=1968 In Review
Franklin County schools cominated
the headline* In 1968, first with the
continuing series of court hearings and
later with the opening of achools
under court ordered integration.
Frankllnton city achools also felt the
brunt of federal dictates with partial
mixing of the races.
Therefore, chosing the top news
story of the year for 1968, is relatively
easy. The headline of the August 6
issue, which read, "Court Orders Total
Integration Th)s Fall", ranks first. The
actual opening of schools, both public
and private follows in second place.
Undoubtedly, the two togethhr made
up the biggest news stories in this area
in several years.
The Griffln-Jolly Senate race and
the upset of incumbent Commissioner
Richard Cash by John House highlight
ed an otherwise uneventful local elec
tion in May. However, the interest in
these and other local races plus a
renewed interest in the statewide pri
maries in May and June marks the
so-called local elections as the third
top news story of the year.
Following in a close fourth spot is
the general elections in November.
George W|allace carried the county
over both. the Republican and Demo
cratic presidential candidates while
Bob Scott overcame a hard-fought
campaign jby Jim Gardner supporters
to take the county on his way to the
Governor's Mansion.
In fifth place and closely allied with
the May, June and November elections
is the new registration which took
place in March a??kApiil. Over 10,000
voters registered in the period before
the primaries and with a second
chance prior to the feneral elections, a
number of others registered to bring
the total on the books to 11,163 for
the November ballotiag.
Sixth place goes to the courthouse
renovation project, the iqoying out of
county offices, the work itself and this
week, the moving in again of all
county agencies.
One of the most frightening week
ends experienced here in 1968 came in
April. In the aftermath of the assassi
nation of Or. Martin Luther King. Jr.
in Memphis, vandalism broke out in
several places in Louisburg and Frank
linton. Some of it continued into the
following week with a school bus
hijacking and kidnapping at Franklin
ton. Hundreds of dollars worth of
damage was done in fires and window
EARLE MURPHY
Murphy Gets
Promotion
W. Earle Murphy, UI, * native of
Louisburg, has been promoted from
truit officer to vice president and trust
officer of Virginia Trust Company,
Richmond. Va.. according to an an
nouncement made last week. Murphy,
who attended public schools here and
finished high school at Rishburne Mili
tary in Waynesboro, Va., also attended
Michigan State. Northwestern, and the
University of Richmond. He is a grad
uate of thU University of North Cart-'
Una.
Murphy, the son of Mr. and Mrs. W.
Earle Murphy, Sr. of Louisburg, is
married to the former Janet Dean of
Salt Lake City, Utah. They have two
children, Billy, age 13 and Beth, age
11 and live at 211 El Dorado Drive,
Richmond, Va. He has been with the
Virginia firm for twelve years and is
active in the Westminister Presbyterian
Church in Richmond.
Woman Held
In Fatal
Shooting
Evon NmI, 20-yeer-old Zebulon,
Rt. 2, Negro woman I* lodged in
Franklin Jail in lieu of $5,000 bond let
at a hearing here Monday in District
Court. The woman ia charged with
murder in the Friday riiooting of Cr^lg
Armstrong, also of Zebulon, Rt. 2,
Negro, according to Franklin Sheriff
William T. Dement.
The shooting reportedly took place
Friday night at Pearces. Armstrong
was brought to Franklin Memorial
Hotpiul a ad later transferred tp Duke
Hospital at Durham where he died
breakings. Local police and firemen
were alerted and worked shifts
throughout the weekend. This story is
considered as the seventh largest of the
year.
Inevitably, death on Franklin Coun
ty highways rates one of the top ten
places. This year, nine persons were
killed on the roads and their stories
rank eighth in the year's headlines.
The area, so seldom hit by freaks of
nature, was beseiged by an unusual
storm in January ibhich dumped snow,
sleet and /reeling rain across the coun
ty forcing the closing of schools and
many injuries. And. in July, hail struck
the Wood area of the county inflicting
an estimated S300.000 in crop dam '
age. The two storms together rate the
number nine spot as top news stories.
The long and sometimes bitter con
troversy between the Board of County
Commissioners and the Board of Edu
cation over a piece of land upon which
a federally financed Methods and
Material Center was to be built rates
the tenth spot. The fued lasted much
of the year, threatening for a time to
cause the loss of the building al
together. The Commissioners won the
scrap by purchasing additional land,
which the School Board said it didn't
WaS. for S12.500 and the building is
now under construction.
There were many additional news
stories during the year that merits
special mention at the year's end.
Among these are the tragic shooting of
a Franklinton police officer by a
deputy sheriff in January; the final
settling of the ambulance service prob
lem; Youngsville basketball team win
ning the State championship and the
Sportswear-Union hearings.
Other top stories of 1968 include
the Louisburg Police pay crisis and
subsequent pay increases, the location
of a hosiery mill at Franklinton, the
aborted school boycott, the school
tuition- controversy and the Lee Mur
ray trial.
There were the usual number of
large catches of fish, the bagging of a
deer or two, the year's quota of brides *
and at least one rumor that a bear was
loose in the area.
So, in summary, one would suppose
that 1968 was no better and not much
worse than years past. Whatever it was
or for a moment or two longer, might
be. the problem now is not 1968, but
1969. May all the headlines bring good
news.
JOHN PARRISH
Parrish Is
Elevated
youngsville - Mr. John Holden Par
rish. ion of Mr. and Mrs. John Henry
Parrish and grandson of Mrs. H. R.
Parrish of Youngsville and Mrs. Martha
Holden of Louisburg, has been ele
vated to Medical Electronics Specialist
with Baxter Laboratories.
Already at work in his new job, Mr.
Parrish was formerly located in Win
ston Salem traveling for the firm as
medical representative and district
trainer in western North Carolina and
Virginia. He Is now covering the Dal
las. Memphis and New Orleans area
including seven states. In line with his
work he makes frequent trips to other
states around the country.
Mr. Parrish demonstrates and es
tablishes Cardiac Intensive Care Sys
tems in hospitals. Such as the units
which Franklin Memorial Hospital is
currently seeking to have Installed.
Until recently, Baxter Laboratories
had four territories covering the
United States, headed by four men
who set up the intensive care systems
and provided instruction for opera
tion. Now each area has been divided
in two, due to larger demands for the
cardiac equipment. Mr. Parrish was
one of the four additional men In the
United States chosen to head the new
territories.
A graduate of Youngsville High
School and Wake Forest University,
Mr. Parrish ha* the BS degree in
biology. He has had specialized job
training in Chicago, 111.
He, his wife Phyllis, and their two
children, Cindy and Anton, plan to
move in January bom Winston Salem
to New Orleans.
Weather
Mottly cloudy with chance of rain
today. Clearing and colder tonight.
? Wadnaaday. generally fair and cold.
Low today, 36; high, upper 40'a.
P?ge 2 '
y
Tuesday, December 31, 1968
Noted Teacher To Visit Here
A Trenton (N.J.) State College professor, a nationwide figure In the teaching of
retarded children, will visit the Louisburg Elementary School here on January 10,
according to an announcement today by Supt. Warren W. Smith.
Dr. Richard.Weber will work a full day with the Special Education class at the
local school With county Special Education teachers watching his methods and
receiving instruction. Dr. Weber is coming through the interest and efforts of Mrs. J.
R. Inscoe, a teacher in the school. Mrs. Inscoe read of his work in a national
magazine and asked permission of the Board of Education to invite him to her
school. The Board granted permission and praised Mrs. Inscoe for her efforts. The
Special Education class at the local Elementary school is taught by Mrs. Doris
Wilder.
ASCS Gives
Program Facts
The Franklin County ASCS Office
has disclosed some important facts
about the following 1969 Programs.
The 1969 ACP sign-up will beglrf
January 6, 1969. Practices for which
cost-sharing will be available are about
the same as in 1968.
The sign-up for premeasurement
service will begin January 6,v 1969.
Rates are the same as last year.
The Wheat Program has changed for
1969. There will be diversion and/or
price support payments for those who
participate. Producers with 21.7 acres
of allotment may divert all of the
acreage and receive diversion payment.
Sign-up period will be announced
later.
The details of the Feed Grain Pro
gram have not been announced. How
ever, producers will be notified of
program details, sign-up period, etc.
when information is available.
There will be no diversion program
in cotton, however, producers with
10.0 acres or less or projected yields of
3600 lbs. or less will earn a payment
on 35% of their allotment and price
support payments on plantings up to
65% of the allotment provided they
participate. Large farms will earn only
a payment on the planted acreage up
to 65% of their allotment. The sign-up
period will be announced later.
The final date to sell or lease cotton
allotments is December 31, 1968.
The Tobacco Lease and Transfer
Program will be in effect for 1969.
Lease agreements may be filled with
the county office anytime between
now and April 1, 1969.
Negro Youth
Charged
In Knifing
James Earl Walker, c/m/19, an em
ployee of the Town of Louisburg Is
free on $300 bond today after being
charged with assault with a deadly
weapon with intent to kill in the
Sunday night kniflng of a 24-year-old
Negro man. '
James Edward Johnaon was slaihed
about the face, aide and back in the
Mineral Springs section of Loulaburg
around 7 p.m. Sunday night, according* ,
to Chief of Police Earl Tharrlngton. *
ll ail starwfu on v^urisbnuts uny ,
1957, when Dr. Weber was organist for
a program at one of Illinois' State
Children's Hospitals.
There a severely retarded child pre
sented him with a hand-made Chris
tmas card. Although crude and pitiful,
the card told Weber that there was a
spark of creativity even in the un
teachable.
Today Weber, an associate profes
sor of music at Trenton State College,
is a nationwide figure in teaching the
mentally retarded. After receiving his
B.A. and M.A. from Bradley Univer
sity, his teaching career began as an
instrumental instructor in Yates City,
Hiinois.
There he developed a six-note scale
to reach slow learners. Finding that
these children could cope with the six
notes effectively to play simple me
lodies, he tried it with retarded child
ren. They were equally successful.
Now, wherever Weber goes, he says,
"Give me your children with the most
severe learning problems and I will
have them playing Instruments from
the printed page." And they do! His
method works not only on the piano
keyboard, but on brass, woodwinds
and strings as well.
Weber, full of energy and enthus
iasm, explains his method of teaching
children to match a set of six letters
on the printed page with the same
letters pasted on the instrument's
keys. They identify the letters on the
keyboard and thus play simple me
lodies.
Weber extends this, substituting
other letters until the child learns to
recognize the entire alphabet as he
See TEACHER Page 8
DC Checks
Mailed
The Louisburg-Franklin County
Development Corporation this week
began mailing out checks totaling al
most seven thousand dollars to the
Franklin County people who bought
corporation bonds to assist In con
struction of the Louisburg Sportswear
plant about seven years ago.
The checks being mailed this week
represent the sixth payment of princi
pal on the bonds and interest on the
balance, according to Kenneth Schu
bart, county industrial development
director. <
Bland B. Prultt Is president of the
Development Corporation. Edward S.
Ford Is secretary and W. F. Sheiton In
treasurer of the Corporation which to
currently completing a ten thousand
, square foot addition to the Louisburg
? Sportswear plant. '
Louisburg Tobacconist,
Sister-ln-Law Killed
In Wake County Crash
A popular Louisburg tobacconist
and his sister-in-law were killed in
stantly Monday afternoon around 6
p.m. in an automobile accident near
the Raleigh-Durham airport when the
car in which they were riding was
(truck by a tractor-trailer truck.
James Barnett Clayton, 62, 203
Williamson Street, Louisburg and Mrs.
Grace Osborne Clayton, 72, of Rox
boro were returning to Roxboro from
the airport at the time of the accident.
Clayton, a native of Person County
and a frequent visitor to Roxboro, had
gone to the airport to pick up Mrs.
Clayton, arriving home after a visit to
Missouri.
The accident occurred at the inter
section on US 70 and the airport road,
according to reports. State Trooper
Stacy Bailey said the Clayton car was
headed north on the airport road and
the truck, driven by Calvin Sasser of
Golds boro, was headed east. Sasser,
according to reports, told Trooper f
Bailey he was about a trailer length
from the Intersection when the Clay
ton car pulled into the intersection.
Sasser said he applied brakes but
could not avoid hitting the Plymouth
in which the Claytons were riding. He
reported that he was going about 50
miles per hour when the car pulled
into his path. The front bumper on the
tractor struck the car in the middle of
the left side and shoved it diagonally
across the two eastbound lanes of
traffic and into a shallow ditch.
Bailey said the truck left 85 feet of
skid marks before colliding with the
car and 60 feet of skid marks after the
impact. Both bodies were pinned in
the wreckage for about thirty minutes
before the Raleigh Rescue Squad
could free them.
JAMES CLAYTON
Two children, riding in the truck,
were treated at Wake Memorial Hos
pital and released. Richard Dale Lan
caster, 8 and Michael Allen Sasser, 7,
suffered only minor injuries. The
driver was also uninjured. Bailey said
that he had made no charges against
Sasser.
Clayton was a tobacconist with the
J. P. Taylor Tobacco Company and
had lived here with his wife, Mrs.
Mamie Beam Clayton, since 1960. He
attended Oak Ridge Military Institute
and was a member of Long Memorial
Baptist Church, Roxboro. He was an
ardent golfer and had a number of
friends here. He is survived by his wife
and several nieces and nephews.
Funeral services are incomplete.
Board Of Education
Is Top News Maker
Away back In 1967, the Board of
County Commissioners was selected as
Franklin County's top newsmakers of
the year. Even though they tried to
repeat in 1968, the nod has to go to
the much publicized and sometimes
ostracised Board of Education. Holly
wood press agents would be pleased
with the amount of publicity gained
(mostly without trying) by this august
county body.
Getting a full head of steam jni
1967, the Board was off and running
as 1968 emerged upon the scene. In
January the talk was of the pending
February 5th hearing before the
United States Court of Appeals at
Richmond. The months-long school
dispute between the Board, the
NAACP and the federal government,
was hopefully going to be settled. The
hearing came and time passed. In
March, four sticks of dynamite were
found in the vicinity of the Luther
Coppedge home. Coppedge was the
leader of the group of local Negro
parents who started the school suit in
1965. The Board was later to be
criticized by the courts for not af
fording proper protection.
Also In March, the Board presented
a plan, ordered earlier by the District
Court. A few days later, In April
Fourth Circuit affirmed the District
Court's earlier ruling.
In May, the running legal battle
continued as the Board attorneys
sought a rehearing before the Rich
mond tribunal. In June, the rehearing
was denied and a hearing was set in
Raleigh on the plan as presented by
the Board in March. Judge Algernon
Butler rejected the plan and ordered
another calling for a unitary system
with the fall openh\g of schools. As
June grabbed at July attorneys for the
plaintiffs, the government and the
Board met but failed to reach any
agreements leaving the matter in the
hands of the court.
The Board, all the while, held meet
ing after meeting in an attempt to
reconcile matters with the court and
the people It represented. The mission
was impossible.
On July 15, the five members, in
conference with the attorneys and
school officials, disclosed the latest
plan. The Board said it would assign
760 Negro students to predominantly
white schools and assign 45 teachers
across racial lines. As July came to an
end, no word had been received from
the Court and the Board made plans to
open under its proposed plan. On
See NEWS Page 8
Local Woman
Is Tar Heel
Of The Week
Miss Anne Parrish, a Franklin Coun
ty native who commutes to her work
as chief of the new Physical Therapy
Section of the State Board of Health
in Raleigh, was honored as the News
and Observer's Tar HeeJ of the. Week
Sunday. Miss Parrish was cited for her
outstanding accomplishments in the
field of physical therapy.
The article told of her work as a
physical therapist and of her service as
a member of the WAC during World
War II. After graduating from Wo
man's College at Greensboro in 1941,
Miss Parrish taught school in Green
ville, 1 S. C. She ended her teaching
career in 1943 when she joined the
WACs, where she attended physical
therapy school receiving her certificate
in 1945 following which she worked at
the Medical College of Virginia in
Richmond. During the period 1948-51
she did social work here in Franklin
County.
Miss Parrish, who lives with her
mother at Moulton, joined the North
Carolina Board of Health in 1951. She
was recently awarded the 1968 Cita
tion of Merit Award of the North
Carolina Public Health Anociation.
The Tar Heel of the Week article,
written by Staff Writer Bebe Moore,
quotes from the September newsletter
of the State Board of Health a "one
sentence description of Anne Parrish":
"She is the person who never says no
when thhre is a job ty be done." The
writer states the sentence "seems ac
curate."
Miss Parrish is the second Franklin
woman to be so honored. Miss Emily
Burt Person has also been a Tar Heel
of the Week. Several county men have
been so namtd uvei the reais. ? ? '