Topics Related to This Day in North Carolina History

On May 6, 1944, the Journal of the American Medical Association cited a study on the effect of what would become known as the “Rice Diet” on treating heart disease. Walter Kempner of Duke University presented the results at an AMA conference later that year.

Kempner documented decreases in heart size, improved kidney function and a reversal of high blood pressure when patients ate a diet limited to rice and fruit. The prescribed diet contained only 50 milligrams of sodium and limited its calories from fat and protein to less than 5 percent each.

On May 6, 1818, 11 years after Robert Fulton’s invention of the steamship, Otway Burns launched a similar vessel in North Carolina.

On May 6, 1976, the town of Old Fort in McDowell County rededicated its once nationally-known Andrews Geyser.

On May 5, 1864, the CSS Albemarle crossed Batchelor’s Bay and fought seven Union warships. Upon entering the Albemarle Sound the Confederate ram, under command of Captain J. W. Cooke, and her escort vessels were attacked by four double-ended steamers and three smaller gunboats under Captain Melancton Smith. The Albemarle opened attack late in the day. Leading the first line of attack was the Union flagship, the Mattabesett. The Albemarle returned fire, destroying the launch and cutting away some of the standing and running rigging.

On May 5, 1972, legendary bluesman Reverend Gary Davis died. Renowned as a finger-style ragtime guitar player, he influenced generations of players.

Davis got his start as a popular street musician in Durham in the 1930s, where he was known as “Blind Gary Davis.” Ordained as a minister of the Free Baptist Connection Church in Washington, North Carolina in 1913, he began to tour as a singing gospel preacher.

On May 5, 1864, Flag Officer William F. Lynch decided to take the war to the enemy using the recently completed Richmond-class ironclad CSS Raleigh.

Built at J.L. Cassidey and Sons shipyard on Eagle’s Island in the Cape Fear River opposite Wilmington, the Raleigh measured 172 feet long. It was protected by two layers of 2-inch iron plate and armed with two 6.4-inch Brooke rifles and two 7-inch Brooke rifles.

On May 5, 1913, Clarence Steppe, noted landscape nurseryman, was born at Dana in Henderson County.

Known throughout his life as “Kit,” Steppe graduated from high school in McDowell County and attended Lenoir-Rhyne College before earning a diploma from the American Landscape School and working for the National Park Service through the 1930s.

On May 4, 1932, Bonnie Rowe, legendary wing walker, was killed performing a stunt in Lawrenceville, Georgia. He was 37-years-old. He had almost been killed two years before in Lenoir when, upon opening, his parachute split in two places.

On May 4, 1959, country music star Randy Travis was born in Union County. Raised on a Marshville turkey farm, Travis began playing guitar at age 10, discovering what would become a lifetime love of country music.

As an adolescent, Travis had several run-ins with the law, and he dropped out of high school at 15. To help put him back on track, Lib Hatcher, owner of a Charlotte club where Travis performed, adopted him. With her help, Travis focused seriously on his music career and moved to Nashville.

On May 4, 1981, Paul Green died.

Among North Carolina’s most revered writers, Green, born in Harnett County, began study at the University of North Carolina in 1916.  After service in World War I he returned to Chapel Hill and taught there until 1944 when he resigned to devote all of his time to writing.