+ WEATHER + Sunny and continued hot today and Tuesday. Fair and warm tonight, high today around 90 in mountains and 100 elsewhere. VOULME 9 TELEPHONE 3117 — 3118 DUNN, N. C. MONDAY AFTERNOON, JUNE 29, 1959 FIVE CENTS PER COPY NO- 143 Lawyer Companion With Big Truck IT NEVER OVERTURNED f- Slammed completely oat of shape, its windshield hanging cockeyed, car which carried Nathan Johnson, Sr., and C. G. Dunn to their death never overturned but its * passengers were thrown out, killed on imphet. ft was actually headed in opposite direction, up the kffl toward LUlinrton, at the time of the disaster. (Record Photos by Ted Crail.) 4 JUST HANGING — Big trailer truck which collided with the GRIM CHORE — Ambulance attendants lifted “Uncle Nathan’s" Johnson car barely missed plunging- over steep embankment. The shieet-covered body into ambulance. Both he and Dunn were killed driver was knocked unconscious, thrown into deep shock. almost instantly. hovers on edn of embankment while farther down a crowd has fathered around Johnson car which partly straddled the drater SCENE OF ACCIDENT — This sweeping stretch of road, a short distance beyond the big highway Junction of U-S. 421 and 55 above Erwin, was the site of tlv double fatality. Track (at right) Both Men. Killed Almost Instantly By TED CRAIL RECORD NEWS EDITOR A smashing double fatality on j Claimed the lives of attorney C. G. one-time farm boy who had risen li become one of North Carolina’s top To thousands in this .area, he as much as any man his success of those who knew him and lived Both men were dead before I them. Thrown from the car whic they collided with a truck, they ( under the truck' and Johnson lane Dr. Charles Byrd pronounced ther the.skull and internal injuries. Hundreds arrived at the scene almost as soon as it happened and at the Johnson home in Dunn cars began to collect. Throughout the county, news of Jhe death had coursed as quickly as a rifle shot. Johnson's companion' was at first identified as Bart Johnson but Bart was one of those who came to the scene of the collis> ion. With him was Bob Bass, manager of the /.ractor division at the Dunn store which was only a part of Johnson’s merchandis ing empire. I “It's like toeing your second daddy,” Bass said. He turned away from the scene when he was still a hundred yards away and wouldn’t look. Tears were in the eyes of many of those who had come to sfee a wreck and found the- “Big Nathan" was dead. To investigating patrolmen W. T. Harris, and W. \0. Grady, the reason behind the wreck was still locked in the measurements of skid marks and other physical ev idence which they had taken at the scene. The Johnson car had hit the truck while in the wrong lane but there was no clear view of why it was there. Taken to Good Hope Hospital in deep shock, truck driver Ray B. Isaac, a 28-year-old resident of Morehead iCty, said to Harnett Coroner R. L. Pate, Sr., that just before the crash it had looked like Johnson was about to park. “Isaac had been to Lillington to make a delivery to the gar ment factory,’’ said Pate. “He drives for the 'Morehead City Garment Company. “He said that he saw this other car run off the highway on the shoulder and he expected it to park. But J,hen it ran back, across the center-line and into his truck. “He said he was going about 45 and it looked like the car was do ing about the same.” The coroner has impaneled an inquest jury, composed of six men from Dunn, but will not sche dule the hearing into the accident until the first of next week. Isaac, he said, will be transferred to the Morehead City Hospital. County Commissioner W. O. Warren was directly behind the Johnson car, but at a considera ble distance, and did not actually see the accident, “When I looked up,” said War ren, “this thing had happened. I saw that a truck and car had col lided on the hill. “I pulled up and jumped out of my car and ran to it. I saw Mr. Johnson first—I thought it was him even then—lying at the back wheel. He was already dead and I could tell that the other man under the truck was dead, too. “O. T. Wilson was there and we saw that the man in the cab of the truck needed help. He was still living. We couldn’t open the door on the driver’s side and the truck was so far over the embank ment on the other side we could n’t get at him ( om there. “He was u -onscious at first and when he 1 'an to raise up he was still so confused w« couldn't tell 7 i rising roadway near Erwin today Dunn and of Nathan Johnson, Sr., ke a hero out of Horatio Alger to merchandisers. was known a.«i “Big Nathan" and story had caught the imagination beside him. i he nearest man could even reach li Johnson himself was driving as lied on impact. Dunn was thrown ed beside one of its great wheels, i dead from multiple fractures of him what to do. Wilson and I got hold of him and pulled him out through the window of the cab. “When we pulled him out, he went completely crazy when he saw the two men lying there. He was out of his head with shock. “I twisted him around With his back to them and slapped him in the face to bring him back to his senses.” 5 Coroner Pate said there appear ed to be no-one except the truck driver who actually saw the col. • lieion as it occurred. The jury he has appointed to serve at the in quest includes Chajrles Hildreth, Charles Smith, J. Henry Thomas, Edwin Boyette, Gerald S. Mann and George F. Owen. Tragic News Hit Staff Like A bolt The death of Nathan M. John son, Sr. early this afternoon prac tically paralyzed operation of Dunn' largest (and one of the State's largest) business firms. News of the fatal accident in which he was involved hit offi cials and employees at the home office here like# a bolt of light ning. They douldn’t believe it. “Big Nathan dead—No, it can’t be,” said officials, secretaries, clerks and others with tones of both shock and disbelief.” They referred to him a “Big Nathan” since the son who suc ceeded him as president of the huge company is named Nathan, Jr. Everybody identified them as “Big Nathan” or “Little Nathan.” That name Nathan—with an added—has become a household byeword in Eastern North Caroli (Continued On page Six)... Wmm . : W*smsm U NATHAN JOHNSON SR. I Came Up Hard, Lived Conservatively ”Big Nathan" Was A Self-Made Man Nathan M. Johnson, Sr., killed early this afternoon in a tragic highway accident at the age of S8, came from a farm in Johnston County to build a business empire that stretched across two states and beyond. He was the founder and execu tive vice president of Johnson Cotton Company and it affiliated stores—19 of them all in North and South Carolina—and its other far-flung manufacturing, financial, jobbing and retail operations. These subsidiaries included two large fertilizer plants, one in Dunn and lhe other at Wilmington, num erous cotton gins, Southern Job. bers, a large mercantile jobbing concern, and he was also the ma jority stockholder in Four County Agricultural Credit Corporation. But despite the personal fortune which he accumulated and the en ormity of the business operations he directed, he remained one of the town’s most unpretentious cit izens. He lived conservatively, and shunned publicity and social ac tivity with equal vigor. It was an unusual event that kept him out of bed after 7 o’clock at night and he was usually at his office about 5 in the morning. Though he remained in the back ground, he was the community’s No. 1 benefactor and philanthrop ist. His pride and joy was the three-story Dunn hospital built at a cost of over a half million dollars by Mr. Johnson and donated to the community. He also maintained a hospital fund for the caFe of the needy. He took pride in the fact that no needy person has ever been turned away. The lOO.bed hospital was open ed here in 1940 but it wasn’t un_ til two years ago that Mr. John son was revealed to the public as the donor—and then only over his protests. At the same time, the hospital board renamed the institution Betsy Johnson Mem. orial Hospital in memory of his deceased mother. He was youngest of ten children , born to the late Alsey Daniel ; Johnson and Elizabeth Tart John, j son on May 18, 1891 on the farm (Continued On Pace Sis) Erwin Bargain Begin Tuesday Days Morning Erwin’s third annual July Bar gain Days celebration, designed to be even bigger than the ones pre viously held, will swing open Tues day morning at 9 o’clock sharp and continue through Saturday night.* * Ty Thomas, owner of Erwin Furniture Company, and George Joseph, owner of Joseph's Depart ment Store, ar€ in charge of the arrangements and said today that everything is in readiness. Practically all of the business firms of Erwin are participating and are going all-out to offer big ger and better values than ever before. Purpose of these trade events, held each January and eadfa July, are to attract new shoppers to Erwin and to acquaint them with f th« outstanding stores, personnel I and stocks of merchandise waiting to serve them in the friendly town. REAL VALUES Each participating store is of. fering values you can expect tc receive only once a year and. some times not that often. Merchants ' V agreed today that prices will be the lowest in years. Instead of holding individual sales at the various stores at dift ferent times, all the stores are combining to make shopping and saving in Erwin even more at tractive. AH the go<