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VOLUME XCIV — NUMBER)
Cox, Pinner, Parris Winners
In Summerville Council Races
By TOM KIRWAN
Less than half of the City
of Summerville’s registered
voters turned out to cast
ballots in three council races
which saw two incumbents
and a former council member
re-elected.
According to certified
returns, only 625 of the city’s
1,418 registered voters
bothered to vote. That
represented a voter turnout
rate of 44 percent.
Former councilman Earl
“Red’’ Parris was the top
vote-getter of the day, out
distancing his opponent by
Murder Suspect
FBI Arrests Whisenant In Indiana
FBI agents arrested
fugitive Elbert Joe Whisenant
shortly before 3 p.m. in In
diana last Thursday. Whise
nant, a former Summerville
resident, was charged in con
nection with the July shooting
death of his father and step
mother in Ider. Ala.
Whisenant, who will be 29
this month, was apprehended
while asleep on a couch at an
Indianapolis, Ind., residence.
“Whisenant was taken by
surprise," DeKalb (Ala.)
County Chief Deputy Cecil
Reed said Thursday. “He
wasn’t able to resist arrest
because they (the arresting
FBI agents) had him com
pletely surrounded before he
WANTED: Toys For Needy Kids
Chattooga County
residents are being asked to
open their hearts and to dig
through their toy boxes as the
annual drive for Christmas
toys for the needy is launched
Saturday.
Two groups of local
residents are sponsoring the
drive this year— the Chat
tooga County Food and Nutri
tion Program for the Elderly
and volunteers working the
Department of Family and
Children’s Services.
Toy drive volunteers will
be collecting contributions of
old toys from local residents
in the parking lot of the Sum
merville Food Dollar Store on
Saturday, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Con
tributions after Saturday can
be dropped off at the Depart
ment of Family and Children’s
Services office on South Com
merce Street.
“It’s especially important
that residents respond early in
Rotary Guest Speaker
Judy Carter Says ‘Loud Minority’ Blocking ERA
By TOM KIRWAN
Fifteen months of campaigning in 36 states for Jimmy
Carter in 1975 and 1976 convinced Judy Langford Carter,
the President’s daughter-in-law, that women are being
systematically discriminated against, she told a local
group last week.
Prior to hitting the campaign trail throughout the U.S.
for Carter, Ms. Carter said, she had little sympathy for
supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment. But some of
the stories she heard while campaigning convinced her
that the ERA is needed, and she has since become one of
its most outspoken advocates. Most Americans feel the
way she does and a “loud minority” has been allowed to
block passage of the ERA, the Calhoun housewife said.
She also writes a regular column in "Redbook" magazine.
"I’m not feminist or a woman's libber,” she told the
Summerville-Trion Rotary Club last Wednesday after
noon. But her feelings on the ERA changed "when I
began seeing people who would come to a reception or
meeting and who would wait until most people had gone
home, and they would begin to tell me things that I had
never heard of, that I had never experienced— stories of
their husbands beating them, or being systematically
discriminated against in jobs for 30 to 40 years.”
She recounted how the two brothers of a young woman
is Massachusetts were able to attend college on basket
ball scholarships, while their sister who also played
basketball was forced to quit the sport in order to take a
job to finance her education.
“In Florida, a woman came to me crying... and said
that last year her child was killed in an auto accident,"
Ms. Carter recalled. The woman recounted that a lawyer
advised her that she couldn’t sue the driver because the
state considered the father— not the mother— the legal
guardian of children born to a marriage, Ms. Carter said.
“He (the woman's husband) had left her and the child, and
he could not be found," Ms. Carter said. “That really got
me.”
The guest speaker also related the story of an Arkan-
^ummerutlk Nms
nearly 200 votes.
Parris, a self-employed
businessman, polled 64.6 per
cent of the votes cast in his
race against Charles A. White
Sr., a retiree who is a disabled
veteran.
Parris garnered 404 votes
to White’s 207 votes (33.1 per
cent). Fourteen spoiled votes
were recorded in the race.
Parris will fill the council
seat being vacated by Coun
cilman Boyd Williams, who
decided not to face reelection
this year.
The closest race of the day
was that pitting Councilman
had a chance to do anything.”
Reed said Monday that the
Indianapolis FBI office had
received information concern
ing Whisenant and as a result
agents were able to locate him
at the residence. Reed said he
didn't know whose residence
Whisenant was at or how long
he had been there.
A pair of DeKalb County
deputies left Fort Payne Mon
day to return Whisenant to
Alabama where he will stand
trial. They were expected to
return to DeKalb County late
last night or sometime today,
Nov. 8, said Reed.
Whisenant, charged with
two counts of first degree
murder, will be lodged in the
the drive so that the
volunteers will have sufficient
time to fix up contributed
toys in time for Christmas,’’
said Juanita Ham, a DFACS
staffer.
SUMMERVILLE, CHATTOOGA COUNTY, GEORGIA 30747, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1979
Hubert Palmer against hard
ware store clerk David F'ord.
Ford lost the race by only 25
votes.
Palmer polled 319 votes,
representing 51 percent of the
total ballots. Ford netted 294
votes, or 47 percent. Seven
teen ballots in the race were
spoiled.
Councilman Dennis Cox re
tained his seat on the council
by" a 104-vote margin,
defeating educator Richard
Lindsay.
Cox garnered 356 votes, or
57 percent, to Lindsay’s 252
votes, representing 40.3 per-
DeKalb County Jail in Fort
Payne, according to Reed.
Whisenant allegedly shot
and killed his father, John
Whisenant, and his step
mother, Meredith Whisenant.
The suspect was reportedly
spotted leaving the dead cou
ple’s residence shortly after
the shooting.
Details of the shooting are
still sketchy, explained Reed,
but the investigation is still
continuing and Whisenant
will be interrogated sometime
this week.
The Whisenant couple’s
bodies were found at 5:30 a.m.
Friday, July 20. Whisenant,
47, was found in the driveway
of his next door neighbor. He
In past years, she said,
problems have arisen when
toys were contributed late in
the season. “This year we’re
hoping people will respond to
this early effort to collect toys
so that we can get them in
t“The ERA will give
women legal stan
ding, period. It has
nothing to do with
abortion, family
relations or military
I I , service ... it just
£ 41 * gives equal legal
dK. \ k i U status to men and
women.”- Judy
' j| Langford Carter.
Ut A
sas woman who said she had been victimized by
discriminatory inheritance laws after her husband died.
The stories were eye-openers for Ms. Carter because
she had had no firsthand brushes with discrimination.
“When your husband is a lawyer and your father is a
lawyer, and your father-in-law is President of the United
States, well, you just don’t have that problem,” she joked.
She is married to attorney Jack Carter, the President’s
eldest son, and she is the daughter of state Senator Bever
ly Langford.
While the campaign trail stories disturbed her, “I tried
to believe they were exceptions. I thought they were il
legal— but I found it is legal and this can be done in this
cent of the votes. There were
17 spoiled ballots in the elec
tion.
Election officials were sur
prised by the sluggish turnout
the general election drew.
“It was a real nice day,”
said one. “I was disappointed
that we didn’t have a better
turnout than we did.”
According to Bert Self, ci
ty clerk, the 35 ballots
declared “spoiled” in the three
races were not illegible or
marked incorrectly: the voters
who voted on them simply
failed to mark their preference
for a candidate.
had been shot in the head, arm
and back. Authorities found
Mrs. Whisenant, 43, dead in
her kitchen, where she had ap
parently been canning green
beans. She had been shot once
in the chest area with what
authorities believe to have
been a .38 or .357 magnum
caliber pistol.
The elder Whisenant, a
former resident of Welcome
Hill community, served as a
Summerville police officer for
a short time, and was also
previously on the LaFayette
police force. Later he was the
owner and operator of the
Chattooga Garage in Penn
ville, until he sold the
business out and moved to
Alabama.
good shape to give to the
youngsters.
According to Mrs. Ham
there’s no shortage of persons
who are willing to donate their
time to work on the fixing-up
of toys. “We have a good
group of volunteers— now all
we need is a lot of toys so that
they can get busy.”
As in past years, Mr. and
Mrs. Emmett McCamy of
Summerville are spearheading
the fix-up efforts of the drive.
McGinnis Drug Store once
again is donating space above
the store to be used as a repair
shop, Mrs. Ham said.
Joy Stewart is coor
dinating the volunteers for the
toy project.
In past years as many as
30 to 40 bikes have been con
tributed to the drives. Literal
ly hundreds of needy children
have benefited from the pro
ject in past years, Mrs. Ham
said.
Hall Baker served as elec
tion manager.
Assistant election
managers were Jessie Mann
and Thelma Alexander.
Holland Home Is
Gutted By Blaze
The Summerville Fire
Department responded to a
house fire call Tuesday night
in Holland.
When firemen arrived at
the residence of Guy Gaylor
shortly after 7 p.m., the
residence and a utility
building were already com
pletely engulfed in flames, a
report said.
Firemen battled the blaze
for an hour but were unable to
save the house and building.
The cause of the fire was not
listed.
Car Batteries
Disappear; No
Suspects Yet
A rash of car battery
thefts Monday and Tuesday
nights is under investigation
by the Summerville Police
Department.
Robert Jackson of the
Department of Transporta
tion office told officers Tues
day morning that sometime
during the night someone had
stolen a battery from one of
the state vehicles parked on
Ross Street. The battery was
valued at S4O.
Wednesday morning Mrs.
J«wis of Lewis Street
imported to officeis that
meone had stolen a 12-volt
battery from her car during
the night. The battery was
valued at S4O.
Robert Hendrick of Hill
Street and Ben Gilreath of 607
W. Washington St. both
reported to officers Wednes
day morning that someone
had stolen the batteries from
their vehicles sometime dur
ing the night.
As of Wednesday after- j
noon no arrests had been
made in connection with the
thefts.
Post Offices Will
Be Closed Monday
The Summerville and
Trion post offices will be clos
ed Monday in observance of
Veteran's Day, a national holi
day.
country.”
She began to research the issue, she said, and conclud
ed that the ERA was not solely a woman's issue. "The
family and the husband will benefit if women benefit,” she
said, because women will be assured equal rights and
benefits. “It’s not just a women’s issue,” she said, “it af
fects husbands and children too."
“When I started on (researching) the ERA, I started
with strange ideas on ERA,” she confessed. One notion
she said she held was that the amendment was complex
and long. In fact, she noted, the heart of a 51-word amend
ment is only 24 words: "Equality of rights under the law
shall not be denied or abridged by t he Unit ed States or by
any State on account of sex."
The remaining two sections read: “The Congress shall
have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, t he
provisions of this article” and, "The Amendment shall
take affect two years after the date of rat ification.”
“That’s all there is,” she said. “I was really shocked to
find that out.”
She said that many Americans believe former con
gresswoman and outspoken feminist Bella Abzug of New
York wrote the amendment, but that in fact its origins go
back over 130 years. The concept was first proposed, Ms.
Carter says, by a group of church women in Seneca Falls,
N.Y., and its text was written by Alice Paul. It was first
introduced in Congress in 1923.
“Congress, after lengthy debate of all the issues about
ERA, in 1972 passed it 354 to 23 in the House, 84 to 8 in
the Senate,” Mrs. Carter, said. "Few bills have ever
received such support.”
She also noted that:
* The amendment has been ratified by 35 states,
representing 75 percent of the U.S. population. (Three ad
ditional states must ratify the measure before it can
become the law of the land.
♦ Both political parties, since the 1940’s have endors
ed the amendment.
♦ The last seven Presidents, beginning with Truman,
I -1
/MH i sJL-t i
pPQ
' If* tr* I
The Girl Scout Campaign contribution
drive began recently. Placing a poster to
help begin the campaign are (L-R) Henry
Watson, campaign chairman; Girl
County-Cloudland Water
Contract Signed Sunday
Two years ago the plight of
the community of Cloudland
drew nationwide attention
when television news crews
visited there to report that it
was running out of water.
The shortage developed
when the volume of water
pumped from the
community’s wells’ dropped
dramatically; some residents
blamed nearby blasting at
coal mines on the mountain as
the culprit.
New wells drilled later
turned out to be inadequate,
too. Finally, the decision was
made to sink a well in Shin
bone Valley and to have the
water pumped up Lookout
Mountain to Cloudland.
There weren’t any televi- !
sion reporters at a meeting
Sunday of residents, County
' Commissioner Wayne Denson
and Cloudland Improvement
Association representatives.
But the outcome of the
meeting—the signing of a con
tract wherein the community
agreed to purchase a
minimum of 500,000 gallons
of water monthly from the |
County Water District, was ।
important because it marked a
stepping stone in the com
| munity’s struggle to ensure a
sufficient water supply.
The agreed minimum rate
| is SSOO monthly, according to
the contract, with each addi
tional 1,000 gallons of water
wholesaling at $1 beyond the
minimum 500,000 gallons.
According to Russell
Burns, a consultant with
Williams, Barnum &
Sweitzer—the engineering
Scout Campaign Begins
firm that is overseeing the
project, “based on what Chat
tooga County customers are
using we expect Cloudland
consumption to be right
around 500,000 gallons mon- ।
thly.” ।
Using state and federal
grant money, the county has
sponsored the drilling and
pumping operation in the
valley, he noted, and plans as
well to run pipe up the moun
tain and to install two pump
27 Inducted Into
Quarter Century
Club At Banquet
The Trion Community
Center was the site as a
capacity crowd turned out
Saturday night for the 44th
annual Quarter Century Club
Banquet of Riegel Textile
Corp.
Following the dinner R.
Lane Smith, vice president of
Georgia operations introduced
guests. A short message from
Riegel’s chairman of the
board, R.E. Coleman, was
given. Watches for new
members— who have com
pleted their 25 years of con
tinued service— had already
been presented to each in
dividual upon their comple-
have supported the ERA.
* The amendment has over 200 supporting organiza
tions, including the League of Women Voters, AFL-CIO,
many major religious groups, "and a host of other
organizations.
* Opinion polls have never shown opposition to be
greater than 35 percent: Americans favoring the ERA
vary between 55 to 75 oercent. depending on the poll.
"The ERA will give women legal standing, period,"
she said. "It has nothing to do with abortion, family rela
tions, or military service.” Nor can it guarantee equality
for women, she said, noting that Black Americans were
being discriminated against long after laws were passed
banning racial discrimination.
"ERA won’t change the social fabric of the country,”
she continued. “It will be very limited. It doesn't require
anyone to do anything— it just gives equal legal status to
men and women.”
While her president ial campaign tours had opened her
eyes to the issue of discrimination of women, she noted
that she was inspired by what she found, too.
"People in this country do care,” she said. "The
system works right. Americans are good, strong, honest
people who make it work. I became really convinced, more
than anything else, that this country is a really go<xi place
to live.
Small power groups who only have their own selfish in
terests at heart have been allowed to stand in the way of
progress, she said. "In this country people have distorted
the truth and manipulated the media ... (and) the good
American people are taken in by those kind of tactics."
This kind of "fanatical dedication to one single issue
no matter how small the minority, divides the country,”
she said, "adding that this fanaticism has been "really
devastating from the White House point of view.”
"I think it’s time for us to take a look at how things af
fect our people.” she concluded her talk. "We have
nothing to lose by looking ahead, and we have a lot to
gain.”
Scouts Rhonda and Erica Hughes; and
•Troop 111 Leaders Barbara Hughes and
Leatha Lewis. See story, page 3.
stations.
Under another contract
that is separately funded,
Cloudland will have a contrac
tor install some 90 meters and
lay over 8,000 feet of plastic
pipes. The estimated $69,596
cost of the project is being
financed through a combina
tion Farmers Home Ad
ministration loan-grant.
“There were separate con
tracts used, but it was one
(Continued On Page 3)
I
tion date. Certificates were
presented to the 27 new
members.
The new members include:
Jerry Harold Dover, Mrs.
Kathleen Jeanette Davenport,
Vernon Andrew Cordell,
Lewis Comer, Mrs. Katie
Louise Bagget, Ulys Loson
Combs, Agnes Loneita Ham
mond, Marlin Slayton Russell,
Bobby Joe Cooper, Dorothy
Jean Floyd, Myrtle Marize
Thomas, Paul Broome and
William Preston Palmer.
Also, Roy Lee Cavin, Myr
tle Louise Hardy, Lamar
Crane.‘Merdie Henry Reeves,
(Continued On Page 3)
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