Stories from Thursday, November 6, 2008

Montia Lea Teague, 87, of Marked Tree died Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008 at her residence. She was a loving and caring wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend. She was a member of First Baptist Church in Marked Tree...

Once again the EPC tennis team had a very successful season. Spearheading the attack were Lando Bass and Matt Powell. They were undefeated in doubles competition in the regular season. They swept through the 2A-2 district tournament and captured the doubles title...

MARKED TREE - While Freddy Krugers, Darth Vaders and Michael Myers roamed the streets of Marked Tree during Halloween last Friday night, a group of Thunderbirds came in and slashed through the Indians to the tune of 40-24, ending the hopes of a third straight undisputed 2A-3 championship...

It didn't take long for EPC to establish that they were the best team on the field Friday night at Walnut Ridge. Dustin Beatty made that perfectly clear with his interception on the second play of the game returning it for 30 yards and a touchdown. That first score was just the first of many as the Warriors demolished the Bobcats 51-13 in 2A-3 conference play...

Cedar Ridge coach Todd Lovell knew the EPC Junior Warriors and their coach Brian Weathers pretty well last Thursday night when EPC game to Newark to play his Junior Timberwolves. Lovell had coached at EPC and from 1992 to 1994, Weathers had been his quarterback...

Barbara Ann Bryan, 72, of Greenbrier, formerly of Lepanto, passed away Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008. She was born Aug. 7, 1936, at Greenbrier to the late Benjamin Stacks and Jewell Strickland Stacks. She was a receptionist at Roller-McNutt Funeral Home in Greenbrier, member of the Order of Eastern Star and member of Bethlehem Baptist Church...

Barbara Faye Leffler, 57, of Manila died Sunday, Nov. 2 at her residence. She was a member of the Westside Baptist Church in Manila. She graduated in 2000 from MSCC College in Blytheville with an associates degree of arts...

Judy Ann Murray, 58 years old, of Tyronza died Oct. 28. She was born June 23, 1950 in Cobden, Ill. Murray was a homemaker and a certified nursing assistant. She was a member of the Pentecostal faith...

Doris Jean Sulcer, 76, of Marked Tree died Monday, Nov. 3 at her residence. Born Aug. 30, 1932 in Tomato, she was a homemaker and of the Baptist faith. She was preceded in death by two daughters, Deborah Sanchez and Sherry Himaugh; two sisters, Dixie Wright and Rose Cantrell; and six brothers: Bill Cochran, James Cochran, Elmer Cochran, Delmer Cochran, Charles Cochran and Buddy Cochran...

Victoria Ballard, three, recently welcomed home her new baby sister. Vanessa Avery Ballard was born Oct. 15 at the St. Bernard's Hospital in Jonesboro. She weighed seven pounds. She is the daughter of Micah and Isabel Ballard of Marked Tree. ...

The Miss Holiday 2008 Beauty Pageant is set for Sunday, Nov. 13 at the East Poinsett County High School cafeteria. The deadline to register is Saturday, Nov. 15. Age groups for the pageant include tiny baby miss, six to 23 months old; tiny petite miss, two to three years old; tiny miss, four through six years old; little miss, seven through nine years old; young miss, 10-12 years old; junior miss, 13-15 years old; and senior miss, 16 -- 18.. ...

I'm at a disadvantage at the moment. By the time you read this we will know who the next President will be, but because of deadlines, I'm writing this before election day. I also have to face the fact that after the election is over this column writing business is going to get tough. ...

Many Americans mistakenly believe that Veterans Day is the day America sets aside to honor American military personnel who died in battle or as a result of wounds sustained from combat. Memorial Day is the day set aside to honor America's war dead...

Drip, drip, drip. There's nothing worse than lying in bed trying your best to drift off to sleep when you hear it. Drip, drip, drip. After tossing and turning for 30 minutes to find that perfectly comfortable position you're almost ready to dose off when the noise comes out of nowhere. You know it couldn't have just suddenly started on its own, so why is it so annoyingly loud now?...

While many people today don't think too much about the holiday called Veterans Day, there was a time when it was the most celebrated of all holidays with the exception of Thanksgiving and Christmas...

Tribune News Staff A film crew from Belgium's Flemish public broadcaster VRT network was in Dyess on Monday, Oct. 27, to film an episode of a popular cooking show called Plat Prefere or "Favorite Dish."...

On Monday afternoon, Danette Watkins Lawrie, Juliann Portis Ingram and Daniel Portis presented the Fire Department a very generous donation. They siblings donated $5000 to the Lepanto Fire Department in memory of their brother, the late Michael "Mik'l" Portis, who passed away in September...

Skip Dulaney expects to see a lot of improvement from the Trumann senior high boy's basketball team this year. While he doesn't have any one superstar to do all of the work, he does have ten starters he is comfortable playing...

Greg White was a little worried going into the game against Westside. Past Wildcats teams for some reason always seemed to lack motivation playing at Westside. But his apprehension faded quickly, though, after the Wildcats racked up a 49-0 lead at halftime en route to a 55-6 blow out against conference rival Westside and a big boost to Trumann's playoff hopes...

Anna Tylice (Blasingame) Johnson, 77, of Jonesboro died Thursday Oct. 30. She was born July 17, 1931 in Trumann, the daughter of Charles and Flora (Parker) Blasingame. Mrs. Johnson was a member of the Friendship Assembly of God. ...

Richard Don "Snowball" Timbs, Sr., 56, of Trumann died Saturday at the family residence in Trumann. He was born in Tyronza and had lived most of his lifetime in Trumann. He was a member of the Christian Worship Center in Trumann. ...

Joe "Animal" Henderson, 51, of Trumann, died Monday October 27, 2008 at the family residence in Trumann. He was born October 6, 1957 in Memphis the son of the late Dillard and Ora Lee Walls Henderson...

Wendell E. Gardner, 76, of Trumann died Thursday, October 30, 2008 at Three Rivers Nursing Center of Marked Tree. Mr. Gardner was born in Monette and had lived most of his life in the Trumann area. He was a retired factory worker. He was preceded in death by his wife, Katie Gardner, his parents, Mack and Letha Miller Gardner; and two sisters...

Alfred C. Finley, of Truman passed away on Saturday, October 25, 2008 at age 86. He was a member of the American Legion and an honorary Mason. Known by all his friends and family as "A.C.", he served in the United States Army and was awarded the World War II Victory Medal. ...

Jana Mae Fike Cannon 62, of Trumann, died Thursday, October 30, 2008 at St. Bernard's Medical Center in Jonesboro. She was born in Hastings, Nebraska and was a lifetime resident of Trumann. Cannon was a homemaker and retail store manager and an active member of Faith Baptist Church of Tulot. She was preceded in death by her father, Owen Fike, her step-father, Joe Orr and one brother, Ronnie Fike...

Crawford and Delbert Harlan both wore their country's uniform during World War II. But their experiences during that conflict were about as different as they come. Crawford joined the Army almost a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor and surrendered in the Philippines when Corregidor fell in May 1942. He would spend the next 39 ½ months as a prisoner of war in Manchuria...

Nick Richardson had hoped to go out on a winning note to end the season, but had no complaints about his team's effort against Newport. The Wildkittens fell to the Greyhounds 44-16 last Thursday to finish the season at a disappointing 1-8...

The Trumann School District was notified this week that Cedar Park Elementary School made adequate yearly progress (AYP) in literacy and math. The preliminary report from the Arkansas Department of Education indicated that Cedar Park made AYP in math but not in literacy...

Students in Roger Herriott's business law class got a chance to see the law in action - something that they normally wouldn't get from studying textbooks alone. The students sat through an actual probable cause hearing last week and saw first-hand just how unpredictable the cases really can be...

A Trumann teacher who was arrested for attempting to get a student to buy her prescription drugs may be facing additional charges. Pam Bradsher, a teacher at Trumann Alternative School, was arrested Wednesday, Oct. 29 and charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and solicitation to contributing to the delinquency of a minor...

The Trumann City Council approved two ordinances to allow the city to receive over $1 million in monies from the recently passed bond issue in a continued meeting last Thursday night...

Drip, drip, drip. There's nothing worse than lying in bed trying your best to drift off to sleep when you hear it. Drip, drip, drip. After tossing and turning for 30 minutes to find that perfectly comfortable position you're almost ready to dose off when the noise comes out of nowhere. You know it couldn't have just suddenly started on its own, so why is it so annoyingly loud now?...

Most of you who have been reading Ruth Ann's column over the years probably already know that Ruth Ann is a cat lady. Don't roll your eyes, but, well, I'm just as bad. I'm a sucker for all animals, but I have a soft spot for cats. ...

This is the last column I will write for the Trumann Democrat. When times are hard economically, advertising revenue is one of the first things to fall in a small town. And advertising revenue pays salaries...