Memoried Glances: LaGrange in 1940 — Locals look to feds for airport funding

Published 12:00 am Saturday, September 12, 2015

Memoried Glances

Julia Dyar

Contributing columnist

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Septembers past, 75 years ago.

From the LaGrange Daily News, 1940.

Front Page News

LaGrange Slated to Receive U.S. Airport Grant — LaGrange is slated to receive $47,500 for airport facilities as a part of the $6,298,901 program for the state of Georgia, which is being considered by the federal government.

A total of 89 Georgia cities will receive appropriations, it was announced by the United Press.

Congress is appropriating $80 million for the Civil Aeronautics board to begin the program this year, but no decision has been made as to which projects will be started this year. Airports listed will be designed to provide fields suitable for military uses as well as to assist civil aviation.

Old Glory Floats Above City Building — The LaGrange City Hall set a pace for American patriotism this week.

For the first time in the history of the building, Old Glory is floating officially over the structure. A flag staff was erected above the entrance to the City Hall Thursday and the Stars and Stripes hoisted.

Officials said it behooves merchants and offices to fly the flag of their country.

LaGrange Merchants Absent-Minded? — Blame it on the war, blame it on business conditions, or blame it on Roosevelt, but the merchants of LaGrange are getting absent-minded.

At least that’s the way it appears, for four of them went off last night and left the doors to their concerns unlocked. The radio patrol cars of the LaGrange Police Department, which makes a checkup of doors each night, discovered them and remedied the situation, either by locking the doors or calling the owners.

One of the regular duties of the officers is to check doors each night, and it was reported that occassionally one is found open. Thursday night, however, set a record.

New Class Added to School Curricula — A course in vocational textiles, made possible through the cooperation of the Callaway Mills, has been added to the curricula of LaGrange High School and marks another step forward in the diversified occupational program, which has been underway for the past three years in the city school system.

The course will enroll from 15 to 18 boys taken from the student body at large of the high school. It will be taught at the Callaway vocational school and the academic phase of the course will be supplemented by practical work in the mills.

The course will be limited to 18 boys and it was announced that those already enrolled are from all sections of LaGrange and areas surrounding the city.

Record Enrollment at LC Includes Foreign Student — LaGrange College’s record enrollment for the 1940-41 term includes students from 75 towns in six different states and from one foreign country.

Sall Cheng of Tientsin, China, a member of the sophomore class, came to LaGrange College last fall to captivate both the college household and residents of LaGrange.

LaGrange has the largest group of students enrolled, and Atlanta, the second largest.

For the 1940-1 term, students have enrolled from Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Ohio and New York.

Baptist Memorial Chapel to be Dedicated Sunday — The Ida Cason Callaway Memorial Chapel of the First Baptist Church will be formally dedicated Sunday morning at 11 o’clock. The dedication message will be given by Dr. Walker P. Binns, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Roanoke, Virginia, a former pastor of the church here.

The chapel has a seating capacity of 250. It is kept open at all times for meditation and prayer — the atmosphere inducing the peace and calm that result from quiet reflection among beautiful surroundings. It will also be used for weddings and funerals and as an assembly room for the young people’s department of the Sunday School and Training Union.

Essentially a homemaker, a wife and mother, Mrs. Callaway, who died in 1936, served the First Baptist Church in many capacities, being especially active in the Woman’s Missionary Society and the Sunday School.

The chapel was completed earlier this year as a part of the latest addition to the church building.

Julia Dyar, a retired journalist, is active in the Troup County Historical Society.