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NEXT WEEK:
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Find out what has
happened this year in
our schools in . . .
The Kings Mountain
District Schools
Report To The People
— SINCE 1889 —
VOL. 101 NUMBER 25
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 1988
LOEAL
Leroy Mathis
works on airplane
engin
Moun
. Photo by Darrin Griggs
TO TEACH ABROAD - North third grade teacher Connie Phifer
is pictured above in her classroom here. She will teach next
school year in England through the Fulbright Teacher Exchange
Program.
KM’s Phifer To Teach
For Year In England
North Elementary School teacher Connie Phifer will spend the
next school year teaching in Firs Primary School in Salecheshire,
England, as part of the Fulbright Teacher Exchange program.
While Ms. Phifer is teaching in England, her duties here will be
assumed by Barbara Ratchford Turner of England.
Ms. Phifer is one of only 2,000 teachers nationwide participating
in the program. She says she’ll miss her students and co-workers
here but looks forward to the challenge of teaching in England
and also the opportunities for travel.
Ms. Phifer, a Kings Mountain native, has been teaching for 13
years. She is a 1975 graduate of Erskine College and holds a
master’s degree from Appalachian, All 13 years of her caree
he e been spent at North School.
H the ha
years and her ‘mother recently id after 7 years i in public
~ schools.
- eight and nine year olds in England. She will still be paid by the
Kings Mountain District Schools and Ms. Turner will receive her
Saaryt from her system in England.
eir school year begins September 6 and runs through the
middle of next July,” Ms. Phifer noted. “I'll be there the whole
time. Who knows what will happen!”
Ms. Phifer said she will have a two-week break after each
grading period and a long break at Christmas. She hopes to spend
Christmas in Switzerland and plans to go back to the Netherlands
and visit Annie Prinsen, whom she met on a trip there with the
Friendship Force. “I want to spend some time in Germany and
see everything in the United Kingdom except Ireland,” she said.
ive been told by Dr. (Bob) McRae that he doesn’t want me to go
there.”
The school days in England run from 9 a.m. until 3:30, with 11%
hours for lunch, Ms. Phifer said.
Ms. Phifer said she looks upon being selected as a Fulbright
teacher as an honor, since only 4,000 teachers (half from the U.S.)
are accepted.
“The main reason I want to go is for a new challenge,’”’ she
says. ‘I need a change. I want to see what they do differently
from our system and what I could bring back to our system to
help us improve. I have a feeling I'll be more appreciative of what
I have. I will have 24 to 30 kids, no aide, and I will report to school
the same day the students do. It will be different. I hope to come
ois home and give some slide shows and: share what I’ve learn-
Ms. Phifer said teachers participating in the program will get
‘together August 3-4 in Washington for a seminar. She’ll then come
back home briefly before going to England.
“I think Barbara will bring a wealth of knowledge to North
School,” said Ms. Phifer. ‘‘She has a background in drama and
seems to be really interested in education and children. She’s'51
years old and has two grown children. I’ve not met her but I've
talked to her on the phone three times. She sounds delightful. My
only regret is that I'm not really going to get to know her.”
Ms. Turner will live in Ms. Phifer’s apartment during her year
here. Ms. Phifer said she’ll probably share an apartment with
another teacher in England.
Turn To Page 2-A
Ms. Phifer, who teaches third grade here, will be working with
Jackie Lavender Named First
Woman Principal At KM High
BY TODD GOSSETT
The Kings Mountain Board of
Education announced Monday its
selection of two new principals to
fill the posts being vacated at
Kings Mountain Senior High
School and North Elementary
School.
Jacqueline Lavender, an assis-
tant principal high school, was
named that schools new prin-
cipal and Joe Hopper Jr., an
assistant principal at Kings
Utilities
Approved
For Park
Kings Mountain City Council
Tuesday night agreed to provide
utilities for a proposed industrial
park to be located on the present
site of KOA Campgrounds near
I-85 and Highway 161 south, and
to a proposed new business to be
located on Canterbury Road.
The Cleveland Business and
Industiral Park plans to develop
the 22-acre KOA site which will
contain six buildings ranging in
size from 28,000 square feet to
40,000 square feet. All of the
buildings combined would in-
clude about 200,000 square feet.
Construction of the facilities
will cost approximately
$4,200,000 and would provide the
city a minimum yearly revenue
of $240,300 through property
taxes and purchase of electrical,
natural gas and water and sewer
services.
The building projects are
scheduled for completion within
"Turn To Page 3A
BY TODD GOSSETT
The Kings Mountain water sup-
ply is in good shape so far, and
barring an exceptionally dry
summer, there shouldn’t by any
problems later on, said Walter
Ollis, the city’s water and sewer
superintendent.
High temperatures and
minimal rainfall have forced
Mountain Junior High School
was named principal at North
School.
The announcement came after
a mammoth closed-door ex-
ecutive session of the board
lasted nearly four hours.
Mrs. Lavender taught
chemistry and physics at the
high school from 1973-1979. She
has been an assistant principal
there since 1979. Her educational
background includes: a B.A.
degree in biology and chemistry
HOPPER LAVENDER
"NLW SONI
'S 001
LNOWAAId
CHOWAN XANNVH
ON ©
from the Univ¢ ity
Carolina at Greer: bore,
certification from ¢
Webb, an M.A". de
physical sciences ‘rom
College, gifted and tale;
tification from trhe Nortn
Carolina Department of Instruc-
tion, prinicpal’s certification
from Western Carolina Universi-
ty and some additional study at
UNC-G.
Hopper was a classroom
Turn To Page 2-A
three years and would eventually :
3
inte conservation meas
some local towns and cities to
begin voluntary water conserva-
tion. Charlotte last week began
callin on its citizens to conserve
water.
However, the situation in
Kings Mountain is better. The
water department can pump 8
million gallons to the city every
day. And so far, the city has been
able to keep up, Ollis said. ‘“The
JOHN FINGER..THE WALKING MAN
lake has started to drop, but it’s
nothing to get excited about,” he
said.
Another summer like last
year’s, however, could create
problems later in the season, he
said.
The 90 day outlook from the
National Weather Serivce says
that there is a probability of
below average rainfall in the
‘Walking Man’
Photo by Todd Gossett
LAKE LEVEL DOWN SLIGHTLY - The water level at Moss Lake near hi Mountain is down about a
No Water P Folios (Yet) In KM
South Atlantic states during the
summer.
Local farmers are feeling the
effects of the drought, said Steve
Gibson, field crop agent for the
Cleveland County Agriculture
Extension in Shelby. “We're
desperately hoping for enough
rain to do some good,” he said.
‘“There’s still time.”
Turn To Page 2-A
John Finger
Invited To The White House
By TODD GOSSETT
Former Kings Mountain resi-
dent and March of Dimes, ‘“Mr.
Walk America” John Finger has
been in the area recently. He's
visiting his sister in Gastonia and
is preparing to go to Washington,
D.C. to visit the White House at
the invitation of California
Senator Allan Cranston.
While in Washington, Finger
will try to present his Bible to the
Smithsonian Institution -- not an
ordinary Bible, but one filled
with the autographs of more than
1,100 celebrities. Giving the Bible
to the Smithsonian was
Cranston’s idea, Finger said.
“They don’t know about it yet.”
Finger was born in Hartsville,
S.C. in 1916. He and his family
moved to Kings Mountain around
1925 so his father could work in a
cotton mill here.
He attended the West End
School through the fourth grade
and then quit because he knew
more than his teachers, he said.
After working at the Mauney
Cotton Mill for a few years,
Finger moved to High Point to
work in the Depression - era
Civilian Conservation Corps
(CCC) as a ditch digger.
While in High Point, he met his
wife, the former Gertrude
Ashwell and married her in 1937.
He continued living in High
Point after he got out of the CCC
and worked for a local cotton
mill for the next 16 years.
In 1948, Finger made his first
walk for the March of Dimes
--walking from High Point to
Turn To Page 9-A
Every Day Father’s Day For Dub Fulton
MR. AND MRS. DUB FULTON
Sunday will be a special day when children
from all over the world return home to give a gift
to their father and thank him for all the things
he’s done for them.
One of the happiest scenes in this area will like-
ly be at the small farm home of Mr. and Mrs.
G.D. “Dub” Fulton in the Antioch community
near Grover.
The Fultons raised 10 children--eight of whom
are living--and the happiest moments of their 50
years of married life are the times spent with
their children.
The Fultons, who celebrated their 50th wed-
ding anniversary June 11 at the new fellowship
hall of Antioch Baptist Church, worked hard to
make a living, but always found plenty of time to
devote to their family, worshipping and teaching
Sunday School, hosting a popular religious pro-
gram on radio, and being good neighbors to hun-
dreds of friends and relatives in the area.
They paused at their 50th wedding
anniversary--given by their children--to reflect
on some of their periods of joys and heartaches.
‘We were married on June 11, 1938, and at that
time I was making only $13 dollars a week,” Mr.
Fulton noted. “But we planned from the start to
have a large family. The Lord gave us 10
children, born about two years apart.”
The Fultons taught their children to love God
and each other, and their fellow human beings,
and they can look back with joy on 10 children
who grew up to be successful in all of those areas.
“Not one of our 10 children has ever been ar-
rested,”’ recalled Mr. Fulton. ‘Three were cap-
tains of their high school football teams and later
elected to the high school sports ‘Hall of Fame.”
Three won college scholarships...to West Point
Military Academy, Newberry College and Wake
Forest University. One was later an instructor at
West Point. Two were presidents of their high
school student bodies.”
* Where are the children now?
One is assistant manager of a farm and garden
store in Forest City.
One is a supervisor at Vulcan Materials quarry
in Blacksburg, S.C.
One is an executive with United Parcel Service
in Greensboro.
One works in the central post office at Colum-
bia, S.C.
One is an Army Lt. Colonel and vice president
of the ‘‘Star Wars’’ project (SDI) at Huntsville,
Ala.
One is an IHRA champion drag racer and
engine builder in Spartanburg, S.C.
One is a science teacher and football coach at
Blacksburg High School.
One is a hospital lab technician in Mocksville.
One was employed at Timken Bearings in Gaff-
ney, S.C., and died of an auto accident in May of
1978.
One was a senior at Blacksburg High School
when killed in an auto accident in August 1974.
Hokeok
Reflecting on the lives and accomplishments of
their children, the Fultons can look back and call
their decision to have a large family a blessing.
“I think a big family is a blessing and not a
disgrace to our society, schools, churches and the
nation’s defense,” Mr. Fulton said. “We gave
Turn To Page 9-A
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