MAY. 1956
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PAGE 3
Peabody Award To Voice Of Firestone
The George Foster Peabody
Radio-Television Music Award
for 1955, one of the highest hon
ors in the field of entertain
ment, was presented in mid-
April to the “Voice of Fire
stone,” the nation’s oldest coast-
to-coast program.
The award cited the “Voice of
Firestone” for “the exclusive
beauty and high quality of its
program structure” and the
Company for “highest sensitivity
not only in the matter of superb
program standards but also in
its understanding of advertising
properties.”
Bennett Cerf, author and pan
elist who is Chairman of the
Peabody Awards Committee,
read the award citation at a
meeting of the Radio and Tele
vision Executives Society of
New York at the Grand Ball
room of the Hotel Roosevelt.
George Foster Peabody, whose
name the award bears, was a
native of Georgia who became a
New York banker and philan
thropist. The Peabody Awards
are administered by the Henry
W. Grady School of Journalism
of the University of Georgia
and a national advisory board.
Thirteen Play Golf In Industrial League
Thirteen men from Firestone
are playing in the Industrial
Golf League during the season
which opens April 2 and will
continue through September 30.
Sixteen firms are participat
ing in the Industrial Golf
League.
During the season there will
be at least one match a week.
Last year I. S. Bull, assistant
plant engineer won the Fire
stone championship in a double
elimination tournament.
Those playing in the league
this year are: A. C. Kessell,
Ernest Bagwell, James Cooper,
I. S. Bull, B. J. Bungardner,
Fred Morrow, Sam Guffey, M. J.
Nichols, Sonny Morrow, Mack
Ellis, T. B. Ipock, Jr., Ralph
Johnson, Bob Purkey.
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HONORED IN MARCH—Roland E. Conrad
second from lefl. received a watch from General
Manager Harold Mercer in recognition of 20
years service completed in March. Also honored
with a watch and service pin was Lewis Compton,
th’rd from left. Looking on at right. Thomas
B. Ipock, Jr., Industrial Relations Director. Addi
tion of two names in March to the 20-year roll
brought the total to 213.
IN MEMORIAM
William Boyce Morrow,
brother of Fred Morrow, Ware
house supervisor died suddenly
at the home of his daughter in
Jacksonville, Fla., April 15.
He and Mrs. Morrow sold their
home on Linwood Road and
moved to Jacksonville, Fla.,
early in April of this year.
The funeral was held April
18 at Pisgah ARP Church, Gas
tonia, and burial was in Gaston
Memorial Park.
Mr. Morrow was for 7 years a
superintendent of the Loray
Mill, now Firestone. In recent
years he was a representative of
a coffee distributor.
Funeral services were held
April 15 for Glenn H. Roper, 42,
a brother of Mrs. A. T. Newton,
third shift nurse. Mr. Roper died
April 14 and was buried in Gas
ton Memorial Park.
A native of Rutherfordton
County, N. C., he had lived in
Gastonia for the past 23 years.
Besides the sister who is em
ployed here, he is survived by
his wife, Mrs. Helen Craig Rop
er; a daughter, Dean Roper; a
son, Robert; a sister, Mrs. Paul
Dellinger; a brother, Arthur of
Chesnee, S. C.; and his mother,
Mrs. Ella Roper.
Two Added To 20-Year List
Graveside services were held
for La Donna Kay Ruff, daugh
ter of Mr. and Mrs. Tommy Ruff,
Jr., recently. La Donna Kay was
the granddaughter of Sadie
Glance, respooler.
Mrs. G. W. Horton, mother of
Clarence Horton, weaver, died
Monday, April 9. Mrs. Horton
was a resident of Henrietta,
N. C.
Rockett-Matherson
Fred Rockett and Mrs. Erma
Matherson were married April
13 in York, S. C. Accompanying
them to York were Miss Maude
Jordan, twister doffer, and Mrs.
May Waters. Mr. Rockett is a
Shop millwright.
Five Years
Vera B. Carswell, Stella C.
Anderson, Nervie B. Barbee,
Two employees who came to work here
shortly after Firestone acquired the plant
in 1935, completed 20 years of service during
the month of April. They are Lewis R. Con
nor, Spinning; and Cole S. Whitaker, Cotton
Also in April several others Allison, Jr., Shop; Jennie
attained long-term records of B. Hall, Quality Control,
service at the plant. Added to
the 15, 10, and 5-year lists were:
Fifteen Years
David Adams, Carding; Roy
M. Fulbright, Spooling; William
G. Hall, Rayon Twisting; Annie
M. Bradshaw, Rayon Weaving;
Wilbert B. Tate, Cotton Weav
ing; Alva L. McCarter, Shop;
Carl B. Guffey, Quality Control.
Ten Years
Ruth B. Wilson, Spinning; Al
ton E. Medlin, Champion A.
Faulkner, Rayon Twisting; Alice
Purcell, Rayon Weaving; Frank
Weaving.
For joining the select group of 20-year
employees, each has received the customary
honors with a 20-year service pin and a gold
watch, presented by the General Manager.
Lee Twisting; Thomas A. Taylor,
Lowery M. H. Cobb, Rayon
Thomas E. Sadler, Cotton Weav
ing; John W. Hendrick, Ware
house.
Attend ACMI Convention In Florida
Company To Build Texas Plant
General Manager Harold
Mercer and Mrs, Mercer were
among almost 1,000 of the
South’s leading textile indus
trialists attending the seventh
annual convention of the Ameri
can Cotton Manufacturers In
stitute at Hollywood, Fla., in
early April. Some 200 of the tex-
tilists were from the Carolinas.
At the ACMI meeting the gen
eral assembly heard an address
by A. K. Winget, outgoing ACMI
president, and a “Challenge to
America” presented by Ai’no H.
Johnson, vice president, J. Wal
ter Thompson Co., New York.
Johnson’s address showed the
need for “a surge upward in the
standards of living of millions of
American families.”
The Company has purchased a
1,000-acre site in the industrial
area southwest of Orange, Tex
as, for the manufacture of petro
chemicals. Construction of the
new plant will begin in May.
The proposed butadiene plant
will obtain its principal raw
material, butane, directly from
a network of pipelines through
out Texas. It will be one of the
largest industrial users of Gulf
States Utilities Company power.
First unit of the plant will be
a 40,000-ton capacity butadiene
manufacturing plant which will
provide Firestone with a sub
stantial portion of the butadiene
requirements of its synthetic
rubber plants at Lake Charles,
La., and Akron, Ohio.
The Firestone Company at
present is the largest producer
of rubber in the world. Total an
nual rubber producing capacity
of its two synthetic plants and
its plantations in Liberia, West
Africa, is almost 240,000 tons.
Surf-and-Sun Season Comes To Carolinas
Feel a tug of the out-of-doors, now that May
has brought plenty of balm and sunshine to the
mid-South? Then, travelers will hail the opening
of the beach season on the North and South Caro
lina Coast, from May until October.
In the North State every type of fishing tackle
can be used and there is no closed season on any
species of fish except fresh water trout—and the
Season is now on for that, too. No license is re-
<luired for salt water fishing. There are more than
15 ocean fishing piers on the coast, and choice
surf-casting spots near all the beach resorts. In
the Great Smokies and Blue Ridge, hundreds of
^Tiiles of trout streams are open to anglers from
’^ow until August, with good bass fishing in
many lakes.
Hiking, picnicking and camping are coming in
to their own as the outdoor season gets well un
derway this month. Typical of scheduled outdoor
Events is a 10-day saddle trip into the Great
Smoky Mountains, May 23 through June 2.
^aynesville is headquarters of the trip, spon
sored by the American Forestry Association.
A tour of historic buildings and gardens in
Lincolnton, May 26-27 is this month’s local fea
ture on the statewide Elizabethan Garden tour
sponsored by the Garden Club of North Carolina.
The statewide tour, a project to benefit the Eliza
bethan Garden on Roanoke Island, began March
24 and will end in late June.
Tour dates coincide with the peak blooming of
Native flowers, plants and shrubs, as the spring
flower parade moves from the state’s sub-tropical
coast to the Blue Ridge and Great Smokies. Be
sides the Lincolnton event, other tours in May
are: Winston-Salem, 5-6; Greensboro, 11-12; Ashe
ville, 20-21.
A number of other schedules on the fifth-
month calendar make variety for those on-the-go.
Among them are: Southeast regional contest,
Society for Preservation and Encouragement of
Barbershop Quartet Singing in America, Ashe
ville, May 4-5; Music Festival, Asheville, 14-15
N. C. Garden Club Convention, Charlotte, 15-17
24th annual Strawberry Festival, Chadbourn, 16
28th annual Horse Show, Sedgefield, 17-18.
s
Gift To March Of Dimes
J. V. Darwin, right. Manager of Sales and Order Department,
presents a check to Grady B. Stott, campaign director of the Gas
ton County March of Dimes. The employee contribution of $1,S46—
when presented recently—brought the county's collection in the
Dimes Drive to almost $37,000, according to Mr. Stott. The check
represented money earmarked for the polio cause during the last
Employees' United Fund Drive.