The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 1

ATLANTA CONSTITUTION For 117 Years, The SouthU Standard Sewtpaper CopjrrifU 6 im TV Attinlt CwtiWioa TUESDAY. DECEMBER 24. 1985 SPORTS FINAL 25 CENTS Christmas is for those who give, those who dreairi I 1. Weathers Acr 4r Tuesday in Atlanta will be mostly cloudy. High near 50, becoming windy and turning colder in the afternoon.

Details, 22-C. For some, the only gift is hope for brighter future The Astixialcd Press TUNICA, Miss. Eleven-year-old Lena Simmons lives in the bleakest slum in the poorest state in the nation, but still she dreams of Christmas magic and Cabbage Patch Kids. "I want a black doll, a girl," she said, standing on the broken steps of the three-room shack where she lives with her mother and seven brothers and sisters. Pulling a worn advertisement from her pocket, she pointed to a doll with its arms spread for a hug.

"That one," she whispered. Lena lives in Sugar Ditch, a black neighborhood that is named for a stinking drainage ditch. Gifts of food, clothes and toys trickling into Tunica County from around the country will make Christmas at Sugar Ditch a bit brighter this year, but Lena's mother says it will fall far short of abundant. "We'll probably take a chicken and make See DREAMING, Page U-A Many brighten their own season by helping others The Associated Press Atlantans joined Americans coast to coast in spreading holiday cheer in the days before Christmas by giving toys and trees, hot meals and cold cash to the needy and those touched by tragedy in 1985. "People have always been nice to me, so I always felt like I owed everybody," said former taxicab driver "Buster" Lesesne as he prepared for his annual Christmas Eve delivery to poor families in Kissimmee, Fla.

During the year, Lesesne makes his list of families and then, with the aid of the local American Legion post, fills 25 to 30 boxes with milk, eggs, bread, canned food and a turkey. .1 In Atlanta, the United Way maintained a hotline through which the indigent could find out about agencies that provide food, clothing and other necessities for Christmas. See GIVING, Page U-A i Living in Tunica, in the bleakest slum in the poorest state in -the nation at Christmas can be devastating for youngsters: dreaming1 of Santa and special toys. But still they dream and The problems- arq many people without homes, food, gifts for their children. But across the nation, from; California to New York this Christmas season, people are once again helping people.

Bombinj in Africa Fata uncertain Fajcons head coach Dan Hen-ning met Monday with owner Rankin Smith but a decision on whether Henning. will return next year Is not expected until later in the week. 1-D. i 6 whites kills 3 children among victims of blast at a resort mall Addling color Thanks to new technology, vintage black-and-white movies such as "Miracle on 34th Street are' being reborn with a coating of color. 12-A.

The New York Timet The AbiOualed PtOiS Officers escort South Carolina prison escapees (from liam Ballew' into a police car in Woodbine shortly after left rear) Rodney Leonard, Jesse Glenn Smith and Wil- their arrest early Monday at an Interstate 95 rest stop. Fugitives ordered returned to S.G. prison AMANZIMTOTI, South Africa At least six whites, three of them children, were killed Monday when a bomb planted beside a garbage can exploded among pre-Christmas shoppers at a mall in this white resort south of Durban. Winnie Mandela vows defiance of an order barring her from Soweto and plans a Christmas vigil at the prison that holds her husband, Nelson. Page 2-A.

Minister of Law and Order Louis le Grange, vacationing near this city on the Indian Ocean, blamed the outlawed and exiled African National Congress for the bomb. He accused its operatives of deliberately hitting what he called soft targets. The attack was the third against whites in South Africa in eight days and seemed to represent an increased readiness among the government's foes to offer violent opposition to apartheid. The attack Monday seemed certain to induce white nervousness about the possibility of further assaults on areas such as shopping centers, previously regarded as safe. It also may provoke a white backlash against the perpetrators of such actions.

White revulsion at the attack ignoring similar losses on a larger scale by black families in recent months seemed likely to deepen with news of the age of some of those slain. The police said the dead in the blast' near Durban included two 2-year-olds and an 8-year-old. Officials at Addington Hospital in Durban said more than 40 whites were wounded and that 18 of them were admitted for treatment or surgery, possibly including the parents of two of the children, who have not been identified. Three escapees, woman arrested in South Georgia where they are charged in federal warrants with air piracy. The four also face state charges, Including assault and battery with intent to kill a prison guard who was shot in the mouth Thursday during the prison i Assistant U.S.

Attorney Bill McAbee said the fugitives will be formally arraigned sometime in the next 10 days after being returned to Greenville, about 25 miles from the Perry Correctional Institute, where the escape occurred. The four were captured about 3:30 a.m. Monday by Camden County deputy sheriffs and a state trooper who noticed a blue 1979 Pontiac parked at a closed wel-' come center on 1-95 south of Woodbine, The law enforcement agents surrounded the vehicle- and ordered its occupants to "come out and come out clean" after learning the car had been reported stolen in Mobile by a motorist who said the quartet bragged they would never be captured alive. Deputy Charles Easterling, who was supervising the early morning patrol, said he and the others could not tell how many people were in the car because of the heavy tinting on the vehicle's windows. But when the officers flashed their blue lights and used a bull horn to order the occupants outside, Easterling said, "We could see figures moving around and 1 See ESCAPEES, Page U-A.

i uo's i Resplendent in string tie, Jacket, leather vest, exotic scrimshaw belt buckle, rattlesnake tattles and cowboy hat, Mike Lowe is a' man de-signed to tee off Atlanta Jeep dealers. 1-B. By Jingle Davis Special to The Constitution WOODBINE, Ga. Three inmates and the woman who allegedly hijacked a helicopter to help them escape from a South Carolina prison were taken before a federal magistrate in Savannah Monday' after being captured. before dawn at an, Interstate 95 welcome- center in Camden County, -vi! U.S.

Magistrate Spence Grayson nied a request for bond for the four and ordered them returned to Greenville, S.C., Vlllt J. V-? State in bind, funding new schools in districts it is asking to combine i'0 a IS I wasted money." Under the new Quality Basic Education Act, the state will use a carrot and a stick approach to encourage school systems to consolidate. As a carrot; it will pay all the capital costs of building a new school in those systems li Jane O.Hansen 'i' Staff W'Uer The first year the state plans to spend millions of dollars encouraging small school systems to it will also spend millions more building additions to schools in the very districts it saw Should be mereed. I39iissy. answers Still have some Christmas to do? Worried about your holiday plants? and Garden" (tackles those concerns tonight at 10 on Metrochannel 13 in Fulton and DeKalb counties, Papers to ccmbino The Atlanta Constitution and (The Atjanta Journal will be combined on Christmas Day with regular home delivery that The Subscriber Service Center will be open for newspaper delivery calls that morning from 8 until, noon.

The classified advertising deadline for Thursday Is 6 p.m." Tuesday, end for the Friday paper the deadline is noon Thursday. that choose to merge, versus the .75 percent to "jV 90 percent it now pays. Wnr tho imrnminn fical troop iha etnta -r )' Department of Education is requesting at 'least 12.5 million in state' funds to help pick up the admintstratlye coste Incurred by enhnnla thai fall IwlfttB fortain ctnrlnnl nnmila- costs of two schoo svstems that have aereed to At the same time, it plans to spend $2,037 million on new construction in nine other school systems that fall below the minimum student populations recommended by the governor's Education Review Commission. Growth rate for Southern Baptists lags Conservative-moderate bickering being blamed By Billie Cheney Speed neligton Editor A Southern Baptist Convention official has blamed bickering between conservatives and moderates for the denomination's slowest growth rate since 1926. Preliminary statistics show that 100,448 people joined the church last year, a growth rate of 0.7 percent.

Dr. Wilmer C. Fields, of Nash-ville, vice president of public relations for the 14.4 million-member convention, called the controversy "a definite factor in the slowdown." This is the fourth consecutive year in which percentage increases in membership dropped for Southern Baptists. However, the total membership has increased each year. In an interview Monday, Fields said, "Over the last several years, many people have been emphasizing the things that separate Southern Baptists, and this downward turn in statistics is clear evidence that we must begin to center our attention on areas in which wc can Those incentives and deterrents were seen-as the only realistic alternatives to forcing, systems to consolidate.

The governor's Educa tion Review Commission, which spent 18 months developing the blueprint for overhauling Georgia's public school system, found it had to tread lightly around the issue of consolidation. See SCIIOOIS, Page 11-A That is "clearly a step in the wrong direction," said commission member Art Johnston, Southeast manager for International Business Machines Corp. "It will result ultimately in MITCHELL BROOKSStafl Dead bear, missing cocaine raise North Georgia mystery By Kevin Sack pilfered the leftovers from -the Indox Abby 7B; Helpline 7B i Allen 2A Horoscope 4B Bridge 3B Hudspeth 3B Business 1C Movies 4B City-State 8A Obituaries 6C Classified 8C People 1B Comics 7D Science Xword 7D Sports ID Editorials 14A TV 6B bear last meal. Dr. Kenneth Alonso, chief medical examiner at the State Crime Lab, said his autopsy revealed that the bear absorbed about three or four grams of cocaine into his blood system, although it may have eaten more.

"It's enough to kill anybody," he said, "The question is: What happened to that duffel bag?" Alonso said. "The bear docs not account for the body may have found the cocaine after the bear's death and emptied the remaining drugs into another container, leaving the clean packages where they had found them. He said the GBI wants to talk to a hunter, as yet unidentified, who found the dead bear on a hillside about three weeks ago. The hunter told a friend about the animal, and word slowly spread to a state game and fish division employee who fi- age 4-A Gary Garner, supervisor of the GBI's Gainesville regional drug enforcement office, said his agents are curious about the lack of cocaine -residue on the 34. kilogram-size packages found near the tattered duffel bag and the bear's decaying "You could let the bears' play with those bags for three months and there still would hnve been residue," he said, "Something ain't i right, I'll tell you that." Gafyrr speculated that some- Staff Writer A state medical examiner concluded Monday that a North Georgia black bear died of "acute cocaine intoxication," but said the bear did not consume all 75 pounds of the powder that it found in a duffel bag in the Fannin County foothills.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, meanwhile, began looking for Ahumaa being whojnay have; work together." He said this has come at a To subset i'Vcall 622-4141 1 fc.