Page 14 - Robeson Living Winter2019

Linda Carol Whitney’s daddy, uncle and grandpa were at the Star
Tobacco Warehouse in Lumberton when the roof was ripped off.
While her mama, granny and aunt were home with the kids grad-
ing tobacco.

Ann Grice, a second-grade student at Orrum Elementary, was
on the school bus that became surrounded by downed trees. All
around were trees down on cars and houses. Grown men were
crying as they reached the bus door to retrieve their children. She
and her sister tried running down the dirt road to home only to
be blown backwards. They stayed under a barn shelter until their
daddy came with the car to pick them up. It was a day that no one
will forget!!!

Most of the schools let out early and leaving most children to
walk home. Sally Caldwell Gibson’s neighbor picked her up.
On the drive the pine trees were bending over half way to the
ground. Patsy Marquette remembers walking home and being so
A sample of the destruction at Carolina Beach following the excited because of the wind blowing and trees bending. Her mom
strike of Hurricane Hazel. Courtesy StarNews
made them go straight into the house when they arrived, and it
when falling trees fell in front and behind. They were eventually made Patsy so mad.
moved, and the bus continued its journey.
Seven-year-old Joyce Joyner was taking care of her brother and
Beach properties were hit hard with many and their contents three sisters while her parents went to the pack house to secure
being lost completely. Dr. George Allen only salvaged a refrig- everything and close the windows. While they were gone the
erator and two mattresses from his Holden Beach home while front door keep blowing open and she didn’t know what to do,
the banked sand at the front of John Bateman’s Carolina Beach being the oldest she was in charge. She finally decided to put a
home was around 12 feet since he could step from the bank suitcase against the door and sit on it. She held her three- and
directly onto the porch roof. Frank Morrison that left Holden half-month-old sister while the other children sat with her. It held
Beach during the storm headed to Lumberton reported seeing until her daddy got home and he had nailed the door shut. She
the beach homes of Pete Skinner, Dr. George Allen, Johnny and says, “I am sure God was looking out for us.”
Eddie McNeill as well as Zeke Stanton swept away by the waves
along with the beach pavilion. Also, at the beach were Dr. Irvin Wanda McDaniel Groce recalled the wind and rain but even
Biggs and Jack Pait who was with a fishing party. Heading to- more the terrified look on her mother’s face when trees began to
ward the beach during the storm were Highway patrolman Fred fall. She watched her two white ducks being carried away by the
Bowen, C.H. Long and J.S. Jones. During the afternoon the Na- wind. They were not flapping their wings. When the eye passed
tional Guard was called out to protect what was left of Long people emerged from their hiding places to survey the damage.
Beach from looters. Only five buildings remained on the beach Then the wind began to howl again. People thought the storm
out of the 357 buildings that existed before the hurricane. Lee had turned around and was coming back. Meteorology was in
Ward’s grandfather, Joseph C Ward, Sr., lived in Rowland and its infancy then and we were unaware of this hurricane’s anat-
had a beach house in Garden City on the front row beside pier. omy. The ducks survived minus a few feathers. And for years
Hazel left it an empty lot. afterwards I watched trees lying in the woods decay slowly. A
reminder of Hazel’s wrath that awful day when she was a child.
Ann Bellamy Russell was just two 2 years and 2 months old and
living on Wrightsville Beach Road. Her daddy delivered milk for Kellen Byrd’s dad was fishing at Black River without a radio and
Sealtest in Wilmington. She vividly remembers, “lying on my did not know the weather forecast. He had to cut himself out of
parents’ bed with my mother and watching ocean water swirl in the woods with a chain saw. His family was so happy to see him
the front yard”. They didn’t know where her daddy was or if he alive.
was safe. The pine trees were whipping and breaking. She can
smell the seawater and hear the trees to this day. Patsy Hester was at home alone because she couldn’t get to
work due to the storm. She was scared to death. She mopped and
waxed all the floors trying to calm down. To this day she is still
Personal Memories afraid of storms.

Billie Jo Faircloth Driggers was riding to Pembroke and saw a Dick Holmes remembers that after the storm was over his dad
little girl crying because it was cold, and she had no coat. Billie took the family to the New Deal Café to eat. It was located in
Jo started crying wanting to give her the coat she was wearing downtown Lumberton behind Sugar’s men’s store on 4th Street.
but there was no way it would have fit her, and it was the only Constantinos Peatros Loizou, better known as Gus, was cooking
Page 13 one she owned. with gas and had lanterns and candles to light the place.