June 20
By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion
100 Years ago – 1924
“Chautauqua -- Quality Programs for Everybody” ran June 20-24 in Martinsville. Programs included: opening exercises, story hour, the illustrated travelogue “Happy Hawaii,” concerts, lectures (including “China and the Future Peace of the Pacific by Dr. Ng Poon Chew and “Seeing Life Whole” by William H. Stout); dramatic interpretation “Six Cylinder Love”, junior programs and plays including by The Jolly Juniors, and the comedy drama “Their Honor the Mayor.”
Hooker-Bassett Furniture Factory Construction Superintendent Mr. E. M. Whitener was shot and seriously wounded by a man recently discharged from the construction work force. Whitener was “in a dangerous condition” at Lucy Lester Furniture. Two of the scattering shots struck construction assistant George “Rusty” Hairston.
Article “Mrs. Jenkins Gives Beautiful Affair” in the June 20, 1924 Henry Bulletin: “Characterized by much that makes it an out-standing feature of the week was the tea given Friday afternoon by Mrs. J.M. Jenkins at her attractive home on south Maple street, in honor of her charming house guest, Miss Mary Stephens, of Martinsville, Virginia. The home never presented a more perfect picture of beauty in the decorations. A profusion of roses were used in each room, the mantles banked in in artistic fashion and handsome vases of the dainty buds on every table. The assemblage of matrons and maids added a beautiful part to the occasion. Mrs. C.B. Strother greeted the guests in the hall and invited them into the reception room where the receiving line stood. Mrs. Jenkins was extremely lovely attired in a handsome costume of blue beaded georgette and Miss Stephens, who is an attractive blond type, looked beautiful in pastelle shades of taffeta and lace …”
75 years ago – 1949
The local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People met to plan to appeal the conviction of the seven Martinsville black men sentenced to death on charges of rape [they are now referred to as the Martinsville Seven]. The local NAACP announced that representatives from the Richmond office would come to Martinsville on June 30 to ask the City Circuit court for a certified copy of the men’s trials, so that the NAACP’s attorney could study them to see if there would be grounds for a motion of writ of error before the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. Meanwhile, the Congress of Civil Rights had announced that it would employ counsel for Francis DeSales Grayson, 37, the only married man among those seven. An unnamed NAACP spokesperson said that the NAACP would not enter the cases with the Congress of Civil Rights or “any other organization bearing the Communist label. … We are having no part with the Communists. If the Communist organizations intend to press their intervention to the point where we would be involved, we will step out,” the Martinsville Bulletin reported on June 20, 1949.
1960
Jack Burgess, 30, was hired as the director of the Community Recreation Center. The $240,000 center on Cleveland Avenue was nearly finished being built. A fundraising drive for $10,000 was still going on. The hope were for the center to be opened by July 1.
50 years ago – 1974
Mobile homes were dominating the local housing market as inflation and high interest rates had been putting stick-built houses out of reach for many. From Oct. 1, 1973, through May 30, 1974, it was 356 permits for mobile homes versus 199 permits for single-family houses and five or multi-family dwellings.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.