COLUMN: A Look Back June 27

Jimmy Ballard
Published: June 27, 2008

50 years ago
(June 26, 1958 Messenger)

New faces in House
The S.C. House of Representatives will see three new faces from Darlington County when it convenes next January. Reps. Walker Anderson and O.L. Warr were voted out of office in Tuesday’s second primary and Rep. Ed Saleeby had not offered for reelection.
Carl Cook, Jack Gardner and Ted Saleeby won the runoff election and will represent Darlington County for the next two years in the General Assembly, along with Sen. James P. Mozingo.

$10 million expansion
at Sonoco
Sonoco’s ten million dollar expansion project was dedicated Friday morning in the presence of some 300 company employees, officials, customers and members of the press. Guests later saw a giant new paper machine, two stories high and as long as a football field, turning out paper 14 feet wide at a speed of more than eight miles per hour.
The four-phase project is one of the largest industrial installations ever made in the state.
Sonoco’s executive vice-president C.W. Coker, in a dedication speech, described the beginning of the company in 1890 by J.L. Coker Jr. and his father, Major James Lide Coker and told of their early discouragements. “It is befitting that Dick Coker, the son of J.L. Coker Jr., who had the first dream, is largely responsible for enthusiastically recommending this newest machine,” said C.W. Coker.
He concluded his remarks by dedicating the 175-ton per day paper machine to P.L. McCall, Corrugating Division superintendent. The new unit has been named “Mr. Mac” at the request of the men of the Corrugating Division who worked with the veteran paper maker in the erection of the new unit.

New building
to be dedicated
A two-story addition to the Educational Building at West Hartsville Baptist Church will be dedicated during the morning worship services on Sunday, June 29. An open house inspection of the new structure will be held the evening before, Saturday, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. and the general public is invited.
The planning and building committee for the new structure are as follows: P.L. McCall, chairman, Harry Newsom, J.E. Wisenhunt, Charles W. Coker, M.A. Clark, Ralph Bell, Mrs. Ralph Bell, Mrs. Loring C. Blackmon, Mrs. Albert Segars, Mrs. Thomas Gibson.
West Hartsville Baptist Church was organized January 13, 1952. The membership has increased from 225 in 1952 to 435. David J. Wells has served as pastor since the church was organized.

Ground breaking set
Ground breaking ceremonies for the first units of the Bethea Baptist Home for the Aged will take place Thursday morning at 11 a.m., followed by a barbecue dinner.
Dr. P.A. Bethea, who donated the property for the home located just outside of Darlington on the Darlington-Florence highway, will break the ground. The Rev. W.S. Jones, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Darlington, will deliver the prayer of dedication and Dr. Davis M. Sanders, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Hartsville, and chairman of the Board for the home, will preside.
When all units of the home are completed, it will amount to a three million dollar project with facilities to take care of 300 persons.

Pony League teams
Stevenson’s – Coach Norwood Buzzell, Selcer Brock, Mike Howell, Wayne Jordan, bat boy; Bebe Williams, Johnny Polson, manager W.W. Williams, Ronnie Amerson, Billy Hough, Bobby Bedenbaugh, Bobby Dempsey, Russell Easterling, Harry Frampton, and Raymond Gainey.
Furr’s—Donald Putman, Jimmy King, Larry McAlister, Tommy James, Jimmy Dudley, Gene Munn, Kenneth Huggins, Coach Ralph Henderson, Victor Britt, Payton Warren Jr., Jim Shelley, Troy Usher, Butch Ott, Jack Hopkins, Cole Strickland, and manager Payton Warren.
Sonoco – David Williams, bat boy; Edwin O’Neal, Fred Rogers, Douglas Kendall, Harley Griggs, Johnny Beasley, Andy Williams, Jimmy Darnell, Loraine Smith, Sam Richey, Ernie White, Marion Watkins, Billy Cornell, and manager J.L. Williams.
Segars Spiders – Calvin Stogner, Ronnie Perdue, Gerald Walters, Bobby Odom, Lorrain Davis, Mason Hughey, manager Jack Wilson, Butch Grantham, Frank Hafner, Clifton Ward, Barney Wallace, Jerry Mahn, and coach Elbert Hancock.

Births: Janet Loraine Morris, 6/18; Shannon Jeanette Steen, 6/22; Madge Lee Windham, 6/20; Cheryl Lee Kennington, 6/25; Jimmy Ray Smith, 6/19; and Benita Sue Hill, 6/18.

Wed: Helen Harrell to Benny Steen, 6/13; Martha Janet Byrd to James Carlisle Thigpen, 6/22; and Doris Ellen Morrell to S-Sgt William C. Batemen, 6/1.

25 years ago
(June 22, 29, 1983 issues)

Fine arts tour given
A “Fine Arts Sampler” staged at several homes in the Hartsville area will be one of the main highlights of the opening events of the HartsCapades ’83 on Thursday, June 23.
HartsCapades ’83 is a Hartsville-wide festival that lasts through Saturday, June 25, that features a variety of events for the entire family.
The home tour and fine arts sampler is a new event in this year’s festival, according to Sheilia Haney, arts entertainment chairman. “We felt that staging the variety of arts events in the home would add more of a personal and homey touch to the events, enhancing the enjoyment of everyone,” Mrs. Haney said.
The homes on the tour, which will begin about 7 p.m.Thursday evening, include the Robert Goodson Home on the shore of Prestwood Lake; the Timber-lake Home on Church Street; the J.L. Wiggins home on Home Avenue; the Kenneth Krueger Home on Kenwood Street; the Moyd Home in Kelleytown Community; and the Bachman Home on Warner Drive.

Penney’s Store will close
J.C. Penney, a part of the Hartsville community since 1938, will close July 30.
According to Roy Kesley of Penney’s regional office, the resources it took to keep the Hartsville store open can be put to better use as far as the stockholders are concerned.
“We have an obligation to them,” he said.
To be out of the building before the lease runs out, the store must close by the end of July, he said.
Several other store managers commented on the effect Penney’s closing will have on the community and other businesses in the area.
“There is a great need for stores like Penny,” Newell Coward of Buyck-Coward said. “We’ll miss it but hope our business will increase. We’ve been open 54 years and hope to be here for another 54,” he said.
Several businesses, including TG&Y, Levigate, Sav-U-Warehouse Foods and J.L. Coker and Company have closed in the past year or are in the process of closing.

Sonoco scholarships
Sonoco Products Company has named five students as winners of four-year college scholarships, according to T.C. Coxe, III, senior vice president.
The 1983 scholarship winners include James Randy Reynolds of Hartsville.
James Reynolds is a June graduate of Hartsville High School who will be attending Francis Marion College to major in pre-law.
He was a delegate in Palmetto Boys’ State and was also named a Baptist College Junior Scholar. He served as the drum major for the Hartsville High School Marching Band and was the director for the senior class play. He also served as homeroom president.
James is the son of James Reynolds, who was a Sonoco truck driver and is now an owner-operator with Baker Transport.

Births: Jackie Robinson II, 5/21; Bobby Joe Wilkerson II, 4/25; Steven Paul M. Girt, 5/26; and Jonathan Adam Wint, 6/8.

Engaged: Wilma Claudette Seymour to Mark Stephen Sanders; Mary Kathryn Sowell to Bruce D. Woodfin; Nancy Madgalean Bullard to Ronald Eugene Shewer; Elizabeth Ann Galloway to Richard Lee Haley; Joan Bonds McCormack to Gregg Calvin Newman; and Kimberly Ann Dickens to James C. Williamson Jr.

Wed: Sarah Adrea Saleeby to Warren John Owens, 6/19; Karen Elizabeth Houston to Worth McCleary Lewellen III, 6/18; Tirrah Lynn Cartwright to Robert Daniel Faile, 6/18; Sarah Edith Gaddy to Wallace Glenn Turbeville, 6/18;Veronica Renee Rivers to Linard Henry McCloud, 6/25; Donna Charlene Coble to Alan Kent Griggs, 6/25; Phyllis Arlene Caldwell to William Michael Yearick, 6/25; Gayla Marcene Sparks to Vickie James Caldwell, 6/25; Sandra Elaine Kern to Jackie Wayne Stanley, 6/10; Floy Elizabeth Henry to Leroy (Rick) Fanning, 6/18; Elizabeth Easterling to William Mullis, 6/8; Pamela Bowen to George K. Howle, 6/25; Angela Dupree McElveen to Johnnie Kevin Bouknight, 6/25; and Marsha Lynn Primus to George Francis Jackson, 6/18.