t
Moss Re-electecLf Runoffs Possible All Districts
John Henry Moss begins his sixth
consecutive term as mayor on Dec. 8
following his landslide victory over three
opponents in Tuesday’s municipal elec
tions.
Not a single candidate of the 34 vieing
for six seats on the city board of com
missioners obtained a clear majority in
Tuesday’s liennial election.
Second high vote-getters in each of the
six districts have until Monday at noon
options to call a run-off, Luther Bennett,
chairman of the board of elections, said
this morning at 2 a. m. as West Kings
Mountain officials completed tallying of
the votes.
in West KM (National Guard Armory).
Local observers say this is the largest
voter turnout in recent history in Kings
Mountain.
Mayoral candidate A1 Franklin
Brackett garnered a total of 69 votes (10
in EKM and 59 in WKM), Thomas
Dellinger’s total was 209 (62 in EKM and
147 in WKM), and Gilbert (Pee Wee)
Hamrick’s total was 98 (33 in EKM and 65
in WKM).
Mayor Moss will be sworn in to begin
his sixth consecutive term as mayor, and
his first four year term under the new
staggered term system begun with Tues
day’s election, on Dec. 8, 1975.
James Childers, who garnered 838
votes in District 11 where Incumbent Ray
Cline was high with 914, said this morn
ing he would definitely call for a run-off.
Chairman Bennett said run-off
notification must be made with Elections
Board Secretary Betty Mercier by noon
on Monday following the canvass of the
votes this Ihursday.
In Ward 11, political newcomer Humes
Houston was high with 777 votes and W.
S. Biddix, a former commissioner was
second highest vote getter. Incumbent
Lloyd Davis was defeated in his bid for
re-election as were three challengers.
Incumbent Corbet Nicholson in District
Three was high vote-getter with 1,059 and
Jim Guyton was second with 299.
■ (Please Turn To Page 7A)
mayor JOHN H. MOSS
Begins Sixth Term
The unofficial number of ballots cast in
Tuesday’s election was 2,341, as tabulat
ed from votes cast in the four-way
mayoral race.
Mayor Moss garnered a total of 1,%5 in
the two polling places; 884 in East Kings
Mountain (community center) and 1,061
MIRROR'HEB&LD
15
VOL. 86 NO. 40
~i leveland (.outilvs Mnlprii .\ensupt‘kly
KINGS MOUNTAIN, NORTH CAROLINA 28086 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8,1975
T/iis Is America At Its Best.
Praises From Rockefeller
By TOM McEVTYRE
Editor, Mirror-Herald
RAY CLINE
District One High Man
HUMES HOUSTON
District two High Man
“This is America at its best ri^t here
in this stadium!”
The speaker was Vice President Nel
son Rockefeller and he said it as he gazed
over about 10,000 faces at Gamble
Stadium Tuesday.
The Vice President helicoptered to
Kings Mountain about 12:10 p. m. Tues
day, shook hundreds of hands, then deliv
ered the principal address commemorat
ing the 195th anniversary of the Battle of
Kings Mountain.
“The President sends you his best
wishes and he is sincerely disappointed
he could not be here personally,” the
Vice President said. “. . . he’s asked me
to express his warmest congratulations
on this imaginative and exciting ap
proach to the Bicentennial. I absolutely
agree with that opinion.”
Mr. Rockefeller spoke of “those 900
men” who left their homes and marched
to meet the British at Kings Mountain.
He reminded that these Americans “had
no orders from the Continental Congress,
they had no Army doctor ... no uniforms
... no paymaster... no pay.
“Their Col. Shelby commanded them
to “shoot like hell and fight like devils.”
That’s what they did. And because they
, did, the well-trained, well fed, well ar-
med Redcoats were defeated,” Mr.
Rockefeller continued.
^ He asked how any of us could
remember these events “without bur
sting with pride at being Americans . . .
We are the luckiest people on earth.”
Photo By Butch Vess
CORBET NICHOLSON
District Three High Man
NORMAN KING
(Please Turn To Page 2A)
We are the luckiest people on earth ’ -Mr. Rockefeller
District Four High Man
‘Fll Tell President He Missed A Lot
By EUZABETH STEWART
Mirror-Herald Staff Reporter
JIM AMOS
District Five High Man
JIM DICKEY
District Six High Man
When Vice President Nelson Rocke
feller climbed aboard that olive drab
helicopter and disa{geared over the tree-
tops he took with him a 200-hundred year
old powder horn, a Bible almost that old,
a gold commemorative coin of the Kings
Mountain Bicentennial celebrkion and a
commemorative coin from the State of
North Carolina.
The Vice President also carried with
him a message for President Gerald
Ford, that he should have made the trip.
“. ... I’ll give the President a full re
port tomorrow,” Mr. Rockefeller told an
estimated 8,000 to 10,000 people at
Gamble Stadium Tuesday. “I’ll tell him
what he’s missed. And that’s a lot.”
Vice President Rockefeller’s arrival at
Gamble Stadium was like a small scale
invasion. Three helicopters, one a large
troop or cargo transport, roared over the
trees and set down on the high school
practice fidd. A fourth chopper com
pletely circled the stadium before
touching down. The Vice President was
aboard this copter. He came off waving
his hands above his head and even before
he was inside the stadium began re
ceiving applause from the crowd.
Entering the stadium, following a brief
meeting with Mayor John H. Moss, Gov.
James Holshouser and Congressman
James Broyhill, the Vice President
smiled and waded into the crowd, mostly
young people, lining the steps behind the
rope barrier. He slowly worked his way
down the line, passing the press section
and moving on pass the VIP section,
stopping almost half way around the
track encircling the football field. At that
point he crossed the track and began
shaking hands and speaking with hun
dreds of students who rushed down the
hill beside the stadium stands to meet the
Vice President.
He slbwly worked his way to the speak
ers platform where Gov. Holshouser,
Mayor Moss, Congressmen Broyhill and
Jim Martin and a large and impressive
list of dignitaries stood waiting. During
Mr. Rockefeller’s “press the flesh” tour
of the crowd the Kings Mountain Senior
High Band played one of the Vice
President’s favorite tunes — ‘“Sweet
Georgia Brown.”
After Mr. Rockefeller had taken his
place on the platform the approximately
50-unit parade, which had been idling off
to the side of the platform, passed in re
view. For almost an hour the colorful
parade passed the speaker’s stand and
circled past the grandstand before
breaking off and filling out the audience
for the speeches that come later.
The Vice President’s helicopter
arrived about 12:10 p. m., as planned,
and a few minutes prior to that the first
half a dozen dignitary vehicles from the
downtown parade pulled into the
stadium. Mayor Moss, Gov. Holshouser,
State Senators Ollie Harris and W. K.
Mauney, Jr., and Cleveland County
Commissioners piled out of their cars.
Gov. Holshouser and Mayor Moss then
went to the practice field to await Mr.
Rockefeller while the other dignitaries
took their places on the speaker’s plat
form.
Officers from the Winston-Salem Traf
fic Enforcement Division (on motor
cycles) served as police escort for the
dignitaries. Lt. R. E. Peddycord of the W-
S Police Department commented,
“There was a large crowd within the
business district to review the parade “to
a reporter’s question, then he and the li
others from his department took up their
positions in front of the press section.
Another officer said the 12 officers rode
their motorcycles all the way from
(Please Turn To Page 2A)
Woo Strong,
(Mers Join Hands
f’OOO persons took a few min-
1, „ , church Sunday to join hands and
huple of songs.
L-l 30 expression of peace and
about 3,{X)0 brothers and
L u to complete the “Hands Across
ainnumerous area churches, civic
4,000 persons needed to complete a chain from
city limits to city limits — east and west —
were not present.
organizaticais for a couple of
tSithe
was planned for last Sunday
tcorji , Communion Sunday,
j ^fothe Rev. Glenn Boland, pastor
Lutheran Church, the project
The program was scheduled for 12:30 p. m.
Sunday and all who planned to participate
were asked to go to King St., to the point on the
southside of the street nearest the individuals
starting point and join hands with whoever was
there.
According to Walter Vess, a photographer
who
Ly the Kings Mountain Minis-
as a Bicentennial program,
r said he felt the project was still a
® thou^ the estimated 3,500 to
‘shot” the event for The Mirror-Herald,
“tlie largest number of people were gathered
from the eastside of the city and stretched west
across the bridge. I don’t know how far west
the line reached I did noticethere were gaps in
the line, but no one seemed to mind.”
WHO’S MISSING? — Sunday following church services
about 1,000 Kings Moiuitians gathered along the southside of
King St. to join hands and sing a couple of songs in the name of
peace and brotherhood. Here we see citizens of ail ages who
completed the link that stretched across the bridge over the
Southern railroad tracks.