Look Back In Yalobusha History
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.
Serving Water Valley and the surrounding area postal patrons in February of 1964 were (first row, from left) Crip Tyler, Toy Sutherland, Postmaster Paul Parker, Hervis Hamblett and Jack Craven; (second row) Russell Sutherland, Curtis Berry, Gene Simpson, Gene Gale Bratton, Wallace Forsyth and Cecil Sager. Not pictured were Bill Nolen and I. T. Westmoreland. The group was present for the retirement observance honoring Herbert Woods.
• 15 years ago, Feb. 5, 2009 – Unemployment jumped to 12 percent in Yalobusha County putting the county in the “top ten” for unemployment in the state.
School board members looked for ways to salvage several jobs and sports programs during their February meeting. Programs on the chopping block included volleyball, 7th and 8th grade baseball and 7th and 8th grade track. The reductions were to offset a 3.23 percent funding cut to schools statewide.
• 20 years ago, Feb. 5, 2004 – A second well was to be drilled at the Oakland Mississippi Beef Producers Plant after the first proved to be a dry hole.
The Yalobusha NAACP scheduled their Black History Month program for Feb. 7 at the Philadelphia M. B. Church near Oakland.
Jimmy Dale Story, 37, of Coffeeville was charged in the murder of Laurel A. Koll, 39. Knoll’s body was discovered near County Road 84.
• 30 years ago, Feb. 3, 1994 – County supervisors voted to construct a Class I rubbish disposal site near the Beat One barn.
Water Valley High School Band members Leah Ann Norris and Melanie Goodwin were selected by audition to attend the Northeast Mississippi Bandmasters’ Association Clinic at Itawamba Community College.
WVHS Band members honored at the Solo & Ensemble competition at Lafayette High School included Amanda Thomas, Laci Brashier, Emily Gurner, Rhea Brown, Eric Inman, Brent Hollister, Heidi Wilder and Robin Keisling.
• 40 years ago, Feb. 9, 1984 – The WV Junior High basketball teams finished their season with wins against Pope. The girls won, 30-17; the boys won, 52-50.
Alan Berry of Water Valley was a member of the newly formed Chamber Singers at Delta State University.
Two Vallians, Kathy Johnson Williams and Joyce R. Moody, were included in the 1993 edition of Outstanding Young Women of America.
Letters continued to come to the Herald protesting the demolishing of the old Bank of Water Valley building. One letter contained the signatures of more than 50 distinguished citizens of the city.
• 40 years ago, Feb. 7, 1974 – J. Watson Hunt was pictured on the front page being administered the oath of office as Mayor of Water Valley by Chancellor Kermit R. Cofer.
City officials were studying the possibility of building a little league baseball park. Sites being considered were the old high school grounds on North Main Street and the old grammar school grounds on Wagner Street.
The county courthouse was found to be in “bad need of repair” by the Grand Jury of the Second Judicial District.
• 60 years ago, Feb. 6, 1964 – Clinton Woods was injured when his pick-up truck crashed into a utility pole on North Main Street. Two passengers, Wesley Gooch and Willie Hervey, suffered lacerations.
• 70 years ago, Feb 4, 1954 – The county ginned 14,641 bales of cotton during the last season.
The Community Council elected C. L. “Buster” Beene president of the group.
The Grand Jury of the Second Judicial District praised Sheriff Lloyd Farmer “for the excellent manner in which he keeps the jail premises” and then said that was in spite of the “unspeakable conditions of the prisoners quarters.”
They presented a long list of unsanitary and inhuman problems and then stated “these conditions should not exist in any civilized community.”
Pvt. James Gordon finished basic training at Fort Gordon, South Carolina.
The Jaycees set the dates for the 1954 Tri-Lake Fair as August 24-28.
• 80 years ago, Feb. 3, 1944 – The cotton report from the census bureau showed that the county ginned 10,875 bales over the past season, up from 9,403 the season before.
Dick Wilhoit of Water Valley, an employee of the IRS, was to help taxpayers fill out their tax returns.
• 90 years ago, Feb. 9, 1934 – Confederate veteran John A. Norris, 86, died. He enlisted in the Mississippi Infantry at the age of 15 and was in Forrest’s Calvary.
A sample of Water Valley butter from the local Kraft-Phenix Cheese Plant was rated the best tasting out of 50 samples examined at Ohio State University’s Depart of Dairy Technology.
