by Charly Mann

Most mothers I knew growing up in Chapel Hill had three or more children. In addition to being great mothers and wives, almost every mother was involved in several volunteer activities as PTA mothers, club scout den mothers, brownies leaders, organizers of fund raising activities, and more.

For every mother in Chapel Hill, her children were the priority of her life, and she did everything possible to make sure they had a happy and stimulating childhood. Expectations of what a mother should be and do were probably never higher than during my childhood in the 1950s and 60s. I do not believe that any mother of that era had what we now call personal time; they were just too busy.

This page is dedicated to all the mothers of Chapel Hill, and is open to all current and former Chapel Hill residents to post a photograph and a brief recollection about their mother. Send information to chmemories@gmail.com

from Bob Jurgensen:

Paquita Mignon Morton, my mother met and married my father, Robert Fine in 1941. They had three children: Robin (deceased), Robert (now living in Virginia) and Debbie, who lives in Sanford. She was known by most family and friends as simply "Kiki."

My mom worked as a journalist and columnist for several newspapers, including the News & Observer as state desk editor, a columnist and society editor ("Town and Gown") for the Chapel Hill Newspaper from the 1960's to the early 1990's, winning countless state and national writing awards. Her work spanned nearly 40 years.

After enduring a difficult divorce, she became a single mom raising three children. She often worked two or more jobs, to make ends meet. During that period of time, she was independent, never asking for help from anyone.

In the mid 1960's mom met and married Kai Jurgensen, a professor of drama at UNC. She moved from Glen Lennox apartments to Whitehead Circle. Kai passed away in the early 1970's, and mom lived alone near Eastgate for many years. With no car, she often walked up Strowd's Hill to the west end of Chapel Hill, where the newspaper office was located. Only if it was bad weather would she "waste" money on a taxi to get back and forth!

Mom met and married a retired Ernst & Young partner, Robert (Bob) Shafer in the 1980's and lived comfortably with Bob for many “fun and fascinating” years, traveling and exploring places she never thought she would see. Then Bob passed away from a stroke.

Alone, mom lived a number of years after Bob’s death. Then she was diagnosed with cancer, requiring 11 months of treatment before she passed away in her home in 2003.

Now, as I recall my visits to mom, I remember that everywhere we went -- be it McDonald's, the Carolina Inn or the Ram's Head Club -- she was greeted by a steady stream of people from every direction. In 2004, an office at the School of Journalism at UNC, was named in her honor, the result of a fund raising effort.

Having been an integral part of Chapel Hill life, my Mother was, and is, missed by many.

from Robert Humphreys:

My Mother was Nancy Leigh Humphreys and she lived to the age of 97 with reasonably good health and mental capacity. She smoked until about the age of 93 and never had cancer or any other related problems and drove until she was 91. In 1956, I was the age of 8 and we lived in a rental house on Patterson Place, just a block and a half South of Franklin Street. Mother worked alongside my Dad in building Chapel Hill Cleaners, a business they started in 1947 on West Franklin Street. In retrospect, They built that business from the ground up, although in those times, it was my Father that got the credit. But Mother was an integral part of its foundation and operation. She went to work every day and in later years ran the Laundromat that they opened on East Franklin Street in '57. But she did get off early everyday about 3:00 PM so she could come home to take care of her 3 children and cook a full dinner Every evening. Her work didn't end then as she also did alterations and sewing for the cleaners, many times at night! She did many of the alterations for the ROTC on campus and for the 5 men's shops that were on East Franklin Street and used the remnants of shortened pants legs to make pants and shorts for my brother and me. She worked hard and took us all to University Baptist Church on Sundays; well, all but my Dad. She was known for her generosity and kindness to everyone around her. The only bad thing I can say about her is that on the night of the UNC Basketball Championship game in 1957, she and my Dad took my brother and sister to Franklin Street to celebrate the win and left me at home asleep in my bed!

 From Ruth Vickers:

My mom, Bessie Bland Hundley, born 1894 and 42 years old when I was born, had the most beautiful white hair at a young age. She bore 5 children, lived to bury 4 of them, as well as her husband, Chris. Working in Venable's (Carrboro) cotton mill at age 12, she still managed enough schooling to become a well-read, musical, educated lady. President of Carrboro Schools PTA, Sunday School leader, contributor to folk song collector, Richard Chase's accumulation of old time songs and poems. She lived to be 91 years of age.

From Dianne Rolwing:

Dorothea S. Thompson was known throughout the garden world for introducing the silica-gel process for drying flowers. This process, described in the magazine, American Home (1960), was a sensational success, and the magazine commented that they were "literally swamped with inquiries" following publication of the story. She was also the author of the book, Creative Decorations with Dried Flowers. She was Registrar of UNC School of Nursing for 20 years.

I have very fond memories of my mom. She was always a very hard worker and did without many things so she could provide for her family. She grew up in Wilmington, NC so we spent most of our many vacations at the coast.

She was always helping the poor. We had a maid who was very poor. One Thanksgiving, she made a huge dinner for her and her family. When we took the meal to her, we saw that she was living in a deplorable state with no running water, no electricity, newspaper stuck in the walls to keep the cold air out and dirt floors. When we took her home, she would never let us drive her to her house. She always said that her driveway was in bad shape and we might get stuck so we let her out at the top of her long driveway. Our whole family was so overwhelmed with sadness that my mom immediately made some phone calls and got her quickly into a brand new public housing apartment. She went around our house and collected lamps, etc., made some phone calls to round up things she would need to make her apt. a home. Daisy, as she was called, cried and told my mom that her apartment was the most beautiful home she had ever seen.

by Charly Mann

On Sunday May 17, 1964 I attended special ceremonies to honor the late President John F. Kennedy at the University of North Carolina's Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill. Tens of thousands of Tar Heels turned out for the memorial program which featured speeches by the Reverend Billy Graham, the mother of the late President Rose Kennedy, his brother Senator Ted Kennedy, North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford, and former NC governor and current Secretary of Commerce Luther Hodges.

Joan and Senator Ted Kennedy with Rose Kennedy and Govenor Terry Sanford walking into Kenan Stadium on May 17, 1964

The event was a fundraiser for the construction of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston. North Carolina was the first state in the nation to organize a tribute event for the late President. Ironically, I recall that President Lyndon Johnson, who disliked President Kennedy and his family, was the honorary national chairman of the Kennedy library. President Johnson was thought likely to attend the event, but did not. I suspect he wanted to for political reasons, but that the Kennedy family did all in their power to make him not feel welcome. Roland Giduz was the Orange County chairman of the event.

There was widespread speculation that President Lyndon Johnson would attend the President Kenndey Tribute in Chapel Hill

Tickets to the ceremony were $10, and everyone who bought one had their name placed on a list which was given to President Kennedy's widow, Jacqueline Kennedy. That list has since been archived in the Kennedy library.

President John F. Kennedy's younger brother, Senator Ted Kennedy, speaks at tribute in Chapel Hill in 1964

The ceremony lasted for an hour and was preceded by a concert by the UNC band. The highlight of the tribute was a short speech by the late President's mother, Rose Kennedy, after which she was presented a check of $250,000 for the library. This was Rose Kennedy's second trip to Chapel Hill. In 1960 she came to town to campaign for her son when he was running for President.

Rose Kennedy, President John F Kennedy's mother, speaks at tribute to her son at Kenan Stadium in May of 1964

There is a rare color film which was made of the event titled North Carolina's Tribute to John F Kennedy and is 29 minutes in length. It was produced by James Beveridge and narrated by Ben Mast. As far as I can tell, The John F. Kennedy Library in Boston has sole possession of this movie, and I am sure many Chapel Hill Memories readers would enjoy viewing it.

Days before the Kennedy Tribute is held in Chapel Hill President Lyndon Johnson looks at program to be handed out during the ceremony.

Related articles:
President John F Kennedy Comes To Chapel Hill in 1961
Chapel Hill on the day President Kennedy Died
 

by Charly Mann

Chapel Hill in the early 1960s was an intellectually stimulating and exciting place for me to spend my last two years of adolescence and my first year as a teenager. I felt I was part of the new generation that President Kennedy had talked about in his 1961 inaugural address when he said, "The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.... [who are] unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world."

President Kennedy at Kenan Stadium October 12, 1961

On November 22nd ,1963 I was 13 and in the eighth grade. I had returned home early for Thanksgiving break from a private school I was attending in Asheville because my views on civil rights led to me being bullied by a large group of upper classmen at the school. On that Friday at about 12:30 I walked up to Kemps Record Store from my house, which was about four miles away. Sometime around 1:30 someone came into the store and said the President was dead. In many ways the world has not been the same since those words were spoken. Not only was one man's life cut short, but the optimism and hope of an entire generation was extinguished. For the next ten minutes the few customers in Kemp's were silent until someone turned on a radio, and it was confirmed that the President had been assassinated. I walked out of the store a little numb and not knowing what to do next.

A crowd gathers in hushed silence to listen to news about the Kennedy assassination in front of Harry's in Chapel Hill about 2 PM on November 22, 1963

I was first in dismay, then shock, and it took me many hours to come to terms with this terrible news. I remember the first thing I thought when I got out onto the downtown sidewalk was that his successor would be the vice-president. I tried to remember his full name, and recalled it was Lyndon Baines Johnson. I immediately thought that from now on everyone would use the letters LBJ when talking about him like they had used the initials JFK for John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Shock and sorrow as news about Kennedy's death reaches Chapel Hill

A few minutes later a bell at South Building began ringing. Soon after that the bells at the Bell Tower began tolling a mournful sound that sent chills down my spine. I walked solemnly through the campus to the Scuttlebutt to buy a large 5 cent root beer. I then walked back to Franklin Street. Everything in town was quiet except for the bell tower tolling in the distance, and there was little activity on campus or the sidewalks of downtown. In front of the Post Office I noticed that the flag had already been lowered to half mast. As I walked down the block I saw small crowds of people standing at the entry to many stores watching black-and-white televisions that had been placed near the front.

A UNC Chapel Hill student contemplates the death of President Kennedy on the afternoon of November 22, 1963

I remember that as I walked by Huggins Hardware they had a radio on, and an announcement was made by the broadcaster that the UNC-Duke football game kickoff would be on Saturday at 1 PM. I could not believe someone was even talking about football. (The next day the Presidents of UNC and Duke agreed to postpone the game until the following week.) I recognized one of my Dad's students in front of Sloan's Drug Store, and he said that most of the people who were downtown had come to see the annual BEAT DUKE Parade, but that it had just been canceled.

As I returned home through campus at about 4:30 PM, I could hear a bugler blowing taps somewhere in the distance. One queer thing I will always remember is that I did not see a single car driving on Raleigh Street, Cameron Avenue, Country Club Road, or Gimghoul on my walk home, and this was late on a Friday afternoon when most people would usually be coming home from work.

Flag lowering in Polk Place soon after death of President Kennedy is announced

In the somber quiet of the afternoon, I thought back to President Kennedy's visit to Chapel Hill almost two years earlier on October 12, 1961 and how I had thought then how easy it would have been for someone to kill the President.

A man leans in sorrow beside a tree on the UNC campus after hearing the news of President Kennedy's death

When I got home and told my father how quiet the campus and town had been he told me that all afternoon and evening classes at the University had been canceled, as well as classes scheduled for Saturday morning.

UNC cadets prepare to lower the flag on UNC campus to half mast shortly after death of President Kennedy is announced

One more thing I remember about that time was that a performance by the New Christy Minstrels, then one of the most popular singing groups in America, scheduled for Saturday night at Memorial Hall was canceled.

President John F Kennedy Comes To Chapel Hill in 1961

by Charly Mann

Outskirts of Chapel Hill in 1954 near current location of Eastgate Shopping Center. The highway to Durham was then an uncrowded two lane road.

What makes Chapel Hill great? For me it is three things, the people, the location, and the enduring charm of the campus and downtown.

From its inception the town has been the home of one of most diverse, creative, and often eccentric group of individuals in the nation. As a result Chapel Hill is a thriving community that has a history of innovative one-of-a-kind restaurants, bookstores, bars, and clothing stores. There is also an array of natural and architectural beauty on the campus and downtown that creates an atmosphere that emotionally binds one to the place.

South Building and The Old Well in May of 1963

Unlike most towns that arise because of commercial consideration, Chapel Hill's location was primarily chosen because of its magnificent forest and scenic terrain. The town is an oasis of ancient trees, historic buildings, and great traditions. It is also home to some of the friendliest people on the planet. The clear blue sky, that is most often overhead, adds another charm to the place.

Chapel Hill has long had a special music in its air that could be heard nowhere else. It goes back to the guitar and mandolin ensembles that were popular on campus in the late 19th century and continued through the enormously successful UNC bands of Hal Kemp and Kay Kyser in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. Since the 1960s Chapel Hill's music scene has been an incubator for great musical talents that have included James Taylor, Arrogance, Mike Cross, Jim Wann, Bland Simpson, and the Squirrel Nut Zippers.

This is an illustration from 1902 when Chapel Hill was the music capital of the world. Guitar players came from all over the country to live here and join a band. This is a part of Chapel Hill history that very few people have ever heard of today .

More than anything else Chapel Hill is the home to a university where the brightest youth in North Carolina come to improve their minds and body, and often leave with the ability to achieve their dreams.

Chapel Hill Memories was created so that all former and current Chapel Hill residents can have an opportunity to share their recollections about this wonderful community. We also encourage our readers to do research and conduct interviews with older Chapel Hill residents. Please help preserve the memories of this town. Send your collections to: chmemories@gmail.com.

by Charly Mann

Growing up in Chapel Hill in the 1950s and 1960s I came to believe that love is the most powerful force in existence. I saw firsthand what a propelling power it was.

A picture that defines pure love, from the University of North Carolina campus in the fall of 1961

Chapel Hill is a place where if you are careful and aware, you can meet the soul you were destined to blaze a trail together with through eternity. Fairytale love affairs really do happen in this town of eternal love.

Pat Hole from the UNC class of 1946. She was chosen by Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall as the most beautiful girl in Chapel Hill that year.

This is Roxanne Kalb from 1965. She was a senior from Suffield, Connecticut. Her major was international studies. She was involved in a wide array of campus organizations and was also President of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority and was the Senior Class Social Chairman. Her hobbies included painting, swimming, and fishing.

Charlie Hoffmam, from the University of North Carolina class of 1926, a beautiful coed with my favorite name.

Mary Thom White UNC coed clearly going places from 1960

Love blooms on the UNC campus in 1943.

Sara Rose of the UNC class of 1953

Hometown Chapel Hill beauty Ditzi Bruce from 1941

Mary Ann Henderson UNC coed from 1962. She was then a senior majoring in studio art. Her plans were to go into fashion advertising after graduation, She was a member of Chi Omega sorority. Even though her home was in New Orleans, in 1961 she was named Miss Chapel Hill. She was active in the campus YWCA and her favorite pastimes were horseback riding and water skiing.

 by Charly Mann

Since I was six years old I have hiked up and down the unmarked trail from Greenwood Road to Gimghoul Castle thousands of times on my way to and from various locations in Chapel Hill. Long before I was born another man often walked through these woods. His name was Horace Williams, and he was a professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina from 1890 until the time of his death in 1940. Even though I never knew him I often felt his spirit on my path.

Horace Williams (1858 to 1940). He was the gadfly of Chapel Hill and a UNC philosophy professor from 1890 to 1940. His house is now home to the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill.

Williams was an unusual man who believed a teacher's job was to help a student find himself. His favorite subject was Socrates, and he taught students about him by making his classroom a pure Platonic experience. Williams believed everything had meaning. He once said "There is no abstract knowledge." He would never allow his students to make assumptions or speak in abstractions. He was by all accounts as much a gadfly in Chapel Hill as Socrates had been in Athens. It was even said by some who knew him well that he not only practiced Socrates, he was Socrates.

This followings recounts one of my walks on this trail when I was accompanied by the spirit of this man.

Entrance of the trail from Greenwood Road up to Gimghoul Castle. Much of this land was owned by Chapel Hill novelist Betty Smith.

Horace Williams: Excuse me young man; I understand you are interested in me.
Charly Mann: What – where did you come from – do I know you?
Horace Williams: Were you not recently visiting my house?
Charly Mann: Yeah – oh I get it... you must be an actor the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill hired for their open house.
Horace Williams: No my friend, I am Socrates.
Charly Mann: Look buddy... cool... whatever you say. Now I want to get back to my walk.
Horace Williams: So you do not think I am Socrates?
Charly Mann: Look, you can be whoever you want to be, but just so you know Socrates died over 2500 years ago after drinking hemlock.
Horace Williams: Yes, my soul did leave my body, but my presence is alive as long as people like you think about my ideas.

Charly Mann on side of trail leading up to Gimghoul Castle.

Charly Mann: Okay – I'll play along for a while. You can be Socrates, and I'll ask you some questions. Why don't you walk along with me? I'll slow my pace down on account of your age.
Horace Williams: I will enjoy walking with you, but let us walk faster. Fast walking does for the body what thinking does for the mind.
Charly Mann: Hey that's a good line. So here is a question I would ask the real Socrates. Can one find happiness in life?
Horace Williams: Life is not for making you happy, but for perfecting your character. To strengthen oneself requires great challenges. Does your life give you those?
Charly Mann: Yes, I know from experience that life is a series of great challenges.
Horace Williams: That is very good. Life should be a psychological gymnasium that gives you opportunities to work on yourself.
Charly Mann: Out of curiosity Sir, I always thought Socrates spoke in Greek. You seem to have mastered English quite well since the time of your death.
Horace Williams: Ah yes, there is only one language to know if one is fortunate to spend time in the company of the Divine, and that has been English for almost 200 years.

The enchanted trail up to Gimghoul Castle has been the site of many strange occurrences.

Charly Mann: Okay so why is that?
Horace Williams: God has a small group of souls that she spends much of her time with. When we gather it always includes someone you may have heard of named Jane Austen, who sits on the Supreme's left side. Being in God's presence is the most blissful experience one can imagine, but even the Divine seems overwhelmed when Jane reads to us.
Charly Mann: I see, and would I know anyone else in this select group?
Horace Williams: Yes there are only two others, Marcus Aurelius and George Washington.
Charly Mann: A rather small group considering all the souls who must reside in heaven.
Horace Williams: Yes we are all fortunate to have escaped the cycle of birth and death and gain eternal life, but much of heaven is reflected in your own world. Each soul is an individual that has its own interests.  Everyone is in a constant state of joy and peace of mind, but few even in heaven have much desire to learn more. For the most part they are all intoxicated by the serenity of their eternal existence and seek nothing more.
Charly Mann: I must say that sounds wonderful.
Horace Williams: It is not enough for me, and those who are closest to God. The real health of the soul comes from continuous growth. My gift has been to provoke and even annoy others to come to know themselves, for only in this way can we ever really be close to God. Jane Austen, for example, has written hundreds of books since she came to us, each much better than the previous. On the other hand, most of the great writers, philosophers, composers, and artists you know from your world simply ceased creating and growing when they settled in heaven, being satisfied with perpetual bliss.
Charly Mann: So let's get back to earth for a moment, I have long had an interest in how to best find contentment in this world.
Horace Williams: Almost all of one's discontentment on earth stems from an inability to sit quietly with oneself.
Charly Mann: You mean like meditation?

Gimghoul Castle has been the home of the UNC secret society, the Order of the Gimghoul, since 1926.

Horace Williams: No, meditation usually means emptying your mind. Your mind is meant for thinking and learning.
Charly Mann: And what types of things should I be doing then?
Horace Williams: The best way to use time is by improving yourself through other men's writings so that you can come easily to what others have labored hard to know.
Charly Mann: Alright, but there are many responsibilities and distractions one encounters each day which make it difficult to find much time for this kind of self-improvement.
Horace Williams: Nonsense. You should focus on excellence and learning whether you are at work or at play. There should be no distinction between the two.
Charly Mann: There are so many bad things in this world. Can I do anything to improve it, or should I leave that for God?
Horace Williams: God has sent help to this world, and it is you and every other person who inhabits this earth.
Charly Mann: But the problems seem immense. I really don't think someone like me can make much of an impact.
Horace Williams: The problem with you and almost everyone else on this planet is that they think like you. They refuse to aim too high in their ambition because they are afraid they will miss their goal, so instead, they aim too low and they reach it.

Battle Seat is at the top of the trail to Gimghoul Castle. For most of the 19th century this was a favorite spot  for UNC students to relax and enjoy an incredible view of Durham an Raleigh. Today trees block most of that view. The seat was built at the same time as the castle in 1926. Many of the rocks used in it were placed near this spot many decades earlier by former UNC President Kemp Plummer Battle (1831 - 1919) who was a friend of Horace Williams.

At this point we reached Battle Seat at the top of the trail. Horace Williams sat down and I continued on my walk.