PANORAMA
THE SUMTER ITEM
YESTERYEAR, FROM PAGE C1 50 YEARS AGO – 1965 Aug. 16-22 Sumter’s policemen plan to arrest the Fire Department’s winning streak in the annual benefit baseball game between the gendarmes and the hose men at Riley Park. The fearless firefighters have won the last several games and have a commanding lead in overall wins over the years. So the Police Department nine are eager for revenge. “We’ve got a lot of hidden stuff we’re gonna bring out this year,” says Police coach Jack Scarborough. He’s especially high on his catcher – “James Lambert’s gonna be hot behind the plate” he insists. The firemen aren’t at all dismayed by their opponents’ bravado and the secrecy. Coach Cy Harrison is confident his squad can repeat last year’s victory. • The Sumter Daily Item came home today. For the first time in five days of printing at the Florence Morning News’ plant, today’s issue rolled off the Item’s own presses. Since last Tuesday’s disastrous fire that destroyed most of the Item plant, news and advertising copy had been shuttled to Florence to be set and printed on machines there. During the five days the Item was printed in Florence composing and press room crews under shop foreman J.C. Adams and press foreman Roy Turner worked feverishly to clean up linotype machines, casting machines, the press and other vital equipment so that publication could begin at home this week. • Four Sumter golfers finished on top in the tournament held at Clarendon Country Club last week as part of the World’s Championship Striped Bass Fishing Derby. Lou Degenhardt tied the course record with a 73 to take low gross honors in the men’s competition. Another Sumterite, Cecil Riley, had a 75, second low gross score. Katie Danner was low gross winner in the women’s tournament with an 80. Runner-up was Mary Lovan of Sumter with an 89. • Dr. Glen Ayers, clinical psychologist with the Sumter Clarendon-Kershaw Mental Health Center, spoke to the Sumter Business and Professional Women’s Club at their August Meeting at the Holiday Inn. To acquaint the club members with the work of the center, Ayers began by stating that there are four professional staff members – Dr. Robert Milling, director; T.B. Smith, clinical psychologist; B.L. Roff, psychiatric social worker; himself, and two secretaries – to meet the needs of approximately 138,000 people in the threecounty area. The chief purpose of the center is to keep the patient functioning in as nearly a normal life as possible while he is receiving counsel and/or medication. • S.T. Dees of Sumter has won first and second places and more than $7,000 in prizes in the World’s Championship Landlocked Striped Bass Fishing Derby. Dees
landed a 22-pound, 9-ounce striper Saturday morning on Lake Marion. • Elder Samuel L. Galloway, son of Mr. and Mrs. Alvin E. Galloway, has been called by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to serve on a two-year mission to the Western States Mission with headquarters in Denver, Colorado. A special farewell testimonial will be held on Sunday evening at the Latter Day Saints Church on Highway 15 South. • A tall windmill is a familiar landmark along the shore of Lake Marion. Located on the Manning side of the “big water,” the windmill still rotates when a breeze stirs. Although the windmill has been at its present site less than 20 years, it represents the pre-electricity era of parts of Clarendon County. Two families from Manning put up the windmill as a joint enterprise to supply their two summer homes with water. Dr. A.C. Bozard and Rex Josey built their vacation houses in 1947, before the rural electrification projects had reached this part of the county. • The NCO Wives Auxiliary enjoyed Games Day last Wednesday at the NCO Club. Winners for bridge were Betty Snipes, Mary Jacobs and Mary Purdy; pinochle — Miriam Cranford, Lucy Dunn and Marion Welch; canasta — Betty Dalton, Mary Jan Hilpisch and Lou Bolinger. • Bobby Richardson, Sumter’s star second baseman of the New York Yankees, is the subject of an exhibit at the local USO this month. The two-section, glass-enclosed display is centered on the recently published book, “The Bobby Richardson Story,” a first person account of Richardson’s life to date. • Fishermen get encouragement, but no competition from two lovely young ladies, Miss World’s Striped Bass and her runner-up. They consider fishing an excellent means of relaxation, but find the busy days of being teenagers leave no time for fishing. Roberta Mathis, 18-yearold daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E.K. Mathis, was crowned the first Miss World’s Striped Bass Queen at a ceremony in Moncks Corner climaxing a week-long World’s Championship Striped Bass Fishing Derby. • Sixty-eight children from low-income families in the Oswego-Dalzell area have received preparation for school under the Morris-Oswego Head Start program just completed on the Morris College campus. Some of these children were from farm families, some from families in which the income is derived from day labor, but in several cases the family income was as low as $15 per week. “Some of these children had never been away from home before, many had never been as far away from home as Sumter,” says Mrs. Magnolia A. Lewis, program director. • The defense,” says Gus Pringels “is the biggest thing in a football game. After all, if you can keep your opponent from scoring, you can’t lose the game. We think our offense will be able to move
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1965 -- Go get ‘em, seniors, says Mayewood head coach Bill Lavender to six of his senior gridders. Jimmy Thompson is centering the ball to Harold Waynick, while Tommy Fraser and John DuBose, kneeling, and Gerald Eater and Frank Holloway look on. the ball. The defense will be what makes the difference.” Hillcrest’s head football coach thinks defense was the stumbling block last season, when his Wildcats won four, lost five, and tied one in Conference 6-A. • Twenty-eight Negroes will be integrated into city schools this year for the first time when classes begin Aug. 23. According to District 17 officials, 18 of the Negroes are girls and the remainder boys. Four will attend Central School, one goes to Willow Drive, and one will attend Crosswell Drive among the city’s elementary schools. Seven Negroes will attend classes at Alice Drive Junior High School while three will go to McLaurin Junior High School this fall. Edmunds High School will have the largest number of Negroes: 12. Out of this total, two will be in the 10th grade, eight in the 11th and two in the 12th. • L.B. (Ben) Mathis was presented with an emblem citing him for 22 years of safe driving under the rules of the National Safety Council at a recent annual dinner for employees of the REA Express at Jim’s Waffle Shop. Making the presentation was Sumter Police Chief Clarence Kirkland, who praised Mathis for his record of safety and gave a short talk. • Ingram Haley has realized a dream he shares with millions of boys all over the country. “I’ve been a Yankee fan ever since I can remember,” says the 21-year-old Pinewood youth. And Thursday the New York baseball club offered him a bonus contract. He signed. Haley met with Yankee scout Gil English, who’s been on his trail ever since spring, in Orangeburg, where the Region Three Legion Junior baseball tournament was being played. A contract calling for a “satisfactory bonus” was agreed on; Ingram isn’t saying just how satisfactory, but he and family are wellpleased. • Fifty-one years of service with the Sumter post office was recognized with presentment of a certificate of honorary service to W.F. Bultman, retiring postal employee. Ceremonial presentation of the certificate, signed by the Postmaster General, was made in the presence of local post office officials and members of Bultman’s immediate family. Presented by Sumter Postmaster W. Loring Lee, the certificate gave honorary recognition to Bultman for devotion to duty in the course of an honorable career in the postal service.
25 YEARS AGO – 1990
1990 -- National Merit Scholarship winners are, from left, TaMara Hubert, Kenneth Schwartz and Corrie Lisk.
SUNDAY, MAY 24, 2015
May 18-24 The Sumter Gamecock track team breezed to a state championship, accumulating 95 1/2 points to easily outdistance Spartanburg, which had a total of 62 points. Sumter qualified participants in 14 of the 16 events held at the state meet and scored points in 12 of the 14 for which it qualified. Individual state champions for the Gamecocks were Norman Greene, who finishes first in the high hurdles and the 300 meter intermediate hurdles; Harold McCants, who won the 400 meter race; and the Sumter High 1600-meter relay team, which comprised Greene, James Baltazar, Au-
1965 -- Sylvia Seymour, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edgar L. Seymour of Sumter, admires the wild hibiscus growing on profusely in the Bodie Island Flats of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. During the summer she has been playing four roles in The Lost Colony drama now in its 25th season in Waterside Theatre in Manteo, N.C. Her roles are an Indian dancer, a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I, an acrobatic busker and a female colonist. A senior at Columbia College, she is a former Miss Sumter. brey Brooks and McCants. • Incumbent Solicitor Wade S. Kolb Jr. is squaring off against Ernest A. “Chip” Finney III for the second time. Voters in the four-county judicial circuit which encompasses Sumter, Lee, Clarendon and Williamsburg counties, will go to the polls June 12 to decide which of the Democrats will become the next solicitor. • In 1977 Chuck Gibbs, a former commander of the former 33rd Tactical Reconnaissance Training Squadron, said he founded The Copy Shop Inc. on Broad Street to serve the printing needs of organizations and individuals that weren’t being met by the six commercial printers working in Sumter at the time. Ten years later, Gibbs’ firm purchased the first commercially available facsimile machine, and he recently invested in what he believes is the only full-color copier available to the public in Sumter, Lee of Clarendon counties. • Three area produce growers have enrolled in a statewide program designed to provide better marketing of South Carolina’s fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants. Stafford’s Farm and Market on DuBose Siding Road, Broughton U-Pic on Wedgefield Road and Rogers Greenhouses & Market Center on McCray’s Mill Road are participating in the S. C. Farm Bureau’s Certified Roadside Marketing program, which was implemented to identify growers who sell high-quality, locally produced fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants (including Christmas trees). • On May 13, Morris College graduated 112 students. The college, founded in 1908 and owned and operated by the Baptist E&M Convention of South Carolina, had attorney Patricia Russell-McCloud, professional orator, address graduates, family and friends. • Walter Senn runs Senn’s Mill, one of the oldest family-owned businesses in Clar-
endon County, where he grinds corn from local farms into grits, hominy and meal. Senn’s great-grandfather started the mill a century ago and his grandfather, John Gillan Senn, built the current structure more than 85 years ago. The first mill used heavy grindstones turned by mules, but now the mill uses electricity to crush corn kernels into varying grades. • Chuck Hodgin won the men’s singles of the Iris Festival tennis tournament held this weekend at Palmetto Park. Hodgin defeated Wade Jackson 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 in the final; the team of Tim Stewart and Mike Mitchell topped Jackson and Clyde Nance 6-7, 7-6, 6-4. • Shorts are now accepted attire for Sumter High students. But they have to be long shorts; short shorts are still taboo. After three years of asking, the SHS Student Congress has won the right to add a “long shorts” exemption to the Gamecocks’ dress code. Faculty members voted overwhelming in favor of a student proposal to allow students to wear shorts, with limits set and enforced by the congress. • The man responsible for the preparation for Hurricane Hugo was Civil Defense Director Vic Jones, who put his emergency preparedness plan into action before the storm ever hit. And while his own home was covered with trees, the Sumter County native spent 15 straight days at the courthouse, making sure area residents had food, water and shelter. For his leadership and coordination during the aftermath of the storm, Jones was named the state’s Civil Defense Director of the Year. He was honored in Myrtle Beach at the annual meeting of the S.C. Emergency Preparedness Association. Reach Item Archivist Sammy Way at waysammy@ yahoo.com or (803) 774-1294.