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VOLUME CVIII — NUMBER 11
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Small Children Die In House Fire
Father Treated At Chattanooga
By TOMMY TOLES
Editor
A Tidings community fami
ly was trying to put its life
back together at midweek after
it lost two small children in a
raging fire Friday that also
burned their father over his en
tire body.
Funeral services for
Joycel{ln Shaßay Roberts, 3,
and Felicia DeWayne Roberts,
2, were held at 11 a.m. Tuesday
at Oak Hill Baptist Church in
the Gore community.
Wayne Larl:{ Roberts, 32,
father of the children, couldn’t
attend the services. He was
still being treated for severe
burns on 100 li)ercent of his
body. He was listed in “fair”
condition Wednesday morning
in the intensive care burn unit
at Erlanger Medical Center,
Chattanooga, Tenn.
CAUSE?
The tragedy occurred at the
Roberts home on Red Agnew
Road at Tidings Road early
Friday afternoon. In
vestigators had not been able
to determine the exact cause of
the blaze at midweek. They
suspected that it originated at
a wood heater in the living
room of the small frame house.
Firefighters found the body
of one small child inches from
the front door while the body
of the other child was
discovered in front of the wood
heater. The floor of the living
room had collapsed from the
fire and. its charred remains
were laying on the ground
when the bodies' were
discovered at mid-afternoon
Friday.
Inv. J er& Daven Kort of the
Chattootfa unty Sheriff’s Of
fice said a preliminary reg:ort
from an autopsy on both
children indicated that the
cause of death was smoke in
halation. A complete autopsy
report isn’t exgected for
another month. The autogsies
were conducted at the State
Crime Laboratory, Atlanta.
Units of the Rome-Floyd
County Fire Department were
first on the scene, followed by
the Gore and Subligna
Education Ideas
--See Page 7 .
The wmmerville News
AGONY WRITTEN ON FACE OF JOYCE ROBERTS, MOTHER OF CHILDREN
Fvfiéna.ifn}jibafinporti (R) Keep Mother From Entering Burning House
Volunteer Fire Departments.
Firemen and investigators
fought back tears during the
afternoon after they learned
that the two smally children
were trapped in the inferno.
GRIEF
Mary Joyce Roberts, 33,
mother of t,{ie two children,
almost collapsed with grief
when she arrived back home.
She had taken her mother to
work at Rome and shopped for
fi'roceries before returning to
er residence. She found it sur
rounded with firefighting
equipment, firemen, am
bulances and law enforcement
vehicles.
Mrs. Roberts had to be
restrained to keeg her from try
inf to enter the burning house
when she found that it contain
ed two of her children. Other
relatives arriving at the fire
scene also had toie restrained
from approaching the blazing
house.
Gayle Hicks, Unity Church
Road, and her friend, Tammy
Tidwell, Carrollton, were driv
ing north on U. S. Highway 27
near Tidings when Ms. Tidwell
spotted a column of smoke.
They turned onto Tidings
Road and had planned to turn
right onto Pacfier Dairy Road
toward Mrs. Hicks’ home.
NO BRUSH FIRE
“At first, we thought it was
just a brush fire that had got
ten too close to the house,”
Mrs. Hicks said. Then they
saw what turned out to be the
livill:f room of the house afire.
s. Tidwell drove off
Tidings Road onto Red Agnew
Road to see if anyone was in
the house. S
They saw Wayne Roberts
standing near the south side of
the house, with all his clothing
burned away. He was staring
into the fire.
He was screamin, %)for us to
help him, that his baby was in
there burning,” Mrs. Hicks
recalled with a shudder.
Ms. Tidwell and Mrs. Hicks
drove quickly to the Tidings
store and asked Mark Hicks to
call 911, the emergengy tele
hone system in Floyd County.
g‘he Tidings store is in the
Floyd telephone exchange al
though it ils inside Chattooga
County.
SUMMERVILLE, CHATTOOGA COUNTY, GEORGIA — THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1992
The fire ‘“‘was confined to
that one room’ when they ar
rived the first time at the
house, Mrs. Hicks said.
BLANKET
James Robert Hunter went
to the fire scene from the store
and returned to ask for a
blanket or anythinlél they had
to cover Roberts, Mrs. IYlicks
added. She had a baby blanket
in her car and gave it to
Hunter.
Roberts ‘‘was burned from
head to toe,”” Mrs. Hicks.said.
‘“He was just standing out in
the yard just screaming, look
ing toward the house.” Five
minutes later when they
returned from the store, she
said, the entire house was
engulfed in smoke.
The tr%fedy was especially
hard for Mrs. Hicks to bear.
Her sister, Patricia Cornwell,
46, had died in Ohio last Thurs
day morning. She left soon
after Rome firefighters arrived.
“It was just too stressful,” she
said.
The call to 911 was record
Perry Meeting Set Friday
Feds Reject State Reapportionment Plans
By BUDDY ROBERTS
Associate News Editor
Rep. Tim Perry will hold a
public town hall meeting at 7
g.m. Friday at the Chattooga
ounty Courthouse.
Perry said he called the
meeting to receive comments
from citizens, listen to their
problems, and offer an ulpdate
on the current legislative
session.
Meanwhile, Perry learned
Tuesday that the U. S. Justice
Department has rejected
Georgia's reapportionment
fileans for state House of
presentatives, Senate and
Courthouse Moves
‘ --See Page 3-A
© Copyright 1992 By Espy Publishing Co., Inc. — All Rights Reserved
ed at 12:53 p.m. Friday. Fire
Chief Bobbie McKenzie and
Asst. Chief Benny Bohannon
arrived at the scene at 1:04
p.m. Engines 7 and 8 from the
Armuchee Fire Station arrived
at the house minutes later.
HEADED NORTH
Chief McKenzie said he and
Asst. Chief Bohannon were
traveling to north Floyd Coun
tfi to visit a sick fireman when
they heard the 911 Center in
Rome dispatch the fire-fighting
e?luipment from. Armuchee.
They were on U. S. Highway
27 approaching Highway 156.
At the time, they were
uncertain whether the gre was
in Floyd or Chattooga County.
After they crossed the countK
line, they decided to approac
the column of smoke for fire
safety reasons.
Mrs. Hicks and Ms. Tidwell
were at U. S. 27 and Tidings
Road to direct the firemen to
the house.
McKenzie and Bohannon
saw Roberts standing on the
see SMALL CHILDREN, page 8-A
Confiressional districts.
e was to attend a meeting
of the Reapportionment Com
nmittee at 2 p.m. Wednesday. It
was unclear late Tuesday after
noon if all or part of the plans
had been rejected, and for what
reason.
Perry said he did not know
what changes will have to be
made or how Chattooga Coun
gy will be affected by the
ustice Department’s action,
and would not have an idea un
til after the meeting.
The General Assembly was
in recess, this week, and will not
reconvene until Feb. 3, to allow
the Senate and House Reap-
Eortionment Appropriations
ommittees to work.
Before it a(gourned last
week, Rep. Ken Poston, Ring-
3 &
g Yoy
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GORE FIREMEN ELLIS LINN (L), LARRY SIMPSON SEARCH FOR CHILDREN
Bodies Found In Living Room, Only Inches From Front Door
Hospital For 100 Percent Burns
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P AR o % P
JOYCELYN (L), FELICIA ROBERTS
Children Perish In Flames Friday
gold, submitted a bill authoriz
@nfi a fourth superior court
judge for the Lookout Moun
tain Judicial Circuit. The
measure passed in the House of
Representatives, but Sen.
Waymond “Sonny’ Huggins
has submitted a substitute bill
in the Senate.
Hl:fgins’ bill would have
the judge appointed in April, if
approved, and the %?st would
be up for election in November.
Poston’s plan calls for the
judge to be appointed later in
the year, and apparently not be
elected until 1%83.
Huggins said he is still not
sure if the fourth judgeshiF will
be approved because of the
state’s financial situation.
T e
Sonny’s proposal,” Perry said.
Mentoring Pushed
--See Page 1-B
Special Photo
“If we're deserving a fourth
judge and it’s funded, I think
we should get it.”
Perry said that the bill may
be debated in a conference com
mittee to settle any differences
about the time of appointment.
He called it “a good com-
K;omise," because Gov. Zell
iller wanted to agpoint the
Eost, but Perry and Huggins
ave asked it be elective from
the start.
GLOOMY
Huggins continued to
predict a gloomy financial
situation for the state. “‘I don’t
think we'll have the money,” he
said, referring to Miller’s $B.l
million budget request. There
has not been enough economic
see PERRY MEETING, page 9-A
Service Gives
Babes To Lord
By JULIE GRIFFIS
Staff Writer
When I come to the end of the road
and the sun has set for me,
I want no rites in a gloom-filled room,
why cry for a soul set free?
Miss us a little — but not too long
and not with your head bowed low.
Remember the love that we once shared,
Miss us — but let us go.
For this is a journey that we all must take
and each must go alone.
It’s all a part of the Master’s plan,
a step on the road to home.
When you are lonely and sick at heart
0 to the hills we know,
Ang bury your sorrows among the trees
Miss us — but let us go.
THIS PASSAGE was contained in the notice given to those
attending the funeral of Joycelyn and Felicia Roberts this past
’l‘uesdfi morning.
Unlike the words in the poem, Joycelyn, 3, and Felicia, 2, did
not have to take that journey to the Lord alone — they went
together, side by side, in life and death.
A portrait of the toddlers sat between two tiny, pink coffins
at the Oak Hill Baptist Church. Flowers complemented the set
ting as bright sung'ght streamed through the windows.
As the church choir sang the words, “The Lord will make a
way somehow . . .He will take away your sorrow,” a grieving
mother cried for the little ones she woqun’t hold again, until she
takes that journey homeward.
In introducin& her solo, Nicki Shropshire, told the congrega
tion that she suffered through a simifar tragedy once before.
““The house was on fire fl:fi I got out through a window,” she
said. Loved ones of Ms. Shropshire died in that fire. Her tribute
tod (g'celyn and Felicia was an acapella rendition of “‘Up Where
We Belong.” Seve 4
JUST ONE DAY after the birthday of Martin Luther King
Jr. blacks and whites filled the tin b¥ack church in the Gore-
Tidings communities. :‘flbwere nfi there for the same reason:
to pay respects, to say goodbye, and to “celebrate the homecom
ing,” of two small, beautiful children that the world would miss
deqi-ly. There were no dry eyes.
t was one of those brief, ¢mlabed moments, when time stood
still, and the color of one’s skin didn’t matter. Tears and pain
see SERVICE GIVES, page 8-A
STILL
ONLY
250
Staff Photos By Tommy Toles