Stories from Thursday, December 18, 2008

Annie Mae Williams, 65, of Osceola died Monday, Dec. 8, 2008 at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis. Born March 6, 1943 at Lake Conrad, Miss., she was a retired jailor and a member of Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church...

Donna Louise Smith, 65, died Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2008, at St. Bernards Medical Center. She was born July 13, 1943, at Caraway to the late William and Lola "Bill" Adams. She retired from Caraway Apparel and was a member of Caraway First Baptist Church. Mrs. Smith was also a homemaker, and the delight of her life was her granddaughter, whom she helped raise...

Freddie Gene Simpson, 73, of Etowah died Dec. 11 at Pemiscot Memorial Hospital in Hayti, Mo. He was born Aug. 29, 1935 at Monnette. Simpson was a member of the army and owned Simpson Grocery in Etowah for 40 years. He was professed his faith in Christ in November 2005...

Mickey McLaughlin, 62, of Manila died Dec. 13, 2008 at SMC Regional Medical Center in Osceola. Born Aug. 6, 1946 in Huntsville, Ala., he was a retired truck driver and of the Baptist Faith. He was preceded in death by his parents, Mildred and Joe W. McLaughlin...

J.E. Crawford, 66, of Marked Tree died Sunday, Dec. 14, in St. Bernards Medical Center at Jonesboro. Mr. Crawford had been a Southern Baptist minister for 40 years and was serving Nodena Memorial Baptist Church as pastor. He was past president of the Marked Tree Junior Chamber of Commerce...

J.W. Barrington, 88, of Tyronza, died Dec. 10, at the Crittenden Regional Hospital in West Memphis. He was a salesman and a rep for Dry Cleaning Chemical Company. Barrington is survived by his sister, Delores Bodry of Tyronza and several nieces and nephews...

David and Jeri Robinson of Payneway are proud to announce the engagement and approaching marriage of their daughter, Rebecca, to Brian Sefers, son of Danny and Patsy Sefers of Harrisburg. The bride-elect is the granddaughter of the late Herschel and the late Mildred Collins of Tyronza and the late D.C. and the late Helen Robinson of Payneway...

Mid-South Community College has established a scholarship in memory of the late Arkansas State Sen. Mike Everett of Marked Tree. The Mike Everett Memorial Scholarship is designed to help students with documented financial needs...

With all of the talk about change this year it's good to know that some things stay the same. Politics in Illinois, especially in Chicago has been, is, and always be the epicenter of political corruption. The revelation that Illinois Governor Blagojevich was trying to sell Barack Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder is about as shocking as revealing that the sky is blue and water is wet...

I have two things that I wanted to talk about before Christmas. The first being the area Christmas parades. Small town America is alive and well in the Tri-City area. The atmosphere our community provided residents is nothing short of wonderful. ...

This week's edition is by far my favorite edition of the year. I love the Christmas greeting ads with their snowy pictures and delightful messages of Christmas cheer. But, by far, my favorite part is the letters to Santa. They take hours and hours to type, but they are so much fun!...

Even the cold weather couldn't dampen spirits at the 20th annual Lepanto Christmas Parade. The parade boasted over 50 entries with everyone from super heroes to princesses joining in the fun this year...

Both EPC and Marked Tree boys and girls teams will once again play in the NEA Tournament at the Convocation Center in Jonesboro beginning this Friday, Dec. 19. First up will be the 17th seeded Indians who will take the main court at 6 p.m. Friday against 16th seeded Maynard for the chance to play the #1 seed Armorel at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 22...

The Warriors (5-1) register their first loss of the year last Saturday in the finals of the Gerald Jennings Tournament at Manila. That first loss came at the hands of the Pirates who are in the 4A division and boast an 11-0 record...

Rector (6-2, 1-1) came into Marked Tree (0-3, 0-3) Friday night and left town with their six victory of the year as they over ran a depleted Indian team, 56-23. Playing short of a number of players who were on the team for the first game Monday, Dec. 8 against EPC, Marked Tree was unable to stop the Cougars' Justin Duke who scored 20 points to lead Rector to the win...

The Lady Warriors and junior Lady Warriors both had a cakewalk last Friday night at Cherry Valley at the expense of Cross County, the Warriors winning 59-15 while the junior girls won by an even greater margin, 53-5...

This year some of the participants at the Marked Tree Senior Life Center shared their special letters to Santa. Dear Santa, I want a pretty young nurse to take care of me. Bill Craft Dear Santa, I want a diamond necklace...

"In a quiet, country village Stood a Maple on a hill Where I sat with my Geneva long ago. As the stars were shining brightly We could hear the Whippoorwill As we sat beneath the Maple on the hill." In 1930 during the depression, we lived in a two-story house on my grandpa's place. ...