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Looking Backward

25 Years Ago

Members of the Top 10 percent of the Ava High School graduating class of 1995 are: Valedictorian Emily Gressman, Salutatorian Shalana Fleetwood, Tory Rutledge, Kristine Pedersen, Brooke Strong, Jennifer Corum, Jason Smith, Michelle Olson and Kelly Lafferty.

The circus tickets have arrived and are on sale at the Chamber of Commerce, Douglas County Bank, First Home Savings, Spurlock’s Store and Making Memories Photography.

The 83rd Annual May Singing was held this year at the Ava General Baptist Church. It was a sentimental reminder of the great all-day singing conventions that used to be held in and around Ava.

Mike and Debby Webster were in Tennessee for a horse show. Debby took first place with a horse she trained and rode. She took top honors on dress and horse.

Ava Elementary cafeteria employees JoAnn Anderson and Linda King will retire at the end of the current school year. JoAnn has worked in the cafeteria for 24 years and Linda has a total of 11 years.

Boy Scouts of America, Troop 71, Ava, camped at the Vera Cruz camping area. The Scouts worked on their Forestry merit badge. Scouts attending were Luke Austin, Brian Fitzgerald, Chris Himes, Curt Himes, Scott McKinely, Jacob Moffett, Douglas Roberts, Terry Roberts, Tommy Scrivener and Gerald Wright.

Gene C. Garrison, son of Jimmy and Marie Garrison, Ava, graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia, with a doctorate of education degree in education administration.

The Past Matrons & Patrons Club of the 46th District, Order of Eastern Star, will hold its regular dinner meeting in the Mountain Grove Masonic Temple dining room.

Jim and Heather (Stevens) Davidson are the proud parents of a son, Jordan Edward. 

Gary Emrick, of Ava, participated in the Lincoln, Neb. marathon and placed 28th overall among the 861 runners. Emrick ran the 26 mile race in 2 hours, 46 minutes, 48 seconds.

Ava junior Jason Burton took first place in 100 meter high hurdles in the district track meet with a time of 15.39 seconds. The first place finish qualifies Burton for the state sectional meet at Ozark.

Middle school lunch for Monday: Ft. long hot dog, buttered corn, fruit, ice cream and milk.

Mrs Ronnie Lansdown spent the weekend in Springfield with Jill Lansdown and they attended the Alan Jackson Concert.

Jeremy Spencer and Amber McFarlin, first graders at Skyline School, were named prince and princess of the School Carnival at their school this spring.

Many Red Bud Villagers attended the dinner at the Legion Hall. The Rebekah Lodge really knows how to cook.

50 Years Ago

David Norman, president of Ava Alumni Association, announced this week that senior initiation will be held Friday. The initiation ceremonies will start at the high school and proceed toward the public square.

Mrs. Gladys B. Stewart entertained with a tea at her home in honor of Mrs. G.B. Wilson who was celebrating her 100th birthday.

Mr. and Mrs. Dolan Hawkins of Ava announce the birth of a daughter, Jennifer Jill.

Miss Rethea Pauline Davis, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Marion Davis of Squires, and Robert Quinley, son of Chief Boatswain’s Mate and Mrs. Clarence Quinley, were married in a unique ceremony performed aboard a Navy utility landing craft. The couple cut their wedding cake with a Navy officer’s sword and punch was served from the commander’s silver punch bowl.

The Arno Homebuilders Extension Club met at the Arno School House. The hostess for the day meeting was Mrs. Earl Morris. A book review on “When I Was a Stunt Girl” was given by the hostess.

Mr. and Mrs Baxter Gaulding of Ava celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary in their home.

PFC Sammy Darrell Graham left Ava enroute to Vietnam. PFC Graham completed his basic training  and visited in Ava with his wife, Judy, and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jess Graham.

Mr. and Mrs. Rich Watkins are having a well drilled on their farm. Mrs. Corda Kindall also had a well drilled.

A four-year-old girl of Chadwick was rushed to Cox Medical Center after she had been bitten by a poisonous snake.

Graduating from Mt. Zion Bible School are Philip Lucas, Janette Shiverdecker, Mary Ann Miller, Belva Bradley and Rhoda Mills.

Orville Hale, Delcia Lakey and Everett Sanders enjoyed a fishing trip at Theodosia.

Philip Davis visited his wife Effie in the O.K. Welton home.

Mrs. Albert Ingram was the oldest lady in church and Sunday school on Mother’s day. She is 82 and received a pretty potted flower.

Mrs. Winfred Guignon is moving from Iowa here to the rental home of Mrs. Joseph Sirna.

Ina E. Strong of Ava, a student at Southwest Missouri State College, has done her student teaching this semester at Gainesville High School. She taught home economics.

Mr. and Mrs. D.L. Lakey visited with Mr. and Mrs. Quentin Lethco. The Lethcos have 8500 young turkeys.

Members of the senior class of Ava High School presented “Dinny and the Witches.” The cast included Annabel Briscoe, Linda Johnson, Hilde Haden, Lyle Davis, Jean Ann Curry, Reggie Victor, Susie Pettit, David Miller, Janet Gentry, Debbie Gipe, Robert Pettit, Lyle Kivett, Dale Shull, and John Klineline.

Mrs. Garnet Hopper received a Mother’s ring from her children for Mother’s Day, which has 12 birthstones.

75 Years Ago

One hundred and thirty seniors, alumni members, faculty and school board members enjoyed the annual alumni banquet at the Ava High School.

Corporal Max Norman of the U.S. Marine Corps, who is spending his leave in Ava with his father, E.B. Norman, will graduate from Ava High School with the class of ‘45. Corporal Norman enlisted in the Marine Corps in the 1942 when he had just completed his junior year’s work.

A widespread search is being made in Georgia and Tennessee for H. Max Cochran, missing since his newly-purchased Navy Stinson plane ran into a storm near Taccoa, Georgia while he was enroute to Springfield.

Four Ava boys, J.C. Williams, Rex Brown, Bill Vinson and Virgil Lakey left Ava this morning enroute to Great Lakes, IL, where they are to begin their “boot training” at the naval base.

Mr. and Mrs. L.F. Piland of Foil were shopping and transacting business in Ava.

Mr. and Mrs. Jack Insko were in Ava for a twofold purpose: to be with Mrs. Burks on Mother’s Day and to help their grandson celebrate his second birthday anniversary.

Mrs. Roy Dean entertained the members of the Le Bon Vivant bridge club and a few guests in her home.

The Sunbeam Band met with M.B. Carpenter. The group studied a mission book, “Just Like You.”

The annual Junior and Senior banquet was one of the most successful school events of the year. The setting for the banquet was a Chinese garden scene and menu. Covers were laid for 187 persons.

Mrs. Tommy Prier received a phonograph record of the voice of her son, Wayne Prier, Seaman second class, of New York, for her Mother’s Day greeting.

Mr. and Mrs. Harley Brixey and children and Mrs. Daisy Pratt picnicked at Brown’s Cave.

Lillie Wessinger and Jane Fulk were given a surprise dinner on their birthday by some neighbors.

Mr. and Mrs. Hurse Smith announce the birth of a son, Andrew William. The little man is to be called Andy Bill.

PFC Russell Brake of Ava was awarded the Purple Heart while 11 months overseas in the southwest Pacific.

The Combat Infantry Badge has bee awarded to Technical Sergeant Cecil E. Sympson for exemplary conduct in action.

Members of the First Baptist church of Ava met in the church auditorium and went as a group to the home of the Rev. and Mrs. K. Arch Bolerjack and presented the couple with a shower of house-warming girfts.

Mrs. Glenn Story entertained the members of the Fortnightly club in the home of her mother, Mrs. C.O. Daves. 

100 Years Ago

At the meeting of the City Board of Health, it was ordered that a general clean-up be made at once, to include all out-houses, hog pens, back alleys or other places of filth. Typhoid fever has already broken out and delay in cleaning up places of filth might prove fatal.

The Summer Session of the Ava High School opened with an enrollment of eighty students. 

The world war has cost 35,380,000 lives, according to estimates compiled in London. Serbia lost 35%  of her total population.

A car load of fertilizer was unloaded yesterday for us. We are now ready for everybody that wishes to buy fertilizer from us. – Howard Hitchcock & Sons.

At Court House in Ava, Saturday – If you want the unusual experience of hearing a woman make a political speech, attend this pre-campaign meeting. Mrs. Alice Curtice Moyer-Wing is the speaker.

R.B. McCullough was doing some much needed work on the roads. 

Mesdames G.J. and Wm. Heinlein and J.E. Swegorat are enjoying a visit with a brother of theirs whom they have not seen for over 30 years.

Lightening struck and killed one of Jim Burden’s mules last Sunday. He had only bought the mules on Saturday.

Charley Edwards motored to Vanzant.

Edgar Cearley had the misfortune to cut his hand severely on barb wire.

Dave Potter, who sold his farm and went to Oklahoma with his family, has returned for a home in Old Douglas.

Will Heatherly lost a good mare which was struck by lightning.

Miss Hatta Schindler of Almartha spent the afternoon at the home of John Denney.

Messrs Loren Clarke, Chas. Beason and Floyd Hitchcock left for Nebraska where they will be employed during the summer.

Judge Jno. T. Moore and son, Atty. Tom Moore of Ozark, passed through Ava on the way home from Gainesville where they had been attending circuit court.

Tom Clinkingbeard will sell his household goods at public auction in Ava and will depart next week with his family for the West.

W.M. Miller has been remodeling his residence. A new screened-in porch is being built.

Hunt & Norman have finished a job of painting at the Bralley farm.

Eteyl Hagee has received the appointment as temporary rural carrier for route No. 2 out of Ava.

The seventh annual singing at Mt Tabor Church will be held. This will be an all-day singing and picnic, and everybody is invited to come and bring well-filled baskets, and have a good time. Special invitation to harmony singers.

A marriage license was issued to J.C. Cummins, of Seymour, and Katie Shipley, of Sweden.

125 Years Ago

Miss Pearl Lemmon, formerly a popular teacher in the Nevada public school, is to go to China as a missionary.

Baths, 15 cents, at W.F. Beeman’s.

Court week brought quite a number to town this week. 

Mrs. S. Howard of Marionville was a visitor at the Normal.

While playing ball at Liberty, Missouri, a little boy nine years old was hit just above the heart with the ball and died in ten minutes.

The business men of our city bought eight hand gas fire extinguishers to place in their business houses to meet emergency and to help abate the fire fiend.

Cashier Ebb Walls, of the Willow Springs bank, was arrested on the charge of receiving money when he knew the bank was in a solvent condition.

Jas Crisp, who was to have been hung at Marshfield, has another lease on life on the grounds of insanity. 

The Court appointed Tom Singleton road overseer of Dist. No 26.

The Court granted loans of school funds to the following parties: G.W. Davis, F.W. Schneider, Caloway Riley, Calvin Riley, and T.J. Phillips.

The Court made the Herald the official paper of this county.

Mr. Simon Greenspan left Topeka for Kansas City to be married to Mrs. Sells, the widow of the late Colonel Allen Sells, the showman. Mrs. Sells is reputed to be the richest lady in Kansas, and is very much older than Mr. Greenspan.

The post office known as Lone Oak, Bates county, Kansas, will hereafter be written as one word, the change being made in issuing the commission of Frederick S. Wolf to be postmaster there.

Father Mariano Lepore of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic church, Denver, Col., has been deposed by the bishop for immorality, embezzlement, gambling, blasphemy and dishonesty in politics.

On a special invitation the Ava Cornet Band visited Mansfield and attended an ice cream social. The boys report that the people of Mansfield treated them royally and that they had a tip-top time. 

It is worth remembering that no newspaper is printed especially for one person. People who become greatly displeased at something they find in a newspaper, or something left out, should consider that the very thing that displeases them is exactly the thing that pleases some other person who has as much interest in the paper as the grumbler has.