Category: 1940

Neill McFadyen, 101, of Bradenton, FL, died on Jul 20, 2020. Funeral arrangements by Gendron Funeral & Cremation Services Inc. – Sarasota Chapel.

Published in Herald Tribune from Jul. 24 to Jul. 25, 2020.

Freeman R. Jones, 92, a native and longtime resident of Charlotte, passed away March 27, 2019 at Well-Spring Retirement Community in Greensboro, NC.

For the past 10 years, he and his wife have lived at Well-Spring to be closer to their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

He has been married to Helen Bouldin of Clarksdale, Mississippi for almost 70 years. Freeman was a natural leader, an athlete and a compassionate man of principle who was not afraid to take a stand. He committed his life to service and promotion of his hometown, the Queen City. He was also the perfect gentleman and a father and husband who showered his family with unconditional love. 

The son of Edwin Epes Jones and Mary Williams Carson Jones, Freeman grew up on Hopedale Avenue in Charlotte along with a neighborhood gang of 17 boys. His father built a boxing ring in the back yard to keep them busy and because he believed “every boy needs to know how to take care of himself.”

After graduation from the Darlington School in Rome, Georgia, where he excelled in basketball and golf, Freeman briefly attended Davidson college before enlisting in the US Naval Air Corps. He served from 1944-1946 in the South Pacific as radio operator and nose gunner in a PB4Y-2 Privateer bomber squadron. He also put his boxing skills to work as a lightweight boxer in the navy.

He returned to Davidson in 1947 where he played on both the golf and basketball teams. In later years, after establishing his business career, he graduated from the Harvard Business School Management Development Program. 

Freeman began his 30 year career in broadcasting during the early 1950’s in Atlanta as partner in an advertising sales firm that covered the southeast for radio networks and for the rapidly emerging television market.

In 1960, he returned to Charlotte and entered business with his father, E.E. Jones, a founder of the WSOC television and radio stations. Freeman became sales manager for WSOC-TV and AM-FM Radio, then Vice President and General Manager of WSOC. Later, when the station merged with a larger broadcasting firm, he became a Vice President of Cox Broadcasting Corporation.

The station was affiliated with ABC Television and he and his wife Helen entertained the likes of Barbara Walters and Howard Cosell at their farm in Cabarras County. He was also the editorial spokesperson for the station and gave weekly television broadcasts focused on local and national topics during the local evening news hour. 

Freeman was a tireless community servant. He was a Vice President and Director of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce and served on the boards of First Citizens Bank, Charlotte Speech and Hearing Center, Charlotte Council on Alcoholism, Charlotte Mecklenburg Hospital Authority, and the Charlotte United Community Services.

He served on the Board of Trustees for the Alexander Children’s Center, Johnson C. Smith University, The Foundation of UNCC, Inc. and the Board of Visitors for Davidson College. He was Public Relations Chair for a multi-million dollar statewide campaign for Queens College (now Queens University) and Davidson College and was Chairman of the Charlotte ABC Board. 

He believed in “family first” and in 1971 with his brother and sister, started a family real estate investment firm, EFC Corporation, with the express intent of using business to keep the family together over the generations. It remains a small firm but is the reason that far flung family members of now 4 generations still get together for the annual meeting.

He was a man who rarely discussed his deep and abiding faith, but clearly expressed it in the many blessings he gave for gatherings of family and friends. He taught Sunday School and served as an Elder and Vice Moderator for First Presbyterian Church in Charlotte. 

Freeman was a lifelong golfer and for many years he maintained his membership at the Peachtree Golf Club in Atlanta. He was from childhood an avid fisherman. At the age of 12, he was the youngest angler to receive a gold button from the West Palm Beach Silver Sailfish Derby for catching a sailfish over 8 feet long.

He loved dove hunting in the Mississippi Delta, fishing the Santee Cooper and, every year for over 20 years, he and three of his best friends would make the fall bluefishing pilgrimage to Cape Hatteras in a Carolina Blue International Scout named “Ol’ Blue.”

After his retirement from WSOC, he and Helen enjoyed the quiet country life at Cedarvale Farm in the historic 1860’s farmhouse they restored and listed with the National Register for Historic Properties. They owned a 45 ft. Hatteras yacht, the Tiger Lily, and enjoyed cruising the inland waterway from their home port of Coquina Harbor, SC. 

He is predeceased by his parents, Mary Carson and Eddie E. Jones, brother Eddie E. Jones, Jr and wife Marjorie, sister Mary Carson and husband J. Norman Pease, Jr., nephews J. Norman Pease III and Edwin Epes Jones III.

He is survived by his wife Helen Bouldin Jones, son Randy Jones (Lee Lucas), daughter Lauren Worth (David), 5 grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

The family would like to offer a special thanks to the nursing staff at Well-Spring Assisted Living and Rehab for giving Dad such loving care.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to: Union Presbyterian Seminary, Jones Scholarship, 3401 Brook Road, Richmond VA 23227; First Presbyterian Church, Television Ministry, 200 West Trade St., Charlotte, NC 28202; or Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro, Payable to Hospice Foundation of Greater Greensboro, 2500 Summit Avenue, Greensboro, NC 27405.

A Memorial Service will be held at 2:00 p.m. Tuesday, April 2nd at the First Presbyterian Church, 200 West Trade Street, Charlotte, NC. 

Published in Charlotte Observer on Mar. 28, 2019

A memorial service for Leonard Menius, 99, of Lufkin, will be held at 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, September 4, 2018 at PineCrest Retirement Community, with Dr. Brian Wiggins officiating.

Leonard was born June 14, 1919, the son of the Rev. J. Floyd Menius and Myrtle Goodman Menius. He passed away Friday, August 31, 2018, at Hospice in the Pines Inpatient at CHI St. Luke’s, Lufkin, TX.

He attended schools in North Carolina, graduating from Davidson College in 1940, and later receiving a Master’s Degree from the University of North Carolina. He served in World War II as a U. S. Air Force pilot and Squadron Operations Officer in the China, Burma, India theater. He also served during the Korean War at the Human Resources Research Center in San Angelo, Texas, doing research in pilot training methods. He was discharged from the Air Force Reserve as a Lt. Colonel, having received the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with two clusters, and Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with three clusters.

After his military service, Leonard was employed as a Personnel Analyst with Union Bag & Paper Corporation in Savannah, Georgia, and later as Director of Industrial Relations for Eastex Corporation. When Eastex was merged with Temple Industries and Inland Corporation, he served as Director of Industrial Relations for the Forest Products Division of Temple-Inland Inc., completing a total of 31 years of service with the company.

Business affiliations included the American Society of Personnel Administrators where he was classified Executive in Personnel, Chairman of Community Relations Service, Southwest Paper Industries, and Chairman of Southern Forest Products Salary Roundtable. He was a licensed Psychologist in Texas and in Georgia.

Leonard supported the Boy Scouts and was awarded the Silver Beaver award. He also enjoyed playing golf and was a member of the East Texas Seniors Golf Group for many years.

Throughout his life, Leonard was an active member of the Presbyterian Church, serving as Elder, Sunday School teacher, chairman of many committees and also serving as chairman of Presbyterian camp Cho-Yeh Camp and Conference Center.

Leonard is survived by his sons, Robert and wife, Linda of Katy and Joe and wife, Amy of Plano.

In addition to his parents, Leonard was preceded in death by his wife, Helen in 2015; and sister, Opal Menius.

Memorials may be made to Cho-Yeh Camp & Conference Center Scholarship Fund, 2200 South Washington Ave., Livingston, TX 77351; or to Medical Benevolence Foundation, P. O. Box 96877, Washington, D.C. 20090.

The family will receive friends from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday evening at the funeral home.

Condolences may be offered at www.gipsonfuneralhome.com

Services have been placed in the trust of Gipson Funeral Home.

Copyright: (c) 2018 Cox Newspapers, Inc. – The Lufkin Daily News

 B.B. Plyler Jr., 97, died at home July 21, 2017.

He was born Feb. 9, 1920, in Wilson, to the late Beal Brent Plyler and Harriet Settle Plyler. B.B. grew up in Wilson and lived most of his life there. B.B. and Flora McNeill Webb Plyler, his loving wife of 59 years who died in 2011, moved to Raleigh in 2009 to be near two of their three children and their five grandchildren, all of whom live in Raleigh.

Except for a couple of years after college, B.B. spent his entire 60-odd-year business career in Wilson as a salesman for New England Mutual Life Insurance Company of Boston (now Met Life), New England Securities and Medical Group Insurance Services.

He was a Chartered Life Underwriter (C.L.U.), a Life Member of Million Dollar Round Table and was licensed by the National Association of Security Dealers (NASD). B.B. graduated from the public schools in Wilson and later served for 12 years on the Wilson County Board of Education. He attended Atlantic Christian College (now Barton College) in Wilson his freshman year.

He then transferred to Davidson College and graduated there in the Class of 1940. He was a member of the tennis team and Phi Gamma Delta social fraternity. B.B. was very active in Wilson’s business and social life. He served as president of numerous local organizations, including the Jaycees, the Chamber of Commerce, the Life Underwriters Association (four terms), the Wilson Country Club and the United Way.

He was a former member of the local board of First Citizens Bank and the general board of Builders Federal Savings and Loan — later acquired by Raleigh Federal Savings and Loan.

He was a lifelong member of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and formerly served as a deacon and elder.

During World War II, B.B. served four years as an officer in the Navy (January 1942 – January 1946) being discharged as a lieutenant. His ship, the heavy cruiser USS Quincy (CA39), laid down the initial bombardment for the Marine landing on Guadalcanal. The Quincy was sunk by the Japanese two days later, on Aug. 9, 1942, in the battle of Savo Island.

Out of approximately 1,000 men aboard the Quincy, 389 died and 147 were wounded. Out of the nine officers from B.B.’s Midshipman’s class at Northwestern University assigned to the Quincy, seven died. B.B. was scheduled for the invasion of Japan, but the A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki made it unnecessary.

After Japan surrendered, he went into Hiroshima where he witnessed the devastation. B.B. loved people, and people loved him. He had a quick wit, and he was always kind and affirming when using it.

Until this year, he walked a mile every day from his apartment at Whitaker Glen to Five Points and back. B.B.’s mind stayed sharp until his last breath, jokingly and affectionately referring to Pam Henderson, his fantastic Hospice/Transitions nurse, as “My Doomsday Nurse.”

Though his family and friends miss him greatly, they celebrate B.B.’s amazing life and their good fortune to have been part of it.

B.B. is survived by his three children, Brent Plyler of Riverton, William Webb Plyler (Sally) and Ella McNeill Plyler Frantz (Stuart), all of Raleigh; five grandchildren, Harriet Settle Plyler Monroe (Jeff), William Johnson Plyler (Ferebee), Brent Bussey (B.B.) Plyler, Flora McNeill Frantz and Robert Mays Frantz (Gabrielle); two great-grandchildren, John Robert Monroe and Duncan Jeffrey Monroe; two nieces, Caroline Webb Smart (David) of Raleigh and Katharyn Stephan of Melbourne, Florida; and one nephew, William Devin Webb of Raleigh. B.B. was preceded in death by his parents; by his wife, Flora; by his daughter-in-law, Susan Stancil Plyler; and by his great-grandson, William Webb Monroe.

The family thanks the following people for helping B.B. in recent years: Dr. James Parsons (internist), Dr. William Berry (oncologist), Dr. John McNeill (dentist), Mark Prakke (technology specialist), the staff of The Oaks at Whitaker Glen and more recently, the staff of Transitions. At B.B.’s request, his body was bequeathed for medical study and research.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Barton College — Harriet Settle Plyler Scholarship, P.O. Box 5000, Wilson, NC 27893.

There will be a memorial service on the campus of Barton College at The Kennedy Family Theatre, Woodard Street NE, Wilson, NC 27893 on Monday, July 24, at 11 a.m., followed by a reception and visitation of the family in the atrium adjacent to the theater.

Published in Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal on Mar. 4, 2017