VOL. 97 NUMBER 37
THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 1984
Jan’s Family Reunited After 25 Years
“Still Pinching Myself!
When Melissa Jan Hays
started searching for her roots
last January she had no idea she
would be reunited this August
with her mother, sister, grand-
mother, aunts, an uncle, and a
host of Kings Mountain relatives
she had only dreamed about for
a quarter century.
“I still pinch myself to see that
I'm not dreaming”, said the
27-year-old recent bride as she
sat in the living room of her
aunt’s home in Oak Grove Com-
munity and talked about her
search for her Carpenter kin folk.
Born Charlene Ann
Carpenter, daughter of Winona
REUNITED AFTER 25 YEARS - Two daughters, their mother, and their aunts and uncles were
reunited in Kings Mountain last week after 25 years. Seated: Gary Carpenter, uncle of
Melissa Jan Hays, seated beside him, and Brenda Monty flanked by her sons, Brian and
Jonathan Monty. Back row. Winona White, mother of Jan and Brenda. Mrs. Bertie Stewart
and Mrs. Reba Sims, aunts of Jan and Brenda, and Martha Car
mother.
What's Inside |
Top Angler!
When it comes to cat-
ching bass, not many peo-
ple do it better than Mike
Seawright of Kings Moun-
tain. Seawright won the
point title in the Carolinas
Division of the Red Man
Tournament Trail this
summer and will be one of
the leading contenders in
the regional tournament
at Eufaula Lake near
Eufaula, Ala., October 5-7.
See page 9A.
Wishbone!
Wishbone was a
familiar character for fans
of the TV program
“Rawhide” of several
years ago. It will also be
familiar for followers of
Kings Mountain High foot-
ball this year. Coach Den-
ny Hicks and his assistants
have switched to «a
wishbone formation and
promise some exciting
moments on the gridiron
this fall. See page 9-A.
Junior Miss!
Kings Mountain's Angel
Allen will relinquish her
title of Cleveland County
Junior Miss Saturday night
at Brown Auditorium in
Shelby. Twenty-four
beauties from Kings Moun-
tain, Crest, Shelby and
Burns High Schools will
compete for Angel's
crown. See page 1-B.
She’s 104!
Mrs. Bertie Oates Patter-
son of Waco will be 104
years old August 29. State
Rep. Jack Hunt, represen-
ting Governor Jim Hunt
and the N.C. Department
of Aging. will honor her at
a celebration August 26 at
Washington Missionary
Baptist Church in Waco.
\ See page 9-B. gy
penter, Brenda's adopted
KINGS MOUNTAIN, NORTH CAROLINA
Bailey Carpenter White, now of
Chicago, Ill, and the late Charlie
P. Carpenter, Jr. of Kings Moun-
tain, she was separated from her
Kings Mountain kinfolk when
she and her younger brother
were adopted by Mr. and Mrs.
Harry O. Hopkins and reared in
Quanah, Texas. Charlene (Jan)
was four at the time.
Wednesday evening she was
met at Douglas Airport in
Charlotte by her Kings Moun-
tain aunts, Bertie Carpenter
Stewart and Reba Carpenter
Sims; her uncle, Gary Carpenter,
of Kings Mountain; her grand-
mother, Sara Grigg; her mother,
Mrs. Winona White; her sister,
Brenda Carpenter Monty and
her two sons, Johnathan and
Brian. Monty, of Plymouth,
N.C, and Brenda’s adopted
mother, Mrs. Martha Carpenter,
who had adopted Brenda and
another sister, Linda
Pendergrass, and reared the two
‘girls in Virginia Beach, Va.
While Melissa Jan and her
brother, Jay Hopkins, were
reared in the small town of
. Quanah, Texas. Another aunt,
Minnie Etta Bennett, of Great
Falls, S.C., joined them during
this weekend.
Melissa Jan’s search would be
complete if she knew the
whereabouts of the fifth child in
the family, Larry Carpenter, a
younger brother whom the fami-
ly lost contact with when he was
Turn To Page 5-A
VOCATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL OFFICERS _ Pictured are new officers of the Vocational
Advisory Council of KM District Schools. From left, Betty R. Gamble, Director; Glee E.
Bridges, chairman: Doyle Campbell, vice chairman and Beth Eubanks, secretary.
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Photo by Gary Stewart
OFF TO SCHOOL - About 4,000 students were off to
school Tuesday morning in Kings Mountain District
Schools, but none were happier than five-year-old Mark
Butler, left, who is escorted to his kindergarten class at
West Elementary School by his mother, Donna Butler.
Subscription Drive
To End On Friday
The Herald’s annual summer subscription drive will come to
an end Friday.
All youngsters who have been selling subscriptions to the
Herald or any of its sister newspapers are asked to turn in their
subscriptions and money by 4 p.m. Friday.
All persons who subscribed to the paper through this cam-
paign will begin receiving their papers within three weeks.
Paving of King Street is ex-
pected to begin the first of the
week with a target date for com-
pletion September 1, barring
rainy weather.
Walter Manley, Resident
Engineer, of the State Depart-
ment of Transportation, Shelby,
said that as quickly as city crews
can complete patchup work on
King Street that the state crews
will be in the city to start the
resurfacing of 1.98 miles of the
major thoroughfare through the
city-King Street and 74 business.
Kings Mountain Mayor John
Henry Moss said that city of
Kings Mountain crews will be
finished patching on Friday.
City crews started work on the
mammoth project July 2 and
state crews started a recycling of
old asphalt on July 11.
“I realize that Kings Moun-
auney
tain citizans and other motorists
have been inconvenienced but
everyone is really going to ap-
preciate this highway when it’s
finished. It’s going to be a
beautiful road”, said Manley,
who resides on Route 2, Kings
Mountain.
The state is spending
$180,000 plus to resurface King
Street and cost to the city is
estimated at $40,000.
“We appreciate the coopera-
tion of Kings Mountain citizans
and other motorists who travel
this road and are looking for-
ward to the completion of this
project. If the rains do not pro-
hibit crews from working there
should be no problem in meeting
the timetable for completion”,
said Mayor Moss.
New Program Meets Needs Of Dropouts
Implementation of a program
that will lower the drop-out rate
and meet the needs of potential
high school drop-outs is one of
the goals of the Vocational
Education program of the KM
District Schools for the 1984-85
school year.
Mrs. Betty R. Gamble, Direc-
tor, listed some of the goals as
members of the Vocational Ad-
visory Council met Monday to
kick off a program for the new
year and to welcome new
members.
The new members are Violet
Dixon of the Employment
Security Commission, Mary Ed-
wards of the KM Housing
Authority, Mayor John Henry
KM Rescue To Get
Fourth Paid Employee
Cleveland County Board of
Commissioners Monday okayed
an additional full time paid
employee for the Kings Moun-
tain Rescue Squad after a second
appeal by the squad.
According to Charles Martin,
the new captain, the squad has
difficulty in staffing ambulances
during the day and the need has
been critical. Martin said all but
two of the squad’s volunteers
work during the day and those
two work at night and sleep dur-
ing the day. The three paid
employees for the squad are in-
sufficient. In a letter to the com-
missioners, Martin said, “When
the two of the three paid men are
on a trip, often out of town, the
third man has difficulty finding
someone to go on call with him.
If the call is not an emergency,
the time involved is in finding so-
meone is not as important;
however, when the call is for a
possible heart attack or other
such emergency, the time involv-
ed coulc mean someone’s life.”
“In the past two months there
have been 15 calls during the
day when we had to call in
another squad because two of
the paid men were on calls out of
town. It is not unusual for two
men and an ambulance to be tied
Turn To Page 2-A
Moss, John Houze, of the
Grover Post Office, Pete Stamey
of Cleveland Technical College
and Lib Stewart of the Kings
Mountain Herald.
Other members include Chair-
man Glee E. Bridges of Bridges
Hardware, Vice Chairman
Doyle Campbell of McGinnis
Department Store and a school
trustee, Beth Eubanks, secretary
and assistant to Vocational
Director Betty Gamble, and
Adelaide Allison of KM High
School, Larry Hamrick, Jr., of
Hamrick Insurance, Bobby
Horn of Smoky Gap Homes,
Flossie Johnson, Sue Jean Led-
ford of Home Federal Savings &
Loan, Ervin Lineberger and Sam
Wheeler of Eaton Corporation.
Stressing other goals for the
program, Mrs. Gamble said that
students will be given a chance
to become more involved in
vocational student organizations
on campus and the vocational
program will be expanded to
Turn To Page 2-A
contest.
Get Your Ad
On Grid Contest
The high school and college football season is just
around the corner and the Herald is preparing for its
annual Pick the Winners football contest.
Each week during the 10-week high school
regular season, the Herald will give away $100 to
the person who predicts the most winners in the
The advertising department is currently selling
ads for the promotion, and because of the populari-
ty of the contest, they’re expected to go quickly.
If you want to go ahead and get your name on
the list of advertisers, call the Herald’s advertising
department at 739-7496.
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