Published Sunday, August 31, 2008

Moten served in Army hospital, New Orleans port

The Newnan Times-Herald

When World War II started, Dan Moten may have been the busiest man in Newnan.

Between selling cars, selling clothes and working at Roscoe Jenkins Funeral Home, he barely had a minute to himself. When he was drafted, working the Army into his schedule definitely wasn't part of his plan.

"I didn't want to go because I had too much to do here in Newnan," Moten says. "I was busy, but that didn't make any difference to the Army. But it wasn't that bad. Once I got there, everybody treated me fine and I did a good job."

Moten shouldn't have been surprised at his military success. By the time he entered the Army, he was already good at everything but standing still.

"When I have something to do, I do it. I don't play," he says. "If I don't have something to do I'll find something."

Moten was born in 1920 in Newnan and has lived here all his life. His father worked for the Central of Georgia Railroad, and before he left Howard Warner High School, Moten was contributing to his family's fortunes by working a variety of jobs.

He made new friends across the county, selling clothing, dry goods and linens door to door for the Roxana Company. When the sales day was done, Moten kept the records and did the accounting.

He also started working at Roscoe Jenkins Funeral Home, and except for his time in the Army, he stayed with the funeral home until he retired.

Moten entered the Army in September 1942. He was inducted at Fort Benning, and it didn't take the Army long to realize Moten had a talent for hard work and leadership. After basic training, Moten started working in the Army Medical Corps and quickly advanced to the rank of PFC as a Medical Aidman.

Moten served in the Army hospital at Fort Benning, taking blood pressures and temperatures, helping with therapy and making sure patients got wherever they needed to go for treatment and care.

Moten did so well he was promoted to corporal and assigned to an Army hospital in Durham, N.C., as a medical non-commissioned officer.

North Carolina was farther from home than Moten had ever been, but he didn't mind.

"I liked Durham," he says. "The job was good and the people were good, and I got along with everybody. It was fine."

Moten was also a natural leader. When the Army Transportation Corps' 847th Port Company needed someone to head a 16-man cargo-loading team at the Port of New Orleans, Moten was promoted to sergeant and sent to the Big Easy to be a hatch foreman for crews loading ships bound for the war zone.

Moten says he enjoyed the job and the town.

"The Army did a good job of helping me get things done," he says. "Whenever I needed anything to get the job done, I got it. And the city was nice, too. I lived right downtown and enjoyed New Orleans. Back then, I used to get around."

Moten's competence led to a bigger assignment in Seattle, where he continued to get the job done.

"Seattle was cold," he says. "But it was nice, too. Everywhere I went, I met nice people and didn't ever have any problems. The Army let us do what we needed to do and we always got it done."

As far as Moten was concerned, there was just one drawback to Army life.

"I wanted to get back home where everybody knew me and get back to work at the funeral home," Moten says. "I didn't want to be fooling with that other stuff."

Moten was discharged in September 1946, and headed straight back to Newnan. He went back to the funeral home and picked up some other jobs, too.

One of Moten's extra duties was driving an ambulance that responded to emergency calls, delivered patients to Newnan's black hospital on Spring Street, and carried customers for the funeral home.

Moten's hospital calls became more interesting when he met a young nurse who had just moved from South Carolina.

Derether Smith was born and raised in Bennettsville, S.C. She went to nursing school in Columbia, S.C., where one of her classmates was a young woman from Newnan. After graduation, the Newnan woman urged Derether to apply for a job at Newnan's black hospital.

They both applied and received a letter asking them to report for work on Aug. 1, 1945. Derether loved Newnan and her new job from the start.

"The town was lovely and the people were good to me," she says. "The hospital was small. But it had everything the bigger hospital back in Columbia had, so it was really nice."

Derether hadn't been at work long before she met Moten on one of his ambulance runs. They courted for a couple of years and were married on April 8, 1948. Three children and seven grandchildren followed.

Moten also had a love for cars, and as soon as he had a driver's license, he started selling cars for a local Pontiac dealer. Moten also sold cars on his own and once traveled all the way to New York to pick up a vehicle to bring back to Newnan.

"I loved it," he says. "I'll sell you a car right now, if you want one."

When Moten started driving the ambulance, there was no countywide emergency service. In addition to driving patients from the scene, Moten often had to remove accident victims from the vehicles.

"There wasn't any such thing as the Jaws of Life back then," says longtime friend Robert Wood. "He had to do it all by himself. And he did."

"They always knew they could count on me," Moten says. "They'd call me and say 'if you were here now you'd already be late,' and I'd get going. I'd run to those wrecks."

Everyone noticed Moten's heavy foot behind the wheel of the ambulance. Derether says the children called him "Wild Bill" when he was on his ambulance runs. Residents of Greenville Street sometimes referred to Moten as "The Street Sweeper" because he drove so fast he blew all the trash out of the gutters.

"I didn't play," he says. "When it was time to go, I knew I had to get there fast, and I did. You don't play around when somebody's life is at stake."

Moten also has a great sense of humor. Wood recalls the time Moten invited him to a back room of the funeral home. Wood looked around and almost fell out when he saw a body lying on one of the embalming tables.

"I was scared to death," Wood says. "I'd never seen a dead person before and I wanted to jump out of my skin. But I'll tell you this, I've never been afraid of a dead person since, so I guess it did me some good."

Moten worked closely with local law enforcement officials and was so good at everything he did, he was asked to become a Coweta County deputy by Sheriff Lamar Potts.

"He was my buddy," Moten says of Potts. "We got along real good and I enjoyed working with him. We did a lot of good."

Moten also started a bail bond service and says he never had a problem with a customer skipping out on a bond.

"Not many people tried, but it didn't do any good," he says. "I knew where everybody was and I just went out and picked them up."

Throughout his life Moten remained active in every community service project that came along. He was the first African-American to run for the Newnan City Council, and he lost by just eight votes, Derether Moten says.

"It was so close and he had people from all over the county pulling for him," she says. "We were all very proud."

Moten was also a member of the committee that organized the Wesley Woods retirement community.

"Whenever anybody needed to get something done, they called Dan Moten," says Wood. "And he always came through."

It's been 62 years since Dan Moten left the Army. He says he was successful in the military because he applied the lessons he had learned as a young man growing up in Newnan.

"I always treated people right and they were always good to me," he says. "In the Army, I saw that if you tried to get along, you didn't have any problems. The Army was good to me and I did a good job for them and it all worked out."