Column, Feb. 6, 2009: A Look Back ...

50 years ago
(February 5, 1959)

Mrs. Coker’s chat

Mrs. D.R. Coker was personally congratulated last Wednesday by President Eisenhower, following a Tuesday luncheon given in her honor by United State Senators Strom Thurmond and Olin D. Johnston.

Reports from Washington say that Mrs. Coker, the American Mother of the Year, enjoyed a “friendly 15-minute chat with the president.” During her conversation with the chief executive, she learned from President Eisenhower that his own mother (now deceased) was named Kansas Mother of the Year in 1944.

“Mothers all over the world have the same things to worry about and the same things to hope for,” Mrs. Coker remarked with a smile.

She added that she regards it as a great honor to have been selected Mother of the Year, and that she likes the emphasis the title places on American family life.

On Tuesday, Mrs. Coker was guest of honor at a luncheon in the Vandenberg Room of the nation’s capitol. The charming Hartsville woman described the event as her “very great privilege of dining with my own congressional delegation.”

Mrs. Coker expressed humble thanks and deep appreciation for the “perfectly grand time” and cordiality shown her in Washington.

Mrs. Coker’s meeting with President Eisenhower marked the third time she had met with a president of the United States.

“I knew President Woodrow Wilson and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt,” she recalled. “Both were pretty good men,” she added.

“I’ve received wonderful inspiration from this organization – the American Mothers Committee Inc. It places emphasis on family life and on parents and their children.

“I’d like to say this has been a very humbling experience and a very growing experience,” Mrs. Coker said.

Menius wins award

E. Flynn Menius Jr. of Hartsville shared honors with three other Pee Dee area scout leaders Thursday evening at the annual scouters’ banquet held in Florence. He received the Silver Beaver award.

Menius, district engineer with Carolina Power and Light Company, was born and reared in New Bern, N.C. , and is a graduate of New Bern High School and North Carolina State College.

He has been a resident of Hartsville for seven years, is a member of the Civitan Club and American Legion. The scout leader is a member of the First Presbyterian Church, where he serves as a deacon.

Assistant Scoutmaster of Troop 512, Menius has been active for 22 years in scouting, having served in various capacities in other towns before coming to Hartsville. He holds the Eagle rank.

‘Miss Tall Tower’

WIS-TV will select a Miss Tall Tower from among the beautiful girls living in its service area at a beauty pageant to be conducted in Columbia Feb. 13-14.

Miss Katherine (Tattin) Williams will represent the Hartsville Jaycees in the beauty pageant. The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M.C. Williams, she is a sophomore at Coker College.
The winner will be chosen on a basis of her qualifications of beauty, poise, and personality, and talent.

Since the new tower, which will go on the air officially Jan. 31 expanding Channel 10’s service area considerably, is the tallest man-made structure east of the Mississippi, station officials consider that a truly representative Miss Tall Tower must necessarily be a reasonably tall young girl. Thus a minimum height of 5’6” is included in the contest rules.

Miss Williams reportedly came up to those specifications, but “just under the gun,” Jaycees report. She’s said to read skyward at the required figure – and a pretty one at that – 5’6”.

Births: Thomas Miller Matthews, 1/21; Jay Lynn Wallace, 1/27; Paul Randall Chisholm, 1/27; and Matthew Ray Stuckey, 2/2.

Engaged: Mary Emily Byrd to Harry Joseph Gibson; Mary Dale Culpepper to Jasper Lee Byrd; and Jacquelyn Benjamin to William Marshall Andrews Jr.

25 years ago
(Feb. 1, 1984)

Budget changes proposed

Hartsville Mayor Glenn Lawhon called a special city council meeting Tuesday and presented a program to council for their consideration.

The city’s income situation is getting tighter and tighter, according to Lawhon. There is a serious situation with capital equipment; the project list grows and grows; the police department’s rolling stock is in poor shape; the equipment used by the sanitation department is outdated, old and needs replacing; the administrative department needs a new copying machine; the recreation department needs a new van and the building at Lawton Park needs repairing as soon as possible, he said.

Lawhon offered several solutions to these problems. First, he feels that the city should go to curbside pick-up of garbage or initiate a sanitation fee. He suggested that council members visit other towns who are using this method.

According to Lawhon, curbside pickup will create a huge savings in personnel and privacy in backyards. He said residents would be furnished with a 90-gallon roll cart that is used for trash as well as leaves.

He also feels that a leaf pick-up season, lasting about 60 days, would help the appearance of the city when almost every home has leaves at the street in front of it. Before and after those designated days, people should be required to bag leaves or put them in roll carts.

Miss Hartsville High

The annual Miss Hartsville High Pageant is scheduled for Saturday night at 8 p.m. in Center Theater.

Thirty-two of Hartsville High School’s young ladies will vie for the crown won last year by Mary Gainey.

Entertainment will be provided by the Hartsville High chorus group “New Youth” and the group’s featured soloists.

Mistress of ceremonies for the proceedings will be Margie Watkins.

Judges will be Mrs. Darnell Baptiste of Lamar and Mr. and Mrs. LaVerne McCaskill of Bishopville.

The contestants include Jan Gainey, Angie Griffin, Julie Jones, Sandy Findley, Rebecca Davis, Kim Beasley, Paula Watkins, Denise Wall, Kimberly Sansbury, Michelle Holloman, Traci Pittington, Maria Thomas, Susan Grainger, Melanie Carmichael, Misty Chapman and Pamela Stevenson.

Also, Suzanne Carter, Kendall Gray, Elizabeth Guerrero, Lynn Drayton, Kim McCutchen, Kimm Bailey, Kim Wallace, Sabrina Cannon, Teresa Kelley, Britt Singleton, Gail Byrd, Sonja Grant, Wendy Stokes, Fentrice Amerson and Tammy Watkins.

Births: Brooke Ariel Timms, 1/20; Joshua Adam Parnell, 1/14; Kristina Denise Byrd, 1/16; and Magan Danielle Smith, 1/17.
Engaged: Helen Carole Flowers to David Henry Smith Jr.; Susan Rhea Pierce to Andrew Joseph Johnston; Suzanne Leigh Mosely to Kent Wallace Flowers; Terri Ann Johnson to Kenan James Cloughberry; and Mary Gayle Odom to Dennis Mark Gainey.