The Anniston Star from Anniston, Alabama • Page 1

The Wellborn Panthers edged Arab 28 Weaver 6 Saks 20 Glencoe 7 Anniston 24 Jacksonville 7 Spring Garden 16 Donoho 14 Ohaichee26 Piedmont 19 White Plains 34 Pleasant Valley 13 Oxford 14-13 Friday night. Details Pages 5A. win -) Saturday, Oct. 29, 1983 Price 25 Cents Vol. 104, No.

303 Anniiton, Ala. 'Alabama's largest home-owned newspaper Cuba knewU.S. Grenada aim Poll says U.S. troops abroad OK From Wire Report WASHINGTON Cuba wu tipped off to U.S. plant to invade Grenada at least 24 noun before the attack began, possibly explaining why the Cuban force seemed so well prepared for the assault, U.S.

intelligence sources said Friday night Sources, who spoke on condition they not be identified, said the warning came from an "unintentional" leak from one of the Caribbean nations which Joined the United States in the invasion Tuesday. The sources refused to disclose which of the six countries leaked the information, Although learning of the invasion plans, Cuba's President Fidel Castro did not send reinforcements to the island, but did dispatch an army colonel to direct the island defense, the sources said. ADM. WESLEY McDonald, conv mander-in-chlef of all U.S. forces In the Atlantic, disputed suggestions that U.S.

intelligence had failed by underestimating the number of Cubans on the island by about half and said Friday a captured top- The five Potter sisters made their own Christmas to right are Eurdice, Ivy Alice Ann and Minnie Christmas in October together secret document showed that Cuba planned to station about 0,800 troops there and intended to take over the island. And he said "It could be weeks" before the U.S. force, itself built up to 6,000 men, overcomes all resistance. He reported that about 300 to 350 Cubans were still "fighting a delaying action going back into the McDonald said remaining Cuban possibly with some diehard Grenadians, "will present a problem" for the Americans and "It could be weeks" before they are completely neutralized. Administration officials also claimed to have Intelligence suggesting that American students at the St.

George's University Medical School on Grenada were in danger of being taken hostage. One administration official said the speculation was prompted by overhead reconnaissance photos showing Cuban forces, building U-shaped fortifications around, one of the campuses. Since "the university Is not what you would call a strategic defensive U.S. leaders (Please see Grenada, Page 12A) tions officer, the younger Akers' job was to help the operation's commanding general plan and supervise the attack. "He was in on it from the word we're sure of that.

He knew about it, but he couldn't talk about it." AKERS a veteran of World War II and Korea, said he suspected his son was involved In the intelligence-end of some upcoming operation, but "knew better than to ask him any questions about it." Army officials at Fort Bragg won't talk about the 82nd's role in the Invasion, saying the information is "highly classified." But the younger Akers' role in the Invasion has been highly visible since fight-" ing has slackened off and the press has been allowed in. Akers a veteran of two tours of duty in Vietnam, is also acting as an information officer as the mop- (Please see Akers, Page 12A) Anniston's Alters on inside of Grenada military action December 1944. They had tried to get together at other Christmases, but something would always happen, they said. In 1968, It looked like everyone would be able to make it Mrs. Schneider was planning to visit from Pennsylvania and Mrs.

Thomas was going to try to make it from Florida until one of her children got the mumps, and her plans were cancelled. They have been able to get together on other occasions, but Christmas reunions remained elusive. "This was my dream, to get everybody together for Christmas," Mrs. Pruett said. "We're a very close family.

We keep the U.S. mail and the phone company hot." THE FIVE GIRLS grew up on a farm in Fayette County with their father, a sharecropper. Their mother died when Alice, the youngest, was 3 and Minnie, the oldest, was 16. Mrs. Williams was the first to move to Calhoun County after she got a job as a secretary in Jacksonville in 1941.

The others followed, one by one, and then Ivy and Ann moved away with their families. Tuesday gave them the opportunity to recall some of their old times together like the time Alice's eyes puffed closed for a week because of a poison ivy allergy and her sisters had to lead her around. Ann was also plagued by poison Ivy, but her eyes were only partially closed. One time Ann was leading Alice to a sunny spot outdoors where the two could sit, "but she sat her in an ant bed," Mrs. Williams said, unleashing laughter from her sisters.

They leaned on each other for support. Ann By JANE BOUTWELL WYATT Star Staff Writer ALEXANDRIA Tuesday was the first time in almost 40 years that the five Potter girls, originally from Fayette County, were together for Christmas. It didn't matter to them that their celebration was jwo months early. "We tried for 39 years to get together at Christmas and something always happened," Alice Potter Pruett said. "We just decided to make our own Christmas." And they succeeded.

Stepping inside the Pruett home in Alexandria on Tuesday was liking stepping through a two-month time warp. Christmas music jingled through the house. A fire burned in the fireplace despite the shirtsleeve weather and blooming roses outside. The kitchen was packed full of food a hen, ham, cookies, cakes, pies, and dozens of brightly colored packages were piled beneath a decorated artificial tree. Relatives were snapping photographs.

BUT THOSE were just surface signs of Christmas. More importantly, there was a holiday spirit that came from the five sisters being together. Ivy Potter Thomas managed to get away from her home in BrooksviUe, Fla. Another sister, Ann Potter Schneider, came down from Har-risburg, and Eurdice Potter Williams and Minnie Potter came to Alexandria from their homes in Anniston. It was the first time they had celebrated Christmas together since By DAVID SHRIBMAN N.Y.

Times Writer Substantially more Americans appear to approve of the presence of American forces in Lebanon than did a month ago, according to a poll taken after the bombing attacks Sunday in Beirut. At the same time, the poll showed that while those questioned approved of the presence of American forces on Grenada, less than a third believed that dispatching troops was the best response to the crisis on the Caribbean island. The latest New York Times-CBS News Poll reflects rapid shifts in public opinion as developments in the two areas unfolded and as new information became available. The survey was taken as the death toll rose in Lebanon, as American forces consolidated their position on Grenada and President Reagan, in a televised address Thursday night, sought the support of the American people for his policies in both places. HOWEVER, THE poll, a sample of 1,093 adults interviewed by telephone on Wednesday and Thursday, indicates that SO percent of Americans apparently do not believe that the Marines can help keep the peace in Lebanon.

It also indicates that 45 percent of the public blames poor security measures for the. death toll in Beirut. Even so, 48 percent of the public now appears to approve of the presence of Marines in Lebanon. Only 36 percent approved in a Times-CBS News Poll in late September. The percentage of those questioned who approve of the president's overall performance rose slightly, to 49 percent from 46 percent last month, but Reagan thus far has not become the beneficiary of the sharp upturn in approval that presidents often enjoy after a foreign crisis.

The approval rating of President Kennedy rose after the Bay of Pigs invasion, and that of Presidents Ford and Carter rose after the Mayaguez incident and the seizing of the hostages in Iran, respectively. Although developments in the Middle East and the Caribbean appear to have had no significant impact on the percentage of Americans who approve of the president's overall handling of his job, the poll indicates that a bare majority of Americans are uneasy about Reagan's ability to act In a crisis. THE POLL RESULTS seem to underline the differences in how men and women view the president and his conduct of foreign Men, by a margin of 62 percent to 29 percent, approve of sending American troops to Grenada, but only 41 percent of women approve while 43 percent do not. Those questioned were generally more receptive to many of the president's policies on Thursday night than on Wednesday, but the difference appeared to be attributable less to Reagan's speech on Thursday night than to the accumulation of news accounts. Inside today's Star WEATHER: Classic autumn warm days and brisk nights forecast.

Details Page 2A. DEATHS: Wiley Roberts Glover of Anniston; Mrs. Essie E. Nolen of Piedmont; Willie Joe Carter of Talladega, Rt. Mrs.

Nellie M. Hubbard of Pell City; Mrs. Charlene H. Ray of Roanoke; Gene Vincent of Ashvllle, Rt. and James Monroe White of Wadley, Rt.

1. Details Page 2A. Billy Graham 4A Calendar 12A. Classified ads 9-11A Cody Hall 6B Comics 10-11B Dennis Love 2B George Smith 7B Jeane Dixon hb Movies 9B Sports 5-8A 10 ptftt la tkrat wcUom By mill, ptfta ki three Mctkm By RICK BRAGG Star Staff Writer A 1968 graduate of Anniston High School apparently helped plan the successful Invasion of Grenada, a role that none of his family, not even his father, knew he would be playing. Lt.

Col. Frank Akers Jr. of Anniston, the planning and operations officer of the 82nd Airborne based at Fort Bragg, N.C., was a leader of the operation on the Caribbean island nation. His father, retired Army Col. Frank Akers of Anniston, said his 40-year-old son "just disappeared" from his home near Fort Bragg earlier this week, leaving his wife Carole, two daughters and a month-old baby boy.

Akers Sr. said Akers Jr. "hadn't told anybody where he wu going or what he was doing, of course, not even bis wife. "We found out his battalion was in Grenada then we knew." As a G-3. or planning and opera laughed so hard she had to wipe tears from her eyes.

Another encounter with the outdoors also humorous in retrospect came when they were trying to help their father plant peas. "Ann and. I we just got tired, so we dug a big hole and put them (seed) all in it," says Mrs. Williams. SOMETIMES THEY differed with their memories.

They couldn't agree about how many miles they had to walk to church every Sunday, rain or shine. ''Two miles," said one. "Two and a half," said another. "No, it was more like one and a half," said a third. Sometimes they teased each other or told one another to "Shush! but it was all in fun.

Often they all seemed to talk at once. They giggled and joked like children. Also like children, their eyes kept straying to the packages under the tree. Finally they opened some of their presents. Ann opened a package from Minnie and drew "ooohhhs" and "aahhs" with the quilt she pulled out.

They spread the quilt on the floor to display it and roared with laughter when Butterbean, the Pruetts' dog, sat down in the middle of it. Miss Potter said that Christmases now are much different than the ones they celebrated when they were growing up. Their father would put "maybe an apple, an orange, and some nuts" in their stockings, she said. But the gifts or lack of them were never a problem. The most important thing was that they were together, she said.

But what was unexpected about the conference in Japan was a casual conversation between Austin Letson, chamber president-elect, and a lawyer representing the Japanese city of Shingu. What Letson learned in the conversation was that a Japanese city (not Immediately named by the lawyer) was looking to match his city with a city in the United States. The casual conversation later developed into an invitation to visit Shingu, a manufacturing town of 18,000 that has a diverse industry base including foodstuffs and timber products. CHAMBER OFFICIALS and Anniston City Manager Carl Cheatham (Please see Sister City, Page 12A) Anniston anticipates Japanese sister city I I 1-1 Star Ptats The roosters won't notice the time change By VIVECA EKERS Star Staff Writer Randolph County farmer J.B. Easterwood was one of Northeast Alabama's last known renegades.

Until recently, he steadfastly refused to move his clock ahead one hour In April and back again in October. He still says it's a "haybrained Idea." But last year, the 77-year-old father of Calhoun County Extension Service Agent Larry Easterwood hoisted the white flag of surrender. "Well, I guess I Just figured I wu out there In left field by myself," he says now. He's not by 'himself In bis feelings about the newfangled way of keeping time, though. Many farmers will seise any opportunity maybe the pre-dawn, hours of this Sunday, wnenTi.m.

magically (Please see Time, Page 12A) By JEFF SMITH Star Business Writer When Forward Calhoun County helped send five representatives to Japan for the annual JapanU.S. Southeast Association Conference, lt was expected the delegates would make contacts with a number of Japanese industrialists. They did, and they learned that Japan is increasingly looking at the Southeast as a place to invest money and locate plants. FCC and Calhoun Cqunty Chamber of Commerce officials came back saying that Japanese industry is the kind they want, and that the county should work patiently to develop a closer relationship with Japanese companies in the hope of landing an industry. J.B.

EASTERWOOD CHECKS HIS WATCH but the cows don't notice "-II -tf-l-.