Red Canna Named Official Flower In 1965
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
Members of the softball team sponsored by Valley Auto Parts-NAPA were (front, from left) Amanda Lovelace, Kellie Magee, Steffi River, Anna Crow, Stephanie Hughes, Candi Walker, (back) Coach Jayne River, Jobie McCoy, Heather River, Jill Terry, Coach Keith River, Melissa Smith, Melissa Hughes and Coach Chris Terry. – Photo by Jack Gurner
Speaking at a Rotary Club meeting on June 24, 1975, Sheriff L.A. Jones reported that the crime rate in southern states was on the rise. Jones reported that in 1974 the crime rate rose 17 percent in the U.S., but the rise was 21 percent in the South. Jones said that Americans were feeling the crunch of inflation and unemployment, while being gouged by increasing financial losses as the result of crime. He said that crime losses in supermarkets, department stores and drug stores cost each consumer an extra $1.71 per week in 1974.
Citing local examples, Jones pointed to recent crimes including several burglaries in Water Valley– the High School where money was taken, Cooper’s Jewelry Store and all three drug stores have been broken into. Pointing to increased crime in the county, Jones cited a liquor store robbed at Tillatoba at gun point; an elderly couple who live about one and a half miles south of the Oakland exit were assaulted by a hitch-hiker. The robber then walked to I-55 and robbed two sailors at gun-point, taking their car and leaving them stranded. He was later arrested in Carrollton and was booked in the jail in Water Valley, along with the Tillatoba liquor store robber.
Jones cited a decline in church going, which has led to a decline in morality across the country and in the state.
Through The Years From The Herald
• 20 Years Ago, June 30, 2005 – The Jackson Bomb Squad assisted the sheriff’s department and Coffeeville Police Department with a house search Monday after- noon. The search follows street talk authorities learned during the previous weekend about the residence of Thomas Benson being possibly booby trapped with bombs. No incendiary devices were uncovered, but Benson was taken into custody on a warrant for probation violation and possession of methamphetamine.
The Town and Country Garden Club released a com- memorative book as a tribute to area World War II veterans. The book featured over 600 Yalobusha County veterans.
• 30 Years Ago, June 29, 1995 – In her capacity as “Miss Delta State University,” Water Vallian Jennifer Sartain will be a contestant in the Miss Mississippi Pageant in Vicksburg next month.
The Mississippi Highway Patrol announced surveillance aircraft will join enforcement efforts during the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Trooper-pilots of the Air Operations Division of MPH will augment ground units in locating stranded motorists, along with drunken, speeding and reckless drivers.
Doris Cox ended a 34-year career in government service in June, 1995, when she retired from her city clerk’s position after 19 years. She had also served as deputy chancery clerk to Gerald Harris for 12 years and worked three years in the sheriff’s office. As city clerk she served mayors Watson Hunt, Garlon Maynor, Hamric Henry and Larry Hart. Cox passed away June 1 at the age of 101.
Yalobusha County Agent Steve Cummings shared a tale of a hog chase at Turkey Creek in his weekly column. It seems a hog had escaped and reverted back to the wild near the farm of Christine Fielder. This hog was ransacking gardens and several people had shot at him and some even claimed to have knocked him down. Last week the hog was on the porch of Fielder’s mother-in-law eating dog food. The mother-in-law, who is 91, ran the hog off her porch and up the hill where it ran into the bottom strand of a barbed wire fence and fell over dead. So ends the story of the “Great Turkey Creek Hog Chase,” Cummings wrote.
• 40 Years Ago, June 27, 1985 – Water Valley Mayor Hamric Henry presented a key to the city to Mrs. Harold Williams at a reception held in her honor at the Yalobusha Country Club. Mrs. Williams is the new President of the Garden Clubs of Mississippi, Inc.
Twelve Future Farmers of America members and three supervisors from the Water Valley Chapter attended the 52nd annual Mississippi FFA Convention in Starkville. Water Valley had four voting delegates, seniors Noel Holley and Ron Griffin; and juniors Melissa Romberger and Ken Bailey. The group was supervised by Advisor Rodney Childress, Water Valley High School Principal Larry Carr and Mrs. Barbara Holley.
• 50 Years Ago, June 26, 1975 – Miss Becky Reid, “Miss Water Valley” for 1975 will be arriving in Vicksburg on July 14th to participate in the 1975 Miss Mississippi Pageant. She and some other 47 contestants will be competing in talent, swimsuit and evening gown events.
• Clay Ashford and Rex Howell represented Water Valley at Boys’ State in Jackson. Boys’ State is an annual project of The American Legion.
Miss Jayne Elizabeth Edgar, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. R.N. Edgar, has been named Water Valley’s Miss Hospitality and will represent this City at the State Contest to be held this summer in Biloxi.
Patients at the hospital included:
From Water Valley – Roy Williamson, John W. Henderson, Winna Claire Chambers, Marlene Womble, Vasti McMillan, Zula Poteete, Woodrow Farmer, Daisy Whichard, Hattie Walls, Luther Cook, Sylvester Holland, Cap Gardner, Leander Sanders, Wesley Hughes and Cordie Mae Spivey. From Coffeeville – Iosa Jenkins.
• 60 Years Ago, June 24, 1965 – By Proclamation Mayor Stanley Perkins named the Red Canna as the official flower for the City of Water Valley and the Dogwood the official tree. The request was made by The Garden Club of Water Valley.
C.L. (Buster) Beene presided as Grand Master of Mississippi Odd Fellows at the annual meeting in Jackson last week.
Misses Ynonne Shields and Eleanor Nelson of Water Valley completed their first year of nursing training at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis.
Don Edwards, son of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Edwards has been appointed to the Public Relations Department of the East Mississippi Electric Power Association.
Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Williams have returned home after a week’s visit with their children, Mr. and Mrs. Gene Reynolds, and family, in Fresno, Calif. They made the trip via jet plane.
• 70 Years Ago, June 30, 1955 – The City of Water Valley had completed the installation of water meters, and beginning with next month’s billings, water customers will pay according to the reading of the meters. Water users will continue to pay $3 as a minimum bill, which included up to 5,000 gallons.
• 80 Years Ago, June 28, 1945 – In every section of the country soldiers are arriving home from service overseas. Some will return to civilian life and others, following a furlough and visits to families and friends, will resume military duties.
Others were still entering the armed forces, as a group of inductees including Charlie Lee Edwards, Jr., Wayne Stewart, Ira Scott Carter, Samuel Thomas Clowney, Robert W. Miller, Emmett Cooper Griffin and Richard Simpson Green.
Mr. and Mrs. Bennett Hill received a letter of condolence in the loss of their son, A.B. Hill Jr. His platoon leader wrote that Alfred was one of the finest, cleanest Christian boys as any parents ever had. The soldier entered the service in Nov., 1942, and was killed in February, 1944.
