The Bee from Danville, Virginia • 14

aiorito booristinWi The Bee: Danville, Thursday, August 25, 1977 Elvis remembered Danvillian's mother ushered him into world, back in Mississippi Thomas J. Evans came to Danville in late 1936 from Tupelo, where he sharecropped Pickin' cotton cotton alongside Vernon Presley, the father of Elvis. After 40 years, Evans still keeps a small cotton crop behind his Laurel Avenue home. By BONNIE ROSS Bee Staff Writer When Thomas and Connie Evans return to Tupelo, each year to visit friends and relatives, they pass the tworoom frame house where Mrs. Evans' parents lived in 1933-34 and where her mother delivered Elvis Presley the following year.

They pass other reminders of their life as Mississippi cotton sharecroppers, an existence Evans, his wife and his two brothers' families escaped by coming to Danville to work for the mill. A retired employe of Dan River Thomas Evans, 73, worked for 29 years in the cotton mill. His wife raised five children and worked in the mill for 17 years. They a also pass the East Tupelo Assembly of God Church, where they went to Sunday school with the Presleys. "Folks back then didn't have nurseries," tells Evans.

"On they put a palette out in the church for the children. Elvis just lay on that palette with the rest of the boys and girls." Mr. and Mrs. Evans, of 49 Laurel Avenue in Danville, 'Average' leaf sale Evidence Leaf on Danville warehouse an average of $101.07 per floors for today's "average hundredweight. sale" included primarily Area tobacco growers will primings, lugs, and non- be able to redesignate selling descript, according to sales places for their poundage supervisor Charles Waddell.

from Monday through Prices, he said, were "fairly Thursday of next week. steady" after yesterday's sale The redesignation offered of 527,642 pounds for $533,628 a month after the market opening requires marketing (Continued from Page 1-B) nual police auction. Sgt. Smith's job in the property room is almost fulltime. But he is also in charge of the Crime Scene technicians on the police force.

Smith and his four men find, collect and submit evidence from the scene of a crime and send it either to the state crime lab, or the FBI crime lab. This job personally involves Smith with almost all the evidence in the property room he is the one who finds it and processes it. Smith, 34, holds an Averett College degree in police science, and is the only graduate of the Virginia Academy of Forensic Science on the local police force. "This job is what I like to do," says Smith. "It's always different.

And there is always something some piece of evidence on the scene of every crime to tell you who did it." Schools open tomorrow School starts tomorrow for most of Danville's Schools will open and close on the following public school pupils. schedule tomorrow: Heading to classrooms will be all students in grades one through four, those starting middle school Elementary: 8:15 to 11:30 a.m. in grade five, those beginning junior high in grade eight, and those entering high school in grade ten. Taylor and Wilson middle schools: 8:15 to 11:45 Kindergarten pupils will begin their school careers a.m. on individual schedules established by principals.

Tomorrow's part-day of school will not include Gibson Middle School: 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon. cafeteria lunches, but school-bus and tripper-bus services will be in operation. Westmoreland Middle School: 8:45 a.m. to 12:15 On the city's new public buses, tripper tickets from p.m.

last year can be offered along with an additional five cents to make up the current 25-cent fare. And Bonner and Langston junior highs: 8:30 a.m. to tomorrow, until students can purchase tickets at 12:15 p.m. their schools, they will be permitted to present the exact cash fare of 25 cents. High school: 9a.m.

to 12:30 p.m. Area Deaths And Funerals Robert Strader crash victim One 18-year-old rider was killed and another was injured seriously when a motorcycle collided with a truck yesterday afternoon on the Mt. Cross Road. Robert (Bob) Strader, of 924 Grove died at the scene of the accident, according to Danville Lifesaving Crew members who answered the 4 p.m. call.

Glen Doolin, of 311 Gray Street, suffered multiple fractures, abrasions and lacerations as well as a dislocated shoulder. He was admitted to the intensive care Ernest P. Neal CHARLOTTESVILLE Graveside rites for Ernest Palmer Neal will be held Friday at 2 p.m. in Monticello Memorial Park by the Rev. Richard E.

Myers. Mr. Neal, 94, of Charlottesville died Wednesday in a Roanoke nursing He was a retired store owner. He was born in Java, a son of the late Abraham Thomas and Mary Elizabeth Owen Neal. He is survived by five daughters, Mrs.

W. M. Croker and Mrs. S.B. Detwiler both of Arlington, Mrs.

Elizabeth N. Porter, Lynchburg, Mrs. James G. Snead, Roanoke, and Mrs. Wade W.

Menefee Harrisonburg; a sister, Mrs. J.B. McDowell, South Boston; 12 grandchildren and six greatgrandchildren. The body is at Joseph W. Teague Funeral Home.

tell this story of the birth of the king of rock 'n' roll: "It was Jan. 8, 1935, when Elvis was born there, in that two-room house. "The front room was the bedroom and living room, and it was about 15 feet by 16 feet. In the back room, about 14 feet square, was the kitchen al and dining room. "His mama, Gladys Presley, called Dr.

Hunt, and he came to see her, but the baby was slow about coming so he gave her a dose of medicine and he went home to go to sleep. about 12:30 a.m. the baby started to be borned." Mattie Sandland Willis, the mother of Connie Evans, was living with her husband and younger children across the road from the Presleys. Connie and Thomas Evans were living nearby. The Presleys, Willises and Evanses all were sharecroppers.

Before the doctor arrived, Mrs. Willis delivered Gladys Presley's baby. "She had twins, both boys, but one died," said Evans. The Family Of BUD FLOYD wish to thank friends, neighbors, Dr. Milam and Dr.

Stoneburner and the Danville Life Saving Crew for the kindness shown us during the death of husband and father. Wife and Children Mrs. Evans added, "Elvis was the first to be borned. Mother said the other baby was so slow that he died." "It was bad, I'm telling you," Evans says of the life of a cotton sharecropper. Thomas and Connie Evans were born in Alabama.

"I was seven years old when daddy moved from Alabama to Mississippi," says Evans. "We lived on one plantation for several years. "Daddy quit sharecropping and moved to town, Tupelo, to work for a cotton mill. The next spring, he let me go and live with an old man and woman." The three years that Evans lived with these landlords was the only time in his life that he was able to get an education. Sharecroppers' children, he notes, only went to school when it was raining.

Evans finished the fourth grade before he had to leave the landowner's home. "I hardly know how it did happen," he relates. "The old man was going to whop me and I wouldn't let him. I was 14 years old and I ran away." He had nowhere to go. Eventually, he found his way to another landowner, Jess Dunn, who took him in as a hired hand, for room, board and a new pair of pants.

After the first year, Evans left Dunn and hired himself out to other plantations for $15 per month for four years. When he was 19 and Connie Willis was 20, they were married near Tupelo. Over 10 years later, Thomas Evans' brother persuaded him to move to Danville and to work for the mill. owe it to your children to give them a chance to get an education," Evans' brother told him. Connie and Thomas Evans have five children, all of whom graduated from high school, two attended college and one earned a B.A.

degree. WADDELL'S FLOWERS and GIFTS 447 S. MAINMrs. Geneva Gentry Waddell Staff Invites You To The NEWEST, PRETTIEST MOST EAGER TO PLEASE DID YOU KNOW? EAGLE TRIPLEX BURIAL VAULTS ARE MANUFACTURED LOCALLY BY Danville Vault Corporation Chatham Road Phone 793-1711; Ask Your Funeral Director To EXPLAIN THE EAGLE FEATURES Spruce Reynolds Shermont Baptist CHATHAM -Spruce curred near Shermont Baptist Church as the motorcycle crossed a double line to pass another vehicle and moved into the path of a truck driven by Averette Wayne Jefferson, of 237 Timberlake Drive. "The truck tried to avoid the accident," added Rowland.

The trooper had lodged no charge this morning. Rowland said he has not determined the driver of the motorcycle. The funeral for young Strader will be conducted tomorrow as 3 p.m. at St. Mark's Pentecostal Holiness Church, which he attended, and burial will be in Danville Memorial Gardens.

The Rev. Henry W. Taylor will officiate. The young man was born in Reidsville, N.C., a son of Rubin Roy Strader and Rita Barker Strader Fitzgerald, and was educated in the Danville city schools. He had been employed in the building industry for the past two years.

In addition to his parents, he leaves two brothers, Rubin Roy Payne Strader Jr. of Richmond and William Wesley Strader of Danville; two sisters, Mrs. Carolyn S. Cassells and Mrs. Sue S.

East, both of Danville; and his maternal grandparents, John Wesley Barker, Sutherlin, and Mrs. Nora W. Barker, Danville. The family is at 1802 N. Main and will receive friends at Barker Funeral Home tonight from 7 to 9 o'clock.

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MODERN 2-PC. BEDROOM SUITE LIVING ROOM Choice of Finishes SUITES Herculon Covers- Good Selection 530 Phone FURNITURE Monroe 793-2911 St. CO. unit of Memorial Hospital last night. The hospital nursing service reported Doolin's condition this morning was serious.

According to Trooper W.W. Rowland, the accident 0C- Louise Irby HURT Funeral services for Mrs. Louise Nicholson Irby will be held Saturday at 2 p.m. at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church by the Rev. Nathaniel Jones.

Burial will be in Level Run Baptist Church cemetery. Mrs. Irby, 51, of Hurt Rt. 1 died yesterday at her residence. She had been in declining health for several weeks but death was not expected.

The body is at Miller's Funeral Home, Gretna. Born in Davis County, N.C., she was a daughter of the late John and Lottie Turner Nicholson. She was educated public schools of Davis County and later received a B.S. degree from WinstonSalem Teachers' College in Winston-Salem, N.C. Mrs.

Irby was employed by the Pittsylvania County School Board and taught at Hurt Elementary School. She was a member of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church. She is survived by her husband, Isaiah Irby of the home; one son, John Irby, Hurt Rt. one step-son, Isaiah Irby Hurt; one sister, Mrs. Mildred Phifer, Greensboro, N.C.; one grandchild and one stepgrandchild.

Reynolds, 64, of Chatham Rt. 4 died in Memorial Hospital this morning. Born in Pittsylvania County July 28, 1913, he was a son of the late Charlie Ward Reynolds and Macy McNeely Reynolds, who survives at Chatham Rt. 4. He was married to Nilla Martin Reynolds and was a member of the Tabernacle Christian Church.

He was a retired employee of the Virginia Highway Department. addition to this wife and mother, are one son, Melvin V. Reynolds of Chatham Rt. six sisters, Mrs. Frederick W.

Reynolds, Mrs. Herman F. Reynolds, both of Callands, Mrs. E. H.

Chappel of Garden Grove, Mrs. Wyatt Oakes of Chatham Rt. 4, Mrs. H. L.

Smith of Springfield and Mrs. Wallace Garlick of Falls Church; three brothers, Dillard Reynolds of Callands, C. D. (Joe) Reynolds and Marshall Reynolds, both of Chatham Rt. 4.

The body is at Scott Funeral Home, where arrangement will be completed. VFW CONVENTION Mr. and Mrs. Jake Tate Jr. are attending the national convention of Veterans of Foreign Wars, which will continue through Aug.

26 in Minneapolis, Minn. He is vice-chairman of the national credentials committee, and she is senior vice-president of the VFW's 14-state Southern Division Conference..