Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 165, Ed. 1 Sunday, July 13, 1980 Page: 1 of 30
thirty pages : ill. ; page 24 x 16 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
» t
- r >
ORDDf-jL i 12--i
Oy
Sulphur Springs
.•u yjiik- i
t-UA
.■t_r\V i1-
4 2"-' —-
. ! >-
VOL. 152—NO. 165.
7M?5
'4
M* ws-tlrienram
Sunday
IS Ctntf
JULY 13.1980.
FOUR SECTIONS
-L.V
■ V ‘ s
Twin sisters reunited
at end of long search
W
——-..... ■ I
By JAN BLAKE
News-Telegram Staff
The sun wanders through the dingy
December windows of the South Carolina
day care center. Two tiny brown haired
girls gurgle quietly in adjoining cribs. The
year is 1954.
A woman marches into the nursery and
says she is to take one of the babies. She
quickly picks up one of the infants and
stalks into the chilly afternoon. The twin
3isters, Mary Lou and Donna Sue Medlin,
were not to meet again until March of 1980.
One of the girls found her way to Hopkins
County, the other to South Carolina, and
after a long search and an emotional
reunion they've made a common vow —
never to be separated again.
Both are now married. Mary Lou now is
Mrs. Marshall Nolen of Yantis and Donna
Sue is Mrs. David Miller of Columbia, S.C.
Each has children and both were married
in the month of August, although four
years apart. Their lives have paralleled in
many ways since the initial abduction.
Each young woman said that throughout
her youth she felt something was missing:
“Like a part of my body,” said one. But
years were to pass before they discovered
the reason for that deficient feeling.
Over the years the twins individually
worked at putting the pieces together.
Each had been told the other was dead —
but neither believed it. Now that they are
together again, and sharing information,
more of the bits and pieces are beginning
to fall into place. Combining all the pieces
gets a little confusing.
One of the reasons the pair believes
things are beginning to come into focus
and relatives are starting to talk is that
those who were directly involved in the
disappearance are no longer living or their
whereabouts is unknown.
The twins say the woman who took Mary
Lou from the day care center was named
Ann Sparkman, who was a ‘friend’ of the
twins’ mother, Gaynell, who died in
childbirth the following year. One clue that
ties the mystery directly within the family
is the police’ were never called.
The alleged abductor left Columbia, S.C.
and headed straight to Dallas, where she
knew of a couple who desparately wanted
a child. “She gave me to Mr. and Mrs. J.L.
McGee,” said Mary Lou. Sparkman had
told the McGees over the phone to expect
two babies. When she arrived in Dallas,
there was only one.
“She (Sparkman) told them the other
baby had died. They gave her 31,000. This
was supposedly for hospital bills,” Mary
Lou continued.
“We now feel it was a blackmarket baby
business. Our real mother and father were
separated and, we think, our mother was
in some kind of trouble from black-
marketing,” Donna Sue added.
Neither twin is bothered by the fact they
were adopted. Both found loving homes.
But one phrase continued to pop up during
the conversation. “We should have been
No joy in sky
above county
Somewhere gray clouds gather and
the rain is falling down — but there is
qo joy in Sulphur Springs as the sun
continues to shine on bright.
The mercury climbed to 101 degrees
Friday as heat wave continued to wilt
area residents for the third straight
week.
The National Weather Service
forecast covering the next several
days is exactly like the previous five-
day forecast, hot and dry.
Daytime temperatures are ex-
pected to continue to be above the 100
degree mark through Wednesday with
no break in the temperature or the
drought in the foreseeable future.
Overnight lows are expected to be in
the upper 70s to lower 80s.
Housing fund
award okayed
Congressman Sam B. Hall Jr.
announced Saturday that the
Department of Housing and Urban
Development has obligated 3252,228 in
funds for the Ark-Tex Council of
Governments under the Section 8
Existing Housing Assistance
Payments Program to provide
housing for the elderly and low-
income families using existing
housing in Hopkins and Lamar
counties.
These funds will be used for 100
units, including 28 elderly and 72 low-
income family units.
kept together.”
Mary Lou discovered the truth of her
adoption when she was about five through
a cousin, also adopted. It was later when
she began questioning Mrs. McGee.
“She thought she had talked to our real
mother. We don’t know whether she did or
not. But anyway, my Mama (Mrs. McGee)
had the real last name and knew where I
had come from,” Mary Lou stated.
Through a process of constant
questioning and pleading, Mary Lou was
able to obtain that vital information. Even
when that was known, she was unsure as to
how to go about locating her sister, or even
if that sister was alive. Her first step was
to write the Bureau of Vital Statistics in
Columbia for a copy of the death cer-
tificate. None was available.
“I knew then that my sister had to be
alive,” Mary Lou said.
In the meantime, Donna Sue had gone to
the statistics bureau pretending to be
Mary Lou and asked for her birth cer-
tificate. She had assumed that if the birth
certificate was on record, and not replaced
with a death certificate, her sister was still
alive — but where? All she was been able
to find out from relatives was that her
sister had been taken to Texas.
Donna had been given to a woman, who
had also been promised both babies, who
knew the family in Columbia.
Donna was about 10 years old when she
discovered her adoption. Her mother said
she would help her track down her original
family. All were eventually found in
Columbia. Locating the other brothers and
sisters was one thing. But none would talk
about her twin or the events leading to
their separation.
Mary Lou’s mother-in-law, Lorine
Nolen, encouraged her to keep looking for
her sister. She also recieved help from a
cousin who works for the telephone
company in Irving. Through the cousin she
was able to obtain a copy of the Columbia
phone book.
There were 15 Medlins listed in the
phone book. Mary Lou wrote to each,
asking if they knew anything about her or
''her sister. She received two replies —
neither professed knowledge of the
situation.
But one letter did reach a “real cousin,”
who held the letter for over a month before
deciding to pass it on. Donna said she had
had a premonition the week before that her
sister was trying to reach her. She
discovered the existence of the letter
through an uncle and persisted in getting
someone to give it to her.
This was followed by a series of
frustrating phone calls as Mary Lou and
Marshall have an unlisted phone number.
Undaunted, Donna called every Nolen in
the area, pleading for her sister’s phone
number. She eventually reached the
mother-in-law who quickly passed the
message along.
A tightness filled Mary Lou’s chest as
she heard the not all together unexpected
message. “I had told Marshall that night,
that I had a funny feeling something was
about to happen.”
The call was quickly placed and the
Nolens immediately planned a trip to
Columbia over the Easter holiday. The
drive to South Carolina was a nervous one
— as was the wait at the other end.
Filling each other in on the past and
sharing experiences took the young
women far into the night. Their husbands
and children were as pleased and excited
as the women. The Nolens are hoping the
Millers will move to Yantis.
“Eventually we will be living close to
each other,” Mary Lou said.
“We will not be separated again. Neither
of us will allow that,” Donna said. “The
main thing we want people to know is that
adoption is great IF it is done legally. But
the kids should be told and families
shouldn’t be separated. ”
Search ended
Mary Lou Nolen of Yantis (left) and Donna Sue Miller of Columbia, S.C. were
separated in 1954. The separation is still clouded in mystery but the diligent search
of each to find her missing twin ended over the Easter holiday in 1980. Ferreting out
the imformation necessary to find one another was a combination of persistence and
luck, the sisters say.
-StaH Photo
Final checkout
Burt Morris, who will be taking care of the maintenance on the latest electronic
emission in the area, compares the specifications against the actual transmitter as
the new omni-directional beacon at Sulphur Springs Municipal Airport was checked
out by representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration and Texas
Aeronautics Commission and by Morris dn Friday. The amplitude modulated (AM)
signal can be heard by aircraft up to 70 nautical miles away, giving them a homing
signal to follow to the airport. Airport Manager Dick Caldwell said that the unit
transmits on 338.S1 KHz and can be heard on low frequency recievers or on a car
radio close to the transmitter. The new beacon cost approximately $10,000 with the
city providing just under SO percent of the funds.
-SUM Photo
Center improvements
on commission agenda
Another long agenda is facing the
Hopkins County Commissioners Court
when it meets Monday at 10 a.m. in the
chambers of County Judge Joe R. Pogue
with the primary subject being con-
struction and planning.
The Civic Center improvement project
— to include better ventilation in the
livestock arena, curtains and lights in the
auditorium and electrical work in the
kitchen area — will start moving again as
the commissioners consider the hiring of
both a consultant and an architect for the
Civic Center.
A consultant for the construction of a
new Hopkins County Jail will also be hired
at the session. "
Payment of funds to E.A. Young Con-
struction Company will be on the agenda.
Young’s firm is the one that is in the final
stages of its work in the courthouse
renovation project.
Bids for a loader for Precinct 3 Com-
missioner T.M. (Mervin) Chester will be
awarded along with bids for microfilming
of records in the office of County Clerk
Mary Attlesey.
The court also is scheduled to consider
action on the Workman’s Compensation
case of former Precinct 3 Commissioner
Gene Tanton.
Tanton’s salary was cut in half while he
was incapacitated and is seeking com-
pensation of approximately 35,000 ac-
cording to Coy Johnson, Tanton’s attorney.
Constable V.H. (Doc) Irons of Cumby is
expected to present a request for equip-
ment for his car, and the court will con-
sider a request to bury a telephone cable
along county right-of-way.
Bonds for county employees will also be
considered.
Freed hostage in Air Force hands
Compiled from A P wire reports
FRANKFURT, West Germany (AP) -
Freed American hostage Richard Queen,
described by his father as improving
“almost hour by hour,” was flown to the
U.S. Air Force base here Saturday, then
whisked away in a military ambulance for
medical tests at an Air Force hospital in
nearby Wiesbaden.
The 28-year-old Queen was carried on a
stretcher from an Air Force DC-9 medical
evacuation aircraft, after his arrival at the
Rhine-Main Air Force Base. His parents
and State Department officials ac-
companied him on the flight from Zurich,
Switzerland, and other American
government officials were on hand to
applaud him.
A State Department spokesman said
Queen, reunited with his parents earlier
Saturday after his unexpected release by
his Iranian captors Friday, “needs rest
and decompression. ”
His father, Harold Queen, said the freed
hostage was “making tremendous im-
provement. You can see the improvement
almost hour by hour. His mind is clear. His
spirit is great, the mood is excellent... He
is coming back fast to be the same boy we
knew.”
Sheldon Christ, the State Department
spokesman, refused to comment on
Queen’s condition and emphasized the
move to Wiesbaden was not intended to
suggest anything about the former cap-
tive’s health. He said it was not known how
long Queen would remain in Weisbaden
before being returned to the United States.
Preliminary tests by American and
Swiss doctors in Zurich indicated Queen
was suffering from a neurological problem
involving some lack of coordination and a
stiffness in his left arm, U.S. officials said.
“The doctors are optimistic, they are
quite optimistic, and that’s the most im-
portant thing,” his father said after the
elder Queen and his wife Jeanne spent 50
minutes at their son’s bedside in the Zurich
University Clinic shortly after their
midnight arrivalirom New York.
“We are overwhelmed. Richard is not as
we have known him when we last saw him
a year ago. He needs treatment, but we are
confident,’’he said.
Added Mrs. Queen: “We are deeply
grateful to the Swiss and to everybody and
we are grateful also to the Iranians for
having restored him to freedom.”
Queen’s father and U.S. Ambassador to,
Switzerland Richard Vine said they had no
knowledge of a Swiss television report of
rumors that the freed hostage would un-
dergo an operation Saturday for treatment
of a brain aneurysm, a balloon-like sac
formed by the enlargement of a weakened
artery. *
Earlier, a U.S. Embassy spokesman
said Queen, a vice consul four months into
his first tour of duty when the U.S. Em-
bassy in Tehran was seized last Nov. 4,
was not in pain and in fact appeared
“euphoric” after his flight to freedom.
Queen himself said'his major symptom
was dizziness; that he believed he was
freed because thtfmilitants “figured it was
safer to release me than to take the chance
on complications developing” and that he
expected to return to the United States
early next week, according to a telephone
interview with ABC-TV News in New
York.
captured
' By LEONARD PALLATS
Associated Press Writer
SEATTLE (AP) - A nervous 17-year-
old, described by one of his hostages as a
“model hijacker,” was captured without
injury by FBI agents after an 10-hour
runway siege aboard a Northwest Airlines
727 plane, authorities said.
The hijacker claimed to have a bomb in
his briefcase when he took over the plane
Friday afternoon at Seattle-Tacoma In-
ternational Airport, but agents opened the
luggage to find only a jacket, said FBI
agent Ray Mathis.
The youth, tentatively identified as Glen
Kurt Tripp of Seattle, seized the plane at
1:20 p.m. and was arrested without in-
cident just after 11 p.m. Friday, said
another agent Paul Mack.
Early Saturday, Tripp was being in-
terrogated at the airport and it was not
immediately known where he would be
taken, or how he would be charged
because of his juvenile status, said Mack.
One of the pilots on the hijacked plane
said via radio the hijacker claimed he
would turn himself in “once his job is done.
He’s been a model hijacker.”
The capture climaxed a tense day of
negotiations between F^J; Special Agent
Ron Beiner and the hijacker, who chiutged
his requests almost hourly - beginning
with a demand for two parachutes,
3100,000 and a light plane and ending with a
call for three cheeseburgers, a fast car and
a head start.
Just after a rental car, to be used in the
escape, was pulled up to the ramp, Mack
reported the hijacker was taken into
custody.
The capture was made as agents in the
vicinity of the night-shrouded airliner
. collared the youth as he left the plane to
get into the getaway rental, Mack said. /
Flight 608 with 50 passengers, eight
airline employees and a crew of six was
originally sctahiled to depart from Sea-
Tac at 1:20 p.m. Friday for Portland, Ore.,
said Brent Baskfield, a Northwest
spokesman.
The plane was seized when the youth
stood up while the plane was taxiing down
an airport runway preparing to take off.
The plane remained motionless on a side
ramp and flights continued to take off and
land while negotiations proceeded.
The passengers were released at about
5:30 p.m., filing down a portable stairway
and boarding buses for the trip to the
airport terminal.
Thirty minutes later, he agreed to switch
to a small single-engine plane, which
agents said would make his skydive safer.
More than seven hours after the plane
was seized, Beiner, the 44-year-old special
agent trained in hostage negotiations,
convinced the hijacker to allow all but the
two pilots - identified as Dale Yates and
Ed Johnson - to leave the plane. It was
then that a Cessna 171 arrived at the
hijacker's demand.
After 3100,000 and a parachute were
delivered to the plane, Beiner convinced
the hijacker that because of poor visibility,
it might be better to try to make his escape
in a rental car.
Queen was quoted as saying he did not
know whether the other hostages had been
dispersed to towns outside Tehran
following the aborted U.S. rescue mission
in April, as claimed by the militants, but
that there had been “a lot of movement” in
the embassy. He did not know whether
anyone was tAken away because “we were
blindfolded whenever We went from one
room to another, even if we went from one
room to a bathroom.”
The Queens, who lived in Scarsdale,
N Y. but moved to Lincolnville, Maine to
avoid the press following the embassy
seizure, left New York shortly after their
son arrived in Zurich and was carried off a
commerical plane on a stretcher following
the flight from Tehran. The younger Queen
was ordered freed by Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini, Iran’s revolutionary leader,
because of an undisclosed “serious"
illness and in the spirit of “Islamic
humaneness.”
But the Tehran government gave no
indication of softening its stand on the
remaining 52 Americans, in their 252nd
day of captivity Saturday.
Hearing tops
council agenda
A rezoning ordinance, a public
hearing on Longino Street and a
resolution will be on the short agenda
for the Sulphur Springs City Com-
missioners when they meet Tuesday
night.
At the 7 p.m. meeting, com-
missioners will consider an ordinance
to provide for special use zoning for
713 Houston St. where a ceramics
shop will be operated if the request is
approved. ’
A public hearing will be held on the
second and final reading of an or-
dinance to close a part of Longino at
the request of Cannon Craft.
The closure of the street will
provide for a long-term expansion of
the firm, which maintains its national
offices in Sulphur Springs.
A resolution to authorize an
easement wit the Louisiana and
Arkansas Railway Company will be
considered to provide for a sewer line
crossing and commissoners will
consider the approval of the final
draft of the Comprehensive Plan.
An executive session is planned to
discuss personnel matters which,
according to one city hall source,
would include discussions of city
manager prospects.
The meeting will be held in the
Municipal Building.
t
4
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Keys, Clarke. Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 165, Ed. 1 Sunday, July 13, 1980, newspaper, July 13, 1980; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth824139/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.