Iconic mill of the textile industry, WestPoint Stevens Inc., will close summer of 2003. The Roanoke Rapids plant was the South's first major unionized textile mill and the inspiration for "Norma Rae" film of 1979. Film starred Sally Field. The effort to organize took 11 years and succeeded in organizing the 3,100 workers at the facility. Tens of thousands of jobs have been lost through the closing of at least 150 textile plants in the Carolinas during a five-year period.