Newspapers / The Franklin Times (Louisburg, … / June 13, 1967, edition 1 / Page 1
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t .4 Weather Partly cloudy and continued warm today and Wednesday with a slight chance of an afternoon or evening thunder shower. Low today, 64; high, 87. Tel ?Y 6-3283 The FrankMn Times Published Every Tuesday & Thursday Serving All Of Franklin County Ten Cents N " Louisburg_N. C., T uesday. June 13. 1967 (Six Pages Today) Industry Education Agriculture 98th Year-Number 33 Violence Claims Lives Of Four On Bloody Saturday Franklin County has Just experienced the bloodiest! weekend since September 1, 1963, as violence claimed the lives of four persons apd Injured at least five others. Saturday was perhaps the bloodiest day in recent county history. All four deaths and the flve.^pjuries took place In the 24-hour period beginning at midnight FrTday night and ending at midnight Saturday. A Pilot man was killed shortly after midnight in an automobile accident on US-64. Three hours later, a Negro mfcn and his six Man Held In Death Of Wife Leonard Lee Steed, 39-year old loom fixer at Franklin Fabrics, Is being held in Franklin County Jail, with out bond, awaiting a hearing next Tuesday in Recorder's Court in the pistol slaying of his wife Saturday night. Mrs. Mavis Markham Steed, 38, was pronounced dead shortly after being broulbt to Franklin Memorial Hospital by tfae ^Franklinton Rescue Service. She was reportedly shot In the head with a .38 caliber pistol. The couple were alone at the time of the incident, in a bedroom of their .home at 1103 East Mason St. in Frankllnton. Mrs. Steed was shot around 10:30 P.M. Saturday, accord ing to reports. Her husband reportedly called neighbors who in turn summoned the Rescue Service. Sheriff William T. Dement Investigated the shooting Sat urday night and placed Steed in custody shortly after 11 P.M. A warrant charging that Steeddld"klll and murder Mavis Markham Steed" was Issued Sunday morning. Funeral services for Mrs. Steed were held Monday at 3:30 P.M. from the Frank llnton Baptist Church, con ducted by Rev. Lloyd Jackson and Rev. Dwlght Cooper. Burial followed in Falrview cemetery. Surviving In addition to her husband are a son, Bill of the home; two daughters, Mrs. , Linda McGhee and Miss Sheila Steed, both of Frankllnton; a sister , Mrs. Carol Wells of Martinsville, Va.; five bro thers, Wallace, Charles and Gordon Markham, all of Roa noke, Va.; Kenneth Markham of Baltimore, Md., and Julian Markham of Portsmouth, Va.; and her father, Charles O. Markham. Two Injured A Cherry Point Marine was injured in a single car accident near Frankllnton a round midnight Saturday and a Rt. 4 Loulsburg Negro suffered minor Injuries when he ran off the road below Bunn around 6:30 P.M. Sat urday, both Inadvertently be coming a part of the bloodiest weekend In recent years In Franklin County* Twenty-year old Thomas GUleland was hospitalized with a brain concussion following an accident on a rural road southeast of Frank llnton and Thomas Earl Perry, 21, was transported to Frank lin Memorial Hospital follow ing his escape from Crooked Creek, where he was thrown following an accident 3 miles east of Bunn. year -old son were burned to death when their home was de stroyed by fire on NC-39, and Saturday night around 10 p.m. a Franklinton mother was killed in a gun incident. One other person was injured in the fatal automobile accident; two young boys were injured in the fatal fire; and two men were injured In separate Wrecks, one at Bunn and the other at Franklinton before the end came. .. . Not since the1 Labor Day weekend in 1963 when three Winston Salem residents were killed In a two-car collision three miles west of Bunn on NC-98, and a Franklintftn' Negro man killed his wife In a shootout has the county registered four deaths in such a short period. The shooting death occurred on Friday night and the accident on Sunday afternoon. On April 5, 1957 the county recorded a two-death accident on NC-561 when racing was blapied for the death of a young Louisburg man and a nurse headed home from Franklin Me Father And Son Are Trapped In Inferno Shown Above s,?" pho 0 by Cl Fu" ? i Fifth Fatality Of Year Pilot Man Killed. Another Injured As Car Hits Pillar A 22-year-old Pilot man was killed Instantly Saturday morning shortly after mid night when the car in which he was riding slammed Into a brick and concrete pillar at Prlvette's Motel and Restau rant one mile east of Pilot. Bobby Hendrlx Pearce, Rt. 2 Zebulon, become the fifth highway fatality of the year In Franklin County, when he died Just three miles from his home near Pilot. Randy Morris Denton, 19, of Rt. 2 Zebulon, was lden tifled as the driver of the 1964 Chevrolet by State Trooper D.C. Day. Denton is listed as in critical con dition in Wake Memorial Hos pital with head and chest in juries.. The car, according to Day, was registered In Denton's father's name. It was reported that Denton apparently lost control of the vehicle on a slight curve on US 64. The car ran off the right side of the road, jumped a ditch and slammed Into the concrete pillar broadsides. One Killed, One Critically Injured Stoff Photo by Clint Fullor The right side of the car where Pearce was reportedly riding was forced In several feet. Funeral services for Pearce were conducted Sunday after noon at 2 P.M. from the Pilot Baptist Church, conducted by Rev. Donald R. Wagner. Burial followed In the Pearce family cemetery. The death was the first on Franklin County highways since a Frankllnton mother succumbed on April 26 to Injuries' received In a head on crash on April 15 one mile south of Frankllnton^ See WRECK Page 4 Second - Flim-Flam Arrest Made The second arrest In recent flim-flamming operations in the county was made here Saturday, according to Sheriff William T. Dement. Melvln H. Hicks, w/m/22, of Rocky Mount was jailed charged with allegedly fleecing four elderly Franklin County people out of a total of $800. Charged earlier with simi lar crimes, was Bobby Harold Brown, now lodged in a John ston County jail awaiting trial there and here on false pre tense charges. The duo, according to Sheriff Dement, posed as electrical Inspectors and termite in spectors and made exorbitant charges after having allegedly treated the homes of termites or electrical trouble? . Hicks Is being held under 17,500 bond In the county jail, having been identified by his victims here Saturday. Council To Seek Bids On Additional Street Paving The Loulsburg Town Council dlsclpsed In Its regular Fri day night meeting last week, that bids are to be sought on paving West Nash, Court and Market Streets here. Town Administrator E.S. Ford was authorized to advertise for bids on the projects to be opened on July 7, 1967. Main Street and East Nash Street are scheduled to be resurfaced under the state bond program and the Council plans to look Into the poss ibility of completlngthe down town streets not Included In the state project. The Council authorized the Administrator to pay one-half the cost of a 15,000 Watt emergency generator to be used by the county-town fire and rescue services provided the County of Franklin votes to pay the remaining half. The cost Is not to exceed $1,000. Council members Jonah Taylor, Mrs. Breattle O'Neal and George Bunn were named a committee "for recommen dations on streets". Justice Street was placed with the State Highway system on a resolution adopted by the Council for "maintenance and Improvements". The Council set June 23 as the next meeting when the tentative budget will be studied and Invoices totaling $8,342.84 were approved and ordered paid. mortal Hospital. A few days later a third person died from Injuries In the accident. The accident resulted In the forming of a Safety Council here at the time. One Rescue call, coming late Sunday afternoon to aid an elderly Loulsburg lady who had suffered a fall at her home, has been the only reported action since the bloody 24-hour period ended Saturday midnight. Two Die, Two Injured As Fire Destroys Home A 41-year-old Negro and his six-year-old son burned to death when their two-story house was destroyed by fire early Saturday morning. Bunn Fire Chief Darrell Mitchell reported that his department received the call around 3:05 A.M. He said that by the time firemen reached the location on NC 39 four miles east of Louisburg, the house was engulfed in flames. John Wesley Jones and his son, Tyronie were trapped inside the inferno. Two other sons, John Wayne Jones, age 8 and Shaffer, age 7 escaped from the blaze. The older boy is confined In Franklin Memorial Hospital with third degree burns and is listed as in serious condition. The younger boy was treated and later released. The bodies were recovered shortly after 5 P. M. according to Sheriff William T. Dement. The Sheriff said that accord ing to Information supplied him, the father had been drink ing. Friends brought the man home shortly after ten o'clock. The older boys were awakened when flames caught their clothing afire and they ran out doors. Both returned inside the house and awakened the smaller boy. They could not' wake their father, according to reports. The small boy followed his older brothers as they attempted to escape. The youngest apparently became lost In the smoke and entered a closet Instead of opening an outside door. His body was found Inside what was believed to have been the closet. The mother was away at work at the time. She Is report edly employed by Watson Poultry Co. In Raleigh. According to reports, a Negro Identified as James Dunston notified a Bunn bus inessman of the fire. The man called the fire depart ment. It was not clear that It was Dunston that first sigh ted the blaze, but one rel iable report said that an un identified Negro man, riding with his wife spotted the flames. He did not stop, but Instead continued on to Bunn to alert the fire department. The man obviously was un aware that two persons were trapped Inside the flaming house. Firemen called the Loyls burg Rescue Service to come aid the two injured boys, after discovering that the two had been burned. Rescuers trans ported the two to the emergency room and one Res cuer, Wyatt Freeman remain ed at the hospital until It was determined that both youths would be admitted. This Is the tenth major (Ire -in the county thus far this year and the first to result In death. Two small children perished when their home, Just off South Main Street here was burned on Christmas Eve, 1963. This was the last fire fatality in the area until the Saturday morning tragedy. General Griffin Honored At Wilson General Edward F. Griffin, retiring Director of Civil De fense, was honored Sunday by former members of his army outfit, the 113th Field Artlllary, at a dinner meeting held In Wilson. .. Reports vary from 200 to 600 In estimating attendance, but the meeting was moved to different quarters when the crowd was too large for the original restaurant location. Gen. Griffin, scheduled to retire from his civil defense Job this summer, was hailed as a "man with nerve" for his leadership of the canno neers during 1940 while a _ ? major. Men from all ranks came to attend the banquet from North and South Carolina, Ten nessee, New York and Penn sylvania. _ Many of the women attending with their husbands were fas cinated with the greetings ex tended by the men who served r together during a bitter part of the war, and who haven't seen one another for some 27 years. Harold Williams of Loula burg said the dinner was ^ combined reunion and retire ment ceremony for General Griffin, who led us Into battle and brought us home. General Griffin wu born In Franklin County on 4 Novem ber 1900. His military career was launched when he enlisted as a private In the National Guard on 1 October 19S3. As an enlist ad man ha bald sue-, cesslve grades as private, corporal, sergeant and Cfctef of Section with Battery B of the 113th Plaid Artillery Re giment. General Griffin received his commission as a second See GRIfTIN Pace 4 Board To Rebuild Shop The Franklin County Board of Education, meeting In special session here Monday, voted to rebuild ihe Gold Sand School Vocational Agriculture shop, which was destroyed by fire early last Thursday morning. Supt. Warren W. Smith was directed by the Board to pro ceed with preliminary draw ings and to investigate several avenues by which the new building could be built In time for the fall school opening. Smith estimated the loss at $30,000 for the building and between $10,000 and $15,000 for the equipment. He said insurance covered part of the loss. In other actions, the Board See BOARD Page 4
The Franklin Times (Louisburg, N.C.)
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June 13, 1967, edition 1
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