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May 20, 2023

Today in Martinsville

Here’s what happened locally on June 7 over the past century, as reported in

Here's what happened locally on June 7 over the past century, as reported in this newspaper, which went from being called the Henry Bulletin to the Daily Bulletin to the Martinsville Bulletin:

100 years ago: "Sister Penn," as she was endearingly known, when a girl of seventeen gave her heart to the Master and united with the old Horsepasture church in Henry County, Va. This Spencer field of four county churches, for which H.B. Worley was pastor for six years, has been without a pastor for several months. The former pastor made a visit to the field and preached at Old Well church Sunday morning, May 20th, to a very large and appreciative audience with the object of locating a pastor. [Jeff Penn was so inspired to thinking about his dear departed mother when he heard the sermon that he offered to pay half the salary.]

75 years ago: Robert Stanley Bowyer, 44-year-old sheet metal worker, was electrocuted around 10:30 o’clock this morning while at work on a job at the W.M. Bassett Furniture Co. on Rives Road. Bowyer, an employee of the Haynes Roofing and Sheet Metal Co., died instantly when a long piece of galvanized iron gutter pipe he was holding came in contact with a power line.

50 years ago: Henry County's sanitary landfill … on county-owned property on Kings Mountain Road is now in operation and by July 1 will be the only solid waste disposal site in the county. The Bassett dump closed Friday, the Rock Run dump will close June 15 and the Axton dump will close June 30.

25 years ago: Fieldale-Collinsville High School science fair overall school champions were Brad Bodkin, Eric Lovell and Leigh Carter. Employees of Courtaulds Performance Film, Patrick Henry Community College, Henry County Public schools, and local nurses ... acted as judges. One of the winning exhibits compared how much bacteria was retained on different types of cutting boards after they were washed.

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1923: Clubs; 1948, Arnold M. Jones Jr., 16, awarded for saving Lois Knotts, 8; 1973, Mrs. Polly Randolph makes a grand entrance; 1998, Lowes p…

1923, American Legion for ex-service men; 1948, new school near Irisburg and also Henry Co. Tuberculosis Association; 1973, construction of US…