Dear Aunt Margaret,
Please forgive me for not answering your letter sooner. So much goes on around here at times I was changing jobs and getting ready for a long trip and I really apologize.
I think its wonderful you are still able to go to the hospital and help out. You know MIMI WORKED UNTIL SHE WAS 84 (this reference to MIMI is Sudie (Susan) Gower.) We have some friends in their 80's and they still do "meals on wheels". One couple married later in life and they have a daughter that just had a baby girl and they keep the baby for Boanie to work.
Jimmy & I thought we were going to be grandparents but Billy's wife lost the twins. We were very sad because everyone was so looking forward to them. Billy & Hidi got married last October. They are very happy together and we are so relieved. I hated to see Billy get old and not have any companion.
Mary K went back to college and has her Masters in theatre. She is teaching at Meredith College and acting every chance she gets. She won the award for Best Actress at Raleigh Little Theatre last year. She's talking about getting married in September. I asked her what kind of wedding she was going to have and she said "Something weird, Mother", so I imagine that just what it will be.
Little Jimmy is Manager of the All star Bike Shop and a 10 speed bike racer.
The reason we came home was because I got "kid sick". We're all very close and I just did not feel we were seeing enough of each other.
Mary K, Lil Jimmy, Jimmy and I went to Montana and Wyoming in May to the Yellow-Stone National Park. We flew up there and rented a car in Boseman, Montana. What beautiful country. Everyone had a good time. We all got along so well together we're planning another trip - to Scotland & Ireland.
I just wrote Margaret Ann & told her you would probably faint when you got this letter.
I'm working 6 1/2 hours as an In Home Aide. My patient is an eighty year old man helpless with arthritis. He & his wife are so nice. They are very poor. Live in Morrisville. Have no running water or bathroom in the house. They have lived in that same house for 62 years under those conditions. Medicaid pays for my services to him. He has to have a lot of therapy. Since I've been looking after him he is able to feed himself after 10 years, so it makes me feel as if I'm doing him some good.
I'd love to hear how everyone is doing & I promise I'll answer sooner if you'll let me know.
Give Billy & Edna our regards and I'm so glad we are back in touch.
Love
Peggy
---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- - Rufus Hoyt "Buddy" GOWER Sr. and Margaret GREEN had the following children:
1719 i.
Rufus Hoyt GOWER Jr. was born on Apr 25 1928 in Kinston, Lenoir Co., North
Carolina.
Newspaper clipping
BOYS' HI-Y ELECTS
NEW MEMBERS
The boys' Hi-Y elected eight new members at their regular meeting on January 28. Boys taken in were: Cullen Daughety, Lynwood Haddock, Billy Gower, Gene Leigh, "Junior" Peyton, Carlyle Stroud, Paul Tilghman, and William White.
Newspaper clipping
U. S. NAVY ENLISTS 38;
SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED
Naval recruiters from the Raleigh Recruiting Station will visit 11 Eastern North Carolina cities during the next week to secure enlistments in the peacetime Navy and to provide Naval veterans with information on ratings now open to enlistees.
Points to be visited are a follows: Monday, Tarboro and Henderson: Tuesday, Rocky Mount and Fayetteville: Wednesday, Goldsboro, Smithfield and Roanoke Rapids, Thursday, Durham and Wilson, and Friday, Dunn and Sanford.
A total of 38 men enlisted in the Navy at the Raleigh Station during the past week. They were: F. E. Peebles, Raleigh: E. I Currie, Pinehurst; T. M. Wooten, Roanoke Rapids; J. M. Phillips, Siler City; M. L. Tilman, Bonlee; J. McLean, Erwin; J. C. singletary, Tar Hell; E. E. Howell, F. R. Mitchell, A. A. Kramer and R. Faison, all of Ricky Mount; C. G. Price, Halifax; A. E. Causey; J. R. Brown, Tarboro, B. F. Phillips, Tarboro.
H. B. Dixon, Rockingham; R. H. GOWER, JR., J. W. Boswell, and J. A. Arlidge, Jr. , all of Kinston; C. F. Frick and W. J. Edwards, Goldsboro; N. E. Lee, Clinton; C. B. Bryant, Gastonia, E. C. Whiton, Spruce Pine; A. M. Jackson, W. A. Baskett, R. T. Hughes, A. T. McLemore, R. S. Height, C. B. Langston and W. L. Lassiter, all of Henderson; W. E. Suggs, ERwin; H. B. Elliott, E. J. Pittman, R. L. Caston and W. Jenkins, Jr. all of Durham; and C. F. Stewart, Coats.
With the termination of family allowance on June 31, and termination of benefits under the G.I Bill of Rights on October 5, high school graduates are taking advantage of the education benefits to be gained after enlistments are over, the station announcement said.
1720 ii.
Margaret Ann GOWER was born on Dec 5 1937 in Kinston, Lenoir Co., North
Carolina. Born at Parrott's Hospital, Lenoir county, Kinston, N. C.
Attending physician was Dr. C. F. West.
Weight at birth 8 lbs., 2 1/4 oz.
Birth Certificate: Vol 24, Page 539, Date Filed 21/12/1937 graduated in Jun 1956 in Kinston, Lenoir Co., NC.4 The old Grainger High School is now a performing arts center. She school 1 year in Harvey Elementary School.5 Family moved and had to go to new school She school 5 years in Lewis Elementary School.6 Lewis Elementary School, Kinston, Lenoir Co., N. C., Peyton, Ave. She school Grainger High School in Kinston, Lenoir Co., NC.7 Newspaper article
GIRLS' STATE DELEGATES SELECTED
Mrs. Joseph M. Desmond, outgoing president of the American Legion Auxiliary, presents credentials in the above photo to Miss Ann Hughes and Miss Margaret Ann Gower, who will be sent to Girls' State in Greensboro June 12 to 17 by the Auxiliary. Juniors at Grainger High School, the girls were selected for their citizenship, scholarship and general ability. Miss Hughes is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James P. Hughes of West Road and Miss Gower's parents are Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Gower of Howard Street. She was 7 Newspaper clipping
MARGARET ANN GOWER HAS
PARTY ON 11TH BIRTHDAY
Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Gower where hosts at a party on a recent evening at the Dr. Pepper plant honoring their daughter, Margaret Ann Gower, who was observing her eleventh birthday. Decorations in the Christmas theme were carried out through the use of greenery, crepe paper streamers, red bells and bows.
Bingo and other games were played with prizes being awarded the winners. Refreshments of cake, ice cream, potato chips and cold drinks were served. The large three tiered birthday cake was cut by the honoree. Candies and novelty hats were given the guests as favors. Centering the table were lighted candles, red berries and greenery, encircled with a wreath of berries and greens.
There were 40 guests present. Assisting the hosts were Mrs. Alan Curtis, aunt of the guest of honor, and Mrs. Walter Humphrey.
Newspaper clipping
CHRISTMAS PLAY
GIVEN AT HARVEY
A Christmas play,"Why The Chimes Rang." was presented by students at Harvey Elementary School in the school auditorium during the chapel period at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.
The play, written by Ramond MacDonald Alden, is the story of the little poor boy whose gift to the Christ Child caused the Christmas chimes to ring. The story is laid in a far away country on Christmas Eve.
Participating in the play were Margaret Tyndall as a mother; Reid Parrott as Pedro, her son; Billy Ormond as little brother; Barbara Ann Noble as a poor old woman; Tommy Phillips as a priest; Teddy Huffstetler as a rich man; Douglas Jones as an artist; Clifton Paderick as a musician; Margaret Gower as a rich woman; Walter Poole as a king; Vernon Rochelle as the first caroler, boys and girls from Mrs. Eloise Cobb's fifth grade as a party of carolers; and boy and girls from Miss Christine Gibson's fifth grade as the Cathedral Choir.
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