North Carolina Newspapers

Population • Greater Kings Mountain 10,320 City Limits 7,206 The figure for Greater Kings Mountain is derived from tin 1855 Kings Mountain city directory census. The city Limits figure is from toe United States census of 1950. VOL 71 No. II Pages Today PRICE TEN CENTS Flash Fire Glee E. Bridges Sanford Manager Local News Bulletins NO PERMITS No building permits were Is sued this week by city offi cials. KIWANIS Girl Scout Troop 3, under di rection of Mrs. J. B. Simpson, will present the program Thursday night for members of the Kiwanis club. The civic group meets at 6:45 at the Wman’s club. CONFERENCE Sunday School superintend ents and the Men’s Council from Kings Mountain Presby tery will meet at First Presby terian church here Sunday af ternoon at 2:30 p. m. Jake Burgln will preside at the Sun day School conference. Dr. David Stratton and Dr. J. 03. Kuykendall, Jr., are the lead ers. Eagle Alteration Sale To Begin Eagles Stores, Kings Mountain business citizen for over 30 years, is celebrating the grand opening of its modernized quar ters on Battleground avenue. L. C. Miller, District 1 Superin tendent for the Eagles chain in North Carolina and Tennessee, here Wednesday, said the store has been modernized via use of new Shelving, a new glass front, improved lighting, a new paint jofo throughout, plus what he termed a vastly enlarged assort ment of merchandise which' he says "is twice as much as offer ed before.” "With our new and enlarged facilities, we will be able to stock an even larger sup ply than ever before”, he con tinued. Eagles’ customers will use a “selective service” style of shop ping. The customer will be of fered the clerk’s assistance in her selection and/or she may de sire to serve herself, then pay the clerk for the product. The remodeling program in cludes airconditioning. Mrs.. Sue Young has managed the Kings Mountain store since she rejoined Eagles’ in 1952. Eight employees make-up the sales staff. Until her death sev eral years ago, Miss Pearl Hicks was the oldest employee of the Eagle chain, having 'been a mem ber of the sales staff here for 30 years. The local store participates in a training program whereby young men are trained for store manager positions. The Kings Mountain store is celebrating its grand opening with a three-day sales event Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. “Only item missing is our front -sign”, Supt. Miller said. He ex plained at bad weather had detained shipping from Charles ton, S. C. Life-Saving Crew Brings Baby Home Three-month-old Kim Laura Ruppe is at home from Walter Reed hospital, thanks to ef forts of C’eveland County Life Saving Crew. The youngster, ill with a back ailment since birth was brought from New Market, England, to the Washington Army hospital. Her fattier, Oren Ruppe and Mrs. Ruppe were living in England when their daughter was born and Mr. Ruppe was in service. Air Force doctors had told the parents to bring the Child back to Walter Reed for an op eration when she reaches the age of 12 months. Capt. Coibett Nicholson of the Cleveland Crew arranged the relay trip which brought the child from Washington to Salisbury and home to her Kings fountain grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Ruppe. Hardwareman lamed County Co-Chairman Glee Edwin Bridges, Kings Mountain hardwareman, will serve as Cleveland County co chairman of Terry Sanford’s campaign for governor. Other co-chairman for the county is Bill Latbimore, of Boil ing Springs. Clint Newton, manager of a five-county Sanford-for-Governor committee, announced the Cleve land county chairmen and com mittee following a dinner ses sion of district leaders for San ford at Shelby Wednesday. Other members of the commit tee are Rush Hamrick, Jr., Shel by, M. M. Stuart, Shelby, and Tom Hord, Lawndale. Attending the Shelby meeting 'were about 25 Sanford leaders from Cleveland, Rutherford, Ca tawba, Gaston and Lincoln coun ties, the five-county area head ed by Mr. Newton, and a half dozen Sanford leaders from state headquarters, including Bert Bennett, of Winston-Salem, state campaign manager. Asked it» place the four guber natorial candidates as of today, Manager Bennett said unquali fiedly that Mr. Sanford “is well ahead”. He declined to list a second choice among Candidates John Larkins, Malcolm Seawell and Beverly Lake. He said the biggest bar to San ford’s sweeping the field in the first primary in May is “the un known vote, those citizens who have not been contacted by us directly.” He outlined briefly three prin cipal phases of the Sanford cam paign plan, including the wo men’s organization, the dollar - for-Sanford drive, and state and local publicity. For Glee Edwin Bridges, it is his first participation in active campaigning. President of Brid ges Hardware, Inc., he attended the University of North Carolina, then spent more than three years on active duty with the navy in World War II. He served with the amphibious forces in the Pa cific theatre. He is currently ex ecutive officer of the naval re serve unit headquartered at Shelby. He is a member of St. Miatthew’s Lutheran church and now is secretary of the church council. Mrs. Bridges is the for mer Martha Foythress, of Savan nah, Ga. They have three child ren, Eddie, Tommy and Lynne Bridges. Annual Banquet 01 Retailers Monday Night A capacity crowd is expected to fill the Woman’s club Monday night at 7 o'clock for the annual employee-employer banquet of the Kings Mountain Merchants Association. Feature of the event will be an entertainment ‘program by Joe Franklin and his Highlighters from WAVY-TV in Portsmouth, Va. President Jonas Bridges has arranged the program and will present the group of entertain ers. Other features will include a prize drawing for the ladies, re ports on the past year's work by association officers and instal lation of new officers for 1960-61. Richard Barnette, a past presi dent, will install Charles Blan ton as president and Wesley Bush as vice-president. New dir ectors, with terms expiring in 19 62, include J. Kennon Blanton, ! Harry Page, Thomas Tate, and IW. S. Fulton, Jr. Hold-over dir ectors are James Crawford, Den ver King, Eugene McSwain, and J. C. Bridges. Outgoing directors are Lewis Dellinger, J. T. McGin nis, Jr., Paul McGinnis and K. E. Morrison. Mrs. I. B. Goforth, Sr. will ser ve the meal. Rev. Marion Du I Bose, pastor of Kings Mountain Baptist church, will give the in vocation. Banquet tickets may be ob tained by contacting Mrs. Luth er Joy, association secretary. Local Delegation Attend Meet Seven delegates from the local unit of the North Carolina Edu cation Association in addition to B. N. Barnes, Superintendent of City Schools, and Miss Alice Av eritt, school supervisor, left Wednesday afternoon to attend the annual state convention of the association in Asheville. The convention will last throu gh Friday. Attending from Kings Moun tain are Harry E. Jaynes, princi pal of Central school; R. H. Bry ant, principal of North Elemen tary school; R. M. Kennedy, principal of East Elementary school; Miss Kittie Lou Sutton; Mrs. Juanita Logan, Mrs. Mar gaurite Powell, and Miss Jacque line Blanton. Neill Breaks Three Finqers In Fall B. S. Neill, president of First National bank, is a patient at Kings Mountain hospital, where he is recuperating from injuries received in an acaident at Hic kory Sunday. Mir. Neill broke three fingers on his left hand, wlien he fell in a Hickory churchyard after mor ning services. He tripped over the blade of a scraper, which had been used ito scrape snow from the church parking lot. He was reported improving Wednesday and expects to be discharged from the hospital soon. Robert Hoskins To Be Speaker At Lion Fanner's Night Banquet Robert N. Hoskins, general forestry agent, Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company of Rich mond, will toe guest speaker be fore Kings Mountain Lions club at its annual Farmer’s Night banquet Tuesday. Some 100 area farmers, in ad dition to county farm organiza tion officials and county commis sioners have been invited to at tend. Mr. Hoskins, a graduate of the Iowa State College School of Forestry, was formerly employed ! by the Florida Forest Service, and has been associated with Seaboard Railroad since 1945. He is a recent recipient of the Merit Award given by the A merican Vocational Association and holds the honorary Ameri can Farmer Degree given by the j National organization of Future Farmers of America. He also holds the honorary degree of State Farmer given toy the North Carolina Association of Future Farmers. IHoskins is co-author of a text book used in many Southern sta tes entitled ‘‘Forestry, In The South." and has served on many national and regional forestry committees. Topic for discussion at Tues day night's Farmer's Banquet BANQUET SPEAKER — Robert N. Hoskins, Seaboard Railroad forestry agent will speak to Kings Mountain Lions dub Tues day at the dub's annual Farm er’s Night Banquet will be "Partners In Conserva tion.” Dr. George W. Plonk and Eu gene McSwain constitute the club committee on the banquet EVANGELIST — Dr. Eugene Poston of Boiling Springs will begin evangelistic services Sun day at Macedonia Baptist church where he is interim pastor. Macedonia Sets Revival Series Dr. Eugene Poston, Interim pastor of Macedonia Baptist church, will begin a week of e vangelictic services at the church on Sunday. Services will be held at 7:30 ; p. m. each evening through March 27. Assisting Dr. Poston as direct or of music during the series will be Yates Pearson of Shelby. Mr. Pearson is well-known throughout the Kings Mountain Baptist Association as chorister for Training Union groups of the association. He is minister of music at Churchill Baptist chur ch, Shelby, and a ministerial stu dent at Gardner-Webb college. Dr. Poston is head of the de partment of Religious Education and teacher of Greek and Bible at Gardner Webb college. Macedonia members recently conducted a religious census of the community in preparation for the revival and census infor mation disclosed that cards for 750 persons were turned in. A church spokesman said that this lis estimated to be a better than 90 percent census of the area and probably the most complete re ligious census ever taken of the community. This information has been compiled and will be used in church visitation on Sunday. Cottage prayer ser vices will also be held during the week. Dr. Poston Issued an invitation to the community to participate in these services. Pastors Want Cits Welfare Aid Kings (Mountain ministers ex pect to ask the city commission to include in the budget next year a fund earmarked comtmun ity welfare. It was the major business of the ministerial association’s Tuesday session. The ministers also discusset asking the welfare committee ti set up a confidential file system in What they believe will allevi ate duplication of help by the various churches. They express ed themselves as feeling the need of a community welfare fund “an urgent necessity.” Ministers also went on record as unanimously favoring “imme diate institution” of a Domestic Relations Court and signed a letter to the County (Board of Commissioners about this sub ject Because of inclement weather, the ministers voted to extend the "March to Church" campaign through Easter Sunday, April 17. Each minister was urged to stress church attendance throu ghout the drive. Plans for an Easter Sunrise! Service were also discussed. Kesler Southeast \ ^ Geological He$d National Society Section Elects Foote Geologist Thomas L. Kesler, Kings Mountain citizen and chief geo logist of Foote Mineral Company, has been elected chairman of Southeastern Section, Geological Society of America. This division of the Geological society includes all the south eastern states. Mr. Kesler will be installed at the annual meeting of the sec tion, to be held this year at the University of Kentucky at Lex ington March 24-26. Mr. Kesler was also recently e lected to a two-year term as dir ector of the American Geological society, representing the Ameri can Institute of Mining Engin eers. A Salisbury native, Mr. Kesler was graduated from the Univer sity of North Carolina in 1929 and won a Master’s degree the] following year. He worked with! the United States Geological Sur vey from 1936-48 and with Tho maa-Weinman & Company and United States Steel Corporation before joining Foote Mineral Company in 1953. Mrs. Kesler is the former Mar garet Menges. They have two children, Stephen Kesler, a UNC sophomope, and Susan Kesler, a high school junior. The Keslers are members of First Presbyter ian church. Merger To Take 60 To 90 Days It is expected to require from 60 to 90 days to effect the pro posed merger of First National Bank of Kings Mountain and First Union National Bank of North Carolina, according to R. S. Lennon, First National Bank executive vice-president. Under1 customary procedure, the recent action of the bank di rectorates will be filed with the United States Comptroller of the Currency, together with applica tion for tentative approval of the merger. When tentative approval is granted, the stockholders of each bank will take action on the pro posal. Approval of stockholders of both banks will result in an application for formal approval of the merger by the Currency Comptroller. Math Contests Winners Listed Winners in two math high school contests were announced this week by Miss Kitty Lou Sut ton, high school mathematics teacher, who conducted the ex aminations. Robert Wharton won first place in the national examina tion of the American Mathe matics association, with Noe! Webster second and Nancy Mc Clure third. All are seniors. In the contest sponsored by the Future Engineers of America, Sara Hendricks, ninth grade was first, Carl Goter, tenth grade, was second, and Bill Ramseur, tenth grade was third. In this test, Miss Sutton said, the con test rules specified' that grades be weighted on basis of age grade of the student ELECTED — Thomas L. Keslerj has been elected chairman of the; Southeastern Section, Geological Society of America. Bethware Class To Give Flay The Junior Class of Bethware high school will present the three-act comedy, “No Boys Al lowed” Tuesday night at 8 p. m. in the school auditorium. Mrs. Robert Jones is directing! tlie production. Cast of characters includes: | Dean Bowen who has the role of the prowler; Rae Falls portrays Rita Baxter, who gives the slum ber party; Joyce Blanton wh< < portrays Rita’s younger sister; Alice McSwain has the role o Victrola, the Baxter cook; Ken neth Rayfield as Rita’s bo> j friend; Steve Owens as Lero' Doyle, Fred’s pal; Sheila Gant > as Rita’s best friend; Linds Herndon as Rita’s rival; Mar garet Ledford portrays the boj hater; Pat Bolin as Pat Farrel who loves to eat; Norman Web ster as the policeman; Kenneth Fisher as Keith Farland, Fred’ rival; Johnny Jones as Keith’s man Friday; Carolyn Daves as Fred’s mother. Setting of the comedy is in' the Baxter home when several mischievous boys try to wreck j a slumber party. City Attorney lays State Law Decrees Petition The city commission hit a snag Thursday in a mow it started last summer to seek a vote on a city manager form of govern ment. City Attorney J. R. Davis told the mayor and commissioners, "It is my understanding that a position bearing the signatures of 25 percent of the registered voters needs to be in hand be fore an election can be formally called.” Mr. Davis told the Herald Wed nesday that the special bill pass ed permitting a vote provides that the city commission may call and conduct a city manager election provided terms of Arti cle 22 of Chapter 160, General Statutes of North Carolina are complied with. Article four of the state act provides that a petition of 25 percent of the registered voters must petition for the e lection. UndeT (the special bill, should proper petitions be presented, citizens would have the option of adopting a modified “Plan D” city manager system. In ad dition to appointment of several other officials, the principal mo dification would be to provide Kings Mountain an option of employing a city manager to manage the city or of paying the; elected mayor to manage the system. How will this action affect the commission’s proposed plan? “It will kill it”, Mr. Davis be lieves. The city commission had tab led the matter without discus sion and instructed the city at torney to “look into the matter.” Mr. Davis said Wednesday he still had further checking to do. The commission had instructed Mr. Davis in June 1959 to draw a proposed 'bill, which he did, to seek General Assembly action or dering the election. That bill, for warded to Senator Robert Mor gan, Representative Jack Palmer and Claude Love, assistant attor ney general, modified a Plan D city manager form of govern ment. This plan would not chan ge the current method of electing five ward commissioners and the mayor. . Under the specific modifica tions, the city commission would retain authority to employ or appoint the city attorney, city clerk, city treasurer and city tax collector, recorder of municipal court and solicitor of city court. It also provides the mayor will have the right to vote in event of tie only. Naming Of Tax Official Deferred; Re-zoning Request Tabled Ry City The city board of commission ers considered without action Thursday six applications for the job of city , tax collector. Indication was that the com mission would name a successor to J. W. Webster at a called meeting within a week or 10 days. Commissioners Boyce Gault and Ben Bridges made the motions to table tile matter for more time for would-be appli cants to apply. Only other comment came from the mayor who noted that the job needed to be filled as quickly as possible. “This is a job and not a position,” Mayor Glee A. Bridges pointed out. He said he would recommend a starting salary of $300 per mon th, same amount Mr. Webster was paid when he began work for the city. Until his resigna tion, Mr. Webster was paid $4200 annually. He also served the city as building inspector. "I won’t ask anybody to work any longer hours than I do," the mayor added. Five formal applications have been received, ami a sixth citi zen, B. W. Gillespie, has indicat ed to the mayor he would form ally apply. Mayor Bridges said applica tions were from: D. L. Saunders, drycleaner and a candidate for mayor in the past election; M. H. iBiser, bookkeeper at Ware& Sons; I. C. Davis, insurance sale sman; Sam Collins, a former: city commissioner; and M. cJ Poston. Otherwise Che board accepted motion to advertise for bids on a! new 750-gallon-pump fire truck' at estimated cost of $16,000, vot ed to buy a lawn mower for the cemetery at cost of $675, tabled for further consideration a re quest for rezoning by J, H. Thom son, and proposal by Electrical Supt, Hunter Allen for an $8, 000 extension of primary power lines in the downtown area. The rezoning matter brought protest from ten property own-j ers who asked the board not to rezone to business designation the residential area which inclu des Che lot at the corner of Phi fer road and Mountain street, , proposed site for a 50x26 brick shed for Southern Bell. Franklin L. Ware, Jr., representing the home-owners, told the board, , ‘We chose our lot because it was a residential area, not a business district.” Realtor B. D. Ratter roe presented the tentative sket ch for the new building and both hd and Mr. Thomson remlded the property' owners that the proposed building “is not for a garage as some of you may think.” Signing a letter of pro (C'mtinucd On Page Bight) Fire Started It Cleaners, Spread Fast To T-V Firm A sudden flash fira e rupted shortly after 5 o’ clock Wednesday after noon, gutting the Saun ders Cleaners building on Cherokee street and spread to the Stowe T-V Repair building adjacent. Threatened was the Brid ges Hardware warehouse behind the Stowe build ing. Firemen were on the scene within minutes of teh alarm, but the Saun ders fire already had cra shed the pane glass win dows. David L. Saunders said he’d left his business establishment only a few minutes before, long enough to get home and hear his wife answer the telephone to be informed the cleaning es tablishment was afire. L. P. (Skimip) Stowe and his assistant, Bill Simpson, work ed slightly longer than Mr. Saunders. Mr. Simpson emerg ed from the Stowe building to see smoke coming from the Saunders establishment. Mr. Stowe called in the alarm. Smoke billowed high in the sky and was still billowing at 6:05., City firemen, their hands numb from the frigid weather, fought desperately to get the blaze under control. Mr. Saunders guessed his loss would run from $30,000 to $35,000, said insurance would cover no more than a third of it. Mr. Stowe declined to estimate the loss to his es tablishment. Firemen retrieved eash - reg isters in both establishments. The was no immediate theory as to the cause of the fire, However, cleaning solvents ig nite quickly and it was pre sumed these spread the fire in a matter of seconds. The buildings are owned by David Hamrick. This Time It's Icing Kings Mountain citizens joined their area neighbors Wednesday in some unkind remarks about the weather prediction experts, as they painfully acknowledged their accuracy. It was the third consecutive Wednesday in which snow, or ice, or both had visited the area and put citizens to scraping ice off windshields, re-donning hea vy clothes and rubber footwear, and searching for automobile chains. This time it was a sleety icing which began Tuesday evening. Fortunately, temperatures were above freezing by early morn ing and the ice on roads became slushy enough for auto traction, except on the steepest grades. Construction men and indus tries put their hands to their heads and wondered when they'd get back to work. Farmers won dered, too, when they’d plant this spring’s crops. But school children, who stay ed home more than a week be tween two major snows, went to school, where they’d returned (and happily) on Monday. The prediction was for clear ng and warmer weather on Phursday. City hall reported the bad veather has cost three week’s larking meter collections and forced a temporary halt in the nonthly readings of water, elec trical and gas meters. For those ’ustomers with later readings, the ‘bills will likely be a bit high ?r than would be customary. CRAMERTON TALK Kelly Dixon, Kings Mountain candidate for the Republican nomination for 11th district Congressman, will address the Oramerton Rotary club at its meeting next Wednesday at 13:15 p. m.