Stories from Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Annabelle L. Prettyman, 89, of rural Arcadia, died at 7:15 p.m., Monday, Dec. 17, 2007, at Mercy Health Systems, in Fort Scott. Mrs. Prettyman was born March 6, 1918, at Mulberry, Kan., the daughter of Woodson and Eliza Endicott Portwood. Annabelle was a homemaker who lived in Arcadia and Mulberry area most of her life. She was reared in Mulberry and attended Mulberry Schools. She married Fred W. Prettyman on March, 7, 1937, in Lamar, Mo. Mr. Prettyman preceded her in death June 15, 1990...

Opal Mae Anderson, 88, Richards, passed away on Monday, Dec. 17, 2007, at Mercy Hospital, Fort Scott, Kan., after an illness of several months. She was born on Oct. 27, 1919, in Roy, N.M., to Benjamin Charles Grunig and Edna Beatrice DePew Grunig. She married Richard Norman Anderson on Jan. 1, 1937, in Kansas City, Mo., and he preceded her in death...

Lamoni Carol Forkner, of Richards, went to join the Lord on Tuesday, Dec.18, 2007, at the age of 78. She was born July 3, 1929, in Kansas City, Mo., the eldest daughter of the late Leo Calvin Stamps and Flossie Jane Smith Stamps. She married Arch Floyd Forkner on Aug. 6, 1950, in Nevada, and be survives of the home...

Esther Mae Holladay, 63, El Dorado Springs, passed away at her home in El Dorado Springs, on Monday, Dec. 17, 2007, following a sudden illness. She was born Oct. 20, 1944, in Nevada, to Charles Theodore Collins and Carrie Lucille Ellifrits Collins. She married Robert Holladay on Nov. 20, 1976, in Joplin, and he survives of the home...

Bernice J. Thomas, age 83, of Rich Hill, died Dec. 15, 2007, at her home. Funeral services will be held Wednesday, Dec. 19, at 1 p.m., at Myrtle Tree Fellowship Church, with burial in the Green Cemetery. The family received friends on Tuesday from 7-8 p.m., at the Heuser Funeral Home, Rich Hill...

Katie, Jeremy Yockey, and siblings Sean Xavier and Haleigh Elaine Yockey, of Milo, are proud to announce the birth of their daughter and baby sister, Emma Grace Yockey. Emma was born at 6:22 a.m., on Dec. 17, 2007, at Nevada Regional Medical Center...

Dear editor: We are in the beginning of the Christmas season, and we hear so much about this being a holiday, or "the holidays." We profane the name of our lord by calling Christmas the holidays. The Fourth of July is a holiday, Memorial Day is a holiday, Labor Day is a holiday, Thanksgiving is a holiday, New Year's Day is a holiday but CHRISTMAS IS CHRISTMAS...

We are about to celebrate another Christmas, the most important holiday of the year, which causes a person to ponder many different thoughts. It is a time when the entire nation pauses to celebrate; a time when we remember the gift that was given to us which came as a baby. Christmas is the time set aside to remember this birth...

Nevada High School varsity basketball player Lexi Johnson says that she has a lot to be thankful for. She sits at home recovering from having broken her left femur and both tibias, along with a collar bone. She was just recently able to get out of her wheelchair and begin to walk on crutches, but still struggles to move one knee due to a surgically repaired patellar tendon. ...

The Nevada Tigers clawed their way to a hard fought win over the Clinton Cardinals on Tuesday. Led by Jordan Kerbs, who had 26 points in the game, Nevada was able to improve their overall record to 4-3 by knocking off the now 6-2 Clinton Cardinals. Nevada began the game shooting 1-5 from 3-point range and 2-2 from the free throw line, leading to a 13-8 spread in their favor after the first quarter...

The Show-Me ChalleNGe program for at-risk high school students that was operated at Camp Clark from 1998 to 2003, when it was discontinued because of a state budget shortfall, may soon have a second life. State Representative Barney Fisher told the Nevada City Council Tuesday night that he has recently talked to the adjutant general of the Missouri National Guard about the program and he is interested in re-establishing the Show-Me ChalleNGe program within his budget and will talk to the governor about it.. ...

State Representative Barney Fisher has been working on a plan to bring a Missouri Veterans Home to Nevada. In an announcement to the Nevada City Council during a meeting on Tuesday, Fisher said that the Veterans Commission would like to build six more veterans homes around the state; however, the project is dependent on Missouri voters approving a 1/8-cent sales tax. ...

The Nevada City Council gave final approval Tuesday night to the city's $24.2 million 2008 budget, but not without considerable discussion between several city councilmen and the city manager about some items included in the budget. Russ Kemm told Nevada City Manager Bill McGuire that he was pleased to see the budget included a 2.5 percent cost of living increase in city employee's wages for 2008...