Ricky was 63 and worked in the roofing business most of his life, he has two sons, Doug and Ricky, Jr.  We will miss Ricky, an unselfish and obliging fellow.  He could relate to people and events and wrote and recite his poetry about it.  I wish he had kept a collective booklet of them because they were impressive and entertaining.  Ricky was a "Proximity boy," known by and from the mill village where his parents worked and he grew up.  Ricky lived most of his live and died within a few miles of this area.  The Cone brothers, Moses and Caesar Cone started building their mill in 1895, and by 1896 they were producing their first fabric (denim) off the big looms at Proximity.  The Cones constructed this denim mill on land they owned in Greensboro.  Since the plant was near its supply of raw materials, the cotton fields of the South, the Cones named their new factor the Proximity Cotton Mill, and set up a holding company for this plant and the others in which they held an interest called the Proximity Manufacturing Company.

Greensboro's News & Record, Sunday, August 30, 2009