A lot happened, beginning with the early morning of Jan. 25, when a man going to pick up newspapers for delivery spotted a fire in the Keith’s grocery store on South White Street. The fire had a good start, and it was one of the worst times for a fire with below-freezing temperatures, rain and sleet, all in the dark. All the firemen and their equipment from both Wake Forest and Rolesville were coated with ice, and they found it hard to stand while wrestling heavy hoses.
Frank Keith and his sons, Edwin and Bruce, all firemen, tried to rescue what they could from the office, and while they were inside a heavy iron wheel at the top of the elevator fell and nearly hit Frank.
The store was in two buildings owned separately by Tom Arrington and Wait Brewer Jr. on the west side of the street where there is an unexplained jog to the west.
The store had been in business since 1913 and advertised it was in the center of town and customers could have delivery of any order over $1 by calling EX5-3133.
Frank Keith had been in the grocery business since 1903 when he worked for Jesse Hollowell and S.W. Brewer at different times before opening a store of his own.
Soon after the fire, Frank announced that he and his sons would build a new store on unpaved Brooks Street, a building that now, greatly renovated, is The Forks Cafeteria. Also Arrington and Brewer said they would rebuild with modern glass and aluminum fronts. Brewer said he would combine the reconstructed space with his feed store – he also operated a grocery store on South White – and Arrington was looking for a renter, which turned out to be the Forest Furniture Company.
The Keiths literally have been a mainstay of the Wake Forest Fire Department for decades. Frank Keith was the chief from 1941 to 1958, son Bruce Keith was chief in 1978 and again in 1979 to 1980, and Bruce’s son, Jimmy B. Keith, was the first fulltime paid chief, serving from 1987 to 2004, when he died of cancer after wresting another annual penny on the town’s tax rate to provide 10 cents dedicated to the fire department. Clifton Keith remains an integral part of the department today and serves on the board of directors as does Gary Sullivan, a son-in-law.
So what else happened that year? Look below for some highlights.
*Also in January, the Wake Forest Civic Club, made up of downtown store owners and other civic-minded men, discussed the new Wake Forest Hospital on South Allen Road, which was complete but not open. Apparently the new county-owned hospital in Raleigh, which grew into today’s WakeMed, was suffering financially because of competition from Rex and other hospitals and because doctors, who did not like the hospital’s location on the east side of Raleigh, were not sending patients there. Four satellite hospitals aside from the main one in Raleigh had been planned, and the ones in Fuquay-Varina and Zebulon were already open while Wake Forest and Apex remained closed. The year ended, after pleas and delegations to the county commissioners, with the Wake Forest Hospital still complete but empty and it would be 1963 before it opened.
*In June the Wake Forest Woman’s Club was organized with Mrs. W.C. Strickland as president and Mrs. Cameron Lee, Mrs. John Sanderford, Mrs. Leland Jones, Mrs. E.C. Snyder and Mrs. R.W. Turner as board members. The charter meeting was on Sept. 7. (I was so happy when newspapers began to refer to women by their given names and only add a marital connection if it was relevant.)
*In August, 12 stores in downtown would continue to be closed Wednesday afternoon through November: Family Barber Shop, Mrs. Folk’s Antique Shop, Forest Furniture, Jones Hardware, Mack’s, Abner Nash Agency, Pope’s, Professional TV, Wake Forest Furniture, Western Auto and Wooten Insurance.
*In September, a front-page article in The Wake Weekly gave the names of 25 children enrolled in Mrs. J.R. Wiggins’ kindergarten along with their parents’ names.
*In that same issue, Catherine Paschal, a member of the board of directors for Olivia Raney Library in Raleigh, said the town would receive a grant of $3,000 for the library a group headed by H.L. Miller was planning after Wake County voters said no to a county library system.
The town library would be in the former W.W. Holding Cotton Company office on South White, the brick building next to The Cotton Company, which it had been. The students in Mack Bridge’s classes were building the fir bookshelves before the library opened on Nov. 15. Mrs. James D. Sistrunk was the first librarian, the library was open 15 hours a week with 1,000 books, many donated, and patrons had to purchase a library card – 25 cents for students at Wake Forest Elementary, 50 cents for people inside the Wake Forest and Rolesville school districts and $1 for those outside the districts.
On Saturday night the new Wake Forest Woman’s Club held a game night at the Community House with $1 admission to help raise the $600 rent. People were asked to bring their own cards or game boards to play bridge, canasta, Monopoly or checkers. The games nights had been a success and raised $76, it was announced in November.
*In February, K.S. Marshall and 18 other people in Forestville agreed they would pay for an 8-inch waterline with seven hydrants from the town limits to Hockaday’s Garage, about where Rogers Road now meets South Main Street. Mrs. Fred R. Blackley, Miss Mildred Little and Mrs. J.L. Baum would canvass for signatures. By April they had raised about half the $21,000 needed. In May the Forestville residents who had signed up gave the tow $16,000 and the town commissioners agreed to extend the waterline with hopes it would allow them to reach Hockaday’s Garage.
(I always wondered when the town extended the waterline to Forestville because we live in an old house that was not really plumbed for much water until 1968. But I knew that one of the Chappell family living here then had a waterline run to the two-room kitchen house and installed a toilet and a septic tank.)
*In March Betty Holding said she and dance students Vickie Holding, Elaine Rich, Sarah Glover, Kim Marshall, Ellen Zarzecki, Helen Boal, Susan Sidenberg, Stannie Farish and Billie Leigh Holding would perform with the NC State Ballet Company. The Holding School of Dance announced in May that it would hold its revue, the Masquerade Ball, at 9 p.m. Friday at the Forest Theatre between showings of “When Comedy was King.”
*In March the Star-Lite Restaurant three miles south on U.S. 1 said its businessmen’s breakfast of one egg, bacon or sausage was 67 cents and informed the seminary students that their favorite cook, Mrs. Young, was back.
The same month Elbert Carter had opened Carter’s Welding and Repair to repair farm machinery. It was next to the Waco Feed Company on U.S. 1-A south of town.
Also Bob Allen, publisher of The Wake Weekly said town crews had measured the street and he hoped they would soon pave the dirt parts of Brooks and Elm streets.
*District Principal R.H. Forrest shared 1960 Census figures. The Wake Forest school district was made up of parts of New Light, Barton’s Creek and Wake Forest townships and had 7,330 students, 5,500 white and 1,830 black. Only 2,606 were within the Wake Forest town limits. There were 229 white students and 186 black students in grades nine through 12. The district spent $306.02 per year on each student, above the state average of $261.21. The state contributed 38 percent, the local district 62 percent.
*Dr. George Mackie was named General Practitioner of the year by the North Carolina Medical Society. During World War II, when Dr. C.T. Wilkinson was serving in the U.S. Army, Dr. Mackie took responsibility for the entire community, including the college students and his own patients. He would have office hours in the morning, spend a little time at the college infirmary treating students, the either have afternoon office hours or treat patients in their homes. During the evening hours into early morning his wife Kathleen would drive him from home to home, treating patients, and he would sleep between stops.
*In the March 1 edition, J. Burley Munn sworn in as the new Wake Forest area deputy by Sheriff Robert Pleasants. Burley replaced Melvin Munn, his nephew, who resigned to become an ABC agent at a higher salary.
Also, Bob Allen noted measles, red and German, as well as chicken pox and a stomach virus were rampant. Building had begun on the new Keith’s Grocery across Brooks Street. The Wake Weekly was then in a small tin building about where SunTrust bank was.
*The annual Wake Electric meeting was held over the last weekend in March in the Wake Forest Elementary auditorium. The wives of the first 100 members to register would receive orchid corsages. J.P. Bailey, the treasurer, said electric water heaters had been a great success with 51 percent of the membership buying them.
*In April, local school committees had re-elected principals: R.H. Forrest for his 17th year at Wake Forest School, Coyte Lanier had been at Rolesville School since 1958 and T.J. Culler had become principal at DuBois after J.A. Tillman died in 1959.
*In mid-April, Keith’s Super Market opened on Brooks Street across from the newspaper office on a cash basis but with telephone orders and free delivery. Working in the store were Keith family members Frank, Bruce, Edwin, Margaret and Juanita Keith Powell. Also staffing the store were Willard Beddingfield, Ray Joyner, William Shackelford, Gilbert Tant, William Johnson and Moses Massenburg.
*In May, Dessie Harper was elected as the first woman on the Wake Forest Town Board along with grocer John B. Cole. The new board agreed to widen South White Street to 44 feet and pave it.
The new Wake Forest Chamber of Commerce decided to ask Seaboard Railroad to move the freight depot and replace it with a parking lot. Back in the 1930s, store owner Sam Sidenburg called it “one of the worst eyesores now in use on the Seaboard line.”
*There was a new planning commission, the first, and members told the Rotary Club the town could grow by 60 percent in 10 years and have up to 4,200 residents. The plans to deal with growth included a beltline around the town, drawn pretty much as a circle. The members had classified every building in town as to its use.
*In June the 34 members of the chamber of commerce decided not to oppose Seaboard Air Line Railroad’s petition to reduce Train #4 from a complete stop to a flag stop on Sundays. They held their annual meeting at President Henry L. Miller’s house and enjoyed James Keith’s barbecue.
*In July, owner John Bonitz of Greensboro said Herman and Inez Choplin would stop operating his Freezer Locker at the end of July. Unless he could find a reliable operator, Bonitz said, he would be forced to close the business. Very soon he found L.T. and Gladys Woodlief to operate the business while the Choplins planned to operate a drive-in restaurant.
*Wake Forest High Football Coach Tony Trentini said the 33-6 loss to Fuquay was “disheartening.” The cheerleaders were Ginger Maupin, Judy Collins, Libby Briggs, Donna Rollings, Stella Forrest, Suzanne Mills, Vicky Holding and Ruth Ann Walters.
*The DuBois Lions trounced Wise last week in Groves Stadium, 38 to 14. The two high schools had worked out an arrangement for the DuBois team to play in the former college stadium. Fullback Albert Lucas scored three of the touchdowns, and he and William Harris were named players of the week.
Trentini had no words for the Bulldogs’ third loss, 20-7.
*Town commissioners told the town engineer, P.D. Davis, to proceed with plans for the first sewage treatment plant at a cost of $175,000. This was built on the small creek, Spring Branch, a tributary of Smith Creek, about where East Holding Avenue meets Franklin Street today. Until then, the town had been discharging untreated waste into Richland Creek and Smith Creek with state approval. They also approved paving North Wingate Street for $6,000. Paving for South White, Elm and Brooks was not approved.
*In October, Wake Forest Police Chief Sam Memory and Officer Wallace Hodge were directed to submit their resignations to the town board because Memory had fired Hodge earlier. Later, Otis Nuckles was named acting chief with Louis Pearce from Rolesville and Sam Davis, a former security officer for the Rolesville Rock Quarry, as his officers. Since Louis was already the police chief, and only officer, in Rolesville as well as being the town clerk, in charge of the town wells and other duties, he was going to be busy.
*Late in October, the DuBois Lions were on a winning streak, beating Person County High School 28-6. The Wake Forest Bulldogs couldn’t get a break and lost to Benson 19-14.
*Principal R.H. Forrest announced contracts had been let for the new gymnasium at Wake Forest High School on Stadium Drive. In the school district there were 900 students at DuBois, 750 at Wake Forest Elementary and 328 at Wake Forest High.
*Wake Forest firemen, 28 in all, re-elected Albert Perry chief, and the others on the board were David “Tag” Timberlake, Bruce Keith, George Timberlake Jr., Willis Winston and Ivor Critcher. The department doctors were C.T. and R.W. Wilkinson. Dr. R.W. Wilkinson was a charter member of the department along with Frank Keith and George “Jack” Saintsing.
*Over 1,300 people were expected to attend the Christmas party for employees and family members at the Wake Finishing Plant, part of Burlington Industries, on Sunday, Dec. 17. The plant would close from Dec. 23 to 26.
*Green and multi-colored lights were strung across White Street, decorated the water tower (behind what is now a dentist’s office on Elm Avenue) and town employees put up the town Christmas tree at the Underpass.
One Response
Love this article! As you know, along with the Keiths being a valuable part of the Fire Department, my grandfather, Tom Arrington (Sr) was the first fire chief of Wake Forest (he was already deceased at the time of this fire). I remember Daddy getting the call during the night, and rushing downtown.