Longview News-Journal from Longview, Texas • Page 1

MONDAY, MAY 26,1986 lifter Texans lime Million 8, join 'Hands9 nip to help U.S. needy VI I Vfc. i APLowrphota A Texas character dressed up like the state walks down Main Street in Dallas Sunday afternoon while Hands Across America formed. By BOB DART Cox News Service WASHINGTON Palm-to-palm, from sea to shining sea, millions of volunteers formed a human lifeline through cities and countryside Sunday as Hands Across America reached out to help the hungry and homeless. At the White House, President Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan clasped hands with kids in commemorative T-shirts and joined a national chorus in singing "We Are The World" at 2 p.m.

The human chain stretched across 16 states and the District of Columbia. It began near the Atlantic Ocean in New York City and ended by the Pacific in Long Beach, but there were also large gaps along its route. Stretches of the Southwest were found to be too hot, too desolate and too sparsely populated to hold hands across. In some places, ropes, ribbons and strings of paper dolls took the place of people in the long line. "This is just the beginning!" organizer Ken Kragen said in New York.

"When today is over, roll up your sleeves and go out to work in your community. We have to move from the big event to the person on the street." Organizers had sought million people to form the chain and to raise SS0 million for the hungry and the homeless of America. However, the line was far from unbroken when it finally formed on Sunday. The 12-mile segment in Manhattan was nine-deep in hand-holders, but in the California desert, there were gaps as long as five miles. Nobody knows exactly how many people actually showed up, but estimates were in the millions.

"The important thing is there is a real consciousness being raised," said actress Shari Bela-fonte in Long Beach, the western Related stories, 2-A, 9-A terminus. awesome. It's being a part of history." "I came to help the children who are hungry or need homes," said Raycela Lowery, 9, a fourth-grader at Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School in Washington, D.C. an oversized "Hands Across America" T-shirt that engulfed her tiny frame, Raycela said her class had been rehearsing the event's three songs for weeks.

After the chain was formed, the participants all sang "We Are the World," "Hands Across America," and "America the Beautiful." The event, which took months to coordinate, lasted 15 minutes. The hand-holding singers were a mosaic of Americana. On 12th Avenue in New York City, Hells Angels parked their motorcycles and joined the line. In Princeton, four generations of the Mylod family in-terupted their family reunion and lined up on Stockton Street In Cecil County, scuba divers and boaters continued the line across the Susquenhanna River. In Baltimore, Mimmo Cric-chio and Mary Ann Brulinski and members of their wedding party, including former baseball pitcher and underwear model Jim Palmer, stood in line before heading to the church.

And so it went mile after mile of people. In Youngstown, Ohio, 101-year-old Sidney Bean, a retired railroad worker, joined the line. In Glenrio, singer Kenny Rogers straddled the Texas-New Mexico border on route 40. Navaho and Hopi Indians joined the line in New Mexico. So did a string of paper dolls sent by schoolchildren in New York to fill a gap in the unpopulated region.

DALLAS (AP) Red. white and blue balloons soared into a sunny Lone Star sky Sunday as an estimated 620,000 Texans joined hands in the biggest link of a coast-to-coast charity chain. the line was two or three deep in front of the Dallas office of Hands Across America, where people held their joined hands aloft, singing and swaying to the project's anthem "Hands Across America." Texas, with 621 miles of the chain, had the biggest link among the 16 states that joined to raise money for the nation's hungry and poor. Rain had at first threatened the event that came less than 24 hours after the area was pounded by heavy storms. But the sun popped out shortly before 2 p.m.

CDT, when the nationwide order was given to join hands. There were reports of gaps outside the city as the line snaked through rural areas towards Fort Worth, Wichita Falls and Amaril-lo. But state coordinator Sheryl Losser said the gaps were minor and many of the participants seemed to want to stand in West Texas, where organizers had feared gaps would be biggest. Ham radio operators told state organizers that the state appeared to have 85 percent of the needed 819.000 to fill the state line, she said. In Wichita Falls, northwest of Dallas, the line had to wind through town instead of a straight stretch because so many people wanted to join in, event spokeswoman Carol Edgar said.

Department of Public Safety officials said that in the six counties west of Tarrant and east of Childress, an estimated 106,000 people showed up. Along the Texas-New Mexico border, an estimated 1,200 turned out to be near country singer Kenny Rogers. Some of those who turned out for the event on the Texas-New Mexico border said they were disappointed because the line never materialized there. "It was just a little concert and we just wanted to link hands," said Karen Enresti of Lubbock. Among the participants in Dallas were three female post office workers clad in black T-shirts reading individually "Hands." "Across." "America." "We sent our order in too late to get Hands Across America T-shirts, so we decided to come up with our own," said Marion Had-ley of Dallas.

There's no excuse for people to go hungry in America." Celebrities taking part in Dallas included Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Dorsett, VS. Rep. Mickey Leland, D-Texas. and entertainer Tony Bennett 5 AP tuwi photo President Reagan and Mrs. Reagan, far left, join daughter Maureen and children of the White House staff In holding hands on front of the White House Sunday.

Offices close, schools open for holiday Thursday will have trash pickups made on Tuesday and Thursday while residents with normal service on Tuesday and Friday will have collections on Wednesday and Friday this week. Also closing for the Memorial Day holiday will be Gregg County offices including tax, vehicle registration and other of ices, officials said. Texas state offices and federal offices, including post offices are also scheduled to be closed for the day, officials said. Postal delivery services will also be closed for the day before resuming a normal schedule on Tuesday, officials said. A spokesman for the Longview Clearinghouse for area financial institutions said most banks and saving and loans offices also planned to be closed Monday in observ ance of the federal holiday.

While many businesses will be closed for the holiday, others plan to be open, a spot check of local retailers indicated. Among those planning to be open are many supermarkets, service-oriented businesses. A spokesman for the Longview Mall said stores in the shopping center would be open on Monday. Officials from Pine Tree, Spring Hill and Longview independent school districts all said their districts would be holding classes on normal schedules Monday. The Longview Veterans' Council will hold a Memorial Day observance beginning at 9:30 a.m.

Monday on the Gregg County Courthouse lawn, at the site of the Gregg See Closings, 10-A From staff reports Many East Texas businesses and most government agencies will observe the Memorial Day holiday Monday, but classes will be held as usual in most school districts, officials said last week. In observance of Memorial Day, city of Longview offices will be closed with all but emergency services oper-ating on holiday schedules, according to Sharon Hendricks, public information officer. She said among the city facilities closed will be Nicholson Memorial Library and City Hall. The Pine Hill landfill also will be closed. Also affected by the Monday holiday will be city sanitation services for the week, she said.

Mrs. Hendricks said residents with normal service on Mondays and Nation's gasoline prices 1'm 'J piral continue upward si IS li 4- ni to his place in line." Lundberg said the country was on a gasoline consumption spree. "It started with the country's reaction to terrorism abroad, when people began moving their vacations to this country," he said. "Simultaneously, gasoline inventories have been very low for this time of year. Plus, the gasoline futures market went up to $17 a barrel, so the combination of all these elements has contributed to the price increase between Mother's Day and Memorial Day." The overall average price of gasoline Is 95.54 cents a gallon, up 3.25 cents since May 9, Lundberg said.

Additionally, the wholesale price of gasoline has risen by 174 cents a gallon, a half-cent difference from the retail price that inevitably will be passed on the co, sumer. 1 i 4 LOS ANGELES (AP) Gasoline prices increased slightly over the weekend as the market kept to a traditional pattern at the onset of summer driving and got a boost from a national motoring spree, an oil analyst said Sunday. The average price rose this weekend by 3.25 cents a gallon for a total price rise of 5.5 cents over the past two weeks, said Dan Lundberg, who May 9 projected a price incease of cents to 6 cents by Memorial Day. "Still down the line Is the Fourth of July, when we can expect another increase of 3 cents a gallon for a total Increase of about 8 cents," Lundberg said. The price rise was due in part to an Increase in driving, he said, noting that Sunday's Hands Across America caused a significant boost in fuel consumption.

"It's a human line," he said, "but every person has to be delivered by automobile Incido tho Journal -A If i' -i 'h 1 Retired grocer en joys new life By ELISE LATTIER Staff Writer CARTHAGE After being In the grocery business for 38 years, Robbie LaGrone said was a strange feeling to be out of it, even for a little while. But since retiring two years ago, LaGrone has settled Into "the good life," enjoying his family and a small bail bond business. "Gqd has been so good to us; I don't know what I've done to deserve it," he said. Relaxing in his glassed-in patio, he glances for a minute at his expansive backyard, which, with Its swimming pool and a variety of plants, vegetables and flowers, covers nearly an acre. "I'm just an ol' country boy trying to make a living," be grins.

But he is much more than that LaGrone is a self-made man. He started out in 1946 with a borrowed $100 and $343 worth of gro-, ceries, and after 38 years, retired as the largest independent grocer in Panola County. Born and raised in Deadwood, he has lived in Panola County for all of his 59 years. And in that time, he has had his share of adventures. At 16, LaGrone set out to join the service during World War n.

He knew he was too young at the time, "but I was afraid the war would be over before I could get in it" One day, he decided to play hookey and hitchhiked to Shreveport to try to enlist He was told by the Army, Navy and Air Force to home and finish The war was almost over, so they were not as desperate for men as they had been." He had almost given up hope of helping in the war effort when he saw a sign for the Merchant See Retired, 10-A Ann Landers 13-A TV log 5-3 Business 12-A Weather 2-A Classified 9-14-B pftmir DThere Is only one ecJSSon cf rva Entertainment 5-7-B days vh their AJI ccs)- Horoscope 7-B W9 10 the Longvte kiorn! Jrnd Living Today 13-14-A and DaJy Nss receive ttw rncrnina Longview today 5-A Nswa-Joumzl. Obituaries 11-A News-Journal office will be' Police beat 5-A dossd Monday. Tto eSSsrtd cse Sports 1-3-B will open at 6p.m. Monday. -Staff pKofo by Ricky RmhvI Living the good life since retirement, Robbie LaGrone works out in his yard..