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Ruth McCree
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Tuesday
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VOLUME 91, NUMBER 65 TUESDA Y, SEPTEMBER 30,1980 KINGS MOUNTAIN, N.C.
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Friday At 11 A.M.
Senator Robert Morgan
To Launch Activities
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OVERMOUNTAIN MARCHERS-ModMn-doty
irontUnmm r««nact«d th« march along tho
Orormountaln Victory Trail whon thoy Mt out
from Abington, Vo. lamt Wodnoaday to signal
tho official start of tho 200th Colobration of
tho Battlo of Kings Mountain. Thoy oro boing
Bloodmobile
Here Friday
Kings Mountain industry will
sponsor a community visit of the
Red Cross Bloodmobile Friday
from noon until 5:30 p.m. at
First Baptist Church .on W. King
St. Goal of the collection is 200
pints of blood.
Mrs. Martha Scruggs, ex
ecutive secretary of the
Oeveland County Red Cross
Chapter, said that a Friday visit
of the blood bank is slated for
Boiling Springs at Gardner-
Webb College where donors will
be processed from 10:30 a.m. un
til 4 p.m. in the Bulldog Room at
Charles I. Dover Center. Donors
are asked to give blood in honor
of cancer patient Laura Mixson,
a Gardner-Webb student.
Mrs. Scruggs said that blood
giving is critical since Cleveland
County was short 190 pints of its
goal in September. She reminded
citizens that blood can only be
donated at regional visits of the
blood collecting unit, and said
that ‘The need is great for blood
now.”
joinod along tho 219-routo to King* Mountain
by othor roonactmont groups roprosonting
North Ccvolina, South Corolina, Tonnossoo.
Goorgio and Virginia and will arrivo crt tho
Military Pork horo noxt Tuosday.
PHOTO BY IIM RYAN
Free Bus Transportation
To Be Provided By KM Park
The National Park Service
will provide free bus transporta
tion into Kings Mountain Na
tional Military Park Ybr the Oct.
7 ceremony commemorating the
200th anniversary of the Battle
of Kings Mountain.
Supt. Andrew M. Loveless
said park roads will be closed at
noon on the day of the com
memorative program scheduled
to begin at 3:30 p.m. at the park
visitor center.
Public parking will be provid
ed at Westmoreland Farm on
S.C. 216 and at Lake Crawford
in Kings Mountain State Park.
Chartered buses will run con
tinuously from the parking areas
to the visitor center. Loveless
said.
“We’re fully prepared to han
dle a big crowd and there should
be no delays getting in and out of
the park,” he said.
Loveless said the Park Service
has called in extra personnel to
help with the event, which will
cap a five-day celebraticai of the
battle’s bicentennial. ^
Secretary of the Ilfterior Cecil
D. Andrus will be the featured
speaker on the afternoon pro
gram. Units reenacting the
march of the Overmountain
Men will arrive in the piark just
prior to the start of the
ceremony.
Other participants will include
U.S. Senators and Congressmen,
state governors or their represen
tatives, a representative of the
British government, Chris T.
Delaporte, Director of the
Heritage Conservation and
Recreation Service, Roy Wood,
Special Assistant to the
Secretary of Interior for the
Southeast Region, and Joe
Brown, Southeast Regional
Director, National Park Service.
Former South Carolina State
Senator P. Bradley Morrah Jr.
will be master of ceremonies.
U. S. Senator Robert Morgan
(D-N. C.) will make the keynote
address at II a.m. Friday morning
at Celebration Headquarters as
the community launches the
200th anniversary celebration of
the Battle of Kings Mountain.
This community of nearly
lOJXX) is sprucing up for a
celebration that promises to
rival-in spirit at least some of the
Bicentennial festivities staged by
the nation’s major cities.
U.S. Senators, Congressmen
and other public officials from
the five Southern states that sent
militia into the Battle will be on
hand to participate in the
celebration.
Mayor John Henry Moss,
chairman, said that while the
Descendants
Are Invited
To Register
AU descendants of Revolu
tionary War heroes at the Battle
of Kings Mountain are invited to
register their names and ad
dresses with representatives of
the Daughters of American
Revolution who will be conduc
ting the registration at various
events next week.
Mrs. HA. (Hilda) Goforth
will serve as chairman of the
registration committee and in
vites other DAR members who
will assist to call her at 739-5160.
The registration will be open
at major festivities, including the
Friday opening at 11 a.m. at
Celebration Headquarters,* the
Saturday night Ball at the Ar
mory, the Sunday afternoon
religious progrtun at B. N.
Barnes Auditorium, the Tuesday
Celebration luncheon at 11:30 at
KMHS,the Stamp Cancellation
program at H) a.m. Tuesday at
Barnes Auditorium, the Tuesday
address following the I p.m.
parade and the Park program at
3:30 Tuesday.
Celebration Chairman John
Moss is also encouraging citizens
to dress in Bicentennial attire, if
they would like, to further carry
out the Celebration motif. Mrs.
Goforth encourages citizens to
dress up in Bicentennial attire
for Sunday church services.
SEN. ROBERT MORGAN
marchers are making their way
toward the battlefield numerous
activities are planned. Exhibits
by the U. S. Navy, Kings Moun
tain school children and Boy and
Girl Scout troops will open Fri
day and run throughout the
celebration in the downtown
area and at the new City Hall. A
4:30 p.m. rock-a-thon will begin
at the Depot Center, a pie throw
ing contest will start at Depot
Center at 9:30 p.m. and a street
dance is planned at the Depot
Center beginning at K) p.m.
Adding to the pageantry of
the celebration will be the
display of the five flags represen
ting the Southern states par
ticipating in the mammoth
celebration.
Bicentennial headquarters, in
the old bank building
downtown, will be manned each
day as an information center.
Souvenir items, including a
limited number of souvenir pro
grams, are available as well as
tee-shirts, caps and monuments.
Friday will also mark the third
performance of the outdoor
‘Then Conquer We Must”,
which played to capacity au
diences Friday and Saturday
nights and was rained out Sun
day. Citizens with tickets to Sun
day’s show can use the tickets at
performances Friday, Saturday,
Sunday, Monday and Wednes
day. The Oct. 7th show tickets
are $4 and $5 and reservations
are requested as soon as possible,
visiting dignitaries will be
recognized at the Oct. 7th show,
the battle anniversary date.
Human Chain Along 74
Slated For 12:30 Sunday
A human chain along U. S. 74
South will celebrate Religious
Heritage Day next Sunday, Oct.
5th, as one of the events planned
to commemorate the 200th an
niversary of the Battle of Kings
Mountain.
The chain is expected to ex
tend from the city limits on the
East side of town to the city
limits on the west side of town,
or approximately two miles long.
According to Zeb Plonk, a
spokesman for the Religious
Heritage Day activities, chur
ches will conclude their morning
worship services in time for all
worshippers to arrive at
Highway 74 by 12:30. No seg
ment of the chain will be reserv
ed for any one person or group
of persons. Everyone is urged to
go from church, home or
wherever he or she may be, to
the nearest point, or tmy other
point in the city limits, on
Highway 74 and join the forma
tion of the chain.
Mr. Plonk said that when the
chain has been formed, the par-
ticipiants will sing two or three
patriotic songs and the ceremony
will be concluded in about 15
minutes.
In event of heavy rain at
12:30, on Oct. 5th, each church
may wish to ask those present to
form a human chain in its own
sanctuary and sing one or more
patriotic songs.
Said Mr. Plonk, “October 5th
is World Communion Sunday
and it is afitting day to
demonstrate our friendship, uni
ty and determination to live
together in pieace.”
RAL s
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Mailman Paints Peak Of Kings Mountain
Oliver Tate’s painting of
Kings Mountain was suggested
for use on the commemorative
postal card which the U.S. Postal
Service will issue next Tuesday.,
The multi-color card, however, is
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PAINTING IS H0BBY-011y«r Tat*, a rural
mail carrl*r for n*arly 30 y*ars. lilcM to paint.
On* of hi* favorit* oil paintings Is a rural
PHOTO BY UB STEWART
scon* with th* mountain In th* background.
Tat* Is plcturod with his painting at th*
postoffic*.
the design of David Blossom,
who prepared the art for the
earlier postal cards issued in
honor of American Revolution
heroes and events.
Mr. Tate’s oil painting, which
depicts a rural landscape with
the mountain in the background,
hangs in the office of KM
Postmaster Fred Weaver.
Painting has been Tate’s hob
by for seven years and some of
his landscapes and seascapes
have been given to friends, not
only in Kings Mountain but in
Portland, Oregon, Virginia,
Florida, Georgia and South
Carolina.
The Kings Mountain native, a
mail carrier for nearly 30 years,
has chosen rural Cleveland
County as many of his subjects
to paint. His Kings Mountain
painting was done from a
photograph made from 1-85, he
said.
Oliver joined the KM postof-
fice staff Mar. 1,1951 as a clerk-
carrier following a three hitch
with Uncle Sam in the USAF.
His early duties were to dispatch
mail and take out parcels. Thirty
years ago a messenger took the
mail to the depot for the trains to
pick up or catch pouches hang
ing on poles in the downtown
area held the mail which was
caught by the non-stop trains as
they passed through the city.
There were three rural routes
and six city routes in 1951 as
compared to four rural routes
and sb( city routes today
“Mail has become big
business”, says Oliver, who
started delivering mail on Route
4 about nine years ago. His
patrons then numbered about
200 less than they are today, a
total of 634 boxes on a heavy du
ty route that requires about five
hours to complete each day.
“Our patrons used to be able
to set their clocks by the
mailmen", laughed Tate, who
noted that with the increa.se of
“junk mail” a postman can’t
predict how heavy his mailbags
will be for the next day. “We
always knew we had a Herald to
deliver on Thursday morning
but now we have two Heralds a
week plus the regular maul and a
heavy supply of circulars and
boxholders”, said Tate. Mr. Tate
said that that KM postmen carry
six or seven sets of boxholders a
week and this area has set a
record in this type of mailing.
Oliver Tate has worked for
four postmasters during the past
30 years. He was hired by the
late W. E. Blakely, then worked
for the late W. Ted Weir,
Charles L. Alexander and now
Fred Weaver.
Mr. Tate, son of Mr. and Mrs.
B. R. Tate of Kings Mountain,
graduated from Kings Mountain
High School. He is married to
the former Helen Robbs, also of
Kings Mountain, and they have
four children, Mrs. Gene Har
din, Jimmy Tate and Mrs. Lynn
Tate Yates, all of Kings Moun
tain, and Brad Tate, 19, of the
home. Oliver’s brother, Fred, is
also a Kings Mountain rural car
rier and delivers mail on Route
2. Another brother. Gene Tate,
lives in Portland, Oregon.
What Tate likes best about be
ing a mailman are the people he
meets on his route. “WeYe really
a traveling postoffice”, he says,
noting that he sells stamps, [xcks
up packages and offers all the
service that a patron receives up
town. “I wouldn’t want to
change jobs with anyone", he
said, reflecting on the many
good friendships he had made
with R4 patrons since he took
over the route.