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J.C, Clary, because
# he smokes
P (#
4 ^
Folks around Kings Mountain
don't believe Its J.C. Clary when
they see him coming.
Iliey don’t believe It because they
all know Mr. Clary has been puffing
butts, pipes and stogies for the past
71 years like a steam engine.
The guy passing himself off m J.C.
Claiy doesn't smoke.
' But It Is the same gent.
“I quit five months ago,” Clary
said. "Just decided enough was
enough and put away my pipe and
tobacco, gave away my cigars and
didn’t buy anymore cigarettes. I've
quit a thousand times In the 71 years
I’ve smoked, but I was always
careful to see where I put my pipe
and tobacco. Not so this time.”
Clary took a nickel when he was
«13-years old and bought himself
•three Virginia Cheroots. "Those
small cigars were my Introduction,”
Clary said. "Since that time I have
smoked cigarettes, cigars, a pipe
and chewed tobacco. Only thing 1
never tried was dipping snuff.”
How bad could the snoklng habit
have been for Clary?
"I used to get up In the middle of
the night and light up a few
smokes,” he said. "I smoked on the
way to church. If I hadn’t known It
was a sin to smoke In church I
wouldn’t have thrown my stogie
away going In.”
Clary said he started cutting back
on the smokes when the doctors
offices and department stores
started putting up signs stating No
Smoking. "I didn’t want to hurt
nobody’s feelings or make anybody
mad,” he said, "so I threw the
smokes away before going In.
"But five months ago I Just
decided to quit,” he said. “And it
really hasn’t bothved me at all.”
His secret?
”Dld a UtUe praying,” Oary said.
"Told tlMhiiOrd what I wanted to try
to do and asked him to help me all he
could. After a couple of days I found
I had two or three cigars at home
and thought to myself, ‘boy, that’s
some faith you got,’ so I gave the
cigars away.
“This can’t be like the times when
you’re sick In the hospital and you
tell the Lord you’ll do anything If he
will Just make you well,” Clary said.
’’You’ve got to stick to It. Help
yourself and The Lord will do what
he csui for you. If you try to trick him
too many times...well, he Just might
forget all about you.”
KinG9 MOUhTMn MIRROR
VOL. 90 NO. 24
Tuesday, March 27, 1979
H€RMD
15c
Independence Bank
Opens In KM Today
KINGS MOUNTAIN BRANCH, INDEPENDENCE NATIONAL BANK
Independence National Bank will
open Its new branch bank In Kings
Mountain Tuesday (tonight) at 6
p.m. with a unique grand opening
ceremony featuring a 28-musket
salute by the Cherry vllle New
Year’s Shooters and bankers In
colonial-era costumes.
Terry Ainsworth, Director of
Marketing lor the three-county
financial Institution, said that the
celebration Is In keeping with Kings
Mountain’s heritage theme which
will be carried out In the open house
from 6 until 9 p.m. to which the
public Is invited.
Bank President ’Tete Pearson of
Gastonia and Board Chairman
Clyde Stutts of Shelby will cut an
official ribbon, which will be also
unique. It will be a bulldlng-wlde
banner enscrlbed, "Kings Mountain
Fought For Independence”. At 6
p.m. the banking officers will pull
ropes on either end of the banner and
unfurl a larger bsuiner covering the
front of the East King St. building
which will read, "Now We’re Here.”
The colorful gun ssJute by the
CherryvUle Shooters will follow the
(Please turn to page S)
Equal Opportunity Banquet Thurstlay
An Uphill Fight For Association
When Howard Lee, the first black
man In recent history to try for a
statewide elective office in North
Carolina, ran for lieutenant
governor two years ago, he did
poorly In Cleveland County, but he
carried Kings Mountain.
Much of Lee’s success In Kings
Mountain can be attributed to the
Cleveland County Voter
Registration Association, a four-
year-old organization that believes
blacks must be Intricately Involved
In the political process.
”We don’t feel that anyone has
to do us any special favors,” said Dr.
Joseph Roberts, a UNOC professor
who chairs the organization’s nine-
member board of directors. "Our
purpose Is to Involve the black
community here In local govern
ment and to Improve our lot by
making contributions to our area.”
The organization has fought an
uphill battle to get more CSeveland
County blacks registered. In 1978,
only about 4,000 of the 30,000
registered voters In Cleveland
County were black. The county’s
population Is slightly more than
76,000, Including about 16,000 blacks.
But now the organization that has
straggled on Its own to fight ^athy,"
fear and other trauHUonal problems
Special Pageant Scheduled
Registration for contestsmts In the
“Little Wee Miss Mountain”
pageant to be sponsored by KM
Boosters Club will be held Thursday
night from 6 until 8 p.m. at B.N.
Barnes Auditorium.
The beauty contest will be held
April 31 at 8 p.m. with proceeds to
benefit community projects of the
club.
Entry fee for participants is (6.
Tickets lor the show will be $1 lor
adults and 60 cents for children.
Only qualification to enter Is to
"look pretty” and no talent Is
required.
There will be two divisions of the
pageant, one for ages 3,4,6 and 6 and
one for young ladles 7,8,9 and 10.
among blacks seeks to broaden Its
base.
"Broad based and viable
political action enhances economic
development and opens avenues to
better Jobs.” said Elwood Roberts,
and ofiiclals In the organization that
now has about 200 members who pay
$2 In annual dues. "That’s why we’re
getting Involved In the economic
sector, linking politics and Jobs.”
Roberts sdso said the group wants
to change Its name, and expand Its
effort Into adjoining counties such as
Gaston and Lincoln.
The organization’s Initial effort In
establishing the politics-jobs linkage
and broading the base is Its first
annual Equal Opportunity Day
Banquet on Msirch 29. The banquet
will be held at the Kings Mountain
Community Center. The speaker
will be Weldon Rougeau, director of
the U.S. Labor Depsu'tment’s Office
of Federal Contract Compliance
Programs.
“This dinner serves several
purposes for us,” said Roberts, a
Kings Mountain Insursmc agent who
chairs the committee plsuining the
dinner. “It’s designed to give us
greater visibility In the community,
to bring Industry and the community
closer together, and to enlighten our
constituents and Industry for that
matter on what the law says
regarding contract compliance.”
(Please turn to page 4)
vA
'Sk
Foursquare Academy Planned
$ W By GARY STEWART
Staff Writer
Kings Mountain Christian
Academy will open next fall for
grades 2-10 at the Foursquare
Gospel (3iurch faculties on York
i ' Road.
Rev. R.J. Hannagan, pastor of
Foursquare, made the an
nouncement today, noting that the
school wUl probably house no more
than so students during year 1979-80
^ ^ and that the goal for expansion In the
^ ■ W future wUl "depend on demand.”
“We don’t really anticipate going
as large scale as some of the
I Christian schools,” uald Rev.
s Hannagan. “We don’t want to make
^ a business out of It.”
J U. a R«v. Hannagan Is now In the
K process of maUlng out Information
1^
on the school and seeking the
pubUc’s opinion. Any persons In
terested In obtaining Information or
application forms may call Han
nagan at Foursquare Gospel CThurch
(739-8496) or write him In care of
lOngs Moimtaln Christian Academy,
P.O. Box 91, Kings Mountain, N.C.
38086.
Hannagan said thus far two
persons (both members of the
Foursquare Church) have com-
{deted appUcatlon forms.
“We won’t begin enrolling
students until May or June,” he said.
"We plan to have pMtors, prln-
clpsUs, teachers and students come
here for a day and explain their
programs to us and answer any
questions any parents or students
have.”
Rev. Hannagan said the school
wiU use the ACE (Accelerated
(Siristlan Education) curriculum
which allows students to progress at
their own pace.
“For example,” said Hannagan,
"If a student Is sixth grade level In
English and fifth grade level In
math, he will study sixth grade
En^sh and fifth grade level In
math, he will study sixth grade
English and fifth grade math.
Students will not be promoted or
held back depending upon the rest of
the class.”
Rev. Hannagan said tuition will be
kept as low as possible and every
effort will be made the make the
school available to under-privileged
children.
(Please turn to page 8)
. .SOUTHERN STYLE—This three-story white frame
early colonial-style home sits back of a line of crepe
myrtle trees on N. Gaston St. The former S.A. Mauney
home, the structure is now owned by Hm Taylor, Clark
Photo by Tom McIntyre
Tire manager, who is penonally renovating It back to
Its original (1890-1900) state of grace. Taylor estimates
refurbishing the house will coot between 880,000 and
$100,000.
.•
9.’ A"' '*■'
.yf,- .
Stokes Has Walked
Last Mile For USPO
STOKES WRIGHT MAKING HIS LAST ROUNDS AS LETTER CARRIER
By TOM MCINTYRE
Editor, Mirror-Herald
Stokes Wright has walked his last
mile for Uncle Sam.
At 6 p.m. Friday, Wright punched
the time clock at the Kings Mountain
Post Office, went home and began
making plans to "become a gen
tleman farmer.”
A city route letter carrier since
Nov. 1, 1947, Wright figures he
walked an average of 6,000 miles a
year to hand deliver an average of
800 pieces of mall each day. He
sweltered each summer and
shivered each winter and was only
nailed once by a dog while executing
the swift completion of his ap
pointed rounds.
"When I went to carrying the
mall,” Wright said, "we delivered
by name. Back then I knew Just
about everybody In town. Now we
deliver mall by address. You lose
personal contact that way.”
Also when Wright "went to
carrying mall” there were only two
city routes and all mall and parcels
were delivered on foot. A
"mailman” also made deliveries
each day. Each carrier had to
deliver more mall than he could
carry at one time, so they ran what
they called relays "by strapping out
the deliveries.”
"That means the Parcel Post man
would leave parcels of mall at
various points along the route,”
Wright said. "The mailman would
fill his bag at the post office, start
walking and delivering until he ran
out. By that time he should be at the
point where the first parcel was
strapped out. And so on and so on,
until It was all delivered.
"Parcel Post Is no more,” he
continued. "Now we do what Is
called park and loop. The letter
carriers load their vehicles, drive to
different points park and start
walking to deliver the mall, working
(Please turn to page 4)