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75 years ago
From the Greensboro Daily News, Feb. 13-19, 1936
Quick action by two Reidsville police officers spared both human lives and heavy property damage when the officers, John Durham and Jimmy Lindsay, found a 10-foot rail missing on a Southern Railroad passenger track and notified the Reidsville ticket agent in time to stop an oncoming train.

The officers heard a loud and strange noise when an earlier train came through. Seeking to find the cause, they walked along the tracks until they came to the missing rail. It had been torn loose from the track by train No. 36 a few minutes earlier. Train No. 12 was stopped a short distance from the damaged track.
 
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The Reidsville tobacco market will end its 17th week of sales after this week, marking the end of one of the best years in the market’s history. Sales have passed 12 million pounds. Seasonal figures were expected to show a 50 percent increase.
 
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The Bi-State Class baseball league will remain an eight-team loop in 1936 as it was in 1935 after fans in Reidsville pledged enough money to operate the franchise. Until President J.P. Wells made his report, the Reidsville franchise had been in doubt, and the league entertained bids to enter the league from Winston-Salem and Henderson.

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The second annual high school basketball tournament will be staged in Leaksville on Feb. 20-24. The teams participating are Wentworth, Ruffin, Madison, Reidsville, Mayodan, Stoneville, Bethany and Leaksville. Each school will place both boys’ and girls’ teams in the tournaments.

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At the movies: Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy in “Riff Raff.”

50 years ago
From the Greensboro Daily News, Feb. 13-19, 1961
Mayodan School Superintendent V. Mayo Bundy will be among a group of educators to be flown by the Air Force to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Feb. 23 as guests of the academy. They will return to North Carolina on Feb. 25.

The purpose of the trip is to offer the educators an opportunity to talk with academy officials so that the educators can tighten up on the performance of applicants to the academy.

The group will include superintendents and guidance counselors. They will meet at Fort Bragg, where they will spend the night and then go on to Colorado Springs the following day.

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Mrs. W.T. Combs Jr. of Leaksville met with 50 Rockingham County women at Republican headquarters in Mayodan to set up a permanent Republican women’s organization for the county.

Officers chosen were Mrs. Basil Tucker, Leaksville, chairman; Mrs. Mabel Farrell, Spray, vice chairman; Mrs. Betty Stoots, Mayodan, secretary; Mrs. James Canady, Reidsville, treasurer; and Mrs. L.G. Cotten, Reidsville, corresponding secretary. The group will meet the second Monday of each month at the county headquarters in Mayodan.

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More than 700 students attended a concert at Ruffin High School presented by the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Benjamin Swain. This was the first opportunity that children in Rockingham schools have had to listen to a concert by the N.C. Symphony.

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N.C. Rep. Earl W. Vaughn of Rockingham introduced bills requested by the town boards of Madison and Draper. The Madison bill would allow the town aldermen to sell real property owned by the town at either public auction or by private sale. The Draper legislation would permit the town board to transfer $5,000 in surplus from the debt service fund to a fund to build sewer lines.

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This was not a good week for Rockingham County high schools playing against Greensboro schools. First Bessemer defeated Madison-Mayodan 58-42 and then whipped Reidsville 51-48. And Page High of Greensboro thrashed Morehead High of Leaksville-Spray-Draper 69-31.

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At the movies: Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr in “The Sundowners.”

25 years ago
From the News & Record, Feb. 13-19, 1986
Eleven corporate officials of Cannon Mills have resigned since Fieldcrest Mills bought Cannon.

“It’s the middle- and upper-management group where you have duplication of jobs,” said Doug Kingsmore, Cannon’s former president and one of those resigning.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have places in the corporate structure for all the people available,” said O.L. Raines, Fieldcrest’s vice president of Human Resources. “Fieldcrest has operated a number of years with a very lean management structure.”

Fieldcrest on Jan. 30 completed it purchase of 80 percent of Cannon for $250 million. In addition to Kingsmore, two executive vice presidents, Branson Jones and William Crumley, also have left.

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Pennsylvania developer Owen Kugel has agreed to buy the vacant J.C. Penney department store building on Gilmer Street in downtown Reidsville as part of his contract to bring at least $2 million in investments to the city in return for an $80,000 fee.

Kugel said he has made a binding agreement contingent on his being able to get financing but did not disclose the purchase price. Likewise, David Kemp, who co-owns the building with his brother, Francis, also refused to disclose any figures.

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Retail hiring in December lowered Rockingham’s unemployment rate to 5.6 percent, its lowest level in more than four years. An estimated 2,300 people were out of work in December, but Employment Security officials expect that number to climb in coming months unless the county gets an unexpected new industry.

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An electrical shortage destroyed the mobile home and most of the belongings of Larry Pruitt of Route 1, Pelham, about 2.5 miles north of Ruffin, according to Bobby Wharton, chief of the Ruffin Volunteer Fire Department. Wharton estimated the damage at $9,000 to $12,000.

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Rockingham County used a 25-point third period to roar back from an 11-point halftime deficit and then went on to defeat Northwest High 68-52 and claim the Triad 3-A Conference championship. Elsewhere, Reidsville lost to Grimsley 65-66 on a 25-footer by Grimsley’s Darryl Graham with six seconds left.

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At the movies: Danny Glover in “The Color Purple.”

10 years ago
From the News & Record, Feb. 13-19, 2001
The Reidsville City Council approved a rezoning request by Project Homestead of Greensboro for 242 acres in northeastern Reidsville.

Although some residents of the area fear the developer will put manufactured housing on the site, community development officials said the new zoning designation will not allow that.

The tract is about a half-mile outside the previous city limits and straddles Business 29 and Crutchfield and Wolf Island roads and was annexed by the city in December. It is mostly woods and pastures.

The zoning change clears the way for nonprofit Project Homestead to pursue plans for an affordable housing community that will feature condominiums, townhouses and single-family homes.

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The county commissioners ordered county staff to cut expenses by 2.5 percent to balance the budget and offset the nearly $1 million in state aid that the county may not receive.

“We are in a crisis situation,” Commissioner Valerie Eggleston said. “We all need to work together to alleviate this, or we are going to be in an even worse situation.”

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Bethany Community Middle School officials plan to renovate part of the school and add three more classrooms in anticipation of more students in the coming year.

Construction will begin in the next few weeks but won’t interfere with school. Volunteers will do most of the work in converting second-floor storage space at the charter school to accommodate 50 more students that are anticipated.
 
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Reidsville High beat Western Alamance 78-53 to win the Western 2-A Conference title. The Rams are 12-0 in the conference.