Talk of the Valley

FREDERICK, MD May 20, 2009 — PublishAmerica is proud to present Jeff’s God by Hershel B. Howell. Mr. Howell’s novel is of the Civil War era – the Battle of Shiloh, Oxford, Mississippi, The University of Mississippi, and the small river town of Wyatt, located on the Tallahatchie River about twelve miles north of Oxford.…

Don Holloway never sold his handmade crosses but he’s given away too many to count. His crosses are scattered across the globe. Distributed by Don and friends on trips and missions, the small Christian symbols are worn as necklaces or used as key holders. Initially, Don used cedar from the Christmas tree decorating the sanctuary…

By Jack GurnerReporter WATER VALLEY – Ray Cox started out to be a photographer. But, a lack of film right after World War II led him down another career path. That was a fortunate turn of events for generations of seamstresses who have relied on Cox’s self-taught skills to repair their sewing machines. Cox developed…

By Lucia HollowayContributing Writer   When a talented woodworker joined forces with an avid gardener, they created an explosion of color in their landscape, along with spots to sit and enjoy the view. Their latest project, a deck that cantilevers over a 15-foot embankment, evolved as they built. Feeling that the deck did not measure…

By Lucia HollowayContributing Writer   Contrasts in Japanese and U.S. Schools were an eye-opener for Water Valley First Grade Teacher Becky York, one of two Mississippians receiving a Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program Scholarship last fall.   Three weeks of culture, food, and sites in Japan stimulated the 200 U.S. teachers. “I learned that Japanese…

A former resident of Water Valley and a cancer survivor was named chair of this year’s North Shore Medical Center Cancer WALK, which took place June 22 in Salem, Mass.     Jennifer Cofer Flanagan, the daughter of the late Judge and Mrs. Kermit Kofer, chaired the largest single-day, annual fundraising event on the North Shore…

By Lucia HollowayContributing Writer  For a lady just past 98, Antoinette Edrington is a remarkable study. As she makes her rounds of stores, the bank, and the post office, she still drives her green 1970 Ford Fairlane. At each place, she greets clerks and owners by name, asks about their family members, and knows much…

A Former Teacher, Thompson Believes In Putting Extra Effort In Her Projects By Alexe van BeurenReporter     When I first met Julia Thompson, she spelled out her name for. “J-U-L-I-A Julia,” she said with a beat.    So I knew she had a big personality before our interview; I just hadn’t realized how very good…

By Alexe van Beuren Reporter     One hundred fifty years ago, Water Valley didn’t look like it does now – or even like the old pictures. “It wasn’t a town back then,” Perry Mae Carr Camp tells me. “People just lived all around.”     But over the years it grew; and so when the settlement…

By Alexe van Beuren Reporter   Glen Zediker knows a lot about guns. As a competitive marksman, he fires them. As a writer, he writes about them. And as a community member, he teaches them.     Zediker, a middle-aged wiry man who looks like an outdoorsman, grew up on a cattle ranch in a tiny…