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Christmas love shown
year round
at Byers'
Brother, sister battling Batten's disease
The love in the home of
Patricia and Billy Byers is spe-
cial.
Billy Jr., 11, and Tab, 7, are
battling Batten's disease, a rare -
genetic disease which deterio-
rates the brain and nervous sys-
tem.
Last October doctors told the
family that Billy would not
come home for Christmas.
"I told Billy to hang in there
because I felt like God wasn't
ready for this kid yet and we
have him home for Christmas
this year and that's special, said
Billy Sr. who says that the love
for their children keep their
spirits high.
The musical Christmas tree is
up at the Byers home in the
Bethlehem Community and
decorated packages underneath
the tree are all for the children
from caring friends.
But Tabitha and Billy, al-
though dressed in holiday
clothes and cared for tenderly
by their parents, can't appreci-
ate the Christmas scene. Her
parents fear Tabitha has lost her
sight.
Tab has grown out of her
wheelchair and her parents
asked Santa Claus for a bigger
one but it will take months to fit
the wheelchair to the child who
has grown into a size 14 shirt.
Billy Jr. has also grown into a
size 16-18 shirt and is now us-
ing his sister's wheelchair. The
beds for the children are in the
family room where their mother
cares for them around the clock
with the assistance of Pediatric
Services of America and
Cleveland Home Health nurses.
"Last year we put up a
Christmas tree in the fall and
again at Christmas because
Billy was in the hospital and we
feared he would not make it
home but he came home and
we put up the tree again on
Christmas," said Byers Sr.
"Our kids used to run, walk,
play and talk and now they de-
pend on us to do everything but
we will always be here for
them," said the father who said
the family can't say enough
about the generosity of friends
who provided a van. for trans-
portation for the children to the
hospitals.
Because the people of
Cleveland County gave more
than the family needed to pur-
chase the specially equipped
van for their kids, Billy and
Patricia Byers passed the bless-
See Byers, 9-A
Life is best gift of all
A woman who was given a
lung and heart last year by an
unnamed donor is enjoying the
best Christmas of her life this
year.
Pam Lamb, who shared her
story with Kings Mountain
Rotarians Thursday, said she
will never know the name of
the person who was the donor
for her successful bilateral lung
and heart surgery in 1995.
Lewis was in Kings Mountain
with Cozzie Watkins of
LifeShare of the Carolinas to
talk about how people can at
death be organ and tissue
donors and to present a special
award to Kings Mountain
Hospital and administrator
Hank Neal for establishing the
first garden in this area for
LifeShares, an organ procure-
ment agency.
Watkins said the national
waiting list for people needing
organ transplants is rapidly ap-
proaching 50,000 with a new
name added to the list every 18
minutes. The waiting list has
more than doubled in the last
five years and last year more
than 103 people in North
Carolina died as a result of the
See Life, 9-A
Kings Mountain gets
With few exceptions, Kings
Mountain area citizens were
readying for Christmas this
week.
The shopping districts were
packed with last-minute shop-
pers looking for the perfect gift,
the traffic was a problem for
some trying to do two things at
a time and in a hurry, and po-
lice were busy standing by at
several wrecks.
UP A TRE
Thornburg
red bows for a festive look and atta
Most Kings Mountain indus-
try had closed on Friday for the
holidays. Schools are out. City
Hall offices will be closed
Christmas Eve and Christmas
Day and emergencies will be
routed through the Police
Department and 911.
The underprivileged will
have a merrier holiday due to
the generosity of clubs, church-
es and individuals. The Kings
HOME FOR CHRISTMAS - Billy and Tabitha Byers are sur-
rounded by love even though due to illness they can't enjoy the
decorated Chrisimas-season festivilies.
AWARD FROM LIFESHARE - Cozzie Watkins, left, coordinator
of LifeShare of the Carolinas, presents a plaque to Kings
Mountain Hospital Administrator Hank Neal as Rev. Chip Sloan,
Rotary Club President, left standing, and Pam Lamb, donor re-
cipient, and Christy Mokey, UNCC intern, far right, look on.
ready for Christmas
Mountain Crisis Center, its
food bank and clothing closet
have been busy places at this
season of the year.
American Legion Post 155
treated 100 families to turkey
and hams with all the trim-
mings through gift tickets to
needy families through the
Crisis Ministry. The -American
Legion Auxiliary treated veter-
ans at White Oak Manor. The
Kings Mountain Lions Club, as
is their tradition, gave baskets
to the blind and White Plains
Shrine Club treated crippled
children. Churches in the
Greater Kings Mountain area
helped needy families during
the holidays.
Christmas Day will be a holi-
day for business and for most
Kings Mountain citizens.
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Planning Director says
ordinance misinterpreted
by some KM citizens
The city's vice-chairman of
the Planning & Zoning Board,
Jim Belt, says the city isn't sig-
naling out Ingles Supermarkets
in the recently adopted zoning
ordinance which spells out
new parking lot landscaping
which some residents have la-
beled as too stringent.
But Planning Director Steve
Killian said the confusion has
arisen because of erroneous in-
terpretation of the ordinance it-
self.
The public outcry came
from residents supporting a
new supermarket on Oak Grove
and Scism Road after a real es-
tate agent for Ingles presented a
site plan showing trees all
around the property and
protesting that the city wanted
a tree for every six parking
spaces or placement of a tree at
every sixth parking place.
Charles Murdock presented
an amendment which Council
ignored and which went unex-
plained at the Council meeting.
The ordinance, according to a
copy at The Herald and accord-
ing to interpretation by Killian,
city staffer Jeff Putnam and
members of the Planning board
which will ultimately look at
the site plan when Ingles takes
it to them, specifies landscap-
ing with canopy trees at a rate
of one for each 12 spaces.
"This does not mean a tree at
the end of every six parking
places,” said Killian. "Parking
spaces have to be within 60 feet
of one of those trees and Ingles
would need to put no more
than 20 in the parking lot and
they could be directed toward
the middle part of the parking
lot or at the end or middle aisles
just so they are dispersed with-
in the parking area per their de-
sign."
For 350 parking spaces,
Ingles would need to place only
about 50 trees somewhere in the
landscape scheme, according to
Killian. A site analysis by
Putnam shows 18 canopy trees
within the parking lot area of
344 spaces on a 6.2 acre lot and
32 canopy trees on the premis-
es, near the parking lot area.
The new building is expected
to be 55,485 square feet on a
19.11 acre site which includes
an outlot area of 2.87 acres.
Killian said trees are used for
good esthetic and environmen-
tal conditions and pointed out
that a good example of the use
See Ordinance, 7-A
Christmas Eve worship
services at KM churches
Christmas Eve worship ser-
vices at five Kings Mountain
churches will highlight the
Christian celebration of
Christmas.
Saint Matthew's and
Resurrection Lutheran
Churches plan 11 p.m. candle-
light communion services. First
Presbyterian Church will hold
the traditional communion ser-
vice at 9 p.m., Boyce Memorial
ARP Church will hold a candle-
light service at 7 p.m. and
Central United Methodist
Church will hold a candlelight
communion service at 7:30 p.m.
In addition, a 4 p.m. chil-
dren's service is planned at 4
p.m. on Tuesday at
Resurrection Church for congre-
gations of both St. Matthew's
and Resurrection.
Donald Deal will direct the
choirs and Mrs. Deal will play
the organ for the special music
by the choirs at Resurrection
Church in Crescent Hill. Rev.
Paul Abbe will lead the service.
The sanctuary will be decorated
with two Chrismon trees and
garlands and candles in the
Kings Mountain People
1 poinsettias will
e nave and white
At St. Matthew's Lutheran
Church Rev. James Dougherty
will lead the service which will
include special music under the
direction of Margaret McGinnis
and Virginia Hinnant. Two gold
Chrismon trees will decorate
the sanctuary along with can-
dles and white poinsettias.
Rev. Dick Newsome will lead
the service at First Presbyterian
Church where special music
will be sung by the choir under
the direction of Shirley Austin.
Chrismon trees and pink poin-
settias decorate the altar.
Red poinsettias and two
lighted Chrismon trees decorate
the altar of Central United
Methodist Church where Rev.
Harold Schwantes will lead the
candlelight communion service.
The lobby of the church is deco-
rated with a tree-shaped ar-
rangement of red poinsettias.
Rev. Doug Petersen will lead
the worship service at Boyce
See Church, 9-A
E - At a house with a big dog you wouldn't think there would be a cat around. Monty
dressed up his lawn on North Goforth Street with real-like cats which he decorated with
ched them on a tree in his front yard.
Compact Community resi-
dent Marvita Spann, 74 on Dec.
5, encourages her young
friends to be an inspiration to
the elderly.
Spann is a good example her-
self. She went back to school in
1994 when she moved home
from New York and expects to
graduate from Cleveland
Community College with her
high school diploma in 1997.
Marvita says she's proud to
be making good progress in
reading, writing and arithmetic.
Her favorite subject is English.
After school Marvita visits
residents of White Oak Manor
and volunteers in her church,
Shiloh AME Zion, in Grover as
a class leader. She sings in the
church choir and hopes to help
reactivate a church senior citi-
zens group after Christmas.
Folks. who went to the
Marvita Spann is an inspiration
Cleveland County Fair proba-
bly saw some of Marvita's prize
winning arts and crafts. She
makes crosses out of beads and
beautiful potholders and usual-
ly takes home first and second
prizes for her creativity.
Born on a farm in Grover,
Marvita finished the sixth grade
at Compact School before the
family moved to Washington,
DC and from there in 1946 to
New York City. Her schooling
was limited to a literacy volun-
teer class. For 40 years she
packed cookies and taught oth-
er girls how to pack cookies for
Sunshine Biscuit Company.
"I never forgot about my
roots,” said Marvita, daughter
of the late Lizzie and Jordan
Mitchem and one of 14 chil-
dren. Her only surviving sister
See Spann, 9-A
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