tlurp hy Carnegie Library 4-73
Peachtree Street
Murphy, N.C., 28906
12
AGE!
15' Per Copy
The Cherokee Scout
PAGES . _
and Clay County Progress
Volume 79 - Number 31 - Murphy, North Carolina, 28906 - Second Class Postage Paid At Murphy, North Carolina -Thursday, March 18, 1971
Spring Cleaning
The Town of Murphy is Town Clerk Charlie Johnson, who
embarking soon on a cleanup of drove the machine around for
abandoned autos within the town photographs, said the front broom
limits and also will be keeping the will gather in the dirt which is
streets cleaner. The Town Council dampened by a fine spray of water to
last week authorized a three-year keep down dust. A second broom,
lease-purchase agreement on the underneath, then sweeps the dirt into
used Wayne street-sweeper above. a hopper for dumping later. (Staff
Photo)
8-Year-Old Headlines
Benefit Talent Show
e He's only eight years old
-but he piays a piano like a
polished adult musician.
, David Ledford, an Andrews
third-grader, is one of the
featured attractions in a talent
show coming up on Friday night
at the Rock Gym here in
Murphy.,
The show, along with the
rock music concert and dance
set for Saturday night at the
College Choir
To Sing Here
A concert of sacred and
secular music will be oresented
by the Guilford College Choir at
the Murphy United Methodist
Church on Thursday, March 25,
at 8 p.m.
This event is jointly
sponsored by the United
Methodist Men and the
Wesleyan Service Guild. There
is no admission charge:
however a free-will offering will
be taken to cover expenses.
The Guilford College Choir
is one of the Nation's
outstandingcollegiate choruses.
The choir is now in its 43rd
concert season, and the current
tour will take the choir through
six eastern . Yearly tours have
been taken throughout eastern
United States, and the choir has
met with critical acclaim in its
concert presentations.
same place, are being held by
the Cherokee Humane Society
to raise money for a planned
animal shelter. Tickets are on
sale through members of the
group or will be available at the
door.
Carl Corbin, Murphy piano
and organ dealer and an
accomplished organist himself,
will also star in the show. He
says David is the real thing, "a
musical genius.
"Mozart and some of the
other great composers started
playing when they were very
young," Corbin says. "I've read
about it but I've never seen
anyone like the boy. The kid's a
genius?I think he's brilliant."
David is the son of Mr. and
Mrs. Kenneth Ledford of
Andrews and it's probably no
coincidence that his mother and
father have both performed
with a gospel music group.
His father says the boy had
a dream one night when he was
four years old and told his
parents the next morning that
he could play the piano. They
put him on a piano bench and
found that indeed he could. He's
been playing ever since, much
of the time at the family church,
Valley River Baptist.
And his father says David
prefers gospel music, although
he is capable of playing any
tune he hears and often plays
popular and country music. His
family says there have been
offers of recording contracts
and tours, but they plan to keep
him close to home until he
finishes high school.
"He's too young to go on the
road, playing around the
country," Ledford says of his
son. "But he likes the gospel
groups, he watches them on
television and says he wants to
be like them, traveling around
the country and making
music."
Other acts scheduled for the
Friday- night show are the
champion doggers from
Murphy, the Carolina
Sweethearts; the singing
Polyphonies; the Country
Sounds; the Hogsed Trio; and
Hobbie Whitener and his band.
Four teenagers sponsored
by the Campbell Folk School
will also perform English,
Danish and Appalachian dances
on Friday night.
For the rock concert and
dance on Saturday night,
appearances are scheduled by
the Chokin' Kind, the West
Orange Express, Odessy and St.
John's Wood.
natonal^s?\
NEWSPAPER
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David Ledford "musical i
Town To Remove
Abandoned Autos
The Town of Murphy will begin a
cleanup of old abandoned autos very
soon, using equipment provided by
the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Charlie Johnson, town clerk, said
Tuesday that the cleanup will begin
probably within a week or so and will
continue for about three months.
The TVA equipment consists of a
specially-rigged two-ton truck, he
said, which can load and carry away
a junked car body. It will be operated
by regular town employes and also
the Operation Mainstream workers
assigned to the town under a federal
program administered by
Foursquare Community Action.
Johnson said' there are about 400
abandoned cars inside the town limits
and these will be collected at one
point, where the upholstery will be
burned out of them and a commercial
wrecker will then crush the bodies
and haul them away for sale as scrap.
The gathering point , Johnson
said, will probably be on Forest
Service land and tentative approval
has been given for use of land near the
town sewage plant, at Lover's
Leap where a rock-crusher was once
located.
The town's cleanup of abandoned
cars was discussed at length in a
meeting on Monday night of county
and town officials, TVA and Forest
Service officers and representatives
of civic clubs.
Rural mail carriers recently
made a count of abandoned autos on
their routes and these were then
marked on a county map with colored
pins. The map was shown at the
meeting, Johnson said, and the
possibility of a countrywide cleanup
was discussed.
Johnson said the old cars will be
removed both as a beautification
measure and a health precaution. He
said anything which harbors rats or
holds water in which mosquitoes can
breed is a health hazard.
A legal agreement will be signed
by the car's owner before the body
can be removed, he added, to keep the
town out of trouble.
Clay Citizens Oppose
Election Law Change
Clay County parents and
teachers rose up this week in
solid opposition to a bill which
they say would put politics into
the county education system.
State Rep. Erwin W. Patton
of Franklin introduced the bill
in the Legislature last week to
provide for election of county
school board members in Clay
by partisan methods.
He did this reluctantly,
calling it "a step backward" but
indicating that political leaders
in Clay County wanted the
school baord returned to
partisan voting. Patton's bill, if
passed, would exempt Clay
from the provisions of the 1969
statewide non-partisan school
baord election law.
Last Friday afternoon, the
Clay County unit of the NCAE
met and voted unanimously to
oppose the bill. It has 60
members, including all
teachers and administrators of
schools in Clay, led by Howard
Alexander, supervisor.
The teachers' resolution
reads, in part, that "partisan
politics have no place in the
operation of the public school
system and in the election of the
Board of Education..."
On Monday night, the
Hayesville PTA took much the
same action in voting
to authorize its president,Perry
Gribble, to telegram that
group's opposition to Rep .
Patton.
Puetl Suffers
Heart Attack
Walter Puett, Murphy
businessman, suffered a heart
attack on Monday afternoon
while driving near Morganton.
He was taken to Grace
Hospital, where relatives say
he is presently resting well in
the intensive care section.
Contacted at the State
House in Raleigh Tuesday by
The Scout, Rep. P?tton said he
dtdn't like the bill when it was
proposed but he was asked to
introduce it by the executive
committee of the Democratic
Party in Clay County.
He said he had stopped the
bill in the Education Committee
of the House and added that he
may allow it to die there after
he hears from more people in
Clay County. "I asked the
chairman to hold it up for an
indefinite time and if it looks
like the thing to do, there's
where it will stay." he said.
Rep. Patton said Cherokee
County now is back under the
state primary laws as well as
Yancey, which he said were the
last two counties in the state to
be using the old county
convention system. His bill
to put Cherokee, which had been
exempted, back under the
primary law was passed in the
House some time back and was
passed in the Senate last week.
Patton added that he and
State Sen. Carl Killian of
Bloodmobile
To Be Here
On Friday
The Red Cross Bloodmobile
will be in Murphy at the Power
Board Building on Friday
afternoon from 1 until 5:30.
The Bloodmobile has not
made a visit here since the last
of October and all potential
donors are urged to give blood,
according to Mrs. Edgar
Harshaw, who heads the project
for the Cherokee Red Cross
chapter.
"All who can possibly
donate please do so," she says.
"It is very much needed."
Cullowhee have introduced a
bill to provide state funds to
help out many counties,
including Cherokee, which are
in budget trouble in their
welfare departments over the
Medicaid spending.
"This would be a stopgap
measure to help them get
through this fiscal year," he
explained, and would not affect
another bill, expected to be
introduced soon, proposing that
all Social Services functions be
taken over by the state.
Cancer
Drive
Slated
The 1971 Cancer Crusade in
West Cherokee County begins
April 1, with Mrs. Everett
English of Murphy as
chairman.
"By stressing the urgency
of periodical health checkups,
the early detection of cancer
and its prompt treatment can
mean the difference between
life and death," Mrs. English
says.
"The people and the tools it
takes to find the final cure for
cancer are going to cost a lot of
money. There are no bargains
in cancer research. That's why
your help is so urgently
needed," she added.
Prospective volunteers for
the campaign are invited to
telephone Mrs. English.
Golf Tournament
Schedule Posted
The Tournament Committee of the Cherokee
County Golf Course this week announced the tentative
tournament dates for the coming season.
H.W. (Bud) Alexander, chairman of the
committee, noted that the dates are tentative and are
subject to possible changes.
April 4-Scotch Foursome, for couples.
May 2-Scotch Foursome.
June ft-Shotgun Tournament, for men.
July :t-5-First Annual Jaycee Open.
August-Club Championship Playoffs.
Sept. 6-Scotch Foursome, picnic and trophies to
be awarded to club champions.
Open House
Davis, a family name prominent shown here with their ladies ready-to
among Murphy retail merchants, is wear line, have purchased it from
now applied to another store. The Avis Phillips of Robbinsville. They
House of Fashion on Tennessee will be celebrating the changeover
Street is now the Davis House of with Open House on Friday and
Fashion as Mr. and Mrs. Dick Davis, Saturday of this week. (Staff Photo)
Rummage Sale To Paj
For MHS Band Trip I
The Murphy High School
band has accepted an invitation
to appear this year at the
Azalea Festival in
Wilmington and local band
boosters will hold a rummage
sale to finance the long trip.
A spokesman for the Band
Boosters Club said the Bulldog
band will represent Western
North Carolina in the Azalea
Festival parade, a distinct
bonor for the band.
The cost of the trip to
Wilmington in mid-April is
stimated at $2,000 and the band
x>osters plan a rummage sale
>n the square in Murphy on
Saturday, March 27 to begin at
1:30 p.m.
Persons having items to
donate for the sale should bring
them to the band room at
Murphy High School on or
before March 20.
Don Ramsey
Leads Sales
Don Ramsey, former
Cherokee Clerk of Court, led the
Waynesville district of the
Asheville branch of Jefferson
Standard Life Insurance Co. in
sales in February.
Defeated last Fall in his bid
for re-election, Ramsey
returned to his former position
with Jefferson Standard the
first of January. He has also led
sales for the district so far in
March.
Band boosters say clothini
household goods, jewelry
canned goods, baked goods an.
other items will be on sale.
Hayesville
Gets Direct
Dial System
The Direct Distance Dialing
system goes into effect in
Hayesville next Sunday,
according to Westco telephone
officials.
Paul Wooten, commercial
manager for the western
district of Westco, said Tuesday
that the new dial-your-own
system for long distance calls is
part of a program of spending
more than $17,000 this year in
upgrading service in
Hayesville.
"Direct distance dialing
enables the customer to dial his
own long distance calls,"
Wooten said. "And this type of
call is faster and more
economical than having an
operator handle the call."
There are about 1,200
telephone subscribers in the
Hayesville exchange, he said.
The direct dialing system
was installed in Murphy,
Franklin and Sylva last Spring.
Frank J. Bulgarella
Charter
Slated
One of the top Civitan
officers in the nation will be the
featured speaker on March 29
when the newly-organized
Andrews Civitan Club holds its
Charter Night festivities.
Frank J. Bulgarella of
Birmingham, Ala., who is the
assistant executive
administrator of Civitan
International, will be the
speaker, according to an
announcement this week from
Civitan headquarters in
Birmingham.
A number of other Civitan
officials will be present at the
Andrews School Cafeteria that
night for the ceremonies, as will
members of the Murphy club,
which sponsored formation of
the Andrews club.
Wives will be welcome also
at the event and more than 200
people are expected.
Paul Ridenhour, president
of the Murphy club, noted that
the Andrews club is chartering
with 52 members, which will
make it much larger than the
majority of Civitan Clohs.
Bulgarella is a graduate of
Western Michigan University
and worked in radio
broadcasting for 10 yeans before
pining the professional staff of
Civitan International.
Phillips Top
Salesman
Dress Plant Expanding
Bulldozers began site preparation capacity of the dress plant and should
last week for expansion at the be finished by late Summer. About 145
Carolina Dress plant on Qualla Road workers art presently employed at
near Hayesvilie. Walter Fuller. plant, he .-?;iid. and the addition
president of the firm, said the 15,000 will mean "a substantial increase in
square foot addition will double the employment." (Staff Photo) $$
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