The Pilot Covers
Brunswick Countyj
THE STATE PORT PILOT
A Good Newspaper In A Good Community
Most ot the News
All The Time
VOLUME 41
No. 12
10-Pages Today
SOUTHPORT, N. C. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1969
Si A COPY
PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY
Embarking For Bald Head
A group of state officials and newsmen who made a trip to Bald Head Island
Saturday morning aboard the Neuse are shown as that craft moved away from the
dock at the Southport Boat Harbor. Left to right, they are Ernest Parker, member of
C & D; Adrian King, information officer for C & D; and Lt. Governor Pat Taylor
(extreme right with hand on hip). Other identifiable passengers are Representative
Norwood Bryan, center background; and Claude Sitton, executive editor of The News
and Observer, whose head shows over the shoulder of the unidentified gentleman
standing with his back to the camera. (Photo by Delores Spencer)
Crusade Plans
For Southport
Are Continuing
Various committees report
favorable progress is being made
in preparation for the crusade
planned for October 12 through
18, with the Rev. Drummond
Thom as guest evangelist.
The invited evangelist is of
Dutch parentage from Cape
Town, South Africa. He now
makes his home in Louisville,
Kentucky. Rev. Thom is a leader
in World Wide Native
Evangelism, an organization that
supports missionary efforts in
England, Kenya, Tanzania,
Malawi and South Africa. He has
travelled over a half-million
miles in the past 11 years
preaching to people of all
denominations in various parts
of the world.
The Visitation Committee,
headed by Rev. Tom Taylor, Dr.
J. L. Sampson and E. C. Blake, is
requesting all the area churches
to assist with the visitation
program to be held on the
afternoons of September 28 and
October 5. Plans are to visit
every .house in the
S o u t h p o r t-Oak Island
community.
The Counselling Committee,
headed by Rev. Ralph Gregg of
Oak Island Baptist Church, is
requesting each church to
furnish 10 members who will
serve as counsellors each night of
the crusade. Classes for the
counsellors will be held on the
nights of September 20 and 27,
and October 4 and 11. Those
persons who have had previous
experience in counselling are
urged to assist with these classes.
The crusade is being patterned
in the style of the Graham
Association meetings with
services that will be uplifting and
spiritually acceptable to people
of local denominations.
The next crusade committee,
meeting will be held in the
Southport City Hall at 8 o’clock
on Monday night. Interested
area citizens are invited to
attend the planning meetings.
Development Is
Urged By Soles
Representative Soles has
written a letter to Governor Bob
Scott urging him to support
development of Bald Head
Island along the lines of Sea
Pines at Hilton Head, S.C.
Following is the text of his
letter:
/ “During the last several weeks
there has been considerable
publicity given to the proposed
development of Smith Island in
Brunswick County. The island is
sometimes referred to as
Baldhead Island. Since this
property is located in my district
I feel that it is my duty to
express my opinion concerning
its proposed development.
“I feel that it would be in the
(Continued On Page Two)
'i.r
Welcomes Lieutenant Governor
Lt. Governor Pat Taylor is shown here alighting
from a plane at Brunswick County Airport where he
arrived Saturday morning in time to accompany a group
of state officials and newsmen on a tour of Bald Head
Island. On hand to greet her former political adversary
was Mrs. Margaret Harper, who appears to be concerned
lest he make a misstep, (photo by Delores Spencer)
Library Services
Improve With Age
By SUSAN T. KING
On July 1, 1959, Miss
Gertrude Loughlin, acting as
temporary librarian, opened the
doors of the reorganized,
refinanced Southport Public
Library. It was located on the
second floor of City Hall and up
two steep flights of steps. The
library was to be open 12 hours
a week and the book collection
consisted of 4,400 volumes
salvaged from the old Woman’s
Club library, plus some books
loaned from the North Carolina
State Library. This was the only
library service in Brunswick
County.
Now, ten years later a recap of
the library situation in
Brunswick County seems in
order. We now are located
physically in a new $100,000,
air-conditioned headquarters
building, built at ground level
and designed for easy access by
the physically-handicapped and
older persons. County-wide
library service has become a
reality through the Bookmobile
and a branch library in Shallotte,
with another branch at Leland in
the offing. The Bookmobile
covers the county every two
weeks from Northwest to
Calabash. The branch in
Shallotte has shown increased
use for every one of the five
years it has been open.
The book collection has grown
from the initial 4,400 to 21,322
as of this writing.
Hours of service in the main
library have gone from 12 to 47.
The branch library which
opened with 6 hours open to the
public has gone to 15 during the
winter and 31 in summer
months. The Bookmobile gives
24 hours service weekly. So, we
in Brunswick County now have
86 hours of library service
weekly.
During the last year the library
was a Woman’s Club project
total circulation was 1600 for
the entire year. This year, book
circulation was 14,183 for
Southport; 11,047 on the
Bookmobile and 4,668 in
Shallotte; with 16,147
borrowers.
Other services now available
(Continued On Pace Two)
District Court
Judges Prove
Too Generous
District Court Judges Giles
Clark and Ray Walton have
illegally authorized special
driving privileges for North
Carolinians convicted a second
or third time of drunken driving,
in the eyes of the state Attorney
General. The two judges who
preside in District courts in this
area are among the more than 30
who have reportedly issued these
illegal driving privileges. A
spokesman for the state attorney
generals office made it clear,
however, that the errors of the
judges were not their own fault.
Judge Clark in Columbus
County granted special privileges
to William Durham Rowland of
Shelby; and Judge Walton did
likewise in Brunswick County
'for William Earl Harris Jr., Rt. 4,
Greensboro, and neither
qualified for the consideration,
the spokesman said.
“They didn’t have the driving
records before them when they
made the judgment and were
unaware of earlier drunken
driving offenses,” the spokesman
said.
The spokesman said judges can
withdraw the special driving
privileges by issuing an order
declaring the discretionary
sentence void. Two or three
already have been withdrawn, he
said.
The 1969 General Assembly
enacted legislation authorizing
judges to grant special
exemptions, or discretionary
sentences, to drivers convicted
on first offenses of drunken
driving. Otherwise, a conviction
for the offense carries an
automatic 12-month license
revocation. The law was passed
on a trial basis and is scheduled
to expire on June 30,1971.
The State Department of
Motor Vehicles disclosed earlier
that some judges have gone
beyond the limits of the law and
granted special privileges to
drivers who have previous
convictions for drunken driving
on their records.
The spokesman for the
attorney general’s office said his
conversations with the judges
indicated that they had no
knowledge of earlier drunken
driving convictions when they
approved special driving
privileges.
“The judges just seemed to be
unaware of the first offense.
Sometimes a man just lies about
it and the judge gets caught in
(Continued On Page Two)
Library Hours
Are Extended
Effective Monday, Sept. 15,
the Southport-Brunswick
County Library, will be open
each Monday until 8 p.m.,
according to Mrs. Dorothy
Davis, Librarian.
“We hope that this additional
three hours of library service
each week will be helpful to the
9-to-5 workers as well as
students”, Mrs. Davis said.
The library in Southport now
will be open to the public 47
hours weekly. The schedule is:
Monday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.;
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
and Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
and Saturday 9 a.m. to 12 noon.
QUegaiiit
At Brown And Root Banquet
Paul S. Colby, senior vice-president, operating and engineering for CP&L, is shown
at the left talking Thursday night to Jack Fitch, center, vice president for Brown
and Root, and J. A. Jones, assistant vice-president, operating and engineering for
CP&L. The occasion was a get-acquainted banquet at Tranquil Harbour Restaurant
for which the Texas-based engineering firm was host.
Three Traffic
Deaths Occur
In Brunswick
Three deaths resulted from
two automobile wrecks in
Brunswick County Friday. One
of the victims was an Ash
resident; the other two were a
prominent Elizabethtown
druggist and his wife.
Kinston N. Smith, Route 1,
Ash, and Alfred R, Smith, 56,
and his wife of Elizabethtown,
were identified as victims of the
accidents by State Trooper W.C.
Fulghum.
One of the fatal accidents
resulted in reckless driving and
manslaughter charges against
James A. Randolph, Route 1,
Bolivia.
Randolph was placed under
$2,000 bond and slated for a
preliminary hearing in Shallotte
District Court Sept. 29 after he
allegedly pulled his car from a
rural road 7 miles north of
Shallotte into Smith’s car.
Trooper Fulghum’s
investigation showed Smith’s car
skidded off NC Highway 211 to
crash head-on into a tree after
Randolph’s car had smashed into
the side of Smith’s car.
Jerome Smith, brother of
Kinston Smith, was admitted to
New Hanover Hospital for
treatment following the fatal
accident Trooper Fulghum said
the accident happened
approximately 5:55 a.m. Friday.
In the second fatal accident in
Brunswick County Friday,
Elizabethtown drugstore
operator Alfred R. Smith, 56,
was killed about 11:30 a.m.
when his car skidded and
overturned 11 miles north of
Bolivia on a rain-soaked NC 87.
Trooper Fulghum said Smith’s
wife, Mrs. Gurthia P. Smith, was
taken to New Hanover Memorial
Hospital. She was admitted to an
intensive care unit, where she
died of injuries early Wednesday
morning.
Time And Tide
It was September 6, 1939, and Southport Presbyterians had
launched a drive for new classrooms and a brick veneer of the entire
church. There was news that week of a late season building boom at
Long Beach; the Rev. A.L. Brown had consented to be roll call
chairman for the Brunswick Red Cross affiliate; and the L.J. Hardee
home was undergoing extensive repairs, including the addition of a
terrace. A news story that week brought out the fact that for some
time the county administration had been operating in violation of
one of the state’s statutes: namely, that each courtroom must
display a state flag in a prominent spot. This situation had been
rectified, and now both the state and national ensigns were in their
proper places.
Our columnist circulating Just Among the Fishermen had noted
with some surprise that the hammerhead shark was native to the
North Carolina coast. This fact was uncovered by a group of
biologists working from the trawler of Homer and Leon McKeithan.
Schools, getting a late start that year, were due to open on the
following Monday; our editorial writer was reviewing the possibilities
of having increased tourist facilities; and, due to some mixup, there
had been no Recorder’s Court that week.
It was September 6, 1944, and, some two months after it had
happened, the story of the Normandy invasion was reported by one
of the Pilot’s correspondents. Robert Marlowe, serving with the
Navy aboard one of the invasion ships, had written a vivid
(Continued On Pace Eight)
II
Engineering Fir
Hosts Officials
Officials for Brown and Root,
Inc., contracting firm employed
by Carolina Power and Light
Company to build their nuclear
power generating plant at
Southport, were hosts Thursday
evening at a dinner at Tranquil
Harbor Restaurant to which
public officials and business and
civic leaders were invited, for a
get-together party.
F. Crom Lennon, District
Manager for CP&L, served as
master of ceremonies and called
upon Roy Stevens, Director of
the Brunswick County
Resources Development
Commission, of the invocation.
Following the dinner he
presented Foster Parker, senior
group vice-president for Brown
and Root, who spoke about the
policies of his firm.
He said that the company, one
of the largest construction firms
in the world, has for years
maintained the policy of hiring
local labor for its projects and
this will be the policy here “to
the fullest extent of availability
and capability.”
Furthermore, he said, Brown
and Root has traditionally
maintained its position as an
Food Stamps
Use Declines
U.S. Department of
Agriculture food programs aided
196,113 needy persons in North
Carolina during July, 17,694
persons less than the number
that received food assistance in
June but 48,314 persons more
than the number that took part
in the programs a year ago.
In Brunswick County the
number dropped from 1,117 in
June to 1,009 in July.
USDA’s Food and Nutrition
Service said that 67,838 persons
in 38 counties took part in its
food stamp .program and
received $453,066 in bonus
coupons.
FNS’ family food distribution
program aided 128,275 persons
in 59 counties. The foods
distributed had an estimated
retail value of $1.4 million and
included dairy products, canned
and dried fruits and vegetables,
canned meat or poultry, grain
and cereal products, as well as
other items such as peanut
butter and scrambled egg mix.
In North Carolina, the food
distribution program is
administered by the North
Carolina Department of
Agriculture, and the food stamp
program is administered by the
North Carolina Board of Public
Welfare, both in cooperation
with the Food and Nutrition
Service.
FNS officials generally
attributed the decreased
participation during July to
increased agricultural
employment opportunities.
“open shop” organization as far
as labor is concerned. This
policy, he said, allows the
company to hire laborers
directly and not through a
“third party.”
Parker then presented Vice
President Jack Fitch, who gave a
brief history of the firm. He
explained that Brown and Root
has been in business for 50
years, starting with a small
operation in central Texas.
He said that in 1925, the
company listed assets of
(Continued On Page , Two)
JAMES R. PREVATTE, JR.
New Attorney
For Southport
James Russell Prevatte, Jr., has
joined the law firm of E. J.
Prevatte as associate to his uncle,
a veteran attorney in Southport
and Brunswick county.
The new lawyer is from Red
Springs and graduated from
Wake Forest College with ai
bachelor of arts degree in 1966.
He was graduated from the Law
School of Wake Forest
University in 1969, and last
month passed the State Bar
Exam.
On September 6 he was sworn
in before Judge James C.
Bowman and Judge Ray H.
Walton, both of whom are
former law partners of his uncle.
He is married to the former
Kathleen Upchurch of
Lexington and they have no
children. S'.ie has accepted
employment at Waccamaw Bank
and Trust Co. and they make
their home at Yaupon Beach.
The Prevattes are members of
the Baptist Church.
While in school at Wake Forest
Prevatte was a member of the
baseball squad and was a pitcher.
His current athletic interests are
directed toward golf, hunting
and fishing.
While in college he was a
member of the U.S. Army
R.O.T.C. and faces the prospect
of two years active duty,
probably beginning in January.
ASC Balloting f
Deadline Set
September 16th ,
ASC Committee election plans
for Brunswick County are now
complete. County and
Community Committees have
met and completed a date of
nominees for each community
and ballots were mailed to each
eligible voter of record on
September 5.
These ballots must be returned
to the ASCS Office in Shallotte
or postmarked by not later than
Sept 16. Any eligible voter who
does not receive a ballot should
call or visit the ASCS Office
prior to September 16.
Ballots will be publicly
tabulated at the ASCS Office in
Shallotte on September 10
beginning at 8:30 a.m. The
public is invited to witness the
tabulation. This will be done bf
the County ASCS Committed
who is also responsible fot
settling questions on election
procedure or eligibility to vote. -
or hold office. Such
determinations may be appealed
to the State Committee.
Persons having questions on *
eligibility to vote or hold office
may contact the County Office
Manager or see the Secretary’s
Regulations at the county office.
Farmers were reminded this
week to be sure to certify thei*
vote before mailing ballots. <
ASC County Committed
Chairman Edgar L. Holden said &
farmer can certify his vote by
signing his name on the bacK of;
the envelope he mails or takes to
the County ASCS Office. Inside
that envelope, he said, the farm
voter places a plain envelops
containing the ballot—the plain'
envelope insures a secret vote. ;
When votes are counted, the
plain envelopes containing the
ballots will be separated from
the certified outer envelopes.
Chairman Holden said the plain
envelopes also will be well
shuffled before being opened.
He said any resident of the
county who is eligible to take
part in a farm program
administered by ASCS is eligible
to vote in this community
committee elections now being
held. This applies without regard
to sex, race, color, religion, or
national origin.
“Our list of known eligible
voters totals approximately
3,000 and i am hopeful that
each will cast a ballot,” the ASC
chairman said.
Almost every agricultural;
producer over 21 years of age in ~v
the county is an eligible voter,
according to the ASC
Committee Chairman. *
All persons who were
nominated by petition and
found eligible and willing to
serve have been included in the
slate of nominees. The complete
slate is as follows:
LOCKWOOD FOLLY—Alton .
Evans, Herman B. Grissett,
Floyd W. Hewett, W. McKinley
Hewett, Aldreth C. Phelps,
Edwin Sellers.
NORTH WEST—Paul Brown,
David Bryant, Leo Jenkins, Jean
G. Medlin, William H. Miller,
George H. Skipper, P.R. Skipper,
Frank L. Sykes.
SMITHVILLE—J.A. Chatman,
Willie Clemmons, Louie W. Cox,
(Continued On Page Two)
Tide Table
Following Is the tide table
for Southport daring the
week. These hoars ant ap
proximately correct and
were furnished The State
Port Pilot through the
courtesy of the Oapa Fear
Pilot's Association.
Thursday, September 11
6:21 AM 2:28 AM
8:33 FM 2:40 PM
Friday, September 12
8:87 AM 2:88 AM
6:08 FM 3:16 PM
Saturday, September IS
9:38 AM 3:34 AM
9:39 FM 3:88 PM
Sunday, September 14
10:09 AM 4rl0 AM
10:15 PM 4:40 PM
Monday, September 15
10:91 AM 4:48 AM
10:57 FM 5:28 PM
Tuesday, September 16
11:39 AM 5:28 AM
11:45 PM 6:18 PM
Wednesday, September 17
12:33 AM 6rl6 AM
12:39 PM 7^16 PM