July 15
By Holly Kozelsky
100 Years ago – 1924
The annual Sunday School Convention of the Baptist Blue Ridge Association was held Tuesday and Wednesday, July 15-16, 1924, at the Baptist Church in Bassett. The Association had 40 member churches.
75 years ago – 1949
This day was the original date for the execution of Joe Henry Hampton, Frank Hairston JR., Booker T. Millner and Howard Lee Hairston [part of what now is called the Martinsville Seven], but they had received a 30-day reprieve on July 5 by Gov. William M. Tuck.
The Smith River was threatening to flood again, so City workers cleared brush away from the hydro-electric dam.
1960
An epidemic of pink eye was making its rounds through Henry County cattle, with at least 50 reported to have been infected. Cattle affected by the disease are temporarily blinded, which makes it difficult for them to graze, and many lose weight because of it. George Pollard was the County farm agent advising farmers how to treat it.
50 years ago – 1974
Rich Acres residents and local community leaders took a big step in their fight against Rated X movies being shown at the Martinsville Drive-In Theatre. A warrant accusing the theater of displaying movies was pending, after Deputy Sheriff James Kendrick seized the movie “Orgy of Revenge” the previous Saturday night. Henry County Commonwealth’s Attorney Roscoe Reynolds, Magistrate Joseph W. Minter and three citizens attended the showing of the movie with the intent of starting the process to get the theater to stop showing X-Rated movies. A deputy who checked the IDs of the people who had been admitted into the drive-in that night found that the theater had followed the law on age limits – no one under 18 had been there. The officials attended after a complaint had been filed by six residents who saw “Orgy of Revenge” and another X-rated movie, “Angie Baby,” the night before. State law prohibited the showing of obscene films, but what is considered obscene was left up to the communities, following a 1973 Supreme Court ruling.
25 years ago - 1999
Dentist Dr. George Stermer was among those who were helping out one of the two refugee families from Kosovo. He was fixing the teeth of the mother of six children. Two or three of her teeth were fractured on the gum line, and there were other problems too.
Dinosaur bones excavated in Wyoming by staff and associates of Virginia Museum of Natural History arrived at VMNH, delivered by the 1710th Transportation Company, Virginia Army National Guard. They were brought packed in 40 boxes.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.