Looking Backward 5.8.2014
25 Years Ago
May 4, 1989
Members of the Top Ten Percent of the Ava High School graduating class of 1989 are Michelle Morgan, Melissa Davis, Brandon Schmacht, Scott Silvey, Tim Noll, salutatorian; Monica Bruffett, valedictorian; Crystal English, Billie Barnum, Tammie Mackey and Traci Harvill.
Douglas County Coroner Logan Brown said late Wednesday afternoon that a St. Luis pathologist has identified the body found a week ago near the Douglas-Howell county line as that of Ronnie Allen Johnson, a 26-year-old West Plains man who has been missing for almost a month. Now begins the task of determining where the crime took place and who is responsible.
Scott Silvey, of Ava, has been awarded scholarships to attend Central Methodist College in Fayette, Mo., for the 1989-90 academic year.
Those visiting in the home of Irma Evans Friday to wish her a happy birthday were Mr. and Mrs. Calvan Watson, Reba Hutchison, Judy Kent, Kathy Scott, Dena Davis, Larena Evans, Irma Jean Ward, Sandra Cudworth, Harold Hutchison, Becky Evans and Jacob.
Jack Floyd will play a solo piano recital on Friday evening May 12, 7:30 p.m. at the Ava United Methodist Church.
GIRDNER –– We woke up this morning and found a big frost on, so I don’t think summer is here yet.
There’s No Place Like Home, Let Posey Building Center build yours today! The Country Side home floor plan for $24,675 or $25,850. Ask us about a qualified contractor.
For the third time in as many ones, the Southwest Missouri State University Ad Network, the student advertising team from SMSU’s marketing department has taken second place in the American Advertising Federation’s regional student advertising competition. Senior marketing major Carla Dobbs, Ava, participated in the student competition April 7-8 in St. Louis.
50 Years Ago
April 30, 1964
The annual meeting of the stockholders of the Ava Industrial Development Corporation will be held Thursday, May 7, at the American Legion building. The meeting will start at 7 p.m., according to Ramey Smith, president of the board of directors. Four members of the board will be elected. Terms are expiring for Herman Davis, Everett Hesterlee, J.G. Heinlein and Claud Gaulding. Other members of the board are E.H. Cooper, Cecil Harley, Fred Lethco, Sr., Ovle House, Ernie Uhlmann and J. E. Curry. Marcus Holman is secretary of the board.
The Missouri Conservation Commission has approved the purchase of about 250 acres of land on Bryant Creek in Douglas County as a public hunting and fishing tract. The land was purchased from the Our Lady of Assumption Abbey east of Ava. It will offer more than a mile of waterfront on Bryant Creek, a popular Ozarks fishing stream.
Seventeen speeding drivers were cited by Highway Patrol troopers Saturday night on Highway 5 north of Ava while a radar unit was set up. One motorist led Trooper Joe Hart and Deputy Sheriff Chancy Sherman on a 10-mile chase at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour before he was apprehended.
Elmer Beard, basketball coach, physical education and driver’s education instructor at Ava High School for the past four years, has accepted a position in the Mountain Grove High School for the 1964-65 term. Beard will be assistant coach in both basketball and football at the school, which captured every athletic championship in the South Central Association this year.
THE SNOOP with Bob Bowles – Another sign of spring which caused considerable comment this week was a giant mushroom which Darrell Linder put on display in the Herald’s window. The mushroom was the largest anyone hereabouts had ever seen. It weighed 13 pounds, was 14 inches high and 32 inches in circumference. Darrell found the wild growth on the Glade Top Trail.
Announcement –– Mrs. V.O. Mendel and Mr. and Mrs. Roy Pollard have purchased Ira’s Sandwich Shop on the north side of the square in Ava.
Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Blakey and children, Monica Ann and Mark Allen, who have been living in Kansas City, have recently moved to their farm located on Route 1, Ava. Mr. Blakey has been employed for ten years with Mid-State Ornamental Iron Company in Kansas City.
Miss Lois Fleetwood celebrated her 15th birthday at a party given in the country home of her brother, Billy Fleetwood, Mrs. Fleetwood and daughter Teresa, of Route 3, Ava, Thursday night, April 16.
ROMANCE –– Marlin Loftis attended an industrial arts fair last Friday at SMS in Springfield, Mo. He went along with his Gainesville class. Marlin has made several useful and beautiful pieces of furniture. Among them was a gun rack.
75 Years Ago
May 4, 1939
Three boys have pleaded guilty and one pleaded not guilty to charges of burglary and larceny filed Saturday by Prosecuting Attorney Willis H. Mitchell in the court of Justice of the Peace J.E. Reeves. The four are charged with stealing a water bucket, a chair, a clock and a bed sheet from the Cross Roads School after a pie supper Friday night. Sheriff Lincoln Barnes, who arrested the boys, said they had a red signal lantern in the car such as is used on the sewer project at the city park. The four are Denver Huffman, Everett Lakey, Norman Lakey and Dale Haynes. Haynes, the youngest, is about 14. The others are about 20 years old. Norman Lakey pleaded innocent. The others pleaded guilty.
J.F. Coday announced this week that he is resigning his position on the Ava High School faculty to accept a position as superintendent of schools at Louisburg, in Dallas County.
On May 1, an even 1,000 customers were delivering a total of 69,000 pounds of milk daily to the Carnation Company here, according to John Fawcett, manager. This volume is greater than expected in view of price trends in recent months.
Agriculture students from Ava who participated in judging contests in competition with students from all over the state in Columbia last week rated in the upper half, according to word received by B. Oscar Brown, agriculture instructor. Glen Painter ranked highest on the Ava squad. He won second place in the state egg-grading contest, which was considered quite an honor with competition so strong.
Lewis McDonald of Ava and Miss Sylvia Alcorn of Garrison were married Friday. The ceremony took place in the home of the officiating minister, the Rev. E.L. Bristow.
The average worker in Missouri earns $835 a year, according to figures reported by Carl M. Thomas, manager of the Social Security Board field office at Springfield. The national average is shown to be $890 on the basis of the records of 30,157,694 workers whose wages were reported to the social security board in that year. Male workers in the United States averaged $1,027, Thomas said, whereas the annual average wage for women was approximately half that –– $525.
Rudy Kester, who for the past several years has been salesman for the W. and H. Sales Co., this week joined the sales force of the Kerr Motor Company.
Mr. and Mrs. Earnest Viles have bought the Champion store. Mr. Charles Wad, who had charge of the store before Mr. Viles, expects to leave for north Missouri.
MT. TABOR –– Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Davidson announce the birth of a son. The youngster has been named Gerald Arnold.
100 Years Ago
May 14, 1914
The Good Roads Movement Continues –– Many interesting meetings are being held on the different proposed county seat highways, subscriptions are being secured and right-of-ways taken. People are eager for roads.
The levy carries by strong majority. A very interesting school election was held in the Ava school district last Tuesday. The proposition before the voters of the district was whether or not we should vote $1.00 on the hundred for school purposes. There was some opposition to the levy but no hard fighting was done by any men of influence. The “Fors” put up a hard fight and many of them did work all day in the way of electioneering and getting men to the polls. The proposition was carried by a vote of 166 to 45. Two hundred and twelve votes were cast but one vote was thrown out.
GIRDNER JOTTINGS – Those who think the Ozarks is not a good place to live, should now step in and take a plate of asparagus, onions, lettuce, radishes, gooseberries and strawberries, which are now on our menu.
As a result of the women’s vote in Illinois, in the recent election, 57 saloons were closed in Decatur and 78 were closed in Bloomington, May 7. And yet some will try to tell us that the women’s vote will not help matters any.
The program for the eighth grade county graduating exercises to held at Ava, Mo. May 23: Recitation, Versal Ellison; Essay, Ethel Miller; Piano Solo, Daisy Martin; Recitation, Harriet Goodman; Essay, Estalia Holt; Class History, Fred Andrews; Vocal Solo, Lena Wilson; Class Prophecy, Myrtle Shinpaugh; Oration, Vernon Holestine; Class Colors – Pink and White. John D. Levan, Co., Supt.
COLD SPRINGS –– Grace Anderson and Perry Musick surprised their many friends last week by going to Ava and returning as man and wife.
Roe Hicks is able to be out again after a three weeks siege of mumps. Mrs. Fred Mallernee and son Arthur and Harrison Hicks are the latest mumps victims.
COLD SPRINGS –– We understand Marion Anderson has purchased Ed Morrow’s farm, one of the best on the creek.
TOPAZ NEWS –– R.S. Hutcheson, our merchant and Post Master will soon have his new store building completed. It is a good one.
125 Years Ago
May 9, 1889
Sad, but True! The new fence will soon interfere with the quiet repose of the town hogs under our school building.
Well, Douglas has a temporary jail, having rented half of the Ava corporation jail or lockup.
Martin Singleton, proprietor of the Singleton House of this place, met with an accident yesterday evening which though not of a serious nature, is nonetheless painful. In trying to hold a cow with a rope on her horn, the animal started to run, passing a post, and jerked Mr. Singleton’s hand against the post with such violence that the rope cut off two of his fingers at the first joint.
The burglar fraternity seems to still hover around as they made an attempt on the Capt. Smith store at Roy on Friday night last, and were only prevented by the raising of an alarm, by a young man who sleeps in the store.
We are glad to learn of a move being on foot, looking to the holding of a grand campfire to be held at some central point between Douglas, Wright, Howell, Texas and Ozark counties, probably at Mt. Grove. This would certainly meet the approval of all the old soldiers within this entire territory. These pleasant gatherings and reunions cannot be too numerous. Year after year the cycle of time is thinning the ranks, and one by one, they are called to join the many comrades who have gone to their final rest.
ST. LOUIS –– A young married woman 25 years of age whose name is suppressed was in her coffin Tuesday and about to be taken out for burial when her husband saw her arm move and ordered her to be taken out of the coffin at once and called in two physicians, who, after an examination, pronounced life and began a process of resuscitation. Their efforts were successful and the woman was in a short time brought back to consciousness.
The opening of the Oklahoma country has resulted in applications for charters for national banks to be established there. Applications have raised a perplexing question with which the attorney general and the comptroller of currency are now wrestling. This territory has not been opened to settlement until now and consequently there has heretofore been no occasion for applications for the establishment of national banks. … but if the law be construed literally, no national banks can be established in Oklahoma for a year to come.
Skeletons in the closets of royal families continue to rattle. The recent death of the young emperor of Annam is now looked upon with suspicion. According to Dr. Lagrange of Bordeaux, who was formerly employed in the Court of Hue, when the regency council resolves to get rid of an unsatisfactory emperor they present him with three dishes, on one there is a dagger, on the other a silken cord, and on the third poison. His imperial majesty has only to take his choice.
It is altogether the style in Boston to lift your hat to a lady only after she has passed. The idea is that she will halt and turn around to see whether you lifted it or not, and thus pay you a compliment. Have they no fool-killer in Boston?
