Stories from Friday, February 17, 2012

Volunteers, firemen and police set up roadblocks all across Northeast Arkansas last week to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The 14 road blocks ended up raising over $230,000, which will go toward granting a lot of wishes for terminally ill children...

The Marked Tree City Council reviewed bids Monday night on a railroad spur to be built for the Awesome Products facility, but decided to table the bids until a special meeting. Mayor Wayne Nichols said the city could not accept the low bid of $1,940,000 because it was beyond what the city can afford...

In a public meeting prior to the start of Monday's Trumann City Council meeting, Mayor Sheila Walters outlined the details of recent donations made to the city for an adult education facility. Walters was quick to preface that with no "starter money" there will be no matching grant funds. However, in addition to an acre of land donated to the city by the Patterson family for the facility, the Sims family generously donated $250,000 to be matched in grant funds for the center...

The City of Trumann is taking over the responsibility for residential trash pickup in the city this week after Delta Environmental, with which the city has a contract, failed to keep the trash collected. That failure resulted in unsightly piles of trash in many residential neighborhoods and lots of complaints from angry residents...

February is American Heart Awareness Month, and it's a special month for four-year-old Trey Hindman and his family. On Feb. 19, they will celebrate the one-year anniversary of a heart transplant which gave Trey new life. Trey was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare congenital heart defect in which the left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped...

TRUMANN - Mr. Ralph Ray Davis was born on Nov. 27, 1926, to the late Harve (H.D.) and Jessie May Yeager Davis. He was born in Prentiss County, Miss., and left for his heavenly home from Jones County, Miss. He was preceded by his parents, five brothers and one sister...

TRUMANN - Mr. Floyd Lee Fleming, 77, of Trumann, Ark., died Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012, at the family residence in Trumann, Ark. He was born in Baldwyn, Miss., and had lived most of his lifetime in Trumann and was formerly of Marked Tree. He was a retired welder for Newberry Company in West Memphis and of the Baptist faith...

TRUMANN - Mrs. Patricia M. "Pat" Harvison, 85, of Trumann died Friday, Feb. 10, 2012, at Three Rivers Nursing Home in Marked Tree, Ark. She was born in Memphis, Tenn., and had lived in Trumann for the past 58 years and was formerly of Lepanto, Ark. She was a former employee of the Trumann Public School System, former member of the Eastern Star, United Methodist Women and past president of the Trumann Jaycettes and was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Trumann...

TRUMANN - Mr. Bobby C. Lawrence, 73, of Trumann died Saturday night at St. Bernards Medical Center in Jonesboro. He was born in Etowah to the late Albert and Jessie Lee (Jenkins) Lawrence. Mr. Lawrence was a Korean War Veteran, and he spent most of his life in Trumann, where he enjoyed fishing, his grandchildren and aggravating those he loved...

Mr. Richard Dale Herren, of Jonesboro, departed this life Friday, Feb. 10, 2012, at the Flo and Phil Jones Hospice House in Jonesboro, at the age of 58. He was born April 25, 1953, in Rector, Ark., the son of Prentiss Herren and Billie Ruth Shaw Herren. He lived in Trumann and the Jonesboro area for the past 20 years...

Mrs. JoAnn Conatser, 75, of Trumann died February 9, 2012 at St. Bernards Medical Center in Jonesboro. She was born in Strawberry, Arkansas to the late Dene West and Ruth (Mullen) West. Mrs. Conatser was a loving wife and dedicated mother, school teacher for the Bay, Scranton and Hazen School Districts and a home health worker. ...