By Rich Haag
The Charlotte Observer (North Carolina)
Copyright 2007 The Charlotte Observer
RALEIGH, N.C. — One of Linda Giles Long’s favorite memories of her firefighter father took place on June 8, 1954.
Capt. Marshall Pettus was asleep at home near old Central High when Armory Auditorium caught fire.
“We heard the explosion,” Long recalled. “Daddy jumped into his pants and went to fight the fire, and he wasn’t even on duty that day.”
Half a century later, Pettus has been honored for his devotion to protecting Charlotte.
The N.C. Fallen Firefighters Foundation recently held its second annual ceremony and parade in Raleigh to remember those who died while on duty, including Pettus.
Pettus suffered a fatal heart attack in 1968, just shy of retirement, while on duty at Station No. 5 on Tuckaseegee Road.
His widow, Helen, and other family members missed the ceremony because the foundation didn’t find them in time.
When Long learned that the family would receive a flag, she asked that firefighters present it in person to her mom.
The family reminisced while they waited at Helen Pettus’ apartment recently.
Many of their memories of Marshall Pettus involved his cooking skills.
The captain for many years cooked the meat for the fire department’s annual barbecue. He also cooked for the men at the fire station. Men often asked to be in her father’s station, Long said, because he cooked so well.
After the couple married in 1936, they moved in with Helen Pettus’ folks. Long has fond memories of walking across the street with classmates at Central High to have lunch on the porch, and walking up East Trade Street to visit her father on Sundays at the station.
Charlotte began to grow after the war, and in 1959 the Pettuses moved out to the new suburbs along Eastway Drive. Long graduated in Garinger High School’s second class, in 1961.
The family’s longtime church, Belmont Park Methodist, also moved and took on a new name: University City United Methodist Church. Grandson Bert Giles, just a year old when Marshall Pettus died, now serves as the church youth director.
Helen Pettus comes every Sunday, where she attends Sunday school with three retired firefighters: Robert Wentz, Mack Philmon and Worth Preslar.
Which brings us back to the flag. Where was that firetruck, anyway?
It turns out fate was preparing a ceremony fit for a firefighter.
An embarrassed Capt. Rodney Sawyer arrived 45 minutes late.
He was sorry for the delay, he explained to Pettus, but they were halfway here when they got an emergency call.
And then the radio squawked. Another emergency!
The family hustled Pettus out to the truck, where Sawyer quickly presented the flag, promised to return when he could stay longer, then joined his men on the truck.
Back inside, Pettus sat with one hand on the folded flag and listened to more stories about her husband.