Yesteryear by Sammy Way: Christmas Seal Sale under way; 5 Olympic torchbearers from Sumter

Posted

75 YEARS AGO - 1946

Nov. 12 - 18

- Bishopville High School's Dragons trounced an aerial-minded Rockingham, North Carolina, team at Memorial field, 27 to 7, before a good-sized crowd. With only two days of rest since their bruising game with North Charleston, the Dragons showed real power in downing the Rocks, who have been undefeated thus far in their state's conference race.

- "It's "Off to Yokohama" for Miss Nell Turbeville, who leaves Sumter to join the U.S. Army Engineers there. Miss Turbeville will report to headquarters in San Francisco and await orders to cross the Pacific. For the past four years, she has been doing clerical work at Shaw Field and expects to do work of a similar nature in Yokohama.

- Lee Moore, a former slave who has attained the unusual age of 106, is taking no chances. When he dies, there will be a plot of ground ready for him and a headstone to mark it. He came to Sioux City recently for just that purpose and invested his last $300 in the lot and stone.

- Cool weather hit Sumter High's football camp yesterday to spur the Gamecocks on in their preparation for Orangeburg High here at the fairgrounds stadium. The game is the last scheduled one of the home season. Ten Sumter seniors will also be performing for the last time before the home fans.

- An Armistice Day program, featured by the presence of a large number of World War I veterans as guests of Robert O. Purdy Jr., Post, Veterans of Foreign Wars was finished off with a fine "Yank" Blanding supper. About 100 post members and guests were present for the occasion.

- A terrific explosion shattered a Columbia curb market wholesale building today, causing six deaths and injuring at least three other persons, according to police. Firemen said the blast originated in the N.W. Wessell wholesale produce building, where a gas appliance was being used in ripening bananas.

- R. Bryce Herbert has been named chairman of the committee which will direct the 1946 Christmas Seal Sale throughout the county to raise funds for tuberculosis control, according to an announcement made by Dr. C.J. Lemmon, president of the Sumter County Tuberculosis Association. The county campaign is part of the nationwide 40th-annual Christmas Seal Sale which will continue until Christmas.

- A petition of G.L. Broadway, A.J. Knight and associates for construction and maintenance of new roads in the DuBose Siding area has been approved by the Sumter County Board of Commissioners, and work will begin as soon as possible. The board referred another petition, that of C.A. Jackson and associates, to the county engineer, R.F. McLellan. Mr. Jackson is asking for widening and maintenance of a road running from Dinkins Mill on Highway 261 across to the Horatio-Hagood road.

- Tomorrow will be visitors' day at Edmunds High School, and the public is cordially invited to attend a program in the auditorium. The subject will be "Education for the Atomic Age." This topic is also the theme of Education Week, now being observed throughout the nation. Parents may attend classes with their children, and the public as a whole is cordially invited to visit Edmunds High during the day.

- Attendance at the Sumter County fair last week broke all previous records, Secretary J. Cliff Brown said. The new attendance record was set despite rain during one night of the fair. Mr. Brown expressed his thanks to city and county police, highway patrolmen, the newspapers and radio and all others who helped to make the fair a great success.

- In addition to the third chapter of the Western movie serial "The Last Frontier," the "Y" Clean Life Club boys will see four other movies tonight: "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow," "Mainland U.S.A.," "Jungle Jitters" and "Monarch of the Ring." Educational movies are shown each Thursday night at the YMCA, sponsored by the Sumter Lions Club.

- The Sumter County Forest Protective Association is conducting a series of quizzes throughout the county on forestry, County Ranger L. G. Cubbage said. Fifty-eight schools, 14 white and 41 Black, will enter the contest, for which there are cash awards. First-place winners at each school will enter a county-wide contest, the ranger said, and this winner will advance to the state finals.

50 YEARS AGO - 1971

July 19 - 24

- The South Vietnamese government today renewed its proposal for a cease-fire and the reunification elections with North Vietnam that President Ngo Dinh Diem refused to hold 16 years ago. Although both the government and a U.S. Embassy spokesman said it was reaffirmation of proposals made in 1969 and July 8, by South Vietnam, the renewal of the bid took on new significance in light of other moves aimed at a peaceful settlement.

- C. Walter Sharp, president of the Sumter Little Theatre, announced the appointment of Fred G. Carrico, 28, as the theater's business manager. Carrico will assume duties in the areas of public relations, membership, coordination of production activities and the theater's finances. A native of Grafton, North Dakota, Carrico is a former resident of Sumter, Charleston and most recently, Vermillion, South Dakota, where he attended the University of South Dakota.

- A father and his son finished first in the divisions they were entered during the S.C. Recreation Society's State Tennis Tourney held in Columbia, while in Rock Hill, another son, Church, reached the finals in the S.C. Jaycee Junior Tennis Tournament. Will Bynum, also of Sumter, came on strong in the Rock Hill tourney to win the under-16 title. Mark Hodgin, who is only 9 years old, took first place in the under-12 division, and his father, Charlie Hodgin, won in the men's singles division.

- Sumter County School District 2 has just completed its summer school program under Title I. Involved in the program were 340 students in the Pre-School Orientation Program for first-graders who will enter school in August for the 1971-72 school year, 1,672 students in remedial reading and remedial mathematics and 445 high school students. In connection with the remedial reading program, Title I, in cooperation with South Carolina State College and Science Research Associates Inc., sponsored a three-week workshop in "Behavior Modification."

- If Maudimer Harris and his wife, Clelia, of Lamar ever tell anyone that they are a pair of winners, they can back up their claim with approximately 1,000 award ribbons they have won in various fairs during the past 30 years. Their entries of such items as peanuts, sweet potatoes, home-cured hams, homemade cane syrup, hay, corn, tobacco, canned goods, crocheting, embroidery and sewing have netted them ribbons in the Eastern Carolina Fair, the Sumter, Florence, Lee and Darlington county fairs and the State Fair in Columbia.

- Play began Monday in the Palmetto Boys District Tournament at Palmetto Park with Sumter National defeating Walterboro, 10-9, and Sumter American defeating Orangeburg, 3-0. In the Sumter National-Walterboro game, Sumter National had four hits while Walterboro had two. Sumter National played errorless ball with Orangeburg, committing just one miscue.

- The Rev. Richard C. Alderman of Little Rock, South Carolina, is the new headmaster of Avalon Academy, Dillon, according to the Avalon Board of Directors. A native of Sumter, the Rev. Alderman has served for 12 years as pastor of the Little Rock Baptist Church. He will continue in this post. He has also taught school in Dillon for six years.

- The Manning Town Council voted 5-1 Monday night to deny a local businessman a license to construct a seed cleaning and distribution plant near the downtown area. The council received a petition from 15 residents calling for a study of the pollution potential of the proposed plant, which was to be constructed three-and-a-half blocks from the courthouse. The council met with approximately 35 residents to discuss the possibilities of air pollution. A three-man committee to study the license request was appointed.

25 YEARS AGO -1996

May 29 - June 4

- Benjamin Franklin - the bespectacled American founding father and inventor - is trying to get to the Sumter County Library, and he needs a little help. Ben, who is portrayed by Rich Davis of Asheville, is scheduled to come to the library July 17 to teach kids about "The Magic of Reading," but his visit depends on financial sponsorship from local individuals and businesses. Davis travels the Southeast giving presentations to children about the virtues and benefits of being an avid reader. As of Friday, he said he still hadn't received the sponsorship needed to bring him to Sumter.

- Deciding the best way to spend money is a tough job, but Sumter County Council hopes to do it Friday. Facing a self-imposed Tuesday deadline to approve the county's 1996-97 budget, council has to decide what to do with about $440,000 that's projected to be left over when the county's current budget expires June 30.

- No one, it seems, could be more excited about the coming of the Olympic torch to South Carolina than the five torchbearers who hail from Sumter County. With its 84-day, 15,000-mile trek across 42 American states under way, the Olympic torch next month will come through the state's Midlands - but not through Sumter - on its way to Atlanta.

- Longtime Manning High School boys' basketball coach Gunter Sweat is retiring from both coaching and teaching and will be replaced by former Holly Hill-Roberts head coach Alton Sellers. Sweat, 55, has been a teacher and coach in Clarendon School District Two for the past 31 years. He became Manning's head coach in the 1971-72 season and posted a 340-212 career record.

- An Alcolu native has been named principal of Manning High School. Hughie Peterson Jr., 49, of Jasper will replace longtime principal John Bassard, who announced earlier this year that he wouldn't return to Manning High in the fall. Peterson's hiring was approved unanimously by the nine Clarendon School District 2 trustees at the recommendation of Superintendent Dr. Rose Hilliard. Hilliard said she received 20 applications and interviewed eight people before narrowing the list to three: Peterson, Hannah-Pamplico Middle School Principal Bernard McDaniel and Sumter County's Ebenezer Junior High School Principal Rudolph Wheeler.

- Hoping to heighten a nationwide awareness of the problems facing today's children, local groups will join together Saturday to hold the March for Children. The Sumter event is part of the Stand for Children rally to take place the same day at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. More than 3,000 organizations are joining the Children's Defense Fund in sponsoring the nationwide event. "This is about values and what America wants to stand for, and if it doesn't stand for its children, it doesn't stand for anything," said Marian Wright Edelman, president and founder of the fund.

- Angel Welch, the homecoming queen for 1995-96 at East Clarendon High School, captured the Miss South Carolina's Homecoming Queen title in Raleigh, North Carolina, during the weekend of April 13-14. In July, Angel will be traveling to California to compete for America's Homecoming Queen's title. She is the daughter of Tank and Pat Welch of New Zion.

- American Legion Auxiliary Unit 202 has selected Jana Brailsford and Williba Brogdon from Mayewood High School and Edwina Watkins from Sumter High School as delegates to the 50th-annual American Legion Auxiliary Palmetto Girls State. Girls State will convene at the University of South Carolina in Columbia on June 9 and will adjourn June 15.

- Ontrell McCray doesn't care that he batted only three times in the Atlantic Regional of the NCAA baseball tournament last week. He doesn't care that he is still in a platoon situation in the outfield. The only thing he cares about is that he and his Clemson Tiger teammates are in Omaha, Nebraska. "It's a great feeling," said McCray, whose Clemson team will play its College World Series opener against Miami.

- South Carolina would for the first time pay for all-day kindergarten for some students under a state budget that has cleared the Legislature. Under the plan, the state would spend $14.1 million to put 16,000 students in kindergarten next fall. Local school districts would pay $6.7 million. The program would be provided first to children who receive free or reduced-cost lunches. School districts could choose whether to participate, and parents could decide whether to send their children to all-day classes.

- When the doors closed for the final time at Hillcrest High School, a legacy of outstanding athletes who walked the halls of the school remained. Hillcrest, along with fellow District 2 high schools Furman and Mayewood, will merge to form Crestwood and Lakewood high schools next fall. The likes of Henry Marshall, who went on to play with the Kansas City Chiefs, future University of South Carolina Gamecocks Greg Welch and Leroy Martin as well as the late Marvin Montgomery, who signed to play at Clemson University, and Ray Allen, who was on the '92-'93 State Championship team for Hillcrest, suited up for the Hillcrest football team as well as athletes of other sports.

- A Sumter version of the Garden of Eden means more than good eating for four local men and their families. It's a labor of love. One of Sumter's most productive non-professional gardens, located at the corner of Lynam and Wedgefield Roads, yields everything from sweet potatoes to sunflowers. Faith Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church owns the whole block, and the church lets us use it," said T.J. "Junior" Richburg, one of the gardeners. "We keep it clean."