June 8

By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion

100 Years ago – 1924

The young men of the graduating class of Martinsville High School gave a dance at Municipal Hall for the young ladies. Out-of-town guests included Miss Dill Dillard of Rocky Mount, Miss Reed of Leaksville, Misses Carter and Yarbrough and Messrs. Whitehead and Reed of Chatham.

75 years ago – 1949

More than a dozen rescue squads coming from within a 50-mile radius gave a final search for the body of Leonard Burger, 53, who was thought to have drowned in a boating accident on May 25. The body of 8-year-old Kelvin Scales had been found much earlier. Efforts by people on 13 boats were unsuccessful.

1960

A young, bearded Australian who was hitchhiking across the entire United States, Nole Alexander, made a stop in Martinsville. He had received a ride from Greensboro from Elwood Taylor of Highland Avenue, Martinsville, and spent the night with the Taylor family.

50 years ago – 1974

Fire victim Terry Wayne Millner, 25 of 1422 Rivermont Heights, was improving in condition to a description of “satisfactory.” He had been seriously injured in an explosion June 7, 1960, at Glazed Products of Martinsville. Mrs. Linda Wagoner Hubbard, 28, of Ridgeway, remained in “”very critical” condition, and Theodore Petross, 25, of Cascade, remained “critical.”

25 years ago - 1999

School had not yet released for summer break, but Superintendent David Martin let county students out of schools a few hours early: temperatures had reached 97 degrees the day before and June 8 also was expected to reach the 90s.

— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.