Angela
Strickland
Auction Saturday at KMHS
Herald to publish
| day early Hl
Next week
Paige Brown
KMHS Carrousel
Princess
\
VOL. 108 NO. 46
its
A FE SRS
By ELIZABETH STEWART
Of The Herald Staff
Kings Mountain Hospital Administrator Huitt
Reep says a report released Tuesday by the N. C.
Center for Public Policy Research "unjustifiably sin-
gles out rural hospitals."
“I certainly don't subscribe to their report and I
hope that Kings Mountain citizens won't be alarmed
by their opinion of what is at risk or moderately at
risk hospitals."
The research team of graduate students identified
CE KY CARR en SE TTR f >
2
; Thopedeg] November 21, 1001
eight hospitals, including Kings Mountain Hospital,
as "moderately at risk," and eight rural hospitals, in-
cluding Crawley Memorial at Boiling Springs, as
"substantially at risk."
"Rural hospitals are not getting enough patients,
enough local support, or enough income to be strong,
secure providers of health care in rural areas,”
Jack Betts, editor of the Center's quarterly magazine,
North Carolina Insight. "While our research data
says
does not predict the ‘at risk' hospitals will close, it is
clear that these hospitals may need to re-¢valuate
their mission, services and financial conditions if
they are to continue as vital links in the health care
chain in rural areas."
Performed in conjunction with the Rural Health
Research at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, the research was featured in one of the
articles in a theme issue of Insight on rural health
care in North Carolina. It also was featured as part of
an hour long documentary on rural health, entitled,
"Prescription for Change," aired statewide Tuesday
AVES
Rings Woyntain, N. NE. 25036 B5¢
joint production for the two centers since 1987.
The N. C. Center examined five key areas of rural
hospital utilization for the article and for the docu-
night on North Carolina Public Television, a seventh
By ELIZABETH STEWART
Of The Herald Staff
Every day is Thanksgiving at the
home of Rick and Ann Bennett
since Alex, 6, a bundle of energy
and "all boy" became their son, the
joy of their lives. ;
Alex was adopted when he was
4 1/2 months old. Rick and Ann
won't ever forget that first
Thanksgiving together nearly sev-
en years ago. They had waited 14
years after applying first with
Children's Home Society and
turned down because they were too
young. Then they applied with the
Cleveland County Social Services
Department and four years ago
they got their first glimpse of a
He's all boy?
Adopted son Bennetts’ best blessing
healthy 15 pound boy they named
Alex Maxwell, who soon became
the apple of his doting grandfather
Alex Owens’ eye.
When Alex started asking ques-
tions when he started kindergarten
the parents sat down with him and
explained that his biological moth-
er loved him so much that she gave
him up so that he would have the
very best life and so he came to be
their son. "My other mom just
couldn't handle me," said Alex,
laughing and climbing up on his
mother's lap,
Both now 42 and married 20
years, Ann and Rick Bennett call
See Bennett, 3A au
BENNETT
Residents oppose Aine "closing
Oak Grove resident Tom Brooks
says his neighborhood will fight
the closing of the Stony
Point/Mary's Grove Church Road
unmanned trash container site.
Monday, after a petition with
over 1300 names was presented to
county commissioners, Brooks said
the group faces "a tough battle" but
they won't stop.
"I don't think they realized when
they closed the trash site October
28 how many people live here and
Dr. Kenneth Harwood McGill,
65, former Kings Mountain medi-
“cal doctor and medical missionary,
died of cancer November 18,1991
in Piedmont Hospinl in Atlanta,
Ga.
McGill had setved for 24 years
in Zaire and Malawi, Africa, under
the Presbyterian Church U. S. A.
Board of Missions, He retired at
age 65, PCUSA's retirement age
for medical missionaries, and re-
turned to Bent Tree, Ga. on August
12. Cancer was diagnosed at
Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta.
Christmas parade set
The annual Kings Mountain
Christmas parade will be held Sun.,
Dec. 8 at 2:30 p.m. in the down-
town area.
This year's grand marshal will be
Mike McKay of WBTV.
Any groups, organizations, or
persons who would like to enter
the parade may go by the
Community Center and fill out an
application or call 734-0449 and
request an application by mail.
Deadline for entering is December
2. There is no fee.
Tree lighting set
The city of Kings Mountain and
Mauncy Memorial Library will
host the second annual Christmas
tree lighting ceremony December 3
at 7 p.m. at the library.
The program will include sca-
sonal music by Foursquare Gospel
Church Choir, thc Swinging
Mountaineers, Kings Mountain
Baptist Church Choir, and an audi-
ence sing along.
The Christmas tree will be light-
ed and Santa Claus will make an
appearance. Friends of the Library
will provide refreshments.
use that site,” he said.
Brooks and former House Rep.
John Weatherly presented the peti-
tion through Shelby attorney Tom
Martin Monday morning during a
meeting of commissioners who
asked the county's Solid Waste
Advisory Board to review it.
Brooks says the nearest dump
sites are not close enough to the
homes of residents in the area. The
county landfill is about 8 milas
away and the new manned site én
He came to Kings Mountain in
1954 to join his brother, Dr. John
C. McGill, in family practice in of-
fices at that time over Kings
Mountain Drug Store. The brothers
opened McGill Clinic on Watterson
Street in 1561. Altogether, Kenneth
McGill was in Kings Mountain for
10 years. After several years on the
mission field, he returned to Kings
Mountain in 1979 and spent one
year as a surgeon at Kings
Mountain Hospital and then went
back on the mission field. :
A native of Clover, S.C, he was
Kings Mountain is nine miles
away, he said.
Brooks said he is concerned that
illegal dumping may result by peo-
ple who don't want to drive the dis-
tance to manned sites. "We find
ourselves paying more taxes for
less service. We realize the cost of
another manned site but we want
our area to be upgraded or next on
the list."
At the meeting Martin urged
the commissioners to take a serious
Dr. Kenneth McGill dies
son of the late Dr. Waldo Knox
McGill and Mrs. Elsie Sullivan
McGill. He was educated at
Erskine College in Due West, S.C.,
Vanderbilt Medical School in
Nashville, TN. and completed his
surgical residency at Erlanger
Hospital in Chattanooga, TN. He
served in the U, S. Army from
1944-46.
He was Chief of the Medical
Staff of Kings Mountain Hospital
in 1959 and secretary to the staff in
1956-57. In Kings Mountain the
See McGill, 2-A
look at this problem and recognize
the petition for what it is. "We
would welcome a manned site like
the Margrace site in Kings
Mountain," Brooks said.
The Mary's Grove site has been
open 20 years. Upgrading it would
suit residents, said Brooks, since
country officials say no funds are
available for another manned site.
County officials said they had
See Trash, 3-A
DR. KENNETH H. McGILL
wreck injuri’s
Eddie Herndon calls his parents
"fighters."
The Kings Mountain couple, se-
riously injured last Wednesday
night in a wreck with a logging
truck on U. S. 74 as they were en-
route to David Baptist Church,
were showing some improvement
this week.
Harold Herndon, 72, has been
moved into room 5927 at Carolinas
Medical Center. Recuperating from
a broken neck, he was running
some fever and his son says "he's
not out of the woods yet."
Aileen Herndon, 70, remains in
J critical but stable a in the ,
~ Trauma Unit, also at {Carolinas
Medical Center, where she is to un-
dergo seven-hour facial surgery
this week. Mrs. Herndon remains
on a ventilator but has been able to
write notes to her son, Eddie, and
her daughter, Linda Hammil and
their families waiting with them at
the hospital.
Herndon says the family can't
say enough about the support from
friends in the Kings Mountain area
and from the medical and emergen-
cy staffs that worked with their
parents after the accident occurred
at 6:50 p.m. Wednesday when a
logging truck driven by Timothy
mentary. The Center also looked at the most recent
net income figures publicly available for rural hospi-
tals. The report identified Kings Mountain Hospital
rating abnormal on at least two of the five utilization
criteria. The report identified Crawley Memorial
Hospital rating abnormal on at least three of the five
utilization criteria. The average occupancy rate for
See Hospital, 11-A
Gouple [Jight™=
ONT
Barnes, 28, of 303 Putnam St.,
Shelby, pulled out in front of the
Herndons from a private driveway
near Overcash's Antiques between
Kings Mountain and Shelby,
Trooper J. L. Brower said in the ac-
cident report filed by the N. C.
Highway Patrol. Harold Herndon
was driving his’ 1988 Dodge
Dynasty east on U. S. 74 when his
vehicle was hit by the truck, which
was hauling a load of timber.
"Apparently his vehicle ran under
the trailer and they are lucky to be
alive," said his son.
Both Herndons were wearing
seatbelts!
from the ‘wreckage “with the Jaws
of Life by several rescue squad
teams and airlifted from Cleveland
Memorial Hospital to Charlotte.
The truck driver was not injured.
Eddie Herndon said the family
wanted to thank the Kings
Mountain and Shelby Rescue
Squads, Cleveland Memorial
Hospital, Robert and Beverly
Harry of Kings Mountain, heli-
copter pilot and nurse, and the ICU
Unit at Carolinas Medical Center.
"Mom and Dad have been getting
so many cards and calls from
friends and they will tell you them-
selves they appreciate you."
Thanksgiving service
set at Boyce Memorial
The Kings Mountain Ministerial
Association's Community
Thanksgiving service will be held
Wed., Nov. 27 at 7 p.m. at Boyce
Memorial A.R.P. Church.
The service involves many of
the churches in the Kings
Mountain area. An offering will be
taken for the Kings Mountain
Helping Hands Crisis Ministries.
"This service has traditionally
been a time when churches of all
denominations gather together to
recount their blessing and to offer
thanksgiving to God the Father for
His bountiful care," said Morris
Jordan, Minister of Music at First
Baptist Church.
This year, the Thanksgiving
message will be presented by a
community choir which will sing
the cantata "Give Thanks" by Keith
Ferguson and Ken Barker. This
work involves the choir, soloists,
worship leader and the congrega-
tion in meaningful and joyful
praise and thanksgiving.
The public is invited.
KIRK AND KEITH FALLS
Kings Mountain People
Never a dull moment
for Keith, Kirk Falls
By ELIZABETH STEWART
of The Herald Staff
Keith and Kirk Falls, brothers in
business together all their lives, cn-
joy serving the public.
"It's never dull and no day is cv-
cr the same," says Kirk, 36, whose
domain is Linwood Produce while
his brother, Keith, 31, is chicl chef
in Linwood Restaurant. Both busi-
nesses arc under the same roof on
Bessemer City Road and were
started by their father, the late Paul .
Falls, the store opening in the late
1960's and the restaurant opening
in 1973.
At onc time the Falls family op-
crated Linwood Washerctte nearby
but a big fire five years ago put the
30 washers out of business and
happened one week before the se-
nior Falls dicd on April 1, 1986.
Last year the Falls brothers and
their mother, Jewel Falls, added a
greenhouse which has proved to be
a popular attraction for those with
a green thumb. Pansies, oriental
cabbage, and pumpkins are just a
few of the popular items. In addi-
tion to the basic grocery line,
Linwood Produce probably has the
biggest collection of magazines in
this area, from sports of all kinds to
Farmer's Almanacs including the
Blum's Farmer and Planters
Almanac which farmers in this arca
live by.
Since Keith is an avid American
Legion sports fan and attends most
games, he added baseball maga-
zines to the display racks along
with the 1992 ACC basketball pro
and high school publications.
See Falls, Page 12-A
and had to be extricated