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 MEMORIALS & OBITS 3
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Gary, West Virginia...

Gary is a city in McDowell County, West Virginia, USA. The population was 917 at the 2000 census.

Gary was once a booming coal mining company town run by the United States Steel Corporation. Gary was incorporated on July 1, 1971, by popular vote of residents in an election held on March 16, 1970. Incorporation includes five communities: Elbert, Filbert, Gary, Thorpe, and Wilcoe. The town was named in honor of Judge Elbert Gary, one-time president of U.S. Steel Corporation. U.S. Steel shut down its Gary Operations in 1986. The principal industry is coal mining, but poverty and unemployment have plagued the area since the closing of U.S. Steel.


 


Gary is located at 37°21′41″N, 81°32′11″W (37.361378, -81.536347)GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.3 km² (0.9 mi²), all land.

As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 917 people, 420 households, and 260 families residing in the city. The population density was 393.4/km² (1,024.0/mi²). There were 542 housing units at an average density of 232.5/km² (605.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 61.40% White, 35.55% African American, 0.11% Native American, and 2.94% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.55% of the population.


There were 420 households out of which 17.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.8% were married couples living together, 14.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.9% were non-families. 36.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 23.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.18 and the average family size was 2.77.

In the city the population was spread out with 19.0% under the age of 18, 5.7% from 18 to 24, 18.4% from 25 to 44, 25.0% from 45 to 64, and 32.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 50 years. For every 100 females there were 86.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 78.6 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $22,857, and the median income for a family was $30,938. Males had a median income of $28,750 versus $17,019 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,233. About 24.2% of families and 30.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 58.2% of those under age 18 and 18.5% of those age 65 or over.


WELCOME TO GARY, WEST VIRGINIA 2003

 
 
The Land Of Gary, W V

   Long ago and far away,
   In a land that time forgot,
   Before the days of Dylan
   Or the dawn of Camelot.
 
   There lived a race of innocents,
   And they were you and me,
   Long ago and far away
   In the Land of Gary, W V.
 
   Oh, there was truth and goodness
   In that land where we were born,
   Where navels were for oranges,
   And Peyton Place was porn.
 
   For Ike was in the White House,
   And Hoss was on T V,
   And God was in His heaven
   In the Land of Gary, W V.
 
   We learned to gut a muffler,
   We washed our hair at dawn,
   We spread our crinolines to dry
   In circles on the lawn.
 
   And they could hear us coming
   All the way to Tennessee,
   All starched and sprayed and rumbling
   In the Land of Gary, W V.
 
   We longed for love and romance,
   And waited for the prince,
   And Eddie Fisher married Liz,
   And no one's seen him since.
 
   We danced to "Little Darlin'",
   And Sang to "Stagger Lee"
   And cried for Buddy Holly
   In the Land of Gary, W V.
 
   Only girls wore earrings then,
   And three was one to many,
   And only boys wore flat-top cuts,
   Except for Jean McKinney.
 
   And only in our wildest dreams
   Did we expect to see
   A boy named George with Lipstick
   In the Land of Gary, W V.
 
   We fell for Frankie Avalon,
   Annette was oh, so nice,
   And when they made a movie,
   They never made it twice.
 
   We didn't have a Star Trek Five,
   Or Psycho Two and Three,
   Or Rocky-Rambo Twenty
   In the Land of Gary, W V.
 
   Miss Kitty had a heart of gold,
   And Chester had a limp,
   And Reagan was a Democrat
   Whose co-star was a chimp.
 
   We had a Mr. Wizard,
   But not a Mr. T,
   And Oprah couldn't talk yet
   In the Land of Gary, W V.
 
   We had our share of heroes,
   We never thought they'd go,
   At least not Bobby Darin,
   Or Marilyn Monroe.
 
   For youth was still eternal,
   And life was yet to be,
   And Elvis was forever,
   In the Land of Gary, W V.
 
   We'd never seen the rock band
   That was Grateful to be Dead,
   And Airplanes weren't named Jefferson,
   And Zeppelins weren't Led.
 
   And Beatles lived in gardens then,
   And Monkees in a tree,
   Madonna was a virgin
   In the Land of Gary, W V.
 
   We'd never heard of Microwaves,
   Or telephones in cars,
   And babies might be bottle-fed,
   But they weren't grown in jars.
 
   And pumping iron got wrinkles out,
   And "gay" meant fancy-free,
   And dorms were never coed
   In the Land of Gary, W V.
 
   We hadn't seen enough of jets
   To talk about the lag,
   And microchips were what was left at
   The bottom of the bag.
 
   And Hardware was a box of nails,
   And bytes came from a flea,
   And rocket ships were fiction
   In the Land of Gary, W V.
 
   Buicks came with portholes,
   And side show came with freaks,
   And bathing suits came big enough
   To cover both your cheeks.
 
   And Coke came just in bottles,
   And skirts came to the knee,
   And Castro came to power
   In the Land of Gary, W V.
 
   We had no Crest with Fluoride,
   We had no Hill Street Blues,
   We all wore superstructure bras
   Designed by Howard Hughes.
 
   We had no patterned pantyhose
   Or Lipton herbal tea
   Or prime-time ads for condoms
   In the Land of Gary, W V.
 
   There were no golden arches,
   No Perrier's to chill,
   And fish were not called Wanda,
   And cats were not called Bill.
 
   And middle-aged was thirty-five
   And old was forty-three,
   And ancient were our parents
   In the Land of Gary, W V.
 
   But all things have a season,
   Or so we've heard them say,
   And now instead of Maybelline
   We swear by Retin-A.
 
   And they send us invitations
   To join AARP,
   We've come a long way, baby,
   From the Land of Gary, W V.
 
   So now we face a brave new world
   In slightly larger jeans,
   And wonder why they're using
   Smaller print in magazines.
 
   And we tell our children's children
   of the way it used to be,
   Long ago and far away
   In the Land of Gary, W V.

C.W. DEAN PRINCIPAL OF Gary High School, and Joe Friedl, The oldest Coach in the Country. Thanks goes to Jack Barger Web Master of Elkhorn HS for this article. Thanks bssims

Article that appeared in The Coal Chronicle in July of 1991 about the closing of the Gary Washer Plant.
 
US Steel also had a washer plant in Corbin, KY that was built around 1956-57. Several families from the Gary/Wilcoe area relocated and worked at the Corbin plant until they retired.

John Babb furnished this article and lived in WV (1959 thru 1960)He lived in Gary, Wilcoe, Wilcoe Hollow, #6 (Ream) and #14 (Munsen).
 

Picture from the Coal Chronicle in July 1991 Thanks goes to John Babb for the photo and article in the Coal Chronicle.

Sign on the Gymnasium wall of Gary High School which was errected in 1938. The Gymnasium was called the New Gym. Older than most of us, If there's anyone out there that can say they were going to the school when it was built, Let me know ok.Thanks go to Agnes Miller for sending this to me




08/25/05

|WELCOME| |09 MIRACLE MTN REUNION| |BLAST FROM THE PAST | |CLASS REUNION GROUPS | |CLASS REUNION INDIVIDUALS| |COALDIGGER MILITARY| |FUN & CHUCKLE| |GARY COALDIGGER PAGE| |GHS TEACHERS| |GHS SKIDOOS GATHERING | |GARY, WVA INFO PAGE| |INSPIRATIONAL| |MEMORIAL AND OBITS 1| |MEMORIAL AND OBITS 2| | MEMORIALS & OBITS 3| |MY MTN MEMORIES OF WVA| |NEWS & EVENTS| |PHOTO'S:ANAWALT | |PHOTO'S GARY AREA| |PHOTO'S PAGETON| |PHOTO'S WILCOE| |FLORIDA REUNION| |WHITES GET TOGETHER| |SPECIAL MEMORIALS| |MEMORIAL PAGE FOUR|