Looking Backward 4.26.2012
25 Years Ago
April 23, 1987
Vice-President George Bush and Mrs. Bush will be in Mtn. Grove on Monday, April 27 to re-dedicate the newly refurbished bandstand on the Mtn. Grove Square. The program will begin at 3 p.m.
Conservation personnel Marty Szigety, John Miller and Bob Cook were involved in the presentation of “50 Years of Conservation” at Skyline School on April 14. Miller is the technician in charge of the production that is being shown statewide this year, and Szigety is regional staff specialist. Cook is conservation agent for Douglas County.
Missouri turkey hunters bagged 6,989 birds on the first day of the 1987 spring season, jumping well ahead of last year’s pace.
The piano students of Jack Floyd will be presented in recital Sunday, May 3, at 2 p.m. Students playing the recital will be Joey Will Waldrip, Jeff and Jared Coberly, Jimmy and Ricky Voliva, Genessa and Genet McCullough, Colette Calmer, and Jacinda Harley.
Mr. and Mrs. Danny Fish (Kellie Wagner) of Ava are happy to announce the birth of their third child. Heston Ross was born at 4:40 a.m. Monday, April 20, at Cox South Hospital. He weighed 8 lbs., 1 oz. and was 21 ½ inches long.
MOUND –– A birthday dinner was enjoyed last Wednesday evening at a restaurant in Ava, honoring Bob Gann and Eddie Bray.
Jeff Alcorn, a senior at Ava High School, has signed an official athletic scholarship letter of intent to play football at Mid-America Nazarene College, Olathe, Kan., starting with the fall semester.
David Davidson, Ava eighth grade student, ranked fourth in a 10-county area in a math competition sponsored by the Missouri Math League recently. David is the son of David and Mary Kay Davidson, of Ava.
Mr. and Mrs. Jackie Holman will be celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary on April 27.
50 Years Ago
April 19, 1962
The senior class and the speech and drama departments of Ava High School will present a three-act play, “Night of January 16th,” tonight at the school auditorium. The play involves a murder trial with a jury selected from the audience. Lita Briscoe, as Karen Andre, goes on trial for murder, defended by Jim Shollenberger as Attorney Stevens. Jeff Tallent serves as District Attorney Flint. Norma Lakey, as the widow of the late Bjorn Faulkner, is in tears during the entire play.
Harold Kellogg, AHS senior and president of the local chapter of Future Farmers of America, has been named as a state farmer. He was one of 244 boys in Missouri selected for the honor from 484 applicants.
An addition to the auditorium, new pews and additional classroom space has been completed at the Ava Church of Christ, according to Arthur V. Hicks, local evangelist.
An Easter Seal dance for benefit of the Douglas County Crippled Children’s fund will be held at the American Legion Hall Saturday night, April 28. Music for the dance starting at 8 o’clock, will be furnished by the Rhythemettes of Ava.
The year’s first “Yard of the Month” plaque has been awarded by the Ava Garden Club to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lester Jenkins.
Mrs. Marie Launder will present eight students in a piano recital tomorrow evening at the Masonic Lodge Hall in Ava, starting at 8 o’clock. Each of the students will play five or six selections. They are Debby Deckard, Janice Uhlmann, Connie Davis, Marjorie Robertson, Nancy Emerson, Geneva Keeton, Sherry Sims and Janice Robertson.
Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Francis of Mtn. Grove announce the engagement of their daughter, Virginia Ruth, to Charles Wayne Coats, son of Mr. and Mrs. Noble Coats of Mtn. Grove, formerly of Vanzant in east Douglas County.
Avalon Theater – Wed., Thurs.: Everything’s Ducky, with Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett. You’ll love this wacky, quacky comedy.
Two old quilt blocks were discovered recently by Mrs. Edna Wade of Ava, pieced together on sections of a newspaper, the “Douglas County Advance.” Mrs. Wade said the blocks were pieced by Mrs. Jim Clinkingbeard in 1908 and given to her by her son, C.C. Clinkingbeard.
Miss Rebecca Norman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Emmett R. Norman of Ava, has been selected as one of the 11 finalists in the Miss Springfield contest. Miss Norman is now concluding her sophomore year at SMS.
A growing interest in obtaining trial library bookmobile service for Douglas County is evidenced by the number of letters being received by the Missouri State Library, Miss Edna Bothe, director of field services told a group of interested citizens here Monday. Miss Bothe and the local group met at the Maples Café to discuss the long-range factors that must be considered by the State Library Board and local residents before library service can be forthcoming.
75 Years Ago
April 22, 1937
The annual Douglas County singing convention will be held at the city park in Ava on Sunday, May 23, it is announced this week by A.C. Rogers, president, and F.E. Taber, secretary. Last year the singing was held at Squires.
Myerl Hampton, son of Mr. and Mrs. J.J. Hampton of Ava, and Horace Barnes, son of Jesse Barnes of Fordland, who are members of the U.S. Navy and who for the past two months have been in port at Los Angeles, California, sailed Friday, April 16, for Honolulu aboard the U.S.S. Idaho. On the ship was also Ensign Bill Martin, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Martin of this city. During the voyage Myerl will be a first apprentice seaman.
Work on the street widening project that is to widen the streets around the public square is scheduled to start tomorrow according to a statement made by Morris Majors, WPA engineer of Mountain Grove who was in Ava Monday. The streets on the four sides of the square will be widened by setting back the inside curbings approximately fourteen feet, making a smaller square, but not molesting the outside curbings.
Evans, Missouri, is the name of a new post office established this week in the east end of Douglas County. The post office is located at the junction of highway 14 and farm-to-market road C to Norwood, seventeen miles east of Ava. Ernest Viles is postmaster.
BRUSHYKNOB –– Prof. Ralph Futrell, Mrs. Esther Futrell, Miss Ruby Stecker and Miss Ethel Silvey closed a successful term of school here Friday.
EAST DOGWOOD NEWS –– Impression in Ava: Not a “long face” in town . . . everyone is so cheerful and optimistic . . . and so friendly . . . the clerks were so pleasant and accommodating . . . the store windows display attractive merchandise . . . the prices are reasonable, too . . . we want to go back and trade again in Ava.
MT. TABOR –– Little Evelyn Privett is visiting in the home of her uncle, Bye Brown, this week.
CROSS ROADS –– Mr. and Mrs. Shillings have moved from the place of Mrs. Anna Ellison to the place recently vacated by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Cox.
GOODHOPE ITEMS – Sunday school was not so well attended Sunday because of the rain.
ROBERTSON – Earnie Jenkins moved his grandmother, Mrs. C.H. Walker and an aunt, Mrs. Eliza Hummel, from the J.E. Jenkins home to the home of Cora Porter where they will make their future home.
PLEASANT GREEN – The school board met Saturday evening and hired a woman teacher.
GIRDNER –– Lloyd Trantham and Miss Zola Ray have been reemployed to teach Excelsior school. Audy Krider and Miss Mabel Piland will teach at Kolb and Virgil Plumb and Selbia Brooks have been employed to teach Pleasant Hill school.
100 Years Ago
April 25, 1912
The sinking of the Titanic in the waters of the Atlantic is one of the greatest steamship disasters on record. The lives of 1,595 persons were lost. Seven hundred and forty-five were rescued.
The Box Supper and Debate at the Normal building in Ava last Saturday night was well attended, in fact, the crowd was larger than the auditorium in which they assembled. There was not even comfortable standing room in the auditorium and some were obliged to content themselves with a lean against the wall in the hallway. The question under discussion by the debaters was the initiative and referendum, Elmer Curry, Erchell Campbell and Mandy Mitchell of the tenth grade representing the affirmative, and Sherman Brown, Vivian Snow and Claud Parks, of the ninth grade, representing the negative. After a lively debate the judges decided that the affirmative were due the honors in the game. All boxes sold well, bringing from seventy cents to $1.30. Miss Grace Grasham was awarded the “beauty cake” and Prof. Marshal Campbell was given the “ugly man’s’” prize, consisting of a pair of red striped socks and a pair of suspenders. The total receipts amounted to $50.80, which will be used in the purchase of a new piano for the school.
At the regular meeting of the city council last week it was decided that a re-survey of the city should be made, The Engineer was ordered to establish grades for the building of sidewalks and street improvements. Where it has not already been done, the blocks and lots in the city will be numbered and corners will be established. Also, all the streets within the city limits will be named or numbered, according to decisions yet to be rendered.
I.T. Curry sent a telegram from St. Louis this morning to his father, stating that the state committee has unseated enough Roosevelt delegates to give Taft control of the State Convention to be held in St. Louis today.
Clara Barton, one of the bravest and best-known women in America died at her home in Maryland last week in the ninety-second year of her age. She was the founder of the American Red Cross Society, and was a lover of humanity in every sense of the word. Though she is dead her works will live forever.
Mayor W.M. Barnes has issued an order for the people of Ava to clean up the streets and alleys adjoining their places, and a good job of it is all ready being done.
Mr. and Mrs. Henderson Osborn are the happy parents of a fine baby boy, which arrived at their home last Tuesday morning. The parents are proud and the child has already made an able start toward manhood.
