A look back

By By Dr. Bill Stewart
Aug. 14, 1958-J. D. Bowen is safe, according to a letter just received from Iraq. Mr. Bowen, a Morgan County native, said the personnel on the job on which he is foreman were at no time in danger during the recent Iraqi strife. Iraq was the scene of a recent revolution in which the existing government fell and the king was shot and killed. (Tragically, Mr. Bowen lost his life in a plane crash on his way home from Iraq. See item below for Aug. 15.)
Aug. 14, 1958-Fans of Elvis Presley everywhere were saddened by the death today of his mother, Mrs. Vernon (Gladys) Presley. Elvis is now an Army private at Ft. Hood, Tex.
Aug. 14, 1958-Lester Wooten, Morgan County superintendent of education, is attending an AEA-sponsored training school at Alabama College in Montevallo today.
Aug. 15, 1958-The MCHS faculty for the 1958-59 school year is now nearly complete. The more than 600 students who are registered will be instructed by a staff that includes Elizabeth Barclift, J. P. Cain, Effie Lou Gilchrist, Beulah Hester, Olga Hester, Roman Higdon, Hollis James, Lonnie
Leflore, Dorothy Myers, Herman Myers, Lucille Nicholson, Fay Parker, Lizzie Reed Penn, Ilene Abercrombie, Tempie Cain, Gladys Greer, William Hamilton, Beulah Pettey, Grayce Wasson, and Ann Weinman.
Aug. 15, 1958-J. D. Bowen of near Hartselle, en route from a construction job in the Darbendi Khan area of Iraq, died tragically when the KLM Super Constellation airliner he was aboard, plunged into the stormy North Atlantic sea.
Aug. 16, 1958-Funeral services for Mrs. Daisy Ashworth were held at Hartselle First Christian this afternoon. She was the widow of the late Dr. G. S. Ashworth. Pallbearers were Millard O’Barr, Merrill Doss, Bob Strickland, John Montgomery, and Carl Francis.
Aug. 16, 1958-Peoples’ Hardware &Implement Co., located at the Corner of Sycamore and Chestnut streets, opened for business today.
Aug. 16, 1958-The Danville people are looking forward to using the new telephone system currently being installed.
Aug. 17, 1958-Pfc. William A. King recently copped first place in competition with the M1 rifle in the 507th Ordnance Company in Hanau, Germany.
Aug. 17, 1958-Hartselle telephone subscribers are very envious today of their Decatur neighbors. Just 10 miles north it’s now possible to dial long distance calls as far away as California. Decatur is the first Alabama community to have direct distance dialing (DDD). In advance of DDD going into effect, the country has been divided into areas to which different three-digit numbers have been assigned. This ensures that all telephones in the country have different numbers.
Aug. 18, 1958-Rudolph Slate was mustered out of service in the Air Force recently. He has accepted at job with the Philco Corp. in Japan.
Aug. 19, 1958-Currently showing at the Strand is “I Married a Woman,” starring George Gobel and Diana Dors.
Aug. 20, 1958-Guy Nelson is building a six-room house on Nelson St., the ultimate cost of which he estimates at $9,000.