The Macon News from Macon, Georgia • 1

Sunrise 7:38 a.m. Cold Details WEATHER On Tonight 2A THE MACON NEWS Home Edition No. 8 Monday Afternoon, Jan. 8, 1979 2 Sections, 24 Pages 95th Year, Senate Su Supports Public By Dick Pettys ATLANTA (AP) The Georgia Legislature convened its 1979 session today with support apparently building in the Senate for a proposal that would allow Georgians to write their own laws. Swearing in ceremonies for the 180 House members and 56 senators, and a routine election of House and Senate leaders was the main business item of the day.

RESCUE The remainder of the first week of the session also was scheduled to be largely ceremonial, with the inauguration of Gov. George Busbee on Tuesday and combined State of the State address and budget message on Thursday. IN THE SENATE, support apparently was growing for a public initiative proposal that would allow the voters to force a statewide referendum on issues that I had been debated in the Legislature but had not passed. Sen. Lee Robinson.

D-Macon, said he has obtained a number of for the legislation that he first introco duced in the 1978 session. Senate Majority Leader John Riley of Savannah, one of the co-sponsors, predicted it would pass the Senate easily but said he could not predict its fate in the House. MEANWHILE, opposition was surfacing among House leaders to one of the governor's key education proposals his recommendation to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio in the first three grades from 25-1 to 20-1. 1. House Majority Leader Clarence $30 million expenditure to hire new Vaughn, said the proposed teachers would place new costs on local school systems that would have to be financed with property taxes.

He said the program already Gray Highway Particularly Hazardous Because of New Four Lanes Signs Planned on Gray Highway By Jim Greenblatt Macon The State Department of Transportation plans to install 42 "'Do Not Enter" signs on Gray Highway (U.S. 129) between Macon and Gray in the near future, a DOT official said today. One section of the highway, 5.5 miles south of Gray, is particularly hazardous, according to Jones County Sheriff T. L. Childs.

A Macon woman was killed there in a head-on collision Dec. 15. According to Jones County Deputy Sheriff Steve Tompkins, however, "it's not that bad of an area." Since the highway became four-lane the weekend before Labor Day, people have been driving in the wrong lanes, he said. They were not familiar with the changes at first, but it is getting better now, he said. "The area is highly patrolled more so than any other," Childs said.

In 1978 more than 50 accidents occurred on Gray Highway between Macon and Gray. Traffic and Safety Engineer John Reid said a "Do Not Enter" sign was installed at the hazard section immediately after the December 15 fatality. He also said that two weeks ago an inspection of the highway indicated the need for "42 additional signs to be installed in the near future according to our work schedule whenever we can get to them." The signs, to be installed at intersections and crossovers. will be for added To the Point Willie TV Stolen From Zoo If Willie B. ever catches the thieves who stole his television set, pray for their poor souls.

Willie $400 color television set was stolen Saturday, just three days after it was installed in his home at the Atlanta Zoo's primate house. Willie B. is a 450-pound, 20-year-old African lowland gorilla. "I was absolutely amazed at the expression on his face." said. "I just felt absolutely sick." The set will be replaced.

this time it will be tied down so securely it will take four days to get out," Ms. Dann said. Photo by William Berry Rev. Smith at Church Councilman Looks Back Looking back over his career as a councilman, Eddie Smith Last of Carter terms himself an "alarm clock," providing both a moral and political voice for those he represented. Now, back as a minister and librarian, Smith recalls the triumphs and tribulations of his Family Dies term and hints at the future.

Story on 1B. Country music pioneer Sara Carter, the last of the original Carter Family, died Good Tire today in California. She was A tire good for 100,000 miles? One has been 81. manufacturers developed but Reba won't put it on the market. Read about it in Hancock, a spokes- ACTION LINE, 1B.

woman for the The House of Cash in Nashville, announced the death. The organization represents singer Johnny Cash whose mother-in-law, Mother Maybelle original Carter, member was of also the an Inside The News musical clan. Sara, her husband A.P., and Mother Maybelle were Abby 2B Local 11A discovered during the early Action Line 1B Names in the News 9A 1920s in Bristol, Va. Business 5B Nation 3-4A Mrs. Hancock said Mrs.

CASHWORD 12B Obituaries 7B Carter, who had a heart con- Classified 8-12B People etc. 2B dition and had been ill for Comics 6B Sports 5-7A years, died at her California Crossword 10B Television 3B home. Mother Maybelle died Dr. Solomon 2B Theaters 3B in October and A.P. died in Editorials 10A Today-Tomorrow 11A 1960.

Entertainment 3B Weather 2A More deaths on 7B. Horoscope 6B World 8A Initiative Bill required construction of new classrooms. IN OTHER FIRST day developments, Sen. Culver Kidd, Milledgeville, introduced measures that would: the sale of alcoholic beverages on election day up to one hour before the polls opened and one hour after polls closed. The measure would require a constitutional amendment.

Lee Robinson a new Department of Vocational Rehabilitation to assume responsibilities now vested in the Department of Human Resources. require county boards of health to provide extensive community services for the mentally retarded, with the services paid for by the state. Court Won't Hear Macon Case Appeal WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court refused today to hear the appeal of Georgia death row inmate Johnny Mack Westbrook, condemned for the 1977 slayings of two elderly Macon women. The court left intact a Georgia Supreme Court ruling that Westbrook's conviction was valid. Prosecutors said Westbrook and a friend, Eddie Finney, killed the two women, identified as Thelma Kalish and Anne Kaplan, after seeking yard Mrs.

Kalish. "Before her death, Mrs. Kalish was raped and forced to withdraw money from a bank for the two men, according to trial testimony. PROSECUTORS said Mrs. Kaplan was abducted along with Mrs.

Kalish after trying to rescue her neighbor. Both women were taken to an isolated area in nearby Jones County and beaten to death, testimony showed. Westbrook, 42, was convicted of murder and kidnapping and sentenced to die in the electric chair. In seeking Supreme Court review, lawyers for Westbrook argued that his mentality is such that he was unable freely and voluntarily to waive his right to a lawyer's help during post-arrest questioning by police. THEY ALSO charged that a prospective trial juror should have been dismissed by the presiding judge for stating that the defendant, if convicted, should have to prove that life imprisonment was an appropriate penalty instead of execution.

Woman Kills Nurse's Aide emphasis, Reid said. Charles McElheny, DOT resident engineer, says the highway is "safe" and "adequate," but "if a driver doesn't see the first sign or the second, he may see the third. The DO decision to install the signs came as a result of concern shown by local citizens, Reid said. Reid hopes to get the signs installed Please See SIGNS, 2A NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UPI) A Nashville woman apparently went berserk in a crowded hospital emergency room Sunday and began shooting wildly, killing a nurse's aide and sending patients and employees diving for cover, police said.

When Darlene A. Bendzlowicz, 37, refused to drop the pistol, she was shot once in the stomach by a security guard and then turned the gun on herself, authorities said. She was in fair condition today at General Hospital. "All of a sudden the door flew open and there was this woman ranting, raving, cursing and shouting 'Somebody kill me! Somebody kill a witness said. Richway Considering Spot in Macon Market By Mary Burdette Macon News Writer Rich's Inc.

is seriously considering Macon as the site of a new Richway discount store, according to reliable sources. Rich's, which now has 17 Richway stores in three southern states nine of them in Atlanta is reported to be more aggressive lately in trying to carve out a place for itself in the discount market, said the source. The company is researching markets in Macon, Augusta, Athens and Rome as part of its plans for expansion outside metro Atlanta. Plans for locating in Macon, however, were denied today by Richway executive John Weitnauer. MACON'S SHOPPERS have been teased over the years by reports from the company that it would build a Rich's department store.

In 1967 Rich's bought 105.1 acres of land with frontage on Riverside Drive and announced plans to build a department store and shopping center. Most of that land was sold, however, and Northgate Village which houses Government Resisting Kroger, a Steak and Ale restaurant and several other shops and office was built on the site. Rich's still owns 17 acres of the original tract, with frontage on Northside Drive. In 1972 the company announced plans to build a department store in downtown Macon on the present site of the city's railroad terminal. That store was to be part of a shopping complex called Commerce Square.

Plans for that endeavor were later scrapped and the entire Commerce Square endeavor fell through. Rebels Claim Cambodia BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) Vietnam's Cambodian rebel proteges claim complete control of Cambodia after reportedly capturing the capital of Phnom Penh and driving Premier Pol Pot's government into the countryside, but analyists here said today the government was trying to organize a force to fight the insurgents. Related Story, 8A The analysts said the Cambodian leaders were trying to set up a line of resistance near Siem Reap in northwestern Cambe rebels claimed they were i in control of the area, about 320 miles northwest of Phnom Penh. Vietnam and its Soviet allies also reported the fall of Phnom Penh on Sunday but there was no independent confirmation. THE REBELS, led by Heng Samrin, a defector from the Pol Pot government, claimed the local population aided their offensive, but most analysts say Vietnamese troops did most if not all of the fighting.

A communique broadcast by the month-old' rebel movement, the United Front for National said the "revolutionary armed forces" by noon Sunday "completely liberated" Phnom Penh, and "the dictatorial and militarist regime of the Pol Pot-leng Sary clique has completely collapsed." A Chinese government official in Peking said the fall of Phnom Penh had been anticipated by China, the Cambodian government's chief ally, but "Cambodia is fighting on." Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the former Cambodian chief of state who flew from Phnom Penh to Peking Saturday, told a news conference in the Chinese capital Pol Pot and his government were alive and fighting somewhere in Cambodia. He said the Chinese are in radio contact with them. THAILAND CLOSED its 500-mile eastern border to Cambodian refugees but allowed about 800 foreigners from Phnom Penh, most of them claiming to be Chinese diplomats, to cross the frontier. Foreigners from six other nations also crossed the narrow stream dividing Thailand and Cambodia, Thai authorities said. Many of the Man's Body Found in Coal Car MILLEDGEVILLE The body of an unidentified man was found in the coal storage area of the Georgia Power Harlee Branch Plant Sunday.

According to Putnam County sheriff's deputies, the body was found about 1:20 p.m. by a coal supervisor at the plant located near the Baldwin County line. By Philip Bolton Macon News Bureau Deputies said the body was at the in the car." bottom of a train car and it fell on top Fingerprints have been collected of a large pile of coal when the coal from the body and several law enforcewas dumped. ment agencies are attempting to use Dr. D.A.

Pinero conducted an these to identify the man. autopsy at the Baldwin County Hospi- said the man is believed to tal Sunday, but said the cause of death Deputies be from Tennessee, the state from was still unknown. which the train came. "Special studies must be continued," he said. "There's no obvious cause of Last June, another body was found death, and we are trying to determine in a coal car that came from Harlan, if the man was dead before he was put Ky.

It still has not been identified. 1.