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News from a neighbor!
Volume 85 • Issue 13
• Belmont • Cramerton • Lowell • McAdenville • Mount Holly • Stanley
3/28/19
“Lifetime of Experience”
Thursday, March 28, 2019
Cramerton gets new and dramatic mural By Alan Hodge alan@cfmedia.info
What do you get when you team up a stunning graphic image of the greatest WWII fighter plane with references to the greatest cloth made for our troops in that same conflict? Answer- the new mural that was just installed in downtown Cramerton. The large image on the side of the Design Tech (former BB&T) building at 109 Center St. depicts a North American P-51 fighter plane in the background, a Women Air Force Service pilot (WASP) walking away from it after landing, and a pilot telling another one a flying story with his hands. All three figures are dressed in uniforms of khaki cloth, made in Cramerton of course. Rounding out the mural scene are several crates marked with the Crameron cloth logo as well as a quote by Maj. Gen.
Edmund Gregory from a speech he gave on Sept. 18, 1942 when Cramerton Mills was awarded the Army-Navy E Production Award for the quality and quantity of khaki cloth it had churned out. Cramerton Army Cloth, an 8.2 ounce twill fabric, was developed by Major Stuart W. Cramer, Jr. following his retirement from the U.S. Army in 1922. Cramerton Mills was awarded the first contract to manufacture the fabric in 1929. Due to its durability and comfort, Cramerton Army Cloth became the standard uniform cloth for the military during WWII and for many decades following. In 1942, Cramerton Mills received the Army-Navy “E” Award for Excellence recognizing the company’s achievement in production of the fabric. Veterans returning home continued to wear their See MURAL, Page 8
Jonathan and Paris Wilson of Design Tech are proud to have the new Cramerton mural on the side of the building they rent at 109 Center St.
Pearl Harbor survivor from Belmont passes away By Stan Cromlish Special to BannerNews
Members of the Greatest Generation and veterans of World War II have been passing away lately with an increased frequency, and this week was not much different. On Monday, March 19, 2019, Pearl Harbor survivor Gene Reinhardt of Belmont, died at 97 years young, leaving behind his wife of seventy years, Mary Ella, and a grateful nation. Numbers vary, but now there could be as few as 1,000 Pearl Harbor survivors still living. Gene served in the United States Army during World War II. He was born in Shelby, North Carolina on September 2, 1921 to James Obie and Emma Hendrix Reinhardt. In 1938 or 1939, Gene told me his uncle came home from Hawaii talking about getting paid by the US Army to serve in paradise.
A piece of heavy equipment made scrap metal out of the last rail car on the siding next to South Main Cycles in downtown Belmont last Monday. Gene Reinhardt On January 19, 1940, Thomas Eugene “Gene” Reinhardt enlisted in the United States Army with the idea that he would spend two years overseas in Hawaii to satisfy the three-year enlistment required by the pre-war military. In April 1940, Gene was shipped to Hawaii where he volunteered for the 24th Division Signal Corps and
was assigned to the brandnew Schofield Barracks. In January 2015, I sat down with Gene and recorded an oral history. “Hawaii was a paradise during the pre-war period, and with very little happening, the Army had to keep us busy, Gene said. “We sodded See PEARL HARBOR, Page 2
Last Belmont rail car is no more The last remaining railroad car on the siding at the former railroad depot- currently South Main Cycles and Mugshots Coffee- in downtown Belmont was demolished last Monday. South Main Cycles owner Steve Pepitone had tried for sev-
eral years to get a buyer for the car. “Today we are beginning the process of removing the final rail car located on the property at 4 North Main Street, Belmont,” Pepitone said Monday morning. “Despite all efforts to sell the rail
car, we have been unsuccessful in finding a buyer. While we have had many interested buyers over the course of the past few years, the cost to transport the rail car has proven cost prohibitive. The rail car is being removed to See RAIL CAR, Page 2