Newspapers / Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald (Ahoskie, N.C.) / March 30, 1967, edition 1 / Page 1
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Rape, Assault Cases Dominate County Superior Court JACKSON — A Northampton County grand jury Wednesday failed to indict 21-year-old Larry Arwood on charges of raping Deborah Sue Tisdale, 14, of Garysburg at a sand pit near the girl's home March 13. Arwood was arrested by North ampton County SheriffFrank Out- land on Wednesday following the alleged Monday assault when the girl, under questioning by school teachers, reported she had been raped. According to Outland, Miss Tisdale and two other girls had skipped school and were picked up by Arwood and Marvin John son, 19, of Roanoke Rapids. After riding around for some time in Arwood’s car, the group drove to a sand pit near the girl's home where the assault allegedly occurred. Arwood, who is on probation from Florida where he was con victed of a misdemeanor, was employed at the Talon Zipper Plant in Woodland. He had been held without bond following the arrest. Superior Court opened in Northampton County on Wednes day, In the first criminal case tried, Charlie Bryant, 48, of Jackson was acquitted by an all male jury on charges of forni cation and adultery. Bryant was charged with al legedly having relations with a 25-year-old stepdaughter, Miss Eloise Bryant. Bryant was said to have been the father of the woman’s four children. Miss Bryant, who lived in the home with her mother and Bry ant, testified that she had had relations with Bryant once a week for the past several years. Bryant allegedly married the young woman’s mother 16 years ago when Eloise Bryant was nine years old. Bryant and his wife have eight children. The jury took only moments for deliberation before returning with a “not guilty” verdict. The woman testified that she also had been intimate with other men since she was 17 years of age. Other matters tried during the session include: Clyde Boyce of Odom Prison Farm, escape and auto larceny. six months at expiration ofpres- ent term, suspended for five years good behavior. Divorce actions granted: Helen R. Harrison from Nichols W. Harrison, Edith Mae Ponton from Matthew Ponton, Wanda Myrick from John D. Myrick, Sandy Richard Miles fromDormia Banks Miles, Roland Brantley from Lillie M. W. Brantley, Mary Virginia Baker from George W. Baker, Julia Jones Burks from William D. Burks and Mary Burden Vann from Mel vin Earl Vann. The trial of Willie Washington, about 20, dominated the Wednes day session of court. Washington was sentenced to three and one-half years im prisonment for attemptingto rape Shirley Ann Edwards, 14, ofRich Square and holding her boyfriend, James Jacobs, at gunpoint. Miss Edwards testified in court Washington had visited in the home of her sister in Rich Square on the day of the incident and that she and James Jacobs had also been at the house. She told the court Washington asked Jacobs to take him home and she accompanied the two men. She added Washington was carrying a shotgun. Miss Edwards said the trio stopped at a station near Wash- (See RAPE, Page 10) rOR SALE—New Champion, 2 bed room 12’xS0’. See at Baber Shop in PowellsviMe. Roy C. Holloman. Hap 3-23 “We don’t need to run it again. It’s already sold.” A one-week insertion was all it took to sell this mobile home. Home Newspaper Want Ads are result ads. THE TIMES-NEWS ★ ★ ★ ★ THE ROANOKE-CHOWAN TIMES Vy A ComLination of Established 1892 ^ ★ ★ ★ ★ THE NORTHAMPTON COUNTY NEWS — Established 1926 Volume LXXVI, No. 14 Rich Square LE 9-285^ Jackaon LE 4-26&e Rich Square and Jackson, N. C., Thursday, March 30, 1967 Covers All of Northampton's Towns and Communities U PAGES REMCO Essay Contest Open To Area Juniors RICH SQUARE - All-expense- paid Rural Electric Youth Tour trips to the nation’s capital city will be awarded to winners of an essay-writing contest, it was an nounced this week by V. E. Tay lor, manager of Roanoke Elec tric Membership Corporation. All high school juniors in the area served by the cooperative are eligible to enter the contest, Taylor said. Winners will join winners of similar contests spon sored by other electric co-opsin North Carolina on the 1967Rural Electric Youth Tour. All expens es for two on the trip to Washing ton will be paid by the Roanoke Electric Membership Corpora tion, The North Carolina tour will be coordinated by Tarheel Electric Membership Associa tion in Raleigh, a statewide serv ice organization representing 31 rural electric cooperatives. Contest entrants will be re quired to submit a 500-word essay on the subject, “Rural Electric Cooperatives . . .Pace makers of Progress.” Resource materials that may be helpful to contestants are available in the high school libraries or at the Roanoke Electric Membership Corp. office in Rich Square, Essays will be judged on the basis of (1) knowledge of the sub ject, 40 per cent, (2) originality, 30 per cent, (3) composition, 10 per cent, (4) neatness, 10 per cent, and (5) grammar, 10 per cent. Deadline for submitting es says will be April 20. On the basis of the essays, five finalists will be selected to appear in per son for interviews by a commit tee of judges on April 28. This is the first year that the Roanoke Electric cooperative has sponsored an essay-writing con test, The highlight of the tour, according to previous winners from other areas, was meeting President Johnson. As participants in the 1967 Electric Cooperative Youth Tour, local contest winners will join with other North Carolina win ners in Raleigh and then travel to Washington, D. C., where they (See ESSAY, Page 4) I R-C Counties Must V^’Work Together’ MURFREESBORO - Counties- This was the way State Repre- lature lor the responslb: Hnillorlv fhricta In fho . . .. . particularly those in the Roa- noke-Chowan area where prob lems are more nearly identical than among any other group of counties in Nortii Carolina-have simply got to swallow some of their pride and start working to gether. Servicemen In The News MUTUAL PROBLEMS — Members of Northampton County's Board of Commis sioners met recently with state repre sentatives ond commissioners of other Roonoke-Chowon counties to discuss mu tual problems. Pictured are (left to right): J. Guy Revelle, H. C. Guthrie, Rep. Em mett Burden, Rep. Roberts Jernigon Jr. (bock to camera), two unidentified per sons, Jasper Eley and Angus McKellar. Fire Causes Extensive Damage At Severn Plant R-C Leads State With Highest Armed Forces Rejection Count CWO J. R. REAMES USS CASA GRANDE - Chief Warrant Officer JohnR. Reames, USN, son of Mrs. Eugene W, Reames of Conway, is helping the U.S. Atlantic Fleet Amphi bious Force celebrate its 25th anniversary this month while serving aboard the dock landing ship USS Casa Grande. Estab lished in 1942, the force is now 20,000 men strong and operates 60 ships of different types. SEVERN — A fire of undeter mined origin did an estimated $10,000 worth of damage to the Standard Spray and Chemical Company of Severn Wednesday night. Fire fighting units from Con way, Boykins andSevern answer- R-C Youths Injured In Viet Nam WASHINGTON, D. C. - Two Roanoke-Chowan area youths in Viet Nam have been injured, ac cording to word received by their families. Both are Marines. Cpl. Benjamin F, Deanes Jr,, 19, of Murfreesboro is being treated aboard the SS Princeton for a gunshot wound of the ab domen from enemy fire received March 24 in the vicinity of Quang Tri and his condition is good ac cording to word sent the family from Washington Tuesday. He left last fall for Viet Nam. Kenneth L. Smith, son of Gra ham Smith of Milwaukee, is in the First Medical Battalion hos pital with shrapnel wounds of back and both legs with his prog nosis good, according to the re port received by his family. He was injured near Quang Nai. He enlisted June 1965 and has been in Viet Nam for nine months. ed the call to the stubborn chem ical blaze. The fire broke out in the rear of the plant doing extensive dam ages to one drying room and storage area. Spot fires also broke out in a loading elevator. Quick action by the fire com panies kept the blaze in the rear of the building. Wayne Sumners told “Your Home Newspaper” that damage to the building was light to heavy in the rear of the building but little or no damage was done to the front of the structure. Some electrical damage was done but, according to Summers, operation is expected to resume Friday. RALEIGH — The four Roanoke* Chowan counties have been des ignated for the dubious honor of leading the state list of rejection percentages by the armed forces. Information recently compiled by the State Department of Public Instruction shows Northampton (65.5 per cent) and Bertie (65,3 per cent) with the hipest per- ined, 319 rejected; Gates, 262, 162; Bertie, 825, 539; North ampton, 614, 402. County by county figures for the year July 1, 1965 through tune 30, 1966 arr not yet avail able but the State Selective Serv- tion or, more specifically, with the number of young men within the age of liability for military service in each county. In counties with small popula tions, the number of registrants Included in the five-year study Is ice office has stated that a total as low as 67 in Dare County and of 57,095 persons was examined in that year with I7,874beingre- centage in this area. They are jected for mental reasons, outdone by only two other coun- “Statewide this me^s our re ties in the state, Hoke County Reapportioned Cotton Acreage Request Okayed JACKSON-Northampton Coun ty ASCS Manager Ben Mann re ported Thursday the county office has been advised by the N.C. ASC State Committee that all re apportioned cotton acreage re quested by the county has been approved. Mann added that additional cot ton acreage is available for cot ton farmers who want it, Mann said the county’s farm ers requested 4,200 additional acres for 1967, with 70,1 per cent and Warren, 66,6 per cent. Following close behind, after Scotland and Robeson Counties, is Gates with 61,8 per cent re jected. Hertford County ranks 84th out of the loo counties with a more respectable 56,8 per cent. The area’s high percentage of men rejected can be attributed mainly to educational weaknesses and socio-economic reasons, ac cording to the state report. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Charles F. Carroll said that during a five-year pe riod of July 1, 1959 through June 30, 1964, 42.5 per cent of all those in the state examined for military service were rejected for mental reasons. A statement by the surgeon general of the U.S. Army points out a positive association between mental scores on the examina tions and education. Blame for the Roanoke - Cho wan's embarrassingly high re jections can be pinpointed at de ficiencies in educational and health programs. County totals of men examined and rejected for the five year period are Hertford, 560 exam- jection rate for mental reasons last year was 31,3 per cent, a definite but by no means satisfy ing improvement over the five- year figure,” Dr. Carroll said. Sixty-eight counties had less than 50 per cent of their youth who were examined for military service rejected for mental rea sons and 32 had more than 50 per cent rejected for mental rea sons, the five-year analysis re veals, Obviously, the number of registrants included in the coun ty by county study would corre spond roughly with county popula- in more populous counties the number is as high as 3,000 reg istrants in Mecklenburg and Guil ford. The number of registrants re jected by the armed forces for mental reasons includes three categories: those who failed the mental examination only, those who failed the mental examina tion and also failed to pass the physical examination, and those with limited tralnability. The analysis does not include those who were disqualified for moral or medical reasons un less they also failed the mental examination. The third category of mental (See STATE, Page 10) PVT. DENNIS M. VANN PARRIS ISLAND, S. C.-Ma rine Private Dennis M. Vann, son of Mr. and Mrs. Denny O, Vann of Route 1, Conway, was grad uated from eight weeks of recruit training at the Marine Corps Re cruit Depot here. He wiL now undergo three weeks of individual combat training and then, after leave at home, will report to his first Marine Corps assignment. PVT. BOBBY E. WATSON CAMP LEJEUNE -Marine Private Bobby E, Watson, son of Mr, and Mrs. Ferdinand Watson of Route 1, Rich Square, has com pleted four weeks of individual combat training at this Marine Corps base. He will now receive at least four weeks of specialist training before being assigned to his first permanent unit. LT. LEROY SUMNER FORT GORDON, Ga. - LeRoy Sumner, 20, whose mother, Mrs. (See SERVICEMEN, Page 10) 'Bill’ Barnes Coming R-C Area To Have Active Part In Military Maneuvers; Local Meet PROP Meet Set To Hire Paid Personnel Sunday RICH SQUARE - Members of the four - county People's Pro gram on Poverty will meet Sun day in Rich Square to hire an exe cutive director and tef fill other paid posts in the recently-funded organization, according to the Rev. Melvin Creecy, president. According toCreecy, the meet ing will be held Sunday afternoon at the Rich Square A,M,E, Zion Church. Creecy said the meeting will be open to tho public. The PPOP organization re cently received $167,607 in funds from the N.C. Fund to carry out a “grass roots” anti-poverty campaign. Funds were approved last week at a meeting of the Fund's board of directors which also approved a grant-in-aid to a similar group. The approval of the funds to PPOP was hailed by N.C. Fund representatives as the first step toward aiding independent com munlty organizations operated by and for the poor. The PPOP funds are to be used in carrying out programs in rural housing improvement, adult basic education, recrea tion and sanitation. The PPOP organization is to operate in the Choanoke area of Hertford, Bertie, Northampton and Halifax Counties where the average education level is grade 7.6 and the public assistance case load each month totals 3,673. Of the four counties served by PPOP, Northampton is rated 9lst and Bertie 94th in per capita in come. Both counties are among the loo poorest counties in the country. People's Program on Poverty was organized in the summer of 1966, Sixteen members of the or ganization testified before the President's Commission on Ru- -1 Weotker Wuz | V ■ » Sunny and cool ral Poverty in Washington, D. C,, last month about problems in the area. A delegation of equal size attended the Durham meet with members of the N.C. Fund Board to discuss details of their pro posal. In the area of adult education, PPOP will organize neighborhood basic adult education classes to be taught by volunteer teachers as well as put on a recruiting drive for students to be enrolled at Pitt Technical Institute. Recreation and sanitation pro grams under the PPOP grant will make available to neighbor hood groups materials for self- help projects such as basketball goals. Other aid for neighborhood groups will include small expen ditures for water supply and sew age disposal improvement. The PPOP organization will have $25,000 for these “incentive grants programs” to be offered on a competitive basis to small communities. FT. MCPHERSON, Ga. - The Roanoke-Chowan section may be come a key area for a 70,000 man joint Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine maneuver now set for August 20-28. The large-scale exercise will be conducted by United States Strike Command, It will be nick named KITTY HAWK. Two civilian employees of the Army were in Ahoskie Thursday conferring with Maj. Frank Tal- lant, Army advisor, on settingup a meeting of political and farm leaders ofNorthampton and Hert ford Counties during the week of April 17. The meeting will explain the need for securing maneuver rights in the area and proce dures that will be used in settling claims. Among those expected to attend the Ahoskie meeting is Col. Wil liam (Bill) Barnes, son of Mrs. J. Bailey Barnes Sr. of Ahoskie. Colonel Barnes is chief of the Savannah District Corps of En gineers, Visiting Ahoskie Thursday were S. R. Cooley of Colonel Barnes’ office and David Bowen, 3rd U.S. Army chief of commu nity relations, Cooley will set up an office in Greenville to handle work of securing maneuver rights and settling claims. It is expected that considerable nationwide publicity will be given the area during the maneuver. Major Tallant informed the vis itors of existence of Tri-County Airport for possible use in flying in news media representatives and military observers. Tri-County is not yet shown on aviation maps. Invitations to the Ahoskie meeting will be sent out by Lt, Gen. Louis W. Truman, 3rd Army commander. A similar meeting will be held in Williamston for Bertie and Martin Counties. Glaucoma SEABOARD — One out of every 10 Americans will de velop glaucoma, according to statistics reported to "Your Home Newspaper” recently. The same source reports that many cases of total blindness reported today were victims of the dread disease which gives little or no warning before sight is lost. Two Northampton County Lions Clubs are sponsoring a clinic to detect this disease early enough to allow' pre ventive treatment. Loss of sight by glaucoma cannot be restored. A simple test can reveal the presence of this disease in the human eye. Physicians from Ra’eigh will administer the test free of charge to any Northamp ton residents attending the clinic. The clinic is to be held April 5 at the Seaboard School gymnasium. “Won’t you be there?” Although details of the ma neuver have not been determin ed, the size and nature of the ex ercise area indicates the objec tive of the attacking force will most likely be somewhere in the Roanoke-Chowan or immediately south of It, Plans for the maneuver call for an amphibious attacking force to come ashore on the North Ca rolina coast somewhere between Ocracoke Inlet and Rich Inlet, south of Topsail Beach, The attackers will move in land in a simulated invasion, la ter to be opposed by a friendly force coming to the aid of a myth ical “friendly nation.” Boundaries of the exercise area will be generally Klnston- Wilson-U.S. 301 on the west, the N.C.-Virginia border on the north, and Chowan River-Plym- outh-Bath on the east. Although details are yet to be determined, the Roanoke-Chowan (See AREA, Page 10) "1 A yoimg California couple took a visiting aunt for a drive and pointed out a fig tree as one of the sights. “Fig tree!” exclaimed the el derly woman. “That can’t be a fig tree,” “Certainly is,” saldherniece. “What makes you think different ly?” “Well,” said the aunt, subsid ing a little, “I just thought, . . surely the leaves must be bigger than ^at.” sentative Roberts Jernigan sum med up the situation for County Commissioners from Bertie, Gates, Hertford and Northampton Counties in a meeting Friday night. The meeting itself was a mile stone. It was sponsored by the R-C legislators including Rep. Jernigan, Rep. Emmett W. Bur den, Rep. Phil Godwin and Sen ator J. J. (Monk)Harrington.The dinner meeting was held at Cho wan College. John Morrisey, executive sec retary of the North Carolina As sociation of CountyCommission- ers, noted that 26 counties in North Carolina no longer have a representative living within that county. This, he continued, reflects the changing character of the whole state and he added, “Just wait imtil after the next census when, particularly in the East, there will be more large areas with fewer people and less rep resentation.” Morrisey talked about political responsibility as it rests upon the shoulders of County Com missioners. He cited revalua tion of property on a regular basis as being the cause of some County Commissioners not being returned to office but he said 4t has meant more to tax stabili zation than anything that could have been done. He urged support of local op tion sales tax. Counties, he said, are just going to have to raise more money to provide the serv ices demanded. “Ask the Legis- responsibility of local option and you won’t have to go back to the General Assem bly every two years with hat in hand for a handout.” Guy Revelle Sr., chairman of the Northampton Coimty Board, urged that all boards think about the advisability of holding local option sales tax referenda in all four counties on the same day, if the state authorized them for local vote. Morrisey said low per capita is a deterrent to economic devel opment. He suggested that County Com missioners begin by improving governmental services. “Atti tude is the first thing that needs to change - you’ve got to want to do the job.” Topics discussed for more than an hour by the four-county group included race relations, mental health, teacher supple ments and legislation expected to be introduced within the next few weeks. A meeting of the chairman from each of the four counties to discuss mental health services cooperation is to be called soon by Revelle, Northampton chair man. Hertford County Board mem ber Fred Jones said mental health and over-all health programs should both be considered for area cooperative efforts, Jones said - Morrisey later emphasized the same point - that the federal government required local government units which re ceive federal aid for mental (See COUNTIES, Page 4) Eastern Appalachia To Be Reorganized? RALEIGH — Officials of the State Planning Task Force Wed nesday held out hope that even tually districts formed under the Coastal Plains Regional Devel opment Commission, the so-call ed eastern Appalachia, can be reorganized so as to get all Roa noke-Chowan counties into the same district. At a meeting here Wednesday afternoon to go over plans for the Coastal Plains organization, both Wayne Corpening, director, and John R. Hampton, coordi nator, of thePlanningTaskForce indicated it would be possible to change district lines after all counties are in funded groups. Delegates to Wednesday’s meeting were welcomed by Gov. Dan Moore, Gov. Moore ad dressed representatives from throughout the East on the pos sibilities of the three-state or ganization and how it could aid In total development. Currently three groups of east ern counties are in funded dis tricts. Bertie is in one of these, along with a number of counties south of the Roanoke River, in cluding Pitt, Beaufort and Mar tin. Plans for districts which would -include Hertford, Northampton 'and Gates were revealed at Wed nesday’s session, initially Northampton is to be in an interior district which In cludes Halifax and runstoWilson County, The district has 11 coun ties in all. Hertford and Gates are pro posed for a coastal district in cluding most Albemarle area counties. Ten counties make up the district. Representatives from Hertford and Northampton present at the meeting voiced dissatisfaction at being in separate districts them selves, with Bertie already split out from the remainder of the area. Corpening and Hampton reas sured the R-C questioners by saying that once all counties in the East are in funded districts, so that all counties are then on equal terms, it will be possible to rearrange district lines to get counties with common interests together. In setting up the initial dis tricts, Corpening said it was (See EASTERN, Page 10) Reese Turner Joins Remco GOVERNOR'S SCHOOL— William Henry Taylor Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. Wil liam H. Taylor of Rich Square, has been selected fo participate in the 1967 ses sion of the Governor's School of North Carolina. Bill is a member of the juniior class at Northomp- ton County High School. RICH SQUARE — Reese Turn er has recently joined the staff at Roanoke Electric Member ship Corporation as a director of member services and public relations, according to company spokesmen. Turner came from the Evans Products Corporation, Plywall Division of Chesapeake, He graduated from Atlanta Christian College in Atlanta, Ga., and was a minister of the Church of Christ for 20 years. In 1957-59, Turner served as District Scout Executive for the Roanoke - Chowan section. He lived in Powellsville for eight years.
Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald (Ahoskie, N.C.)
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March 30, 1967, edition 1
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