50 Years Ago

Monday, June 29, 1970

Gladiators’ Aldridge on North team

East Rome’s outstanding basketball player, Rodney Aldridge, who guided the Gladiators to the Class AA State Championship, has been named to the North team for the annual NorthSouth All-Star basketball game.

Aldridge was one of the few players on the North squad from outside the Atlanta area. The players were selected by coaches and sports writers at a meeting held earlier this year.

Aldridge claimed the top honors in double a tournament in Atlanta as he paced the Gladiators to the title. He was not only a high scorer but controlled the boards for the winning East Rome team.

He was a two-year regular for the Gladiators and was a domineering figure in all contests as East Rome lost only three games during the 1969-1970 season.

Decatur, AAA basketball championship champions, was the only North team to place two men on the squad. Jerry McNeil and Lee Robinson were selected from the AAA school.

Monday, June 29, 1970

No evidence found of downed airplane

Rome area police, Civilian Air Patrol personnel and pilots continue to investigate the series of reports early this morning concerning the fall of a flaming object from the sky, believed to be a falling airplane.

A report was first made by Bartow County officials, who received several calls from witnesses who described the falling object as “a burning ball of fire, like a burning plane,” which fell shortly after midnight. Bartow officials notified Floyd County police, who launched an investigation into the area mentioned in the neighborhood of Shannon, Kingston and Adairsville.

According to Patrolman Doyle Sutherland, of the county police, the Civil Air Patrol called shortly after midnight and volunteered to make a search. This flight, covering the Hermitage area and a wide area including Shannon, Kingston and Adairsville, reported seeing nothing that might indicate a fallen plane or other object.

A Rome private pilot also made a search flight, and reported seeing those signs of a crash.

A number of calls had been received by county police, Sutherland said, front person in the vicinity of Maple Road and the Old Cedartown Road, but no witnesses could give an accurate description of either the falling object or the location of its apparent crash.

Monday, June 29, 1970

Violence subsides in Ireland

BELFAST, Northern Island (AP) – Violence subsided and Northern Ireland early today after five persons were killed and more the 200 injured in rioting Saturday night and early Sunday. Reinforced British troops remained on alert, under orders to shoot anyone seen carrying arms.

There was considerably less violence Sunday night as the British government rushed more troops in and emergency measures were proclaimed. Another 40 persons were injured in street fights, and an explosion started a fire at an oil depot, but only one shooting was reported, a shotgun blast that wounded two soldiers slightly.

Police reported all quiet by 4 a.m. Violence began Friday night over the jailing of Bernadette Devlin, the fiery young Roman Catholic leader sentenced to six months in prison for leading anti-Protestant riots last summer. The bloodiest toll came in 12 hours of fighting Saturday night as Catholics and Protestants fought each other and the steel helmeted troops with rocks, bottles and gasoline bombs, and troops and snipers exchanged gunfire. Five civilians were killed and 161 civilians and soldiers were injured.

The British Conservatives always have maintained close relations with the Protestant Ulster Unionists who dominate politics in Northern Ireland and control the government.

The Labor party, ousted from office in Britain’s June 18 elections, traditionally has been more sympathetic to the Irish Roman Catholic minority.

Most of the province’s one million Protestants are staunch supporters of the British monarchy, while most of the 500,000 Roman Catholics want to unite with the neighboring Irish Republic.

The Catholic minority also is campaigning for equal treatment with the Protestant majority and housing, jobs and voting.

Tuesday, June 30, 1970 Deadline draws near for Coosa Valley net meet

Local tennis players are urged to file their entry forms for the Coosa Valley Invitational 1970 Junior Hard Court Tennis Tournament prior to Thursday, it was announced by officials.

The event will be held on July 6-10 at the Rome Tennis Center in Darlington.

Fees for the event are $3 per person for singles and $6 per team for doubles. Entry blanks are available at the Rome Recreation Department, the Rome Tennis Center or Henson’s Drug Store. They can be turned in at the Rome Tennis Center or the Coosa Country Club tennis pro shop, or mail to the Coosa Valley Tennis Association, P.O. Box 1223, Rome, Ga. 30161.

Events will be held in singles and doubles for both boys and girls from 10 to 18. Trophies will be awarded to the winner and runner-up in each event. There is a three-event limit.

Tuesday, June 30, 1970

Son of late senator is working as guide

SEATTLE (UPI) – His thick sun-bleached hair framing a familiar square-jawed face, 17-yearold Joseph Kennedy III is spending the summer learning the difficult role of guide for climbers on 14,410-foot Mt. Rainier.

The eldest son of the late senator Robert F. Kennedy has worked as an apprentice guide for climbers. He three times has climbed the four miles to Camp Muir near at the 10,000-foot level, hauling rations and other supplies to the base camp.

He has begun studying technical aspects of mountain climbing along with several other apprentices who work for Rainier Mountaineering Incorporated. The company is operated by Lou Whittaker, brother of Jim Whittaker, first American to scale Mount Everest and a close friend of the late Senator Kennedy.

It was Jim Whitaker who accompanied Robert Kennedy in 1965 when the senator climbed 13,900foot Mt. Kennedy in Canada, named after his assassinated brother, the former president.

Climbing is not a new thing for the Kennedy family. Edward Kennedy climbed the Matterhorn in Switzerland in 1957 and had a few needling remarks for his brother Robert, after the scaling of Mt. Kennedy.

Young Joseph Kennedy says he still gets tired hauling more than 60 pounds on a trip up the base camp Muir. But the 6-foot 190-pounder admits that “I think I’m going to enjoy the summer.”

“The other guys have a feeling about Mt. Rainier that is sort of a religion,” he said. “I’m getting the feeling, too.”

Joseph’s brother, David, 15, came west at the invitation of Jim Whittaker last summer and climbed the mountain. Recently on June 18, his mother, Mrs. Ethel Kennedy, the mother of 11, climbed to Camp Muir in a snap, winning the admiration of mountaineering professionals.

Tuesday, June 31, 1970

Deaf school print shop funds okayed

Funds totaling $50,000 have been approved to replace a print shop at the Georgia School for the Deaf in Cave Spring that was damaged by a landslide several months ago.

The action, by a fiscal affairs subcommittee of the State House, came Monday after plans to repair and put back in to use the damage building came under fire from representative Tom Murphy of Bremen.

“To put those deaf kids in a place where a future landslides is possible is nothing short of murder,” Murphy stated as the committee heard testimony on the matter.

Murphy, who is Gov. Lester Maddox’s floor leader in the house, made the comment after the repair and reuse plans were announced by State School Superintendent Jack Nix.

Nix had asked for $23,500 to repair the damaged building. He said at the hearing that there was no agreement among several engineers who had inspected the landslide area as to whether another landslide might occur at the school.

He said the print shop functions is a major part of the curriculum for the more than 500 students at the school.

The committee, by unanimous vote, agreed to provide $40,000 for capital outlay and $10,000 for expenses for construction of a new temporary structure out of the danger zone.