of Commissioners would formally
reply to the letter in writing.
Commi.ssioner Chris Chappell said
.Smith’s joke was "a little distasteful
COME THANKSGIVING vacation, South Brunswick
High School senior Bernard Flythc will be playing his
tuba in the Mat-y’s Thanksgiving Parade and on the To-
SIAfF PHOTO er SUSAN USMTP
day .Show as part of the McDonald’s AU-Amerlcan High
School Bond.
Brunswick And Wilmington
Murders Believed Linked
Coming Holidays Are Booked
For SBHS's Favorite Bandsman
Don’t bother calling him. Bernard
Flythe’s already booked up for
Thanksgiving, Christmas and
Easier. After that, who knows what’s
ahead for this talented 17-year-old
bandsman?
Last Wednesday, the South
Bninswick High School senior learn
ed he has been chosen as a member
of the 1987 McDonald’s All-American
High School Band, the first
Brunswick County student to attain
that honor. Band Director Steve
Skillman called Flythe to the front to
make the announcement before the
full 75-member school band.
By Friday afternoon fellow
.students were already affectionately-
calling Bernard “McNard” and
“Mr. McDonald.” And Monday
night, Skillman told Brunswick Coun
ty Board of FIducation members,
“We’re just as proud of him as we
can be.”
Only two players from each state
and one player from Puerto Rico,
Guam, the Virgin Islands and the
District of Columbia are named each
year to the band. Only eight tuba
players are selected.
Said Skillman, “It’s very com
petitive. For a high school band
musician, it’s right at the top.
“Wliat I’m proudest of is he is a
product of the Brunswick County-
School system,” added the band
director. Without the provision of
band classes, equipment and oppor
tunities for competition, he con
tinued, ’"none of this would have been
possible.”
If this year’s band follows the
itinerary of past McDonald’s bands,
on Thanksgiving Day, it will march
in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade
following a cameo appearance on the
Today Show with weatherman
(See BANDShUN, Page 2-A)
BY RAHN ADAMS
Two Wilmington men are dead in
what investigators late Tuesday call
ed related shootings—the first occur
ring early Tuesday outside a Wilm
ington bar, the other discovered later
Tuesday morning near Grissettown
in Brunswick County.
“At this time, we are going on the
assumption that the Brunswick Coun
ty case and the Wilmington case are
related,” Brunswick County Sheriff’s
Capt. Phil Perry said late Tuesday.
.According to Perry and Wilm
ington Police Capt. Jimmy Williams,
no arrests had been made in either
case by late Tuesday, and both in
vestigations were continuing.
Perry said lawmen Tuesday were
looking for at least two persons who
left the Wilmington murder scene
together.
Perry identified the victim in the
Brunswick case as Michael Edward
Baker, 33, of Green Meadows Drive,
Wilmington.
Williams identified the Wilmington
shooting victim as Nick H. Patelos,
31, of Kenwood Avenue, Wilmington.
According to Williams, the first
shooting apparently occurred just
after midnight Tuesday morning out
side Friendly’s Bar and Lounge on
.Market Street in Wilmington.
Witnesses told lawmen that two
men—one of them identified as
Patelas—left the bar after playing
pool inside, then exchanged gunfire
in the parking lot of the bar.
Patelos was dead by the time
emergency personnel arrived on the
scene, Williams said.
Williams said Tuesday that in
vestigators had not identified the
other man involved in the Patelos
shooting. They also did not know if
the other man was injured in the ex-
cliange of gunfire.
He added that a white female and
two white males left the shooting
scene in a 1976 F'ord Econoline van
owned by Baker—the same vehicle
located later Tuesday morning by
Brunswick County lawmen.
According to Perry, Baker’s body
was found by a newspaper
deliver>-man Tuesday around 5:40
a.m. in a service station driveway at
the intersection of U.S. 17 and N.C.
904 in Grissettowm.
Baker, who was dead on the scene,
apparently died of multiple gunshot
wounds. Perry said.
An autopsy was to be performed
Wednesday at the regional medical
examiner’s office in Jacksonville, he
.said.
Shallotte Volunteer Rescue Squad
transported the body from the scene
to The Brunswick Hospital in Supply.
Perry said that shortly after
Baker's body was discovered,
sheriff’s deputies located the Ford
van abandoned about one mile east of
the scene on N.C. 904.
The vehicle was taken to the
sheriff’s department’s impoundment
lot in Bolivia for investigation pur
poses.
The SBI is also involved in in
vestigation of the double murders.
Diana Morgan Sworn In As Clerk Of Court
BY RAHN ADAMS
F'ormer Chief Assistant Clerk
Diana Morgan was sworn in this
week as Brunswick County’s new
Clerk of Superior Court, a job she has
performed .since July when former
Clerk Greg Bellamy was indicted on
a cocaine charge.
Resident Superior Court Judge
Giles Clark of Elizabethtown ad-
mini.stered the oath of office to Ms.
Morgan at noon Tuesday in the
clerk’s office at the Brunswick (^oun-
iy Ccurthcii^«c, one dsy bnr
30-lay term as acting clerk was to ex
pire.
"I have known Diana and liave
worked with her in this office for
alxnit 14 years,” Clark said. "1 know
she is very capable, very competent,
very efficient and very (lualifieil.
“I feel .she’ll serve well as clerk of
court for Brunswick County.”
Clark also noted that Ms. Morgan’s
appointment as permanent clerk was
recommended to him by the
Brunswick County Bar Association,
the Brunswick County Democratic
Executive Committee and other
county officials.
election to the clerk’s post as a
Democrat in 1988.
Her annual salary will be approx
imately $34,000, she said.
Clark said other Bninswick County
residents considered for the clerk’s
post included Magistrate Roney
Cheers; Charles Glisson and Joe
.Stanley, Ixith of Shallotte; and Ixina
Caudill of lA>land.
Clark said Ms. Morgan’s ex
perience and ((ualificrations were the
determining factors in her selection.
Ms. Morgan, 35, of Ixing Beach,
said Tuesday she intends to seek
“I am very grateful for Judge
Clark’s confidence in me, and to
everyone else who’s been so much
help,” she said following the brief
swearing-in ceremony. ’Tm just go
ing to try to do the best job I can.”
She added that some promotions
and other staff adjustments will be
made in the clerk’s office.
"There will be some cnanges in ihe
office, but those will be due mainly to
personnel and shifting roles in the of
fice now that I’m not going to bo do
ing some of the things I have done in
the past,” .she said.
Ms. Morgan, who lias 14 years ex
perience in the local clerk’s office,
has been overseeing its operation
since July 22, when Bellamy an
nounced he was taking an unofficial
leave of absence to await trial on a
cocaine posse.s.sion charge.
Bellamy, 38, of Holden Beach,
resigned the clerk’s post Aug. 31
after pleading guilty to the felony
count in Bninswick County Superior
Criminal Court.
His .sentence included a two-year
.suspended term and two years of
laipcrvised prolxition, during which
lime he is not allowed to hold public
office.
On Sept. 8, Clark appointed Ms.
Morgan acting clerk. State law pro
vides that an acting clerk can serve
up to 30 days.
STAf f PHOlO BV PAM*4 ADAMS
DIANA MORGAN takes the oath of office as RruiLswIck County’s new clerk
of court from Ju«lge Giles Clark Tuesday in Bolivia.
black leadei-s to give Smith another
chance.
"The only thing he (Smith) did
wrong was not knowing Brunswick
County and its people,” Chappell
said.
In his own defense. Smith apologiz
ed for the anecdote and emphasized
that he supports the black coinmuni-
ty, saying his “door is open to
everyone.”
”It was a bad decision, and I admit
•o that, so it .shows I’m not the
smartest county manager in the
world.” Smith said of his choice in
jokes --.All I can say is, I did make a
mistake, and I humbly apologize.”
However, Fullwood, who is pastor
of St. John’s Baptist Church in
Bolivia, staled he cannot “effectively
lead people and persuade people to
i)e good citizens,” when county of
ficials think fney can ina’i\.C- a
mistake, then simply ask
forgiveness.
People in iugii positions have- a
responsibility,” Fullwood said. “I’m
not sm e you tSmitlu can effectively
perform (county manager’s post).”
Fullwood said any statement like
the joke in question creates an at
mosphere for “racism to flourish.”
■Ml*