Thank you to American Legion Post 49 member Paul Butler, who said about last week’s photo: “The picture looks like the concrete-block pit the members of Post 49 American Legion built and used every Memorial Day for the community Chicken BBQ after the services. It was on the lot where the current post now sits.”
These are some highlights from the News Journal on January 6, 1975:
Nationally
‘Indochina fighting reaches Saigon and Phnon Penh’
“SAIGON, South Vietnam (AP) — Communist forces shelled the outskirts of Saigon and Phnon Penh today as the besieged garrison of Phuoc Binh City held out for the fifth day. The shelling on the western edge of Saigon was the closest rocket attack to the South Vietnamese capital since before the signing of the ceasefire agreement nearly two years ago.”
• “HOUSTON (AP) — Autopsy reports were expected today on the bodies of Houston Astros’ pitcher Don Wilson and his 5-year-old son, Alexander, both found in their carbon monoxide filled home Sunday.” Nine-year-old daughter Denise was in critical condition and Wilson’s wife was in fair condition.
• Some of 1974’s top movies expected to compete for Best Picture Oscars were “The Godfather, Part II”, “Lenny”, “Chinatown”, “Murder on the Orient Express”, “Young Frankenstein” and “The Longest Yard.” Disaster movies were also popular including “The Poseidon Adventure”, “The Towering Inferno” and “Earthquake.”
Locally
• The first baby of the year born at Clinton Memorial Hospital was Trisha Anne Black, born to Jaynie and Richard Black. The couple was residing in Brooklyn, N.Y., where Richard was stationed in the U.S. Navy, but Jaynie had earlier returned to the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. James Steoppel of Irvin Road in Blanchester, to await the baby’s birth. The Blacks also had a 17-month-old daughter, Amy Lynn.
• Progress Club met including President Mrs. Mildred Goodwin, who turned the gavel over to incoming President Miss Eleanor Austin. Officers included Mrs. G.L. Schilling Jr., Mrs. Noble Grandstaff, Miss Betty Magee, Mrs. Morris Snider, Miss Ruth Haynes, Mrs. Carl Boring, Mrs. Robert Greene and Mrs. R.W. Kearns.
• An electrical malfunction probably led to a fire that destroyed a home on SR 72 about a mile south of SR 729 in the Sabina area, according to Sabina Fire Chief Harold Anderson.
• Retired Fire Chief Paul Stryker was honored for 23 years of service to Port William and Liberty Township.
• Obituaries included: Ernest Wilson, 85, of Sabina; Myrtie Johnson Mart, 86, of Beechgrove Road; Pauline Taylor, 52, of Vineland, N.J., a 1939 Reesville High grad; and Charles Doster Cook, 93, of Wilmington.
• Clinton-Massie downed Little Miami as the Falcons were led by Don Goosey’s 18 points, 15 by Allen Wilkinson and 14 by Rex Dell.
• A local man reported an eight-track stereo tape player with walnut grain was stolen from his car on Burdel Street.
• “Held over for a 2nd big week” at the Murphy Theatre was “The Longest Yard” starring Burt Reynolds.
