Published each Thursday since January 16,1973 ?XU* r:tVK.r/r,- r^u\ ' for n uxor yjjHXilE ? p - '._ - ???? ? ' . ?? . . i ? ?' ' ; ?: f. I Pembroke, NC Robeson County I "Building communicative bridges inHt tri-racial setting VOLUME 19 NUMBER 9. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1991 25 CENTS PER COPY Whatever Happened to ... Abner Nash Locklear By Barbara Brave boy- LocUear SPECIAL TO THE CAROLINA INDIAN VOICE -Dare Abner Nash LocUear to stop anything he's doing in midstream and he'll show you how to put his ? formal education on hold; change careers; even stop a train. He's done them all. Mr. LocUear was bom the son of Cathen LocUear and Lettie B. Jones LocUear of the Prospect community in Robeson County. He, along with his five brothers and three sisters, attended Prospect School "I always loved school and got there so early each school day that they thought I was the janitor," he chucUes. "I'd cry to go to school." Among his early grade teachers were Clement Bullard, Lacy Maynor and Rose LocUear Carter. Mr. LocUear says he was a young teen-ager when his father died and he was determined to complete school after his death. "I went to Pembroke to live with my cousin, Marvin Carter and his wife, Rose and stayed with them five years so as to attend Cherokee Indian Normal High School" he remembers. In 1937 he graduated from that school and enrolled in the Indian Normal School Into his second year of study at the all-Indian school he was told by Lucille Oxen dine Lowry that there were two scholarships available for a male and female Indian student to study agriculture at Ohio State University. Mr. LocUear applied and was selected to receive the scholarship for the male Indian student And in 1939 he gathered his belongings and moved to Columbus, Ohio where he began study in farm management His credits earned at the Indian Normal School were non-transferrable. At the new campus were no dormitories, and the young Lumbee Indian student boarded in homes until dormitories were built He befriended the school*? dean and was among the first to get a room asslffiVKnt Midstream his college study Mr. LocUear was called to, military duty. The Army draftee reported to service in 1942 and was assigned to the Phillipines in the Southwest Pacific; also to New Guinea. Worid War II raged on. It was to be three years and seven months before he could return to college study at Ohio State. ' Economical times were hard and he rarely traveled to his beloved Robeson County during his final two years in college. "Money was scarce. And even though a bus ride was eight dollars, those dollars were hard to come by," he rememoers. But the grandfather says there was one time during that period he got to come home, and it became one occasion he'D never forget He'd saved his money and bought a " straight through" train ticket to Pembroke, NC on the Baltimore-Ohio liae. He had changeover in Petersburg, VA and that's where the trouble began. 'Td originally bought my ticket for travel on the '89' train which makes numerous stops along ita route. "When I boarded the train in Virginia, unbeknownst to me, the conductor put me on a train which had limited scheduled stops which included Rocky Mount, Fayette ville, NC and Florence, SC." He says as the train pulled away from its station the conductor began collecting tickets bom passengers. With confidence, Mr. Locklear presented his, only to be advised he was on the wrong train and that the train would not stop in Pembroke. Mr. Locklear insisted on knowing the name of the person in charge of the train's scheduled stops. He demanded to argue his case and got the opportunity when the train stopped in Rocky Mount, NC. Without an appointment, be marched into the director's office and plead his case. The director said be would not make an exception for the misplaced passenger. "I told the man I wasn't just an ordinary passenger...that I was the mayor of Pembroke, North Carolina and that I could get a train stopped in my town." The director argued, "There are only three situations which will cause my train to make an unscheduled stop. They are: A sudden death of a passenger; an emergency of particular nature; or if the President of the United States is on board and wants to stop to make a speech." "I told him that the train would stop in Pembroke because one of the three situationi was about to happen," says Mr. Locklear. "It's to your advantage to stop this train, air. I'm the mayor of Pembroke and am in a position to stop the train and pat passengers on buses or airplanes in order to get them to their destination," Mr. Locklear warned. He aays he re boarded the train and eras paged by the conductor shortly thereafter. "He told orders had been cut to let me off in Pembroke." As the southbound train slowed outside Pembroke a conductor summoned Mr. Locklear to the rear car. There he readied himself to get off. "Boys, when I got off that train, merchants and other people started coming toward the depot. They thought the President or some big official was getting off because the train had never before stopped la Pembroke," he laughs. He says his friends still laugh about the incident. A year later in 1947 Mr. LoaMaar graduated from Ohio ?tele University. He returned with degree In hand and took a ueo-year teaching position apiaaawd by the Kinntu Horn# Ailiuiniiiiviiun wftMMNHtf h# tmyht |on| (amen new method# in amp growing During this time he married Dwethy Lee hint, a ilyaacote Umbo# he'd eeuried ley leur years. ThhtMag he would like te bourne a public school teacher. Mr. 1 , > * ? Locklear returned to Ohio State and earned his teacher certification. In 1960 he took his first teaching assignment at Pembroke High School. After two years of teaching agriculture be took a break from the classroom. "I thought I didn't like teaching." He gathered together his wife and their only child at the time and moved to Baltimore, MD where he worked with a steel corporation. He says when his wife got homesick a decision was made to return home after the six months stay. Another teaching assignment was to Prospect School where he taught from 1962 until 1965. Then in midstream of a teaching career he left the classroom and signed on as an assistant supervisor with Farmers Home Administration in the Lumberton office. He gave three years service to the job before returning to the location where his teaching career began. There at the old Pembroke High School campus he stayed until his retirement in 1981. Throughout his teaching years Mr. Lockiear continued a second career of fanning. "I love the land and often thought of leaving the classroom to farm. I was raised on a farm and worked harder than hard as a young man," he comments. The 71-year-old Prospect community resident suffered a stroke in 1986 and no longer tends the farm he still owns in the lYospect community. Of retirement he says, "I didn't know the days were so long as they are until I retired from teaching school. " The father of two sons and two daughters says his activities are slowed by his declining health, but that his love for fishing goes pretty much unhindered. "I want to fish all the time. I can remember way back yonder when there were just a few people in this community who fished. "Back then people thought if you fished regularly you were considered a lazy person. The teal truth is, it takes a smart person to fish. "It used to be when I was teaching school, Fd get up at four o'clock in the morning and catch a mess at fish; then dress and go to my teaching assignment" And every consecutive year since 1949 Mr. Lockiear has visited the mountains of North Carolina -often times going twice a year. "I always wonder why 1 never got me a place up there around Cherokee," be frets. "I love to go there in the toll and eee the coloring of the leaves." And though he no longer takes trips to California and Florida he does yearn to take a cruise ship to the Virgin Islands. And If he doesn't throw himself another birthday party this summer like he did in observance of his 66th he will do just that It was six years ago and he wanted the community to know he'd turn 66 years old. He sent word out that the community was invited to his home for a celebration. In preparation for the party he cooked two hoga; 100 chickens and prepared all kinds of vegetables. He even ordered ten gallons of homemade ice-cream he churned. AU this for his adult guesta. For children he prepared MjiMinC'UAM things. "I vaai??g>aunaapaapto and wanted aa many aa could mm to my party to ba tbaiw," ba iimiiIi. Aa aaak ayAni teflteitMfl tilAV teMa amAteJ M^tk * Kate iter iklah wiTwwtete S ^teRwvf WH^rW raadi "numb Oad r? I%T h lha adddla af Ida teat yard aat a blue alaad* teA ,aMnn LmmI /W |Ju ka,?l laKtelaaii "Main Ak