Ngv7 Bnvn Public Library
The NEW BERN
PUBLISHED WP^
IN TM«',
15SVI ^
I 5^ Per Copy
VOLUME 5
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1962
NUMBER 29
Mamie Miller, our Buds and
Blossoms columnist, and Mrs.
Arthur Whitford of Ernul once
discovered just how gracious and
down to earth Eleanor Roosevelt
was.
With several thousand other
club women representing every
section of the United States and
a number of foreign countries,
they were attending a gigantic
lawn party at the l^ite House.
Naturally, it was the dream of
all delegates at the affair to
shake hands with the First Lady.
"It was really a mob of
people,’’ Mamie recalls, "and
they were crowded so close to
gether you could hardly breathe.
Slowly we were moving along
with the other thousands of wo
men in the direction we thought
Mrs. Roosevelt was.’’
According to Mamie, Mrs.
Whitford got ‘‘fainty’’ and they
decided to get out of the mill
ing multutude. As they turned a-
round, they were astounded to
discover Mrs. Roosevelt within
arm’s length. The First Lady
smiled, and extended her hand.
As she started to^shake hands
with Mrs. Whitford, she acciden
tally knocked the Ernul woman’s
bright red hat from her head.
“Instead of just apologizing,”
says Mamie, “she showed just
as much concern as you would
have e>q)ected her to accord an
important dignitary. She won our
hearts with her genuine friendli
ness, and forever after I admir
ed her not only as the wife of
a President but as the kindest
person imaginable.”
Elanor Roosevelt was always
like that. A relative of ours
who saw the First Lady on a
number of occasions has told us
that her tremendous personality
made you forget that she wasn't
blessed with physical attractive
ness. “In her photographs she
appeared homely,” is how this
relative explained it, “but she
never seemed that way when you
actually saw her.”
It is no secret that she an
noyed and in some instances
angered many Americans with
her views on racial matters.
Southerners in particular didn’t
always see eye to eye with her.
However, her most severe crit
ics on both sides of the Mason-
Dixon line never tried to dis
pute the sincerity of her con
victions. Eleanor Roosevelt had
great compassion for all man
kind, and her humanitarian qual
ities did, in truth, make her the
First Lady of The World.
Because so many of us are
ugly ducklings, the manner in
which she surmounted her home
liness should give us courage
and confidence. Pretty is as
pretty does is a saying that she
exemplified in full measure.
Even her own mother, who died
as did her father when she was
a little girl, bluntly warned the
future First Lady that she didn’t
have any “looks" and would have
to get by on something else.
Eleanor Roosevelt, whatever
her other faults and failings
might have been, didn’t for a
moment yield to the most
fatal of all emotions-self pity.
Instead of feeling sorry for her-
. . (qontlptied otipage.8)
^ John W. Long, at the parsonage provided for him
Soup M^ers'^ol The Tabernacle flock is fond of iti p?eacher Ld this
fh3h « Tabernacle Baptist lovely home is tangible evidence of that fact.—Photo
cnurch, they have come calhng on their pastor, the by John R. Baxter
FAMILIAR SIGHT—When plane pilots pass over the tracts business from a wide area, and plays a role in
New Bern Shipyard, seen here, they know they’ll be New Bern’s industrial economy. Old timers will recall
landing shortly at the Simmons-Nott Municipal Air- an earlier day when Meadows Shmyard was at this
port just across the river. The boat building firm at- same location.—^Photo by John R. Baxter