James Leonard Worthington

  General Notes:

Graduated from Grainger High School in Kinston. Nickname was "Shaver". He was quarterback of the football team, was on the basketball and baseball teams, and was an excellent tennis player. He told me that when he was smaller he carried his lunch in a pail to school. He would eat his lunch on the way because he was embarrased that he had lunch when most of the other kids had none to take.

His first car was a green Pontiac coupe (I think it was about a 1943). He was so proud of that car.

He enlisted in the Army in 1942 at age 27. He eloped with Mildred in 1943 and they drove across the country to Oregon. He was in the 35th Engineer, C Battalion from 1942-1945. He helped build the Alaskan Highway. He served overseas in England, Belgium, France, and Germany. He worked with the mine sweepers. He loved to talk about those days, especially the Alaskan Highway. Daughter Jelaine was born while he was overseas.

He was co-owner of the Cash Supply Store (located at North Street between Mitchell & Heritage Streets, south side) with his brother Laurie. Grover Cleveland Worthington bought the store for them to run. I remember playing on the feed sacks that were stacked up in the back of the store when I was little. James left the store in 1957 due to differences with Laurie.

The summer he left, he built a garage and painted the house we were living in at 1008 West Vernon Avenue. I remember laying on the sofa reading at the time he was painting (I would have been about 10). He worked for a short time selling insurance, but didn't like that. He then went to work for D.H. Taylor at Leco Feed Mills.

He was a construction foreman for J.H. Evans & Sons, which was owned by Jesse Hallock Evans, father of Mildred, and later by Dean Evans, until his retirement.

While at Evans Construction Co. he lost part of his thumb. He was holding something and a guy hit it with a sledge hammer.

In 1987 he had a stroke. His doctor, Dr. Fogleman, said he would never walk again--wrong. After rehab at Greenville, he recovered except for a slight dip on his right side and some word confusion.

After Mother died in 1990, he developed kidney problems (either from the dye he had an allergic reaction to when he had kidney stones or from the medication he took for high blood pressure). He eventually had to go on dialysis. He died from kidney failure at Twin Rivers Nursing Home in New Bern.

He was a quiet man. He loved to garden. Raised okra, squash, beans, peas, peanuts, strawberries, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, and beets. He and Mama would can every summer. He also enjoyed fishing. I remember when I was little, he took me fishing with some of his friends somewhere near Kinston. I caught a really big fish. Only years later did I find out that one of his friends had really caught it and they put it on my line.

He, along with our family, built our cottage at Atlantic Beach (306 East Terminal Blvd.). He and Mama would come down on weekends. The last years of his life he lived there, before having to go to the nursing home.

James married Mildred Elaine Evans, daughter of Jesse Hallock Evans and Sadie Mildred Cummings, on 18 Jan 1943. (Mildred Elaine Evans was born on 6 May 1919 in Kinston, NC, died on 4 Jan 1990 in Kinston, NC and was buried in Jan 1990 in Westview Cemetery, Kinston, NC.)