W. TERRY SMITH
Editor
TARBORO —
Is Virgil Newsome an honest man?
Read this and make your decision.
The letter arrived a few days ago. It was neatly typed with a large CONFIDENTIAL across the top in red.
It was from California. It was signed by Virgil L. Newsome, chief master sergeant, United States Air Force retired. It read:
"Enclosed you will find my check in the amount of $10 for payment of a long overdue debt I owe to The Daily Southerner newspaper.
"As a youngster, I delivered the newspaper until I quit. At the time I made my final collection but never paid the paper its share. I used the money to buy myself Christmas because my mother could not afford to buy anything.
"I've never forgotten this indebtedness and always promised myself that if ever I was in a position to correct this breech of conduct without serious injury to myself or family, I would do so.
"So, please believe me when I say I owe it and accept it. ...
"After I graduated from high school, I enlisted in the United States Air Force and served 22 years, retiring in 1969 as a chief master sergeant. I am terribly sorry it has taken a lifetime to settle this indebtedness, and I hope that you will be kind enough to forgive me.
"Thank you very much."
Intrigued, I called him up.
"I was 11 or 12 years old when all that took place," he said. "We lived at 604 W. Johnston St.”
When he dropped the paper route – "I just wasn't making enough money" – he got a job at Sam Mayo's fish and poultry market on North Main Street as a delivery boy.
"I learned to clean fish, dress out chickens, turkeys ... On Wednesday afternoons, the store was closed and Sam would go fishing and take me along. I ran the boat for him.
"Sam was like a father to me."
Newsome went to school in town until his junior year when he transferred into a two-year high school program at Wingate Junior College about 30 miles east of Charlotte. He worked part-time in a lumber yard owned by Jesse Helms.
After graduation, he enlisted into the Air Force.
"I wanted to go to Europe," he recalled.
Newsome wound up in the Mojave Desert until he volunteered to go to Japan as part of the Army of Occupation.
He was coming home aboard ship two years later when North Korea invaded South Korea.
"Lucky for me, we had a lot of dependents on board and came on home instead of detouring to Korea," Newsome said.
He worked as a postal clerk in California until he was sent to northern Thailand during the Vietnam War. He also spent three years in the Panama Canal Zone.
Later, he was assigned to the Strategic Air Command headquarters in Omaha, Neb.
During his career, he was decorated four time for meritorius service and even received an Army Commendation Medal.
Newsome has two daughters, two grandchildren and one great-grandchild. He and Ann have been married 48 years
He's had triple heart bypass surgery and a stroke, but he's an excellent conversationalist. He is 80 years young.
He's been known to fire off a Letter to the Editor of The Press-Enterprise in Riverside.
That Christmas so long ago?
“I knew my playmates were all asking for bows and arrows,” Newsome recalled “I didn’t want to be left out, so I ordered a bow and arrow set out a magazine for $9.95.
“It arrived Christmas Eve and we had a big Christmas.”
Is he an honest man?
"I hope so," he answered. "I try to be. I want that to be part of my makeup."
I told him I thought he was.
"Thank you very much," he said.
