Otelia Connor: An Institution That Care
By RICK GRAY
Contributing Editor
Otelia Connor was an institution at the University of North
Carolina.
Since 1957, when she came to watch her son graduate, she had
walked along the brick walks of the campus with umbrella and
words of advice on hand.
The advice was always on manners. The 74-year-old Person
County native worried about the manners of "her students." She
wanted them all to be perfect Carolina ladies and gentlemen.
She also wrote columns for The Daily Tar Heel about everything
from getting dates to proper dress to campus unrest.
She always threatened to use her umbrella on the "gentlemen"
who insisted on following their wayward habits. She only used it
once, and she apologized immediately.
Otelia, as everyone called her when she wasn't around (It was
Mrs. Connor, Ma'm, when addressing her personally), became
famous for her campus campaign for good manners. Time Magazine
did a story about her several years ago, and every news writing
student interviewed her at one time or another.
When she came to watch her son graduate, she fell in love with
Ik
Volume 76
Togetherness Is
w
brkers Get Back Pay
The University has begun
paying food service workers
back wages owed them since
Feb. 1,1967.
The total amount paid to the
workers will be $180,000 for
overtime worked since that date.
However, Dr. Clairborne S.
Jones, special assistant to the
chancellor, said the University
does not plan to try to find out
how much over that amount the
University owes the workers.
The $180,000 figure was
arrived at late last week by the
Wages and Hours Division of the
U.S. Department of Labor. The
report, released last Friday, by
the office of University
President William C. Friday, said
that 500 workers were owed the
money for discrepancies
involving failure to pay for
overtime labor performed. The
federal study did not go back
further than Feb. 1, 1967,
because the University was not
under the Labor Department's
jurisdiction before that time.
Dr. Jones said that further
investigation by the University
"would not be possible." Dr.
Jones said the investigation back
to that date required too much
time and effort for the
university to undertake.
Mm
CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA, THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 1969
A Good Thing
180,000 Owed By University
The checks for amounts owed
are being mailed to the
Greensboro office of the Wages
and Hours Division which will
then mail the checks to the
workers.
Dr. Jones declined to say how
much the largest check was for,
or to whom it was made out, but
he did indicate that most of the
checks were for small amount?,
so that some workers would be
receiving proportionately larger
Young New Manager
Of Saga Organization
By JUDITH STINSON
Staff Writer
Ted Young has replaced Troy
O'Brien as manager of Saga
Food Service here.
O'Brien has been manager
here since Saga took over the
University food service in May.
Young, 29, was formerly the
Saga area personnel manager,
responsible for all managerial
hiring in an 11-state
Southeastern area.
The change was made, Young
Chapel Hill and adopted both the town and the students.
Her Tar Heel column dealt with a variety of subjects, but the
student was always the center.
Her last column, which appeared in last week's edition of the
Summer Tar Heel, was about long hair. She said that she used to be
against long hair, but she changed her mind after a few years at
Chapel Hill.
"When I took this position (supporting long hair)," she wrote,
"... people . . . were resentful, for they haven't spoken to me since.
I call this reaction juvenile behavior, which to my mind is more
deplorable than the acting-up of college students.
"... Let us all, students and adults, grow into maturity, and be
ready to accept the next period of change around the corner."
That's the way Otelia always was nice, polite, and always ready to
listen to the other person's ideas.
Otelia Connor died early Wednesday morning in North Carolina
Memorial Hospital of a heart attack.
Funeral will be at 2 p.m. today in ghe Chapel of the Cross
Episcopal Church.
Surviving are a daughter Mrs. Kate Connor Logue of Woodland,
Calif., and a son, David Marion Connor, Jr., of Wilson.
"Fiber
ezo
By TOM MARSHALL
Staff Writer
Two hours before they were
to meet on Monday morning,
the Orange County Board of
Commissioners" learned that
Fiber Industries, Inc., had
withdrawn its bid to build a
$100 million textile plant three
miles north of Chapel Hill.
shares of the total amount.
The money to pay the back
wages would come from
non-state funds. Jones said that
the funds consisted primarily of
interest the University has
earned on short-term
investments over the years. The
investment monies, he said,
came from many sources,
including state funds
appropriated but not spent
(Continued on page 3)
said, because "the powers that
be" in Saga felt that the total
organizational team at UNC was
"not functioning as it should."
"All the potential
organization had not been
reached here," Young, said. "It
was not any one thing but a
series of things. The change is
for what we hope will be the
betterment of the operation."
Young denied that an
incident last Sunday night in
which a worker was reportedly
(Continued on page 3)
Withdraws
Their request that -the
450-acre tract of land near the
New Hope Creek be rezoned was
virtually assured of approval,
despite great opposition from
UNC and Duke University. In a
letter announcing .the
withdrawal, Fiber Industries
President Robert L. Dietrich
stated the primary reason was
"the significant opposition it
encountered to having the land
rezoned."
One of the leaders against the
rezoning, North Carolina Provost
J.C. Morrow, listed the three
grounds of opposition, being:
That industrial use of the
tract might lead to pollution of
the New Hope Creek; that
construction and later use of the
land might destroy the creek's
usefulness for biological research
purposes, and that the site's
nearness to the center of Chapel
Hill would prevent "proper
residential development of the
town in that area."
Rezoning proponents cited
the hike in the county tax base
the plant would bring, the jobs it
would create, and what they
called Fiber Industries'
reputation as a "fine corporate
citizen."
In attacking the Fiber
opponents, including Mayor
Howard Lee, Carl Smith,
chairman of the Orange County
Commissioners, blamed the loss
of the industry on "unintelligent
intellectuals" and "a half-dozen
members of the political
machine that controls our
town."
Smith said Lee, a Negro, was
not serving the interest of local
Negroes by opposing Fiber. The
"machine that controls the town
is using the Fiber Industries issue
for political gain, and it might
well backfire?'
Smith went on to say, at a
public hearing on the
establishment of an Orange
' - n
" '
lijf J
Otelia Connor
Beach Weather
A typical summer weekend is
on hand at the coast. Weather
will be warm and humid, with
intermittent thundershowers
expected during the evenings.
Number 8
.Request
County Housing Authority in
Hillsborough Monday, that there
is still hope of locating the
textile plant in Orange County if
more of the citizens who wanted
the industry would speak out.
Smith said that "though the
door is not closed, its open to no
more than a crack now."
The letter of withdrawal did
not Flatly say Fiber Industries
would not locate a plant in
Orange County; it said had
found in the county which it
considered workable.
The letter also stated, "We
feel it necessary to have near
unanimous support of all major
organizations in a community.
Thus, while we are profoundly
and sincerely appreciative of the
warm and generous support
accorded us by many fine
citizens within the Orange
County Community, Fiber
Industries has decided to
withdraw its request for
rezoning."
No decision has yet been
made as to the disposition of the
site.
1
4?
r
LA
Carl Smith