Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 100, Ed. 1 Sunday, April 27, 1980 Page: 9 of 28
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Cl IKin A V ADDII 07 lOfiA
SUNDAY, APRIL 27, 1980.
‘I’ve got God on my side’
Brief notes: Leon Leggett
enjoys, recounting his days as
manager of the Rotary Club’s
Little League team back in the
early days of the program...-
The team swept through the
season undefeated, with such
players as Jimmy .Cross,
Johnny Follis, Vernon Smith,
Red and Blackie Rowell, Joe
France and others combining
efforts to win the
title...Madalaine Wilson of
Oklahoma City recently wrote
to the newspaper, seeking help
in running down a relative...A
second letter received a few
days ago, in part, reads: “For
gosh sakes, I had a letter back
before I realized you’d had time
to get it in the paper!...What
beautiful service...You are nice
folks, and as a retired reporter
(Daily Oklahoman, Manila
Tribune, Colorado Springs Free
Press), I salute you...Now at 80
I’m reduced from volume
correspondence because of
arthritic"* hands.Greg
Adair may be leaning toward
the University of Texas as a
choice for continuing his track
career, although he has been
recruited strongly by brother
Cuff Notes
— Anembltd by —
JOE WOOSLEY
I. •
Randy’s Monroe, la. univer-
sity.
More notes: Fred Doyle, who
in official retirement still
spends a few hours daily
helping out at the local Texas
Employment Commission
office, broke into newspapering
many years ago...His first
editor-in-chief’s position was at
Denton, where he headed, the
student publication, The
Campus Chat, at North Texas
State University, where he
schooled before moving to the
University of Missouri for a
journalism degree...He made
his mark early as a poet too,
publishing a poem entitled
“Day” back in 1929...Greg
Roberts is offering copies of
MiG Pilot, Sulphur Springs
High School commencement
speaker John Barron's latest
book...One of Barron's latest
widely quoted articles is about
John Kennedy and Chap-
paquiddick, which appeared in
the February issue of The
Reader's Digest...Plans are
underway for a reception for
Barron in advance of his May
22 commencement talk in order
for old friends to see and visit
with him...Innovative spelling
of names is making it harder
for newsmen...Recent lists of
local kindergarten and" first
grade students published in the
newspaper point up the dif-
ficulty.
Last notes: Another big
cattle sale is scheduled
Saturday at the Hopkins County
Civic Center livestock
arena...The IiOne .Star Beef-
master Association members
have consigned 110 animals to
the sale...Sulphur Bluffs Jay
Chester reports that two of the
association’s members are
former Dallas Cowboys LeROy
Jordan and Chuck Howley, who
will be on hand for the
sale... They're expected to be
present for the pre-sale get-
together at the Sulphur Springs
Country Club Friday night as
well...Janie Crump may have
the grassiest yard in town if the
bermuda seed she planted the
other day thrive. She planted
five pounds on the yard...Ron
Woolley, a fellow Extension
agent, kidded Mrs. Crump,
saying that he recommended
only three pounds for an entire
acre...County Club members
are expecting the new nine-hole
addition to the golf course will
become playable by Labor
Day...They also report the nine
holes in use now are in ex-
cellent shape,.Crimson clover
is beginning to show up in East
Texas despite the recent
snowfall. It can be spotted
along the highways around
Sulphur Springs.
Was ft spontaneous combustion?
Mary Reeser death remains a mystery
By Tom Tiede
ST. PETERSBURG. Fla
(NEA) —, Mary Hardy Reeser
lived a quiet and perfectly
normal life.
She was born in’ Pennsylva-
nia Dutch country, married
young, had children, and
moved in retirement to this
sun-warmed city on the Gulf
Coast. But then she died, and
there was nothing routine in
that at all.
It. happened in 1951.
Summer. Mrs. Reeser had lost
her husband and was renting a
one-room apartment on the
community’s northeast side.
She was 67 years old, some-
what fleshy and growing more
into sedentary habits. She
spent q great deal of her time
in an armchair, reading news-
papers or dozing.
- She- was in the armchair,
• apparently, on the final night
of her life, July 2. The last
people to see her that evening
said she had taken a sleeping
tablet about 8 p.m., and told
departing visitors she was
about to retire. She was
dressed in a gown, a house-
coat and slippers, and was in
good spirits. •
The following morning a
delivery man knocked on Mrs.
Reeser’s door, but got no
answer. He then asked the
owner of the apartment build-
ing, Mrs. P.M. Carpenter, to
try. When she also failed to
get a response, she rattled the
doorknob. The knob was so hot
it burned her hand, and she
cried out in pain.
Two other workmen rushed
to the door, broke it open and
were confronted with a loath-,
some scene. Mrs. Reeser’s
room was intolerably hot, and
there was a pile of ashes on
the floor. The ashes contained
the remains of the armchair,
what was left of an end table,
and tiny bits of Mrs. Reeser
herself.
A fire? It certainly looked
that way, and at first it was
thought that the victim, a
heavy smoker, had dropped a
fateful cigarette. On further
observation, though, it was
clear that no cigarette could
have precipitated this acci-
dent Indeed, perhaps not even
a fire could have caused it.
For one thing, Mrs. Reeser
and her chair had been virtu-
ally disintegrated. All that
remained of the , chair were
some steel coils. As for Mrs.
Reeser, police found three
major items: part of her*
spine, a foot with its slipper
still intact, and the woman’s
skull, shrunken to the size of
an apple.
lightning was ruled out,
because the weather on July 2
was fine and steady.
Besides, the cause was only
incidental to the case. The,
real question concerned the
awesome contradictions
involved. If Mrs. Reeser had
caught fire, and her chair had
caught fire, then the rest of
the room should also have
caught fire. However, there
was not so much as the smell
of smoke in the place.
Police called in the FBI,
and academics were also
Cause
of death:
Unknown
In spite of this destruction,
moreover, the rest of the
room was hardly damaged.
Nearby bed covers had not
ignited. Neither had stacks of
periodicals. There were two
melted candles, and the ceil-
ing was covered with soot, but
nothing else had burned, even
the paint on the walls was left
untouched.
Local authorities were
baffled. They determined that
an ordinary fire could not
have generated the intense
heat necessary to reduce flesh
to ash (about 3,000 degrees).
Nor was there any indication
of an electrical blaze. Even
asked to investigate the
mystery. But they couldn’t
solve it either. In the end
police and scientists alike
were left to speculate on the
unlikely consideraton of
“spontaneous combustion’’ —
which is to say that Mrs.
Reeser may have blown up
from within.
At the time no one was
comfortable with the specula-
tion. And the lfearned con-
sensus was that it was a physi-
cal impossibility. Some farm
materials, such as hay, had
been known to get damp, emit
gas and explode, but there
was absolutely no proof to
support a notion that human
beings could do the same.
Today there is still no proof.
But three decades after Mary
Reeser’s puzzling death, sci-
ence may have figured it out
in theory. In fact, researchers
believe that many people may
have died, or may yet die, as a
result of spontaneous combus-
tion. And the reason may lie
in a simple vitamin imbal-
ance.
The vitamin in question is
called B-10 (inositol). It is a
phosphate, part of the group
called phosphagens, and it's
found naturally within the
body. Normally it is helpful to
good health. But some scien-
tists suggest that if it is
allowed to accumulate it may
cause highly dangerous conse-
quences.
The thinking is that accu-
mulation of B-10 is something
like a buildup of nitroglyce-
rine, and can reach a flash
point in very young, very old ^
or very inactive people. If
presented with a spark, then,
say by static electricity or a
^cigarette, it may be possible
for the concentrations to
ignite and burn
That may be what hap-
pened to Mrs. Reeser. Then
again, maybe not. People in
St. Petersburg continue to
insist there was no real evi-
dence of fire in that incident.
Only heat. The victim was
burned to a crisp, as was her
chair, but nothing else, not
even the carpet under those
grisly ashes, was destroyed.
The case remains unsolved.
(NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN.)
TOM TIEDE
THE WAY IT WAS
No takers for Uri award
/, and
(“I’m
It was April Fool’s Djy,
magician James Randi (“
a professional charlatan”)
announced his first Uri
Awards at a New York cere-
mony sponsored by Omni
magazine.
Named for Israeli psychic
‘ Uri Geller, the awards, a.
“tastefully bent spoon with a
very transparent, very flimsy
base,” are a spoof by Randi to
call attention to how psychics
trick scientists and the public.
“Unlike winners of Oscars,
Emmys and Tonys, the Uri
winners were notified
telepathically, and they were
free to announce their win-
ning in advance by precogni-
tion if they so desired,” said
Randi. There were, however,
no claimants.
For the past 15 years Randi
has carried a check for
$10,000 to be given to anyone
who can demonstrate para-
normal abilities under con-'
trolled conditions. Some 320
people have applied, and he’s
tested 55 without giving away
the money. “I can't prove to
you that these things don’t
exist, but I- haven't seen
enough evidence to believe
they do. My argument is not
with the pursuit of the para-
normal, but the way research
is done. I don’t think I’ll ever
have to give that money
away.”
When asked if he thinks the
people who want to take up
his challenge are fakers, he
said, “No, the fakers don’t
write to me, because they
catch them. Those who have
applied are mostly sincere
souls who really think they
have a gift but haven’t
checked it under controlled
conditions.” -
Although the award cere-
mony was lighthearted, there
was a serious current behind
the jokes. “People ask if
parapsychology isn’t just a
harmless diversion. It’s not. It
can take people away from
real life to a land of make-
believe. We saw what hap-
pened in Guyana, where 1,000
people died because they
Believed in the power of Jim
Jones to perform psychic
surgery, to reach inside them
and correct faults.”
know very well that I could (newspaper enterprise assn )
James Randi
New literary prize joins ranks
joii
Pul
A new literary prize has
ined the ranks of the Nobel,
ilitzer and P E N. awards -
the Pegasus Prize for Litera-
ture, established by the Mobil
Corporation to introduce
English-speaking readers to
works from countries whose
literature is rarely translated.
The prize includes a monetary
award, a medal depicting
Pegasus, and the translation
and publication of the work.
The dual winners of the
fiftt jjrtoe, awarded to "Egypt
(in 1977), are: Sami Bindari
for "The House of Power,”
and Sabri Moussa, a journalist
and screenwriter whose
experimental “Seeds of
Corruption” also won the
Egyptian Literary Prize. The
two translated books were
published by Houghton Mifflin
in March. Now the authors are
touring the United States.
Dr. Bindari, who is a prac-
ticing physician, believes his
novel - a portrait of primi-
tive life in an Egyptian vil-
lage before Nasser - is a uni-
versal story of tyranny.
“It can happen anywhere.
When the book was first trans-
lated here in America, they
didn’t realize that. That’s why
we did a second translation. I
didn’t name the village or the
desert. I tried to convey a
deep-rooted, timeless attitude
about the abuse of power.” Dr.
Bindari says his favorite
“ i-langqagc .writer , is
Hemingway, because
“he brought a new, original
thing to the world in his char-
acters, a style of living and
viewing things that hadn’t
been written before.”
The Pegasus Prize for 1979
has been awarded to a Danish
writer, Kirsten Thorup, for
her book “Baby”; it will be
published later this year. The
next prize, for 1980, will be
made to a writer from the
Ivory Coast.
What’s colonel’s recipe for success?
By Jerry Cox
LOUISVILLE. Ky (NEA) -
Col. Harland Sanders, totaling
up his 89 years on earth, gives
any credit for his success to
the man upstairs.
"I’ve got God on my side,”
says the courtly Southern gen-
tleman with the snow-white
hair during an interview at his
rambling colonial-style Ken-
tucky Fried Chicken head-
quarters.
T figured he put me here
for one of two things: to either
use me or punish me,” he
explains “I’ve had three close
calls with death, and the Lord
has always spared me. I have
a great gratitude towards
him"
Sanders' story is a publi-
cist’s fantasy come true: Sen-
ior citizen (age 66) living on
$105 a month in Social Securi-
ty works hard, saves his
money., believes in his product
and becomes a multimillio-
naire. * ,
But Kentuckians who hold
the coloneLright up there with
Man O' War, Jim Beam bour-
bon and the Derby might be
shaken to learn that Sanders
is actually a Hoosier.
He was born Sept. 9. 1890,
just east of Henryville, Ind
When he was 6, his father died
and his mother went to work
in a cannery, often leaving the
children alone.
Sanders took care of his
younger brother and sister. He
became not only a capable
young cook but a great one.
At 10, he got his first job on
a farm nepr his home for $2 a
month
That was the beginning of a
varied — if not always suc-
cessful — career.
He was a street-car conduc-
tor, a soldier, a railroad fire-
man, a law student via corre-
spondence courses, a justice
of the peace, an insurance
salesman, a steamboat-ferry
operator, a tire salesman, a
manufacturer of acetylene
lighting systems and a
service-station operator. (He
was named a Kentucky colo-
nel iir 1935 by Gov. Ruby
Laffoon.)
It was at the little gas sta-
tion he operated in Corbin,
Ky., that Sanders started
cooking for hungry travelers.
He served them on a small
table in his own dining room.
During the next nine years,
JERRY COX is a reporter for The
Kentucky Post of Covington, Ky.
”1 VE NEVER ASKED God in prayers for anything," says
■Col. Harland Sanders. “Every time I pray, I’m thanking
God for what he’s done for me."
the colonel struck upon a
secret that would make him
famous: a blend of 11 herbs
and spices (sage and “other
ingredients on everyone’s
shelf") and a technique for
frying chicken.
In 1939, gourmet Duncan
Hines listed Sanders Cafe in
his “Adventures in Good
Eating."
Sanders added on a motel
- the first in Kentucky - to
the restaurant. But he was
forced to close when World
War II and gas rationing end-
ed tourist travel.
He re-opened the cafe-
motel after the war Then, in
the early 1950s, a new inter-
state highway was planned to
bypass the town.
Seeing the end of his busi-
ness, the colonel auctioned off
his goods. He lived on his
Social Security check of $105
a month.
But he had a dream. So he
and second wife Claudia (a
former Sanders Cafe waitress
who he married in 1949) set
off cross-country in a station
wagon, selling chicken.
They slept at night in the
back of the wagon and
refreshed themselves the next
morning in the washrooms of
service stations.
He told restauranteurs sim-
ply that “my chicken's better
than your chicken.” And that
he would prove it
While he fried chicken in
the kitchen, his wife, in a
hoop-skirted gown, did the
“hostessing" in the dining
room.
If they liked his chicken
they almost always did —
Sanders entered" into a
handshake agreement stipu-
lating that he would be paid a
nickel for each chicken, the
restaurant fried and sold
“his" way.
By 1963, Sanders had more
than 600 franchised outlets
for his chicken in the United
States and Canada. He sold his
U S. interests in 1964 for $2
million to John Y. Brown, now
governor of Kentucky, and
Jack Massey. He gave the
Canadian company to a chari-
table foundation.
KFC Corp. grew rapidly.
More than 3,500 franchised
and company-owned stores
were in worldwide operation
when Heublein Inc. acquired
KFC Corp. in 1971 for $285
million
Sanders says he had a fall-
ing out with Brown over the
sale of KFC. There were law-
suits that ended with an out-
of-court, settlement in 1975.
KFC says it was $1 million;
other sources say $2 million.
Sanders still visits many
KFC franchises each year,
overseeing his recipe. He
teaches young people how to
make his “chicken fixin's”
(gravy, potatoes and such)*at
KFC restaurants
He always wears one of his
40 to 50 distinctive white
suits, some heavier for winter.
Each suit lasts six or eight
wearings. They' get gray
through cleanings, he
explains. jjt
Sanders says he gives away
as much or more than he
earns each year. (Some esti-
mate his annual earnings at
$250,000.)
His favorite causes are the
Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts,
the Salvation Army and schol-
arship funds Scholarship
recipients must promise nev
er to smoke or drink,'two
rules the colonel strictly
adheres to; although he
admits he haS a bad habit of
cursing.
“The most stabilizing force
in America right now is her
youth," says Sanders. “You
have a few rowdies now and
then and a lot of them have a
lot of foolishness, like golfing
and tennis and that, instead of
concentrating on work. You
can’t mix work and play."
Does Sanders have any
regrets in looking back at his
career?
"Well, no, except maybe
some of the times I’ve had to
talk to lawyers," he says.
"I don’t know if I’d change
anything in my life," he
continues. “I’ve never asked
God in prayers for anything.
Every time I pray, I’rp (hank-
ing God for what he's done for
me,”
inewspapeh enterprise assn i
IN AMERICA
SPEL EZE SISTUM
Will revised alphabet simplify spelling?
By David L. Backmann
MARSHFIELD, Wis. (NEA)
It's called the SPEL EZE
SISTUM.
Actually, hyphens should be
drawn through the middles of
the e’s in EZE. At least, that’s
how Clarence Tucker would
write it.
Tucker, like just about
everybody else, believes the
English language is crazy and
difficult to spell
But unlike everybody else,
he has been doing something
to change all that ever since
his retirement in 1970.
The keys, he says, are sim-
plicity and consistency. So, he
revised the alphabet and
labeled it the SPEL EZE
SISTUM. ,
For example, explains
Tucker, there is no legitimate
reason for "spell” to have two
Us He notes that the word has
only four sounds — the s
sound,the p sound,the e sound
and the 1 sound.
Because that’s how it’s
pronounced, he says, that’s
how it should be spelled.
“What is,pur objective in
spelling?” Tucker asks. “A
letter is not a musical note so
we can’t change its tune. We
have to spell it as it is
pronounced.
“Our main objective is to
communicate and do that
simply. That’s progress."
Tucker’s system rests on
three principles:
-The pronunciation of con-
sonants remains the same, but
excess letters, such as double
consonants and silent gh’s, are
eliminated.
’ -r-Word spellings are
consolidated, eliminating con-
fusion over such words as
“principal" and “principle.”
-Sixteen vowel sounds
similar to the 17 vowel sounds
in the International Phonetic
Alphabet are used.
To indicate how the sounds
should be pronounced and to
make them easy to read,
Tucker places modifying sym-
bols directly on the letters.
Thus, the hyphens through the
e’s in “EZE" indicate a long
sound.
That differs from the dic-
tionary practice of indicating
pronunciation by symbols
above letters and inverted
letters.
CLARENCE TUCKER, inventor of the SPELL EZE SISTUM, reviews his “Funk and
Wagnalls” in an effort to further simplify spelling of the English language.
DAVID L. BACKMANN is a City
..........hRpdmribnii«n^
(NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN.) News-Herald.
His alphabet, with its
pronunciation symbols, can be
written by hand or typed by
striking hyphens, periods,"
dashes, semi-colons, colons,
apostrophes and asterisks
over letters.
After formulating his
system, Tucker tested it by
, pouring through some 800,000
I words in “Funk and Wagnalls
Standard College Dictionary”
I to make sure it was applica-
ble to most words. Exceptions
1 are certain foreign words like
“fiance.”
“A major problem in devel-
oping (ny system was the
irregularities in word pronun-
ciation,” says Tucker.
“People in Southern states
pronounce words differently
than people do in the Midwest
or other people ’do in the
Northeast. To make my sys-
tem work, all words have to
be spelled consistently as they
are pronounced.
“For instance, you could
spell it that way or you could
pronounce it with an i sound
and spell it that way. Even
with the difference, it would
be an easier way to spell the
word and people would know
'‘What you meant."”
Tucker reports that his
alphabet has been well
received when presented on
television, at a high-school
and at a county fair.
“Of the 400 persons or so
that I met at the fair,” he
reports, “I received only two
negative responses — and one
was from a professional
linguist.”
... In fact, Tucker believes
that linguists, educators and
other such professionals pose
the greatest obstacles to his
system.
“People make the language,
professionals don’t,” he says.
“It’s the professional that
fears it because his status
might be diminished. ...
Teachers are defensive about
it because it’s their liveli-
hood.”.
Tucker believes that his
system can best be spread by
teaching it to elementary-
school students — but only
after they have learned the
basics of traditional spelling
In an effort to convert his
opposition, he plans to distrib-
ute a newsletter composed
totally in SPEL EZE to local
teachers and school adminis-
trators.
“If this wgre taught all over
the country, all local accents
would be eliminated,” he pre-
dicts grandly. “English could
spread worldwide but for the
complexity of its spelling.”
INEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN.)
IN AMERICA
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Keys, Clarke. Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 100, Ed. 1 Sunday, April 27, 1980, newspaper, April 27, 1980; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth824638/m1/9/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.