Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 22, Ed. 1 Sunday, January 27, 1980 Page: 1 of 44
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Too Tail's return to turf in question: rather fight than switch?
-Details in today’s sports, Page 15-
Sulphur Springs
VOL. 102—NO. 22.
Sunday
JANUARY 27. 1980
15 Cents
FOUR SECTIONS
Weary hijack victims safe
after sneaking from plane
c
NEW YORK (AP) — Exhausted but
unharmed — and more than 18 hours
behind schedule —• passengers of a Delta
Air Lines flight arrived in New York
following their escape from an armed
hijacker who took their plane to Cuba and
demanded passage to Iran.
The 65 passengers and crew, some
clutching boxes of Cubah cigars, greeted
relatives as federal officials tried to piece
together the details of the hijacking, which
began early Friday over North Carolina.
The man — who boarded the Atlanta-to-
New York flight with his wife and two
daughters — was taken into custody along
with his family in Cuba after officials
refused to provide him with a plane to
Tehran, said State Department
spokesman David Passage.
Don Vickers, captain of Flight 1116, said
he did not know why the man wanted to go
to Iran. Delta officials said the L-1011 was
not equipped to cross the ocean.
Authorities said the hijacker was armed
with a pistol, and One passenger said the
man’s wife told her that he also had an urn
containing the ashes of his younger sister.
“She said he wanted to sprinkle his
sister’s ashes on Moslem soil,” said
Bobbie Grier, a missionary from Bir-
mingham, ,Ala. She said she was told that
the sister had recently died of a brain
tumor.
The hijacker surrendered after
passengers sneaked off the plane - the
last of them making noise so the man
would not notice the plane was emptying.
Arthur Nehrbass, special agent in
charge of the FBI office in Miami, iden-
tified the man as 29-year-old Samuel Alden
Ingram Jr. of Atlanta.
Nehrbass said he did not know if Cuban
authorities would return the family to the
United States.
“We’re still putting the story together,” .
he said. Earlier, the Federal Aviation
Administration said two men claiming to
be Black Muslims had hijacked the plane.
The flight departed Atlanta at 1 a.m.
Friday and was commandeered an hour
later over Greensboro, N .C., when the man
told the crew he had a weapon and wanted
to go to Havana, Vickers said. The plane
landed in Cuba at 4:03 a.m. EST.
Passengers said they knew nothing of
the hijacking until stewardesses came by
to inform them individually.
“He did not threaten the passengers,”
said Lynn Martin, 19, of Dallas. She said
the hijacker was in the cockpit while his
wife and daughters, aged 2 and 7 months,
stayed in their seats as the plane waited on
the ground in Havana.
Several passengers said the woman
apparently was surprised by the events.
Bobby Grier of Birmingham, Ala., said
the woman told her she suspected her
husband had sneaked the gun aboard by
hiding it in the clothing of their 7-month-
old daughter.
Passengers said they escaped the plane
by sneaking in pairs to the rear of the jet,
where they descended to a lower galley.
They dropped six feet to the ground and
huddled until a truck could pick them up.
Beaning a rooster
Not everyone has seen a purple rooster, and these four
youngsters proved they knew the difference during a bean art
poster project at a Sulphur Springs play school. Gluing the
proper (rooster) colored beans to prepared stencils are, from
left, Rodney Cummings, 6; Chris Dyer, 5; Jason Roberts, 5; and
urrfpt'
Retired county banker takes
look at local economic growth
Brandon Scott, 8, students at the Humpty-Durrfpty Kiddie
Korner. The four youths' posters were |udged the best in an art
project designed to help youngsters recognize proper colors of
common objects or animals and to sharpen their knowledge of
the interaction of colors, according to school personnel.
—Staff Wtoio
By JOE W005LE Y
News-Telegram Staff
Twenty years ago Hopkins County had
two banks with combined deposits of
$13,302,636.
A third bank was added in the early 1960s
and the combined deposits at the close of
business in 1979 had soared to $107,150,451,
a net gain of more than $93.8 million.
As a fourth bank prepared to join the
financial structure in Sulphur Springs, a
long-time observer of the Hopkins County
scene agreed to share a few memories
gleaned over the years.
Cecil D. Ward, now living in retirement,
in Dallas, circled Nov. 20,1916 as his first
day on the job at the First National Bank in
Cumby. He served as a teller and did other
routine assignments as needed to launch a
career. Two years later he was a director
in the small bank serving the westernmost
section of Hopkins County.
At that time, there were four banks in
Sulphur Springs and ten others in outlying
communities in Hopkins County.
In addition to the two current banks,
Sulphiir Springs State Bank and City
National Bank, two others, the First State
Bank and the Guaranty State Bank, were
operating in Sulphur Springs.
Cumby’s second financial institution
was the Cumby State Bank. There was the
Ridgeway State Bank at Ridgeway. The
F&M Bank served the Brashear area.
There were two state banks at Como and
two banks at Pickton. Both Sulphur Bluff
and Saltillo had state banks.
Ward’s banking career extended for 21
years, including a stint in Sulphur Springs
after the Cumby beginning, and then he
joined the Sulphm Springs Loan and
Building Association, where he remained
as president and chief operations officer
until his retirement.
In more than 60 years of closely ob-
serving the banking business and its close
ally - the Loan and Building Association
— Ward accumulated hundreds of friends
.that he has helped with financial
problems. He also became skilled in
judging the human element to determine
low-risk loans.
Cotton was the only commodity in the
county, Ward recalls, when he began his
banking career during the World War One
era. After good harvests, deposits in the
small banks grew in the fall and winter,
and then dropped off as loans were made
to finance new crops.
In those early days, there were few cars
and bankers took a dim view of making
loans on them.
Ward said that one banker told him the
only way he would make an autdtnobile
loan was for the car to be placed in bonded,
storage and not used. He did not Want to
risk an accident wiping out the collateral.
Ward has sharp recollections of the
depression days when many of the smaller
banks elected to consolidate with others or
closed out as population movement
lessened the need for community financial
houses.
Mainly, however, Ward dwells not on the
ebbtides of the banking industry, but
prefers to talk about the solid growth
patterns Sulphur Springs and Hopkins
County have experienced. He foresees
continued progress.
During his long career, Ward made a
great many small loans. Of course, there
were many loans of considerable
magnitude. The largest single loan was for
$1.6 million.
A few years ago, Ward utilized the in-
formation at hand and his own recollec-
tions to write and publish a booklet about,
the Woman’s Club Building in Sulphur
Springs, and how it’ came into being
through a widespread cooperative spirit.
A current project occupying his time is
an effort to compile a history of the
Hopkins County dairy industry. He has a
tape recorder near his side and speaks into
the microphone from time to time to
preserve the data and his memories about
■the dairy industry which has become a
strongpoint in Hopkins County’s economic
structure.
When he gets that project completed,
friends are encouraging him to compile an
oral history of Hopkins County’s banking
industry.
Almost 83, Ward ranks as an expert in
this field. And with facts gathered over
more than 60 years of association with the
financial business, he has first-hand
knowledge from 1916 forward that needs to
be preserved as Hopkins County history.
Wisecracks at 30,^00 feet f
Continental Airlines' Henny Youngman...
By ROCKY SCOTT
Associated Press Writer
HOUSTON (AP) — Dave Spence knows
airline safety is a serious business, but he
dosen’t mind getting a giggle or two when
he talks about it.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this aircraft has
seven emergency exits,” Spence teUs
about 150 passengers as a Continental
Airlines jet slices through the air between
Oklahoma City and Houston.
“We ask that you not use any of them
while the plane is in the air." A small
chuckle from the crowd, then Spence adds
the kicker.
“And, with any luck at all, you won’t
have to use them on the ground, either.”
The tension is broken, and the curly-
haired 32-year-old flight attendant has
another captive — his word — audience
paying attention to those normally boring
flight safety instructions required by the
Federal Aeronautics Administration.
“We (attendants) fly so much it seems
routine for us,” says the Kansas native
who now lives in Houston. “We forget it’s
whjte-knuckle city for a lot of people who
get on an airplane."
“If I can be funny over the PA system or
while I’m doing a safety demonstration,
then I’ve accomplished two things. I’ve
made the passengers relax, and I’ve
gotten them to pay attention to something
that may save their life later on.”
Spence, who plans to begin work this fall
on his doctorate in .communications
theory, admits that his job is “not the most
intellectually stimulating work in the
world."
“After you serve the drinks, what else is
there to do?" he says. Then, answering his
own question. "Well, you can interact with
people...help them have a good flight.”
The interaction begins with a sting of
one-liners that Henny Youngman (“He
keeps stealing my material,” says
Spence) would envy.
To a man who asks for a 'beer, Spence
retorts “You’re in luck today. Beer is free,
but the can costs a dollar.”
Prior to the cocktail hour,. Spence tells
passengers, “We’d appreciate it if you
could give us the correct amount when
buying a drink. We work for a cheap
airline and they don’t give us change.”
Demonstrating the use of an emergency
oxygen mask is mundane at best, until
Spence applies his own wacky brand of
humor to the task.
“I’ll put it on my ear, on top of my head,
r-
anywhere but over my nose and mouth.
The important thing is that they know that
the masks will drop down automatically
and what to do with them.”
But the end results aren’t always
predictable. “We usually turn our heads to
the side to show the people how the mask
Aiips over the head," he says.
“Well, on one flight, we did lose
pressure. I almost fell over when I saw all
the passengers turning their heads to the
side every time they took a breath. It
looked like a tennis match.”
Disagreeing with the tendency of airline
companies to downplay the possibility of
flight emergencies, Spence says “the
positive side of danger” can be used to
make passengers aware of life-saving*
(safety procedures.
“Passengers who pay a couple of hun-
dred dollars for a trip deserve not only to
be treated courteously, but all the help we
can give them,” he says.
“If being funny helps them remember,
then I’ll do it.” But he admits his routines
aren’t always a big hit with other crew
members.
“Some of the other flight attendants say
my stuff makes us look likd clowns. Well,
that’s their problem. I think it works.”
So, appparently, do his passengers. He
waves a sheaf of letters from passengers
who have taken the time to write the
company and praise his work, shying they
felt very “safe and comfortable” on his
fight.
While there are limits to his humor —
“don’t pick on cities, that’s trouble” -
pilots don’t enjoy any immunity.
"We had a pretty bumpy landing coming
into Kansas City. I said Toadies and
gentlemen, we have just bounced into
Kansas City.’ You're not gbnna believe
this, but the pilot thought it was funny.”
As for making fun of cities, Spence says
he learned his lesson shortly after he
began flying two years ago.
“We were coming into Wichita, Kan.,
and the pilot said 'for those of you with
watches who are deplaning in Wichita, you
can set you watches'back 100 years.’
“We heard about that one,” he
laconically observes.
Landing in Houston, Spence advises
passengers to remain in their seats with
their seat belts fastened. "That way,” he
says, using undeniable logic, “you won’t
get to the terminal before the plane does.”
Spence says “there will always be flight
attendants.”
News briefs
Chilly blast
nears county
A strong cold front, accompanied by
bone-chilling high winds, snow, sleet
and freezing rain, roared into the
Texas Panhandle Saturday morning
and is bearing down on the Sulphur
Springs area.
Travelers advisories were issued by
the National Weather Service for the
Panhandle because of the storm.
The storm system, according to the
weather service, Saturday was
moving across the northern half of the
state and colder temperatures are
expected to reach Sulphur Springs
' Sunday.
The Saturday forecast — which was
on the nose with a call for cloudy
skies, early morning fog and mild
temperatures — is followed by a much
colder outlook for Sunday.
The temperature Sunday is not
expected to reach much above 38
degrees during the day and may drop
into the lower 20s after sunset.
Although the cold temperatures are
expected to reach Sulphur Springs
Sunday, rain, sleet, or snow is not
expected to be much of a factor here.
There is a chance of rain on Monday
according tq, the forecasters but
daytime temperatures are expected
to be well above the freezing mark.
Bank sets
open house
Sulphur Springs’ newest financial
institution — First National Bank -
will hold open house from 1 to 5 p.m.
Sunday at 1133 Mockingbird I-ane
priorJ to formally beginning
operations Monday.
President Rick Palmer, the 12-
member board of directors,
stockholders and employees have
joined in inviting the public to inspect
the facilities of the bank’s new
, building, partake of refreshments,
register for prizes, and learn first-
hand about the services offered.
Several members of the National
Football League champion Dallas
Cowboys are expected to be on hand to
sign autographs. Among them are
expected to be punter-quarterback
Danny White, center John Fitzgerald,
and defensive back Aron Kyle.
H. E. Wright Construction Company
of Texarkana was the prime con-
tractor for the new bank, which cost
about $600,000.
A special supplement in today’s
News Telegram carries information
about the bank’s officers, directors
and staff, along with advertisements.
Ape debate
turns into
word war
"s
By ROB WOOD
Associated Press Writer
HOUSTON (AP)— The chimpanzee
named Washoe rested on the limb of a tree,
flipping through the pages of a magazine,
and on occasions using sign language to
describe some of the objects she
recognized in the printed pictures.
Another time, Washoe asked for a treat
but the request was refused by a resear-
cher. The chimp then gave the scientist the
sign for “dirty”, about as insulting as an
ape can be within the limits of his
knowledge of the American Sign
language. '
This has convinced Roger Fouts, an
associate psychology professor at the
University of Oklahoma, that apes can
develop human-like linguistics and
thinking abilities.
■* Fouts believes with proper training, the
primates eventually will be able to talk
with humans and even begin and end
conversations without prompting.
To Herbert Terrace, psychology
professor at Columbia University, it
means only that apes can be taught a sign
language, but do not understand it, and
will never be able to construct sentences.
Terrace believes the apes put together
two, three, even four signs in an.effort to
receive a treat or to imitate the teacher.
He insists that use of the signs are always
triggered first by questions from the
teachers.
Fouts and Terrace, two of the world’s
most widely known researchers in primate
language, have been at odds over this
research project for several months.
Terrace, after four years of work with a
chimpanzee named Nim Chimpsky, can do
no better than a clever fake of sentence
construction. His findings were printed in
Science Magazine and Psychology Today.
Fouts, who has worked with Washoe
since 1965, said his chimp learned 240 signs
and understood the equivalent in spoken
English, though she cannot make the
sounds.
For the first time since the scientific
feud began, the two researchers debated
the issue in public during a seminar on the
campus of the University of Houston.
Fouts said Terrace had not used the
proper methods to teach the chimp Nim
and that “we don’t think the sentence is the
center kernel of this research, but instead
it is the utterances by the apes.
“We didn’t expect the chimp to learn the
King’s English. Ariel, Nim was taught,
trained. Washoe learned,” he said.
Terrace said, “Just because Nin could
use a sequence of signs didn’t mean he
could create a sentence. Nim initated the
—Continued on Page 14—
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Keys, Clarke. Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 22, Ed. 1 Sunday, January 27, 1980, newspaper, January 27, 1980; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth824321/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.