May 24
By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion
100 Years ago – 1924
The Grammar School library had about 300 volumes, purchased by teachers with funding from contributions by Martinsville citizens the year prior. The books were issued by a card system, and each teacher acted as a librarian for her class.
75 years ago – 1949
The City’s war on insects continued, as fogging moved to the eastern section of Martinsville, after midnight. About two-thirds of the city had been sprayed the previous night, stopping at 4:30 a.m. An unusually heavy application was given in areas that did not have sewer service. The regular fogging program, to kill flies and mosquitos, would be repeated every 30 days.
1960
Lee Telephone Company announced the coming of new technology which would allow local subscribers to pick up their home telephone and call station-to-station to New York or California or any other state without the aid of an operator. The work would begin as soon as factory engineers came to Martinsville. All Virginia exchanges of Lee Telephone except Rocky Mount joined the Customer Toll Dialing system en masse; it would require private or two-party line subscribers to dial 180 before the 3-digit area code followed by two letters and five numbers rather than the two letters and five numbers for a local call. Person-to-person calls would still be handled by operators.
The drive to raise the final $14,000 needed to complete the Martinsville Community Center continued to fall short of its goal; construction of the building was continuing to proceed on schedule. The newly elected board of directors had set the occupancy date for July 15.
50 years ago – 1974
It was the day of Patrick Henry Community College’s Spring Dance. The six contestants for Miss Patrick Henry Community College, chosen by a vote of the student body from among sophomore girls, were Gail Fretwell, Kathy Robertson, Marilyn Emler, Jennifer Lowe, Jane Lawing and Sandy Turner.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.