Sunday, Dec. 16, 1962

11 blazes keep firemen on run

Fire calls averaging more than one an hour Saturday afternoon and evening kept the Rome fire department busy with a total of 11 fire alarms between the hours of 12:30 p.m. until 7:37 p.m.

The first alarm was at 12:20 p.m. to a vacant house on the Rockmart Road which was completely destroyed by a blaze which started from a woods fire. Company 3 answered the alarm.

At 2 p.m. Company 4 went to a fire in an automobile owned by Otis Bailey on the Plainville Road. Small damage was reported to the car.

At 3:30 and 3:34 p.m. two alarms were answered by Companies 2 and 3 – one to a grass fire on a vacant lot on East 14th St., and the other to trash burning at the residence of B.B. Boatner, 1343 Cave Spring Rd. At 5:22 and 6:12 p.m. two grass fire alarms were answered. Company 3 went to Bonnie Street and Company 7 went to East 13th St. No damage was reported in either fire.

Grease on fire on the stove was the cause of an alarm at the residence of Mrs. John Brown, 313 Pennington Ave., at 6:45 p.m. No damage was reported, however, by Company 7.

Company 2 went to the Coosa Country Club to a grass fire at 6:33 p.m. A sprinkler tripped at the Southern Dairies Building at 700 Shorter Ave. but no fire was reported by Company 5, which answered the alarm at 7:37 p.m.

Companies 5 and 7 went to the Battey State Hospital where a sprinkler had burst, causing the alarm to go off at 6:03 p.m.

A vacant garage and storage building at 500 East 12th St. received considerable damage from fire of unknown origin at 6:17 p.m. Companies 1 and 3 answered the call.

Monday, Dec. 17, 1962

Roman in unit featured in hurricane hunt

Ens. Edwin H. Strain, son of Mrs. Agnes Quarles of 12 Vassar Dr., is a member of the Navy’s Hurricane Hunters, Airborne Early Warning Squadron Four, which was featured in Walt Disney’s new documentary film, “Hurricane Hunters.”

The film was shown on television Sunday night on Walt Disney’s “Wonderful World of Color,” and was seen in the Rome area.

A large part of the film was taken during actual storm flights into hurricanes of the 1961 hurricane season. Additional footage was shot at the home base of the Hurricane Hunters, U.S. Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, and at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla., where the squadron maintains a detachment of men and planes during the hurricane season – June 1 through Nov. 30 – for flying storms in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic Seaboard.

Thursday, Dec. 20, 1962

Mona Lisa rests under heavy guard in capital vault

WASHINGTON (AP) – In Vault X of the National Gallery of Art, a celebrated lady rested today, waiting for somebody to let her out of a box so she can turn her inscrutable smile on Americans.

Under security guard seldom accorded a queen, the Mona Lisa of Leonardo da Vinci, the world’s most famous portrait, arrived Wednesday from the Paris Louvre.

An ambassadress of good will, she will be unveiled Jan. 8 by President Kennedy before a throng of notables, including members of the new Congress.

After three weeks in Washington, the 450-year-old painting will move on to the Metropolitan Museum in New York, then possibly to other American cities, before going home to France.

The Mona Lisa made the Atlantic crossing on the liner France. At New York Wednesday, her aluminum and plastic box, air-conditioned to duplicate the humidity and temperature of the Louvre, was loaded with ceremony into a small black van.

In a seven-car caravan, the van sped to the capital. Eyes of Secret Service men, assigned by Kennedy, roved right and left. Soldiers turned out to guard the way. In every state en route, state police formed a motorcycle escort. Tunnels were closed to ordinary traffic.

The Mona Lisa is priceless, although one figure mentioned as her value is $100 million. No insurance was taken out for her trans-Atlantic passage — the rates would have been prohibitive.

In France, some art critics and others had raised protests against the painting’s voyage to the New World. They thought of the storms at sea, of possible portrait pirates, and, above all, of chances in humidity that might flake the paint of the aged panel of poplar wood.

Why then, did the French permit the Mona Lisa to come?

Mainly, it is a gesture of amity. The French know, for example, that Jacqueline Kennedy has an insatiable yearning for art.

Friday, Dec. 21, 1962

Model slaps Johnson in annual tournament

Model played probably the smoothest game of the evening in its decisive win over a favored Johnson quintet during the Ninth Annual Northwest Georgia Invitational Basketball Tournament. It was only the second loss for the Wildcats in 11 outings this season, but it was a bitter one.

Tommy Kiser and Randy Dixon, two fine competitors, made the job easy for Model with a series of jump and driving layup shots that caught Johnson off balance. Model shot out to an 8-5 lead at the end of the first period and Johnson was never able to catch up. The Wildcats did stage a mild rally late in the first half that brought them within two points of Model, but that was the closest they got to the rest of the night.

Model led 22-18 at intermission and boasted this to 40-28 after three-quarters of play. And when Jimmy Stansell, Johnson’s top scorer, fueled out early in the fourth stanza, Model poured in the points to win in a rout.

Kiser collected 22 points and Dixon 15 to lead Model’s point parade. Stansell had an even dozen markers for Johnson.