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Looking Backward 3.8.2012

  25 Years Ago

March 5, 1987

 

Representatives of VFW Post 3404, Springfield, will be in Ava on March 12 to organize a local chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and to recruit membership.

A new flower shop, J.R. Florists and Home Ideas, will open in Ava next week. Owners Marie Ruark and Doris Jenkins are preparing for their grand opening Monday in the Barnes Shopping Center.

The first organizational meeting to start a new 4-H Club in the Squires/Wasola area will be held at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 10, at the Squires Fire Dept. building.

For the first time in two dozen years Douglas County has a new county collector Patty Dooms, elected in the November general election, succeeds Willard Pueppke who retired this spring after a total of three decades in service to county residents.

Paula Lynn Martin, daughter of Paul and Sammie Martin of Ava, and Stephen Van Silvey, son of Larry and Mae Ruth Silvey, of Ava, were united in marriage Dec. 27, 1986.

Tabitha McFarlin, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Larry McFarlin, cele­brated her 3rd birthday Sunday, March 1, at her home with friends and relatives.  She had a Sesame Street party with a Cookie Monster cake, punch, ice cream and party treats.

Willie and Irene Freeman cele­brated their 61st wedding anniver­sary in their home Saturday, Feb. 14.

Midshipman Second Class Shaun Donnelly, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Donnelly of rural Ava, won his second middleweight championship at the U.S. Naval Academy Brigade Tournament on Feb. 14.  Donnelly is in his third year at the Naval Academy.

ROY –– Leonard and Jean Daugherty of Ava visited with Jewell and Jim Ellison.

 

50 Years Ago

March 1, 1962

 

About two inches of sleet, which started falling here early Tuesday morning, turned into a solid sheet of ice Wednesday night and created the worst driving conditions of the winter.  The mercury fell to three degrees above zero Wednesday morning and remained well below freezing throughout the day.

One of the largest bobcats seen here in recent years was killed Wednesday night of last week on Highway 14 near Dogwood by a salesman from Springfield. He turned the cat over to Harold Mitchell to collect the $5.00 bounty paid by the county and state.

Mrs. Effie Davis has resigned as agent for the county license bureau and the office, located on the se­cond floor of the Citizens Bank building, will close March 6.

A budget of $5,175 for 1962 has been approved by the board of di­rectors of the Douglas County Chamber of Commerce, and ar­rangements for the current mem­bership drive will be made tonight at the monthly meeting held at the American Legion Hall.

The burglary of an Ava business firm was reported to Sheriff Don Souder Tuesday, but the method the thieves used to enter Slim’s Drive-in, 4 ½ blocks south of the square on City Route 5, remains a mystery.  The burglary occurred sometime Monday night, but there was no sign of a break-in, the sher­iff said.  A quantity of gasoline was also stolen Monday night, from a truck owned by Heath & Son Feed & Supply.

Hesterlee’s has completed major improvements on the interior of the store, resulting in a greatly superior attractiveness.  The ceiling was lowered, new lighting system in­stalled, a balcony put into use, and great deal of floor space added. Congratulations to Frieda and Everett . . . It looks great!

The SNOOP with Bob Bowles –– New ideas are wonderful, but sometimes get nipped in the bud.  Boone, Jr., feeling sorry for the candidates after watching the bite for coffee put on them so often by the voters, put up a sign at the Ava Drug fountain: “Free coffee for all candidates until election time.”  We’ve got a buddy at the local print shop (all kinds of commercial printing, register forms, wedding announcements, etc. etc. at the Herald), and we could see nothing to prevent us from quickly becom­ing a candidate.  The courteous fountain clerk served free coffee when we handed her a card, but the management was not quite so friendly.  Boone Jr. wouldn’t even speak; he just wrote on the card, “Void.”

Mrs. Billy Joe Evans (Eunice Cutbirth) and her son, Jeffery Bruce, returned to their home in north Ava Saturday afternoon fol­lowing their release from St. John’s Hospital in Springfield where Master Evans was born on Wednesday morning, Feb. 21.

The background of some politi­cians is a lovely plum tree.

Mr. and Mrs. Ted Sallee of Ava announce the birth of their fifth son at 7:41 o’clock Friday morning, Feb. 23, in the Baptist Hospital in Springfield.

 

75 Years Ago

March 4, 1937

 

Sheriff Lincoln M. Barnes left Tuesday afternoon for Yuma, Arizona, to get Ross Patrick of Wasola, livestock dealer and for­mer manager of the community auction held here each Tuesday, to return him here to face a charge of cheating and defrauding.  Patrick is charged with having purchased ten head of cattle from Palmer Gilli­land and selling them without hav­ing paid for them.

The high school music depart­ment is presenting an intra-school solo contest tomorrow evening, Friday, beginning at 7:30 o’clock, in the school auditorium.  The fol­lowing students will participate:  Ted Gray, Rex Browning, Marjorie Reynolds, Paul Tillman, Albia Hunsaker, Lois Versal Adams, John Barritt, Jeanne Gentry, Wal­lace Hartley, Sibyl Ross, Mable Mitchell, Bob Wallace, Virginia Lee Hays, Junior Hailey, Humph­rey Calhoun, Bob Fisher, Florence Silvey and Mary Alice Sanders.

The office of the county exten­sion agent is now located in the basement of the new courthouse, in a room originally designed for the county surveyor.

RANDOM SHOTS – Educating the public earns about as much profit and gratitude as perfuming the pig . . .  Someone describes war as “an upheaval as devastating as an earthquake.”  Did anyone ever win an earthquake? . . . Remember, when writing that letter which makes the lady beam with smiles, it will also make the court smile when read by her lawyer . . .

CROSS ROADS –– Mr. and Mrs. John Smith have moved from the Ellison farm recently purchased by W.F. Givans to the home of Mrs. Smith’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins, in the Gentry community.  Mr. Givans is remodeling the house on his farm, recently purchased from the Joe Ellison heirs. Mr. and Mrs. Givans plan on moving to the farm this spring.

Word that the husband of a for­mer Ava girl was killed in a gun battle as he sought to make an arrest at an illicit still near Austin, Texas, has been received here.  The slain man was Wilford W. Thomasson, 36, a federal revenue investigator and husband of the former Larue Harp, who at one time several years ago was em­ployed at the Herald office here. Thomasson and two other officers had raided a still near Austin, ar­resting a man and an 18-year-old girl.  Thomasson then walked up a ravine where officers said he met a Mexican and a white companion. The Mexican held a pistol in his hand.. When told by Thomasson to drop the gun, the Mexican began firing. Thomasson was wounded fatally in the chest, but in an ex­change of shots he killed the Mexi­can.

Mr. and Mrs. Carter Hutchinson of near Goodhope are the parents of a baby boy born Monday. The baby weighed seven and a half pounds and was named Bobby Joe.

 

100 Years Ago

March 7, 1912

 

We had another snow the latter part of last week, and winter is still hanging on.  According to old tim­ers this has been the longest, hard­est winter that was ever known in this country. We ought to have a good crop year next year, and we predict that we will.

Wesley Canifax has opened up a law office with Fred Stewart. He expects to locate here permanently and will ask for a         share of the business at the bar of Douglas and adjoining counties.

MARRIAGE LICENSES –– David Sanders to Paulina Stout, both of Blanche;  Wm. T. Ham­mons to Suffronina Lakey, both of Ava;  Jesse A. Powers of Good­hope to Ada Friend, of Pansy;  C.A. Fields to Arizona Collins, both of Manard; Kellie M. Keith of Squires to Izoria Surguine of Oswego.

One-Way Colonist Rates via Frisco Line, March 1 to April 15, 2012 – Ogden and Salt Lake, Utah $29.60;  Los Angeles, Calif.  $29.60;  San Francisco, Calif.  $29.60;  Spokane, Washington, $29.60; Seattle, Washington, $29.60;  Portland, Oregon, $30.75.

BRUSHY KNOB ITEMS –There is a new baby girl at Alec Heard’s and a baby boy at Ben Heard’s.

The Happy Farmer –– The in­dustrious farmer begins work long before the sun thinks of getting up.  With his soul shrouded in gloom he proceeds to build a fire and soften his boots with a sledge hammer. He then takes a lantern and shovels his way to the barn and feeds the hogs. It is then time to feed the newly arrived calf, which seems to delight in butting a pail of milk over the tiller of the soil until he only needs to be stamped to pass for a package of oleomargarine.  He crawls through a barbwire fence and digs the bay out of the snow, feeds the cows, cleans the stable, gathers up the frozen chicks, chases a stray pig worth 24 cents for four miles and does not catch it, doctors a sick horse, freezes his fingers, gets kicked by a one-eyed mule, and when the gloaming comes and qui­etness broods over all the earth, he has a single half hour to meditate and wonder how he will pay his taxes.

ROY ITEMS –– Aud Sanders has purchased a new buggy.  He was seen going to Sam Day’s on Sunday.

CEDAR GAP –– Mr. Yandell and Mr. Anderson have returned from Fla., bringing with them four young alligators.

ST. JAMES –– Emerson Rogers and Roxy Rogers quietly went to Memphis, Tenn., on Monday Feb. 26, and returned on Wednesday as man and wife. They are the chil­dren of J.E. and Will Rogers re­spectively.