A look back

By By Dr. Bill Stewart
Dec. 4, 1958-This week Hugh F. Penn announced plans for a new subdivision on Bethel Road to be named Penn Manor.
Dec. 4, 1958-W. H. “Buck” Gibson is being sent by Redstone this week to an ordnance facility near Chicago for ten days of schooling on the latest guided missile developments.
Dec. 4, 1958-Robert C. Francis was awarded an outstanding cadet ribbon in military science at the senior level at Auburn this afternoon.
Dec. 4, 1958-Fred Summerford, Falkville 2, was the lucky winner of an automatic shotgun given away by the Hartselle Athletic Booster Club today.
Dec. 5, 1958-Dr. W. H. Block left today for New York City where he will attend a meeting of the board of directors of the American Heart Association.
Dec. 5, 1958-The Highway Patrol is reminding drivers that the law requiring them to stop while school buses are loading or unloading also applies to four-lane highways, not just two-lane roads.
Dec. 6, 1958-Unemployment compensation payments in Alabama are up more than a hundred percent from this time last year. State officials expect that “the state of depression in Alabama will continue through late 1959.”
Dec. 6, 1958-The McKendree Methodist Church held its annual “country store” in downtown Hartselle today. There was a wonderful selection of homemade cakes, pies, and candy plus dressed hens, fresh pork sausage, eggs, milk, and butter.
Dec. 6, 1958-MCHS remains undefeated (4-0) in basketball. Tonight the Tiger cagers prevailed over Priceville by a score of 71-54. Leading scorers for the home team were Lothian Smallwood (23), Jerry Atkins (17), and Jimmy Speegle (10).
Dec. 7, 1958-The sum of $1,227,621 will be spent on Morgan County schools in 1959. According to the new budget recently approved by the board of education, teachers’ salaries will account for 72 percent of this figure ($889,581).
Dec. 7, 1958-The West End Methodist Church was formally dedicated today. The main message was given by Rev. E. M. Barnes, Jr., former
Hartselle pastor who was the leader in the movement to found the new church.
Dec. 7, 1958-”Indiscreet” began a two-day run at the Strand today. The movie is billed as “the drollest adult comedy in years.”
Dec. 8, 1958-Experts feel that Alabama and Auburn are about equal in the number of outstanding football prospects they have signed thus far in the ‘58-’59 recruiting season. Leroy Jordan of Excel was Bama’s most prominent signee.
Dec. 9, 1958-Mrs. Louella Dunaway, 81, died at her residence early this morning. Survivors include a son, Pettus Dunaway, and a daughter, Mrs. Gordon Groover, both of Hartselle.
Dec. 10, 1958-The Rotary Club’s featured speaker at today’s noon meeting was Paul Markwood, director of labor-management relations at Wolverine Tube. Carlton Kelley, who heads up the Tennessee Valley State Trade School, spoke to Kiwanians the previous evening.
Dec. 10, 1958-Six Eva girls, returning from a Decatur shopping trip, were involved in a collision this afternoonwhen the car in which they were riding smashed into the rear of a pickup truck. According to their teacher, who was driving the car, she “looked up and there he was.”