Weather
Temperatures dropped into the twen
ties Tuesday night, but are expected to
be in the thirties tonight. High today is
predicted in the fifties. Chances for rain
over Thanksgiving are 20 percent.
Vol. 55-No. 4
c^l
LOT
Index
B-dBa
44 Pages
Southern Pines, North Carolina Wednesday, November 27, 1974
44 Pages
Books, 2-B; Church calendar, 3-B;
Classified Ads, 8-11-C; Editorials, 1-B;
Entertainment, 4-5-C; Obituaries, 7-A;
Pinehurst News, 1-2-C; Social News,
2-5-A; Sports, 7-A.
Price 10 Cents
THANKSGIVING EVE — This huge tom turkey struts proudly but fearfully at the
Gozzi Farm near Pinebluff on the eve of Thanksgiving. Long a symbol of
America’s Thanksgiving Day, the turkey is standard fare for this holiday feast.~
(Photo by Glenn M. Sides).
Objections Raised at Meeting
To Report On Traffic Survey
BY VALERIE NICHOLSON
The mention of parallel park
ing, closing off of railroad
crossings and installation of
traffic signals in downtown
Southern Pines invariably raises
the hackles of many people doing
^siness in that area.
So it was Tuesday night, at a
special meeting of the Town
2 "Council for discussion of the
'latest traffic and parking study
of the business district.
This was the fourth such study
to be discussed in council
meetings in a little more than a
year. The first, made by State
highway engineers, had been
followed by variations by citizen
committees, one headed by
Councilman C.A. McLaughlin,
the other by Charles Sullivan and
a Chamber of Commerce com
mittee.
The latest was a professional
study prepared by Wilbur Smith
and Associates, consulting en
gineers, of Winston-Salem.
While only a handful of people
were present-probably because
Holiday To Be Observed
In Thanksgiving Service
'It
With thanks in their hearts for
a nation at peace, persons in
Moore County will join those in
the nation in a day of church
going, feasting, and joining in
the traditional rites of
Thanksgiving Thursday.
An ecumenical Community
Thanksgiving Service will be
held on Wednesday night at 7:30
Jj.m. in Our Saviour Lutheran
Church with the Rev. Mr. John
Paschal of Southern Pines
United Methodist church
bringing the message. Other
ministers will also take part.
There will be special music
including trumpet ac
companiment provided by a
girls’ chorus from the various
churches and also the senior
(Continued on Page 8-A)
Christmas Parade Slated;
Several ‘Queens’ to Ride
Southern Pines Jaycees will
sponsor the community’s tradi
tional Christmas Parade on
jjThursday, December 5, starting
^at 6 p.m.
The parade will originate at
the corner of South East Broad
St. and East Massachusetts Ave.
and will proceed on Broad St. to
East Vermont Ave. After cross
ing the railroad tracks, it will
move south on West Broad St. to
West Massachusetts Ave., where
it will disband.
Headlining the participants
wilt be the reigning Miss North
Carolina, Susan Lynn Griffin of
High Point. Appearing with her
will be the'recently crowned Miss
Southern Pines, Julie Ann Kick-
lighter, and her court.
(Continued on Page 8-A)
Phone Firm Negotiating
1\ew Contract With Union
The United Telephone Com
pany of the Carolinas, Inc. and
the International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO-
CLC have concluded negotiations
for a hew contract to be effective
December 1, 1974.
The current contract expires at
'i^nidnight Saturday, November
30.
The Union represents certain
employes of the company in the
plant, traffic and commercial
departments in its Beaufort,
S.C., District and its Siler City
and Southern Pines Districts.
The parties have had a collective
bargaining relationship for over
twenty years.
The company said that its offer
was fair and in the best interest
of the public, its customers, its
employes, the union and its
stockholders and that hopefully
its offer would be accepted by the
membership at their ratification
meetings this week.
The pH'oposed contract is for
three years.
There are about 85 to 90
members of the union in the
Southern Pines District.
Young Soldier Slain At Vass;
Girl, 15, Held In Moore Jail
• Angelo Lassiter, 21, of Vass, a
soldier stationed on Fort Bragg,
was fatally shot Saturday even
ing at a rural home near Vass,
and his 15-year-old girl friend is
being held in Moore County Jail
?3on an open charge of murder.
Sheriff C.G. Wimberly said it is
expected that a hearing will be
held Wednesday, at which it will
be determined by a judge if the
case will be handled in the
juvenile or superior court. In the
meantime, he declined to give
the young girl’s name.
He did, however, reveal that
the shooting took place at the
home of Grey Taylor on Vass, Rt.
2, that the girl is Taylor’s
daughter and a younger sister
was an eye-witness.
Both girls gave statements to
investigators of the sheriff’s
department indicating the shoot
ing was an accident, which took
place while the older girl was
“playing with’’ her father’s
12-gauge shotgun in the front
room of their home. Lassiter
came in the front door just as the
Jobless Below State Level
Despite Layoffs, Closings
of conflicts in this Thanksgiving
week-it was the same story as
before. While most were articu
late in their comments, few
agreed with the study’s reco-
mendations, or with each other.
After a couple of hours of
discussion. Mayor Earl Hubbard
commented, “I know none of the
studies is a perfect solution and I
doubt if there is any such thing. I
think something can be done, on
the basis of all the stupes
together. But we also have to
recognise the human factor-
people aren’t always ready to
welcome change.”
And, fitting that picture,
Charles Sullivan responded, “I
think probably I like it best the
way things are now.”
It was, however, Sullivan who
presented what amounted to a
fifth study, prepared by the
Southern Pines Retail Council,
and complete with its own set of
recommendations.
All the studies, noted David
Yount, an engineer with the
Smith firm, “are basically
alike.” But there was consider
able variation among them.
Town Manager Lew G. Brown,
showing a chart of Broad Street,
north and south, east and west,
from Vermont to Massachusetts
Ave.-with two alternates, A and
B-summarized the major
(Continued on Page 8-A)
Dr. Bruton
Is Honored
By Board
Plans for use of the little old
Bellview School building as an
educational resource, as well as
for the enjoyment of the school
children, their teachers and the
public in general, also a program
by which Moore County school
children will share in the
purchase of an animal for the
North Carolina Zoo, were dis
cussed by the County Board of
Education in regular meeting
Tuesday night.
This was the last meeting for
Dr. H. David Bruton of Southern
Pines, who was elected to the
board as a member-at-large in
1968, reelected in 1970, and,
completing the four-year term,
chose not to run again this year.
A resolution of appreciation for
his service to the cause of
education, and his contribution of
(Continued on Page 8-A)
BY JIM SUTHERLAND
Unemployment in Moore
County crept past the 4 per cent
level last week-but is still below
the statewide average of a little
over 5 per cent and far better
than the national figure of more
than 6 per cent.
The rise of unemployment has
been gradual over recent weeks,
according to Alton Cockrell,
supervisor of the Moore County
office of the North Carolina
Employment Security Com
mission. Hardest hit have been
the textile firms, but layoffs have
been spread through most in
dustries in varying degrees, he
reported.
One result has been that
unemployment compensation
claims rose to 407 in the county
last week, compared with 251 a
month ago.
In some instances employes
have been laid off for indefinite
periods; in others, plants have
shut down entirely for the
holiday-shortened Thanksgiving
Week.
Proctor-Silex, one of the
county’s biggest industrial
employers, reported it has laid
off 100 employes and will close all
operations for the three-week
period December 12 - January 6,
affecting another. 400 workers.
Slow sales and an excessive
inventory of the electric irons it
produces were given as causes
for the layoffs and shutdown.
The Sandhill plant of Stanley
Furniture in West End also is
closed this week, idling about 375
workers. Operations will be
resumed Monday. Management
has not yet determined what it
will do over the Christmas
period.
Pride-Trimble Corporation’s
furniture plant in Southern Pines
has had two layoffs involving 31
employes since October 1.
Production has been halted this
week, but part of the company’s
149 workers were brought in Oie
first three days to take in
ventory. The plant will be closed
on Thursday and Friday, and
will reopen Monday.
Local officials of area textUe
plants are loath to give em
ployment information, referring
inquirers to corporate
headquarters. However, some
information was available.
At Quality Mills at Carthage,
there have been scattered layoffs
of one or two workers for short
periods, it was reported. The
plant employs 250 persons. No
further layoffs are scheduled, a
spokesman said, commenting
that “the situation doesn’t look
bad at all.”
Part of the manufacturing
operations at the Gulistan Carpet
Division of J.P. Stevens Co. in
Aberdeen were shut down this
week, but full production will be
resumed Monday, it was
(Continued on Page 8-A)
4
X
HOSPITAL EXPANSION APPROVED — Final approval was given last week to
expand Moore Memorial Hospital. After considerations of the nearly $13,000,000
bid and consultations with expansion architects, the board of directors voted to
proceed with the project. Among those present were: (left to right) Robert
Ewing, president of the Board of Directors, J.E. Parker, chairman of the Finance
Committee, A.A. McDonald, chairman of the Building Committee, and Crenshaw
Thompson, Administrator.
Hospital Awards Contract
Thanksgiving Day Hunt For 13 Million Expansion
The famed Moore County
Hounds will open the hunt season
here on Thursday morning at 10
o’clock.
The Thanksgiving Day hunt is
an annual event and has
signalled the opening of the hunt
season for many years.
It is the only drag hunt
scheduled and thus the public
will have the opportunity to
watch.
It will be held at Kaylor’s Field
off old U.S. 1 north of Southern
Pines.
W.O. Moss is the master of the
hounds and Richard Webb is the
joint master.
Golfers Held Up, Robbed
At Course In Pinehurst
Two men wearing ski masks
and pointing handguns robbed
two golfers of cash totaling about
$280 Saturday about noon on the
Pinehurst No. 4 course.
Vincent B. Fuller and K.W.
Astrom, members of a foursome
from the Philadelphia area
week-ending at the Pinehurst
Hotel, told police that they rode
up to the nth hole, got out of their
cart and were looking for a ball
in the edge of the woods, when
two men in dark jackets, wearing
ski masks, burst out from among
the trees.
Each was carrying a handgun,
which he waved at a golfer,
demanding, “Give me your
wallet.” One forced his victim
(Astrom) to throw his billfold on
the ground, where he scooped it
up, while the second one grabbed
a moneyclip from the other
golfer, and toth robbers quickly
disappeared into the woods. They
are believed to have fled in a
waiting car parked nearby.
Astrom had $250 in his billfold.
The golfers shouted, “Rob
bers! Robbers!” to attract the
attention of their friends, who
were on the far side of the green,
but later said, “It all happened so
fast-they were there and gone,
before anybody could do a
thing.”
They described the pair as
black, one tall and husky-built,
the other shorter and slender,
both acting “like amateurs, very
nervous and hurried.”
This is the third incident of the
sort to take place on a Pinehurst
course in altout four years.
Sheriff C.G. Wimberly said
their investigation is still under
way.
Parade Dec. 7
The Christmas Parade
sponsored by the Aberdeen
Jaycees and Merchants will be
held on Saturday, Dec. 7,
beginning at 10 a.m.
Anyone interested in placing
an entry in the parade has been
asked to call Sam Jordan at 944-
1114 or Ron Ward at 944-1122.
THE
PILOT LIGHT
gun accidentally went off, the
young girls said.
Lassister, a member of the
429th Medical Co. on the post,
had come to his mother’s home in
Vass on weekend leave, as was
his custom, and was visiting the
Taylors about 6 p.m.
The 15-year-old girl had gone
into a bedroom and gotten her
father’s shotgun to “kill a dog”
but had stopped to “fool with”
the gun when Lassiter came in
the door.
(Continued on Page 8-A)
MORGAN - U.S. Senator Elect
Robert Morgan made a brief stop
in Washington a few days ago
while returning from a post
election vacation but he had little
time to make many plans for his
move to the capital in early
January.
Morgan expects to move into
the office now occupied by the
man he is succeeding. Senator
Sam Ervin, but he is not sure he
will stay there. Senators with
seniority can lay claim to offices
which are being vacated if they
like them better than the ones
they are now occupying.
Tlie new Senator from North
Carolina will take long-time
friend and associate Carroll
Leggett, formerly assistant at
torney general, with him as chief
administrative aide, but he plans
to go slow on filling other
“senatorial assistants positions.
UNITY - Morgan said last
week that he did hot know how he
would be able to thank everyone
who helped him to victory not
only in last spring’s Democratic
primary but in the general
election, but his campaign staff
is still busy writing letters.
As for his victory in the general
election, Morgan is quick to say
it was a victory for the Demo
cratic party. “I think we have
more unity now than we’ve had
in a long time,” he says. He
thinks the big Democratic sweep
in North Carolina can be
attributed to all of the candidates
and the party leaders working
tn^pthpr
FIRESTONE - Miss Hazel
Macdonald of Southern Pines
sends us a clipping from the
(Continued on Page 8-A)
More than five years of
planning culminated in a move to
expand Moore Memorial Hospi
tal last week by a vote from the
board of directors to expend
funds totaling over $13,000,000.
A low base bid of $12,887,000
submitted by the construction
firm of D.R. Allen & Son of
Fayetteville, was accepted by
the hospital’s board of directors
at a special session of the board
on Tuesday, November 19.
The base bid involves the
four-story addition which will
provide 150 new beds, 27 emer-
gency-out-patient treatment
rooms, new laboratory and
Open House
At Prison
Scheduled
The Carthage Unit of the N.C.
Department of Corrections is
planning five days of “Open
House” during North Carolina
(Corrections Week from Dec. 8 to
14.
Captain J.C. Russell of the
Carthage unit said that open
house will be observed from
10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday
through Friday of that week.
Monday will be set aside for
visits by community leaders
such as mayors of towns, county
commissioners, legislators and
others.
Tuesday will be for the news
media, and Wednesday will be
Citizens Day when the public at
large is invited to tour the
facility. Thursday has been set
aside as Schools Day and Friday
will be for civic groups.
In a notice sent from his office
in Raleigh, (Commissioner Ralph
Edwards of the Department of
(Continued on Page 8-A)
physical therapy space, a new
obstetrical area, a newborn and
pediatric intensive care unit, and
a new dietary department, as
well as the medical-surgical
beds.
“We are very pleased to arrive
at this point,” said Board
President Robert Ewing. “For
over five years we’ve been
planning. Our announcement to
proceed is the result of the
combined efforts of the directors,
the administrative staff, the
medical staff, and employes at
many levels. We have seen much
hard work by many dedicated
people.”
In addition to the four-story
wing, an alternate bid of $174,000
was accepted which will result in
(Continued on Page 8-A)
Officials to Take Oaths
At Ceremonies Monday
The quadrennial swearing-in of
newly elected-or reelected--
county officials will take place
Monday morning in the office of
Charles McLeod, clerk of Moore
Superior Court, who, according
to precedent and protocol, will be
the first to take the oath.
Resident Judge John D. Mc
Connell is expected to swear him
in, as soon as possible after the
clerk’s office opens at 8 a.m.
Judge McConnell will leave as
soon as he can to take part in
more such doings in a couple of
other places, and McLeod will
administer oaths to other county
officials-hoping to get done by
the time Special Judge Charles
Kivett arrives to preside over the
opening of the December crim
inal term.
This will not be until 11:30
a.m., as the judge will be delayed
by swearing-in ceremonies tak
ing place in his home city of
Greensboro.
Following the swearing-in, as
the court term begins, the county
(Continued on Page 7-A)
Defendants Make Reply
In Duncraig Manor Suit
Defendants in the suit brought
by the Town of Southern Pines in
the Duncraig Manor affair are
asking that the town’s zoning
ordinance be declared “un
constitutional and invalid.”
In an answer filed Tuesday in
Moore Superior Court at Car
thage, they called the zoning
ordinance “arbitrary, capricious
and an unreasonable exercise of
police power.”
The Town filed suit August 30
against the Southeastern Re
gional Mental Health Center, its
board of directors and officials to
have the group home for
emotionally troubled children,
operated by the Southeastern
Center, removed from Wey
mouth Heights, a wealthy neigh
borhood on the outskirts of
Southern Pines.
The Town contends that the
group home in its present
location is in violation of the
extraterritorial zoning law. A
jury trial is asked.
The defendants, through their
(Continued on Page 7-A)
Murder, Rape Cases Docketed
For Court Session Next Week
One murder case, one rape
case and several involving
armed robbery charges mark the
calendar of the December term
of Moore Superior Court, which
will open Monday with Special
Judge Charles Kivett back on the
bench.
It will get off to a late start, as
Judge Kivett will be taking part
in swearing-in ceremonies in his
home city of Greensboro and is
not expected to arrive until 11:30
a.m. Jurors are requested to be
in the courtroom by 11:15 a.m.
Though criminal terms have
proliferated in Moore in the past
few years, and this one will be
the fourth within five months
(others were held in August,
October and November) it is
loaded with cases ready for
trial-73 of them calendared for
the first three days.
The grand jury will not
convene for this term, which it is
hoped will help get the court
caught up with cases for which
true bills have already been
found.
Prominent among them is the
murder case against Mrs.
Martha Jeannette LeGrand
Baldwin, 22, charged with the
fatal shooting of her husband,
James Odell Baldwin, 32, on
October 27 in their farm home
near West End. She is being held
under $15,000 bond.
Cary D. McRae, 21, is under
$10,000 bond in a case in which he
is charged with the rape of Mrs.
Alice Wolff, 30, both of
Southern Pines.
(Continued on Page 8-A)