Stories from Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Alta Fay Collins, 81, of Gardner, Kan., formerly of Nevada, passed away on Sunday, Dec. 20, 2009, at her home. She was born March 12, 1928, in Yankton, S.D., to George I. Pettit and Josephine M. Merkwan Pettit. She married James Elmer Collins on July 5, 1945, in Fort Scott, and he survives of the home...

Darold L. Miller, age 75 of Deerfield, died on Saturday, December 19, 2009 at the Medical Lodge in Nevada following a lengthy illness. He was born on Jan. 4, 1934, in Worth County, Mo., to Alva L. Miller and Clella B. Todd Miller. On Nov. 4, 1959 he was married in Stanberry, Mo., to Judith Ann McKnight and she survives of the home...

Barbara Lee Buckles, 64, Walker, Mo., passed away on Sunday, Dec. 20, 2009, at her home in Walker, following a sudden illness. She was born Aug. 10, 1945, in Nevada, to William Glenn Shepherd and Juanita Maxine Elliott Shepherd. She married Larry Buckles on March 13, 1965, in Nevada, and he survives of the home...

Sylvia Bolan and Roy Matson, of Nevada, and big sisters Raegan and Ashley, are proud to announce the birth of their daughter and baby sister, Serenity Jaunita Matson. Serenity was born at 1:51 a.m., on Dec. 19, 2009, at Nevada Regional Medical Center. She weighed 7 pounds, 1 ounce, and measured 21 inches...

Linda Gill, a nutrition program assistant in McDonald County, has a cherished Christmas memory from 1955 when her dad was a hired hand on a cotton farm near Jonesboro, Ark. "Times had been rough for us prior to Christmas and we were not able to get a Christmas tree like usual. My sister and I wondered what we were going to do without a Christmas tree for Santa to leave our presents under," said Gill...

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a wreck involving Christopher Harris, a 2009 graduate of Nevada High School. The one-vehicle wreck happened 5:30 a.m., Sunday, on Route E one mile east of Milo. According to the report by Trooper J. Leemasters the 1997 Buick driven by Harris ran off the left side of the roadway, struck a culvert and overturned. Harris was transported via air ambulance to St. John's Hospital in Joplin...

The Nevada City Council's search for a permanent city manager is progressing, but is on hold until after Jan. 1 according to Nevada Mayor Mike Hutchens. Interim City Manager Harlan Moore has been in the city's top job since the resignation of Bill McGuire in November 2008...

The American Legion will be serving their annual Christmas dinner for those who lack family to share with and to shut-ins who can't get out. The dinner has been a tradition in Nevada and past commander Gene Webb said it's one the Legion members are happy to keep...

For 22 years, Jack Oehring has continued the tradition of creating a wonderland of Christmas at his farm near the extinct town of Portia in eastern Vernon County. He has made different displays carved out of wood, hammered out of stone, or twisted out of metal, and lights them all...

"We're going to be a tournament team." Nevada High School wrestling coach Devin White has made it widely known throughout the year that the short roster his team has battled from the start would cause substantial struggles in dual competition, but success in tournaments would be the main feather in the Tigers' cap this year...

By Eric Wade Nevada Daily Mail After putting up just four points in the opening period and being shut out in the second, the Nevada Tigers found themselves in a quick 14-point hole as they entered halftime of the seventh place game of the Harrisonville Holiday tournament...

By Eric Wade Nevada Daily Mail Just one day after seeing their six-game winning streak come to an end, the Nevada Lady Tigers got back into action in the Harrisonville Holiday basketball tournament against one of their toughest rivals in the Lady Tigers of Carthage Tuesday night...

A special exhibit including some of the works of local artist and Vietnam veteran Helen White made its way to Texas this summer. "Tribute" expressions of loss and remembrance by Vietnam veterans included a broad variety of sculpture, paintings and photos by various artists and is preserved in the exhibit's accompanying program of the same name...