Jll
K I Twgfc _ . wURr . 7 fl
~ ■
I j
_ -M: ■WL-lfe , I
Max: he’d work from car.
Weather
FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN AREA—
Partly cloudy with chance of showers
tonight, becoming more likely Friday.
Low tonight around 70; high Friday in
mid 80s.
LOCAL WEATHER—Low this
morning at Spalding Forestry Unit 72,
high Wednesday 92.
Oy* iMM MB
1 F
I / > iHr Mfr BHH
? »L -&• MBmy fl ,j ---1* 1
1.1 I I
o' ... |
M. * f MK.
UMHww > >LX v Wli
-'•■■< 1; ,-, _ I
o -~ ■ il
F; - yWBI MB 'K * M
~ -
Jg | E J
\ J| I ’
Ty ..JBa| Jr
K ' B> ,ib Bl £. . >
Ww k W
w vZ A 5 $
% B z /’ Wig B'
k \BWv, >i Erw-*.w iOalf
'■a £ B ks*3w • "E
x% LkiEt B l@sv »
■ ■/•■ JB&- K wße>F ■• WwB»WM»i w V
■Mk ■MHHMMMHMB mrsw* ■B*w
Korean investigation
Suzi
WASHINGTON (AP) - Suzi Park
Thomson, the reluctant witness in the
House investigation of alleged South
Korean influence-buying on Capitol
Hill, reportedly is ready to begin an
swering questions.
The former secretary to retired
House Speaker Carl Albert plans to
meet today in a closed-door session
with investigators for the House ethics
committee in an attempt to head off a
contempt of Congress citation, her
lawyer says.
Investigators had sought to question
her earlier, but she insisted on an
swering the committee’s questions in*
public, saying she feared secret'
testimony would be distorted against
her.
Sources said the committee held off
deciding on a contempt action Wed
nesday after the lawyer, Phillip Hir-
-How 2 new teachers get ready to start yeai —— i
This week has been a busy one for
new teachers to the Griffin-Spalding
School System. Each day has been
filled with departmental meetings,
orientation sessions, and luncheons.
Out of approximately 80 new
teachers, Griffin Daily News focused on
two to find out what they were doing in
preparation for the first day of school.
Cathy Vaughn, a resident of Griffin,
is among the youngest of the teachers.
She graduated from Griffin High in
1974, attended Gordon Junior College
for one quarter and then the University
Coach makes plea for bond issue
Education more than Rs: it’s experience
Coach Max Dowis made a plea for
passage of a school bond issue here in
November during the last half of his
talk to the Griffin Kiwanis Club Wed
nesday. He talked about the football
team during the first half.
“I’m not talking about carpeting or a
new office for myself—l’ll be willing to
work out of my car — I’m talking about
kids, boys and girls,” he said.
He said education included teaching
reading, writing, math, social studies
and the like. But he said education is
more than that.
To him, education is an experience.
He challenged his audience to help
give the teachers in the Griffin-
Spalding what’s needed to do the job.
Dowis spoke as a professional
Rep. Jack Flynt |l| with Jaworski in Washington.
in secret session
shkop, promised that Ms. Thomson
would answer all questions about the
alleged influence-buying.
But Hirshkop said Ms. Thomson did
not intend to answer questions about
her personal life.
In another development, special
committee counsel Leon Jaworski said
Wednesday he is confident the panel
will get testimony from Korean rice
dealer Tongsun Park despite his vow
not to cooperate.
Jaworski called Park’s testimony
“highly significant” and said the
committee has a strategy — which he
refused to spell out — to get it.
But Jaworski, the former Watergate
special prosecutor, added, “I don’t
believe his testimony is something that
is either going to make cases or is fatal
to cases.”
Ms. Thomson has said she knows
of Georgia where she received a
political science degree.
Her student teaching was done at
Hilsman Middle School in Athens.
Griffin High will be her first teaching
job.
“The only thing that bothers me is
that many of my students aren’t that
much younger than I and many are
relatives and students I know,” Miss
Vaughn said. “It is going to be different
teaching them,” she added.
She is not worried about discipline in
the classroom.
DAILY
Daily Since 1872
educator who has been in school
business all his life.
He also spoke as the father of 5
children who are students here.
The head football coach said he could
spend a couple of hours on any campus
and just about tell you if it is a good
school.
He said he always looked to see if
there is light in the eyes of the students.
He sees it in the eyes of students at
Griffin High and other schools here but
wondered how long teachers could keep
it there if they do not have the things
with which to teach — making
education an experience.
Somebody always is going to remark
that “all they do over there at the
school is play football” and that they
GRIFFIN
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Thursday Afternoon, August 25, 1977
nothing about any scheme to buy
congressional influence.
The committee’s investigators
threatened last week to cite her over
her refusal to answer three questions.
Her lawyer said she was asked
whether she knows of “payoffs” by
Park or former South Korean am
bassador Kim Dong Jo to members of
Congress plus what she knows of a 1975
congressional trip to Korea.
Ms. Thomson gave parties attended
by congressmen and Korean officials
and had an affair with one
congressman then under investigation
in connection with the alleged in
fluence-buying.
But she has denied any involvement
or even knowledge of such an operation
and said the affair was a private matter
that involved nothing of national in
terest.
Miss Vaughn will be teaching U. S.
History. Her students will consist
mostly of 10th and 11th graders.
“I have always been interested in
history, current events, and news,” she
said.
During the week, she has gotten her
classroom assignments, home room
information, books, and attended many
meetings.
She enjoys teaching because it is a
way to stay in touch with young people.
“You can really relate to people
through teaching,” she commented.
should be teaching instead, he said.
The coach said maybe educators
should be doing a better job of teaching
reading, math and the basics. But he
said the teachers need the support of
the community to do a better job.
Coach Dowis held up a clipping from
the Griffin Daily News that made
estimates as to what a bond issue would
cost individual property owners, should
it be approved.
He figured it would cost him around
$25 a year for the school buildings. It
would cost him a couple dollars more if
the athletic facilities are approved, he
estimated.
Over the next 20 years, that would be
a bargain, the coach concluded.
He pointed out that if a person wanted
NEWS
Open house
Parents invited
to visit schools
Parents and interested citizens are
invited to open house at all Griffin-
Spalding schools Friday afternoon from
1:30 to 6 o’clock.
Classes begin Monday morning and
Supt. D. B. Christie said he expects
more than 9,650 students to report to
school within the first 2 weeks..
Every teaching vacancy has been
filled, he said.
All elementary school pupils will
report to their respective schools at
8:30 a.m. Monday and will remain until
3:15 p.m., except for the first graders
who walk or whose parents will pick
them up. These students will be
dismissed at noon for the first 2 weeks
of school only.
Secondary or junior high and high
school students will report at 8:10 a.m.
and remain until 3.20 p.m.
Seventh graders will report to the
main gymnatorium at Spalding Junior
High 111 for room assignments.
Eighth graders will report to
Spalding Junior High 11.
Ninth grade students will report to
Spalding Junior High I.
Alphabetical listings of homerooms
will be placed on entrance doors to
main buildings.
Students should check the lists, find
(Continued on page 3)
People
••• and things
Irritated motorist trying to control
temper as she waits on paving equip
ment on Quilley street, absence of
flagman stalling traffic.
Man driving away from self-service
gasoline pump leaving trail of precious
liquid, having forgot to put cap back on
his tank.
Stock of watermelon dwindling down
to precious few at store here.
Miss Vaughn is the first teacher in
her family. She plans to continue
teaching and go back to Georgia to get
her masters.
On the other hand, Mrs. Sara
Basinger, a newcomer to Griffin,
comes from a family of educators.
A native of Doerun, Ga., her father
was involved with the school system for
42 years. Her mother was an English
teacher for 21 years.
Mrs. Basinger shares her mother’s
interest in English. She received a
degree in English education after at-
to send his child to Woodward, a private
school at College Park, it would cost
him about $2,600 a year if he is a
boarding student or about SI,BOO if he
commutes.
Coach Dowis recalled he and Spec
Towns came to Griffin in 1953 to see
Griffin and Decatur play and sat in the
stadium.
Coach Dowis said the stadium looks
today pretty much as it did then with
very little change or improvements.
He said most of the schools in Grif
fin’s region had made improvements a
year after year.
He challenged the people of Griffin to
support the bond issue this fall and
make it possible for the children of this
community to keep the light in their
Vol. 105 No. 201
‘I don’t have anybody around’
SEATTLE (AP) - Red Skelton, who
brought Freddie the Freeloader and
Clem Kadiddlehopper into the homes of
millions, travels alone these days,
shunning associates he claims used him
and trusting only “God, my wife and
myself.”
The rubber-faced funnyman says
those old business associates have
profited while he has lost $6 million in
bad business deals over the years.
Fans who spot him on the street win
quick waves, giggling greetings and
coy oneliners. But off-stage, Skelton
speaks harshly of those associates,
television, and his public.
“I trust God, my wife and myself,”
Skelton declared in an interview this
week. “People take kindness for
weakness, and generosity has the form
of a sucker.”
Skelton, 64, left television after 20
years. And although he’s seen less these
days, he still plays to sell-out audien
ces. He said he has an engagement
every three days through next year.
“I don’t have anybody around me.
When someone makes a mistake now,
it’s either my wife, myself or my
granddaughter, Sabrina. She’s only 7,”
Skelton wisecracked, “so she can’t hurt
me too much.”
He was divorced from his first wife,
Georgia, known as “Little Red,” in
1973. She has since died. His only son
died 19 years ago of leukemia at the age
of 9. His daughter, Valentina, 30, lives
in California with her husband and
Sabrina.
Skelton writes daily love letters to his
new wife, Lothian, 36.
“When I write my autobiography,
they’ll see a love story like they never
knew before.”
Love doesn’t come easy to co
medians, he said. “If you tell a woman
she is beautiful, she thinks it’s part of
tending Wesleyan in Macon and Florida
State University for 3 years.
At Griffin High, she will be teaching
English grammar and composition.
She, too, will teach mostly 10th and 11th
graders. She will possibly teach
literature next quarter.
Although new to Griffin High, Mrs.
Basinger is not new to teaching. She, 26,
has had 4 years of teaching experience.
She taught at Leon High School and
Lincoln High School, both in
Tallahassee. Her student teaching was
done at Wakulla High School, also in
eyes.
The coach said he didn’t know how
much longer the school system here
could sustain a top rated program with
present facilities.
He pointed to the pride ROTC
students took in their program and the
fact that they are rated among the best
in the nation year after year.
Coach Dowis pointed out that ex-'
cellent work is being done in the drama
department.
He said people could see better
productions right here at Griffin High
than they could go to Atlanta and see
and the prices are high.
He said the school system was
striving for a top program in all phases,
not just football.
T>VJR” _
“Each year trees grow new
leaves in time to have them
ready when it’s hot enough for
us to need the shade.”
Red Skelton 1
**
the routine and waits for a joke,” he
said.
“You sense it right away, so you don’t
follow through. I could never walk up to
anyone and be rejected in any way, be
cause if I was, then inside I die.”
The late Groucho Marx was a
respected friend. “He was the first man
to tear down the dignity of man and
then let it stand,” Skelton said.
Skelton, at 6-feet-3 and 196 pounds,
says he is in good health, but “the only
exercise I get is acting as pallbearer for
my friends who exercise a lot.”
“I don’t let it bother me. I don’t know
enough about life to worry about
death.”
Tallahassee.
Mrs. Basinger has been preparing for
the first day by working up curriculums
and gathering materials. She has at
tended many meetings, filled out forms
and gathered much information.
Today she attended a luncheon for
new teachers sponsored by the Griffin
Rotary Club.
She and her husband, Mick, moved to
Griffin in July. Mick works for IBM and
is involved with cities surrounding
(Continued on page 3)
