Stories from Thursday, July 30, 2009

TRUMANN - J.P. Penter, 82, of Trumann, died Monday, July 20, 2009 at St. Bernards Medical Center in Jonesboro. Born in and a lifetime resident of Trumann, he loved fishing and hunting, was a farmer, veteran of the U.S. Army, member of the Trumann American Legion and of the Baptist faith...

MARKED TREE - Lucille Blake Morrison, 91, of Marked Tree died Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at Willowbend Nursing Center in Marion. She was born in and was a lifetime resident of Marked Tree. She was a retired business owner and a member of the Victory Church...

John L. Hendon, 82 of Urbana, Ill. died at Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at home. Funeral services were Saturday, July 25at Renner-Wikoff Chapel and Crematory in Urbana with Andy Dallas officiating. Burial followed in Grandview Memorial Gardens in Champaign...

TRUMANN -- Ethel Elizabeth Easter, 93, of Trumann died Friday, July 24, 2009, at NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital in Jonesboro. Born in Portia, she lived most of her lifetime in Trumann. She was a homemaker and of the Pentecostal faith...

MARKED TREE -- Thomas Richard Kemp, 67, of Marked Tree died July 27, 2009 at NEA Baptist Hospital in Jonesboro. He was a member of Sneed Street Baptist Church and a retired member of the Marked Tree Fire Department. He was also retired from E. Ritter Equipment Company...

TRUMANN - Murielene McDaniel, 79, of Trumann, died Monday, July 20, 2009 at Trumann Health and Rehab. She was born in Trumann and had lived most of her lifetime in the Trumann area. She was a former employee of the Area Agency on Aging and was a member of Freer Baptist Church. She was the daughter of the late John Nathan and Edna Bell Hammons Chaffin...

Jimmy D. McKenzie, 71, of Millbrook, Ala., passed away on July 23, 2009. Funeral services were held July 27 at the chapel of Brookside Funeral Home with ministers Lanier Tatum and Don Campbell officiating. Interment followed in Alabama National Cemetery with full military honors...

Suppose you were sitting in your house, minding your own business, when the police come to your door. They tell you they are investigating a report that someone was trying to break into the house. You identify yourself, prove it's your house, and that should be the end of it, right? That's not how it happened in Cambridge, Mass. last week...

One of America's most recognizable landmarks just got a new name. Last week, Sears Tower in Chicago, which has the distinction of being the U.S.A.'s tallest skyscraper, was renamed Willis Tower. Willis what?...

I usually don't do book reviews but there is one book that is so inspirational, "The Shack" where tragedy confronts eternity by Wm. Paul Young. In the words of Mike Morrell, "It reads like a prayer like the best kind of prayer, filled with sweat, wonder, transparency and surprise. If you read one work of fiction this year, let it be it."...

I'm a bit of a vitamin and herbal supplement enthusiast. I like to read articles about the health benefits of using natural treatments rather than prescription medicines which can often have harsh side effects, many of which are still unknown...

I had the pleasure of interviewing Aubrey Griffith last week for a story about his wrestling career. Now understand first off that there was a time when I thought everything that went on in the ring (or on the floor around it for that matter) was for real. But, of course, that was when I was about 10 or 11 years old...

A few years ago when the Screen Actors Guild made an effort to recruit professional wrestlers into their ranks, many wrestlers came out publically as being insulted that their sport would be considered acting. Since that time, however, even wrestling promoters themselves have seen that it is not detrimental to take the covers off of real professional wrestling...

Effie Dungan never once stepped foot inside the Old Boy Scout hut in the 30 years her father was Scout Master in Trumann. She probably could have if she had wanted to, but she just never did because that was strictly a haven for boys...

Although several options were discussed, no agreement was reached last Tuesday night when school board members from the Weiner School District sat down to meet with the Valley View School Board about the possible annexation of Weiner into the Valley View School District...

In their regularly scheduled meeting last Tuesday night, the Lepanto City Council learned the city had been awarded a $35,000 grant from Parks and Tourism for the walking trail at the Sports Complex...

Marked Tree School District Superintendent Anessa Thompson won't miss having to call in the janitors to clean up the puddles in the cafeteria after every rain storm. The leaky roof at the high school is about to get replaced along with several other improvement projects thanks to an infusion of nearly $1 million in federal stimulus money...