The Great Mothers of Chapel Hill
by Charly Mann
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Comments:
Lauren Jurgensen
8:45 AM Sat 3/13/2010
My grandmother - or Kiki as we called her - is responsible for all my wonderful memories of Chapel Hill as a child. My parents took me to visit her often. Though she was a mother and a grandmother, her argument was that there was still an 18 year old version of herself trapped within her body. Her youthful zest for life was evident. I look up to her as a woman, a journalist, a family matriarch and a thinker.
Gayle Rancer
9:48 PM Tue 3/2/2010
Paquita Jurgensen was a maternal angel and mentor to me. I embraced her as my honorary "other mother", and she was always there for me during my crazy teenage years. Her home was always my "second home", and life was always fun when Paquita was around. I miss her smile! Paquita helped guide me toward my pursuits as a journalist, beginning while I was in high school (writing for the 'Durham Sun' during my senior year). Gayle Rancer
Susan Prillaman
3:38 PM Mon 3/1/2010
Dianne's description of Mrs. Thompson (Dot, as she was known to her many friends) captures the love she had in heart for all living things. Dianne, Marianne and I were close friends, growing up in Greenwood together. I remember Christmas mornings when we were young. I would run up Old Mill Road to their home on Greenwood Road. Their living room would be filled with toys for the four children. Mrs. Thompson always had the most beautiful tree , decorations and Christmas foods that filled the house with the fragrance of the holiday. I always felt so welcomed. When we got to junior and senior high school, Ed and Dot Thompson would allow us to use their "rec room" for parties. Hospitality was a special gift of hers. Their dog, Blackie, a border collie who adopted the Thompsons and was a beloved pet for many years, watched over the twins with a jealous eye. But even Blackie knew when he needed a home that Dot and Ed would say "yes." I miss both of them very much.
Robert Humphreys
7:28 AM Mon 3/1/2010
To Harry Knight, the band was and still is the Nomads Band. Still playing where ever anybody will listen or needs a good time. I've promised Charly that one day, he'll get a piece from me about the band so keep watching. you can find a clip of the band from the 60's on the story about WKIX radio here on CHMemories. Thanks for remembering!
Vi Rancer
10:18 PM Sun 2/28/2010
Paquita made things happen, had a magnetic personality and people liked being with her as she was so well rounded and a pleasure to share time with. Because of her genuine interest in others and her vast knowledge on so many subjects, she showed empathy and understanding, kindness and consideration for all who crossed her way in many walks of life. In her work, she was interesting and diligent and in her off time, she was fun, caring and an ideal friend. She was a terrific parent, grandparent, daughter, sister and wife. She enjoyed beauty about her, as exemplified by her home or wherever she happened to be. She was a lovely sight and always so beautifully coiffed in every detail. I feel she was and always will be, in my memory, a most special and outstanding human being, with real character, totally loyal and honest and someone to emulate. My family and I truly loved her and feel so grateful she enhanced our lives and existence. They threw away the pattern when she was produced, just so special!!
Katy Massengill
5:50 PM Thu 2/25/2010
This is such a lovely idea. I hope more people add information about their mothers soon.
Gloria Schneider
1:09 PM Thu 2/25/2010
I have e-mailed you information on my mother. I hope you also do a piece on the Great Fathers of Chapel Hill.
Elena James
10:07 AM Wed 2/24/2010
What a wonderful read. I grew up in Chapel Hill the 1980s and will confirm that <br \>my mom and most of the other mothers I knew during this time were also incredible people.
Harry Knight
1:53 PM Tue 2/23/2010
I am not from Chapel Hill, but grew up in Durham in the 50s and 60s. My brother and I often went to frat parties in Chapel Hill, and I believe that Robert Humphreys was in a band we saw several times, though the name escapes me now.<br \><br \>I really enjoyed reading the piece about his mother, she sounded like an incredible person that I would have love to know.
Tony Nelson
9:58 AM Tue 2/23/2010
Your photos for this piece tell most of the story. They are incredible. Thanks for paying tribute to our mothers.
Chapel Hill is located on a hill whose only distinguishing feature in the 18th century was a small chapel on top called New Hope Chapel. This church was built in 1752 and is currently the location of The Carolina Inn. The town was founded in 1819, and chartered in 1851.
What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls. or the crisp October nights. No, our love for this place is based upon the fact that it is as it was meant to be, The University of the People.
-- Charles Kuralt
Dark Side of the Hill -- Pink Floyd, the creators of the most popular album in history, Dark Side of the Moon, took the second half of their name from Floyd Council, a Chapel Hill native, and great blues singer and guitarist. He once belonged to a group called "The Chapel Hillbillies".
Check out Charly Mann's other website:
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
There would probably be no Chapel Hill if the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees in 1793 had not chosen land across from New Hope Chapel for the location of the university. By 1800 there were about 100 people living in thirty houses surrounding the campus.
The University North Carolina's first student was Hinton James, who enrolled in February, 1795. There is now a dormitory on the campus named in his honor.
The University of North Carolina was closed from 1870 to 1875 because of lack of state funding.
William Ackland left his art collection and $1.25 million to Duke University in 1940 on the condition that he would be buried in the art museum that the University was to build with his bequest. Duke rejected this condition even though members of the Duke Family are buried in Duke Chapel. What followed was a long and acrimonious legal battle between Ackland relatives who now wanted the inheritance, Rollins College, and the University of North Carolina, each attempting to receive the funds. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and in 1949 UNC was awarded the money for the museum. Ackland is buried near the museum's entrance. When the museum first opened, in the early sixties, there were rumors that his remains were leaking out of the mausoleum.
The official name of the Arboretum on the University of North Carolina campus is the Coker Arboretum. It is named after Dr. William Cocker, the University's first botany professor. It occupies a little more than five acres. It was founded in 1903.
Chapel Hill's main street has always been called Franklin Street. It was named after Benjamin Franklin in the early 1790s.
Chapel Hill High School and Chapel Hill Junior High were on Franklin Street in the same location as University Square until the mid 1960s.
The Colonial Drug Store at 450 West Franklin Street was owned and operated by John Carswell. It was famous for a fresh-squeezed carbonated orange beverage called a "Big O". In the early 1970s, I managed the Record and Tape Center next door, and must have had over 100 of those drinks. The Colonial Drug Store closed in 1996.
Sutton's Drugstore, which opened in 1923, has one of the last soda fountains in the South. It is one of the few businesses remaining on Franklin Street that was in operation when I was growing up in the 1950s.
Future President Gerald Ford lived in Chapel Hill twice. First when he was 24, in 1938, he took a law couse in summer school at UNC. He lived in the Carr Building, which was a law school dormitory. At the same time, Richard Nixon, the man he served under as Vice President, was attending law school at Duke. In 1942, Ford returned to Chapel Hill to attend the U.S. Navy's Pre-Flight School training program. He lived in a rental house on Hidden Hills Drive.
Paquita Shafer---my kiki--my grandmother who loves not only her town,her job at the newspaper and all the people she had at her "gatherings" she loves her kids,grandkids and great grandkids so very much.I am so very blessed to have had her in my life and more blessed to read all the wonderful things people say about her and my mother--Robin Mays..I love them both so very much but now they are in heaven writting,talking and doing another "gathering of freinds in heaven"