KINGS MOUNTAIN
Inside...
The Hera: ©
Thursday, May 12 2005 Vol. 117 No. 18 Since 1889
1B
50 Cents
Traffic stop results in drug bust
Anthony Hillman faces | e EET
cocaine, marijuana charge
BY ANDIE L. BRYMER
Staff Writer
KM Hall
of Fame
banquet
Saturday
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
A routine traffic stop by Kings Mountain Police Officer
T.S. Harrelson turned into a felony drug arrest Saturday
afternoon.
Harrelson stopped Anthony Obian “Bubba” Hillman,
23, of 408 West Graham Street, Shelby on N.C. 74 at the
Oak Grove Road exit.
Hillman was charged with felony possession, buy and
sale of 4,480 grams of marijuana and 16.39 grams of
crack cocaine. The street value of the drugs has not yet
been determined.
Hillman also was charged with possession of drug
paraphernalia, a seat belt violation and unsafe move-
ment. Police confiscated approximately $4,500 in cash.
Hillman was jailed under $50,000 secured bond at the
The 18th annual Kings Mountain
Sports Hall of Fame dinner and induc-
tion ceremony will be held Saturday,
May 14 at Kings Mountain High
School.
The meal begins at 6 p.m. in the cafe-
Cleveland County Law Enforcement Center. The case is
still under investigation and other charges may be pend-
ing depending on the outcome, according to Sgt. Lisa
Proctor.
BY ANDIE L. BRYMER
Staff Writer
Joe Hedden, who literally sur-
vived a sinking ship during the
allied invasion of Normandy; is
among soldiers interviewed by
History Channel producers for a
documentary.
At press time the documentary
was scheduled to air Tuesday.
Hedden has worked with pro-
ducers for over a year.
Stationed aboard the USS
Meredith, Hedden was decipher-
ing codes at 1 a.m. when a
German glide bomb hit the mid-
dle of the ship. The blast knocked
out the fire, boiler and engine
rooms.
“You could have driven a trac-
tor trailer through the hole,”
Hedden said.
The evening of the blast
Hedden'’s friend James Wagner
was in the code room helping
him decipher messages for the
British. An engineer, Wagner
enjoyed figuring out the codes.
Just before 1 a.m. Wagner left
the room, headed for his bunk.
He never made it. The blast hit
the area of the ship Wagner was
walking through.
A few hours later the captain
ordered the men to abandon
ship. The USS Meredith was
towed closer to the coast of
France so it would not be a haz-
ard to other boats. After sunrise
Hedden and several other men
reboarded. As a communications
officer his job was to destroy all
classified documents, keeping
vital information out of German
hands.
Hedden filled more than 12
lead-bottomed bags with sensi-
tive information and tossed it all
overboard. He added more metal
to insure it sunk. Hedden had to
smash with a fire axe small
equipment including radar and
radios.
Hedden still has a small, black
and white photo of himself and
other sailors in Scotland. He is
wearing his cap, the only part of
his uniform he could salvage off
of the ship.
Years later he would wear it
when he directed Kings
Mountain High School's march-
ing band. His wife Francis was
able to make Hedden a band uni-
form from another Navy uni-
form.
Hedden credits his Navy
buddy Newt Marler for his mar-
riage to Francis. Hedden says
Marler diagnosed him as “love
sick” and covered for him while
he left Baltimore for Boston to
marry Francis.
“Even with permission you
weren't suppose to go more than
50 miles away.”
The two had met earlier when
Hedden was a student at Western
Carolina University. As a member
of the Kings Mountain High
School marching band, Francis
visited the campus for a music
competition
“She had the prettiest red hair
you've ever seen.”
Hedden was impressed with
both the young musician and
* band director Paul Hendricks.
Years later he would have a
chance to do Hendricks’ job at
KMHS.
“I wanted to be Paul
Hendricks.”
Hedden took all the music
See Hedden, 3A
Kings Mountain Police Sgt. Lisa Proctor counts cash confiscated in a felony
drug arrest Saturday. To her right is Officer T.S. Harrelson who made the traf-
fic stop which led to the seizure.
Hedden last to leave sinking ship
in D Day invasion of Normandy
ANDIE L. BRYMER/HERALD
Joe Hedden helped with a History Channel documentary on the
sinking of his ship, the USS Meredith, during the invasion of
Normandy.
Gaston residents of the City of Kings Mountain
concerned with delay of 911 ambulance service
BY ANDIE L. BRYMER
Staff Writer
Could a county line make a
difference in receiving life saving
care? Naomi Curry fears it might
have Saturday.
Curry’s husband, Charles
Curry, was at a Mother’s Day
gathering at his parents’ 121
Lewis Curry Road residence
when Robert Gene Jeffries
became ill. An ambulance was
delayed in answering calls for
assistance. Jeffries died the next
day.
“This is not acceptable to us,”
Naomi Curry said.
Jeffries died from lack of oxy-
gen to the brain, according to
“Curry. She said a guest who is'a
Kings Mountain Police Officer
performed CPR and called for an
on-duty officer to bring a defib-
rillator. That response time was
4
“This is not acceptable to us.”
Naomi Curry
Gaston County resident of City of Kings Mountain
five or less minutes.
The Gaston EMS paramedic
unit which responded from
Bessemer City got lost in route,
according to GEMS Director
Mark Lamphiear. GEMS’ ambu-
lances use a computerized map-
ping system which shows where
the unit is at and where the call
comes from: A route is mapped
but the computer does not
include the portion of Cleveland
County which must be entered to
reach a small section of Gaston
County.
“We are working on that,”
Lamphiear said.
The Currys live in the Gaston
County portion of Kings
Mountain. Their neighborhood
was annexed two or three years
ago, Naomi Curry said. Police
and fire services are sent from the
city and response times are good,
according to Naomi Curry.
However EMS response areas
are determined by county lines,
not city limits.
A GEMS unit was dispatched
at 5:38 p.m. and arrived at 6:09
p-m., according to Lamphiear.
Curry disputes the arrival time
saying that Kings Mountain
Police Department told her they
got a call at 6:18 p.m. asking
where the ambulance was.
A Dallas Rescue Squad unit
which was in the Bessemer City
area heard the call and asked if it
could assist. That unit went in
route at 5:41 p.m. and arrived at
6 p.m. When GEMS arrived,
Dallas EMTs had already placed
Jeffries in their ambulance. A
See 911, 5A
teria. The induction ceremony begins at
7 p.m. in B.N. Barnes Auditorium.
Tickets are $10 each and may be pur-
chased from any member of the Hall of
Fame committee, or at the door.
Three individuals and one team will
be inducted, bringing the total number
of inductees in 18 years to 60 individu-
als and eight teams.
Inductees include former KMHS ath-
letes Paul Brannon and Rusty, :
Bumgardner, retired KMHS football
coach Dennis Hicks, and the state
championship 1989 Mountaineer base-
ball team.
In addition, two men who spent
many years supporting Kings
Mountain youth sports will be award-
ed this year’s Distinguished Service
Awards. They are the late fire chief
Eugene Tignor, who was a longtime
softball player and coach and athletic
officer for American Legion Post 155,
and Donnie Mace, who has been the
volunteer sideline manager for Kings
Mountain High football teams for a
number of years.
Six deserving Kings Mountain High
seniors will receive $500 scholarships.
Brannon, who is now an assistant
principal at a middle school in Guilford
County, was a football and baseball
player at KMHS from 1987-90. He led
the 1989 baseball team to the state
championship. He was a two-time All-
State selection, hit a state record 20
home runs in 1989 and 41 for his three-
year career, and was the 79th draft pick
in the 1990 major league draft.
He will be inducted by his high
school coach, Bruce Clark, who will
also induct the 1989 baseball team
which set a state record for home runs
with 51. Brannon'’s and the team’s
home run marks still stand.
Bumgardner was a baseball and foot-
ball standout at KMHS in the mid-80s
and went on to start for four years as a
lineman at Wake Forest University. He
also played baseball for the Demon
Deacons his senior year. He is now a
professional softball player and holds
the record for the longest ball ever hit
out of the Minnesota Metrodome - 515
feet.
He will be inducted by his brother-
in-law, Mike Mahaffey, who is head
baseball coach at Bessemer City High
School. Bumgardner is an assistant
coach at BCHS.
Hicks served as KMHS football coach
from 1983-1994, the longest tenure of
. See Hall, 5A
Mayfest
Saturday
in Grover
BY ANDIE L. BRYMER
Staff Writer
Grover Mayfest starts Saturday at 10
a.m. The day-long festival happens at
the town park.
There will be antique farm equip-
ment, canine and DARE units from the
Cleveland County Sheriff's Office and
crafts. Church groups and a Grover
“Cleveland County Idol” contestant
will sing. Volunteer baseball and soft-
ball games are slated.
Vendors will sale hot dogs, cakes,
hamburgers and in the morning
sausage biscuits. The Grover Women's
Club, the sponsoring organization, will
sell sno-cones.
See Grover, 2A
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