June 17 through the years

100 Years ago – 1925

Over the course of the week two cases of smallpox were diagnosed. Three families were released from quarantine with smallpox, and four families were now in quarantine with it, two in the city and two in the county. Between 1,500 and 2,000 people were vaccinated against smallpox over the past week. One of the families just released from quarantine consisted of 12 members. Only one of them, 22 years old, had received a successful vaccination against polio, and that was in 1905 when she was 2. She remained healthy and nursed the 11 members of her family back to health.

75 years ago – 1950

Martin A. Martin, one of several attorneys in the Martinsville Seven case, announced that he planned to ask Gov. John Battle to commute the sentences of the seven black Martinsville men sentenced to death for criminal assault.

50 years ago – 1975

Cynthia Yvette Hairston, 7, was seriously injured when she was thrown from the Tilt-A-Whirl ride at the Fireman’s Bazaar in the Liberty Heights fairgrounds.

Martinsville High School’s magazine was called “Perspectives.” Its staff included eight MHS students and was sponsored by Mrs. Pat Heberer. The magazine staff conducted a survey among students of their feelings on sex education being taught in public schools. The majority of students said it should be taught in schools. Half the respondents said that their parents had made at least some attempt to explain sex to them, and 86% were in favor of sex education in public schools. Two-thirds of the boys and 40% of the girls said they had engaged in pre-marital sexual activity. Seventy percent of boys and 53% of girls said they were in favor of couple living together before marriage.

25 years ago - 2000

The Rev. Nancy Stanton McDaniel had been an associate pastor of First Baptist Church on Starling Avenue for 20 years. The Southern Baptist Convention just had issued a proclamation stating that women should not preach from the pulpit. McDaniel said that the proclamation would not stop her and she would continue to do what she felt called to do – though she was now moving away, to be the pastor of a church in Rhoadesville, Virginia.

— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.