Stories from Wednesday, June 15, 2011

The Freistatt Village Board of Trustees voted to buy a new storm siren at their June meeting. Failure of the village's storm siren to work at all on May 22 when the tornado that hit Joplin approached the village prompted firefighter Brandon Wormington to drive around town in a fire truck with the siren running, urging people to take cover...

Charles Franklin Miller, age 70, of Wheaton, died at 4:06 a.m. on Sunday, June 12. Funeral services will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 15 in McQueen Funeral Home in Wheaton. Burial will be on Saturday, June 18 in LeBlanc Cemetery in LeBlanc, La...

Esther Margaret Perkins, age 97, of Exeter, died at 12 p.m. on Sunday, June 12. Graveside services were held at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, June 14 in Seligman Cemetery under the direction of Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville.

Jerry Fogle, Jr., age 91, of Aurora, died on Sunday, June 12, at his home. A funeral service, under the direction of the Crafton-Cantrell Funeral Home, in Aurora, will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, June 16 at the First Presbyterian Church in Aurora with burial at the Maple Park Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, June 15, in the funeral home chapel...

Joseph Michael Gorszczyk, age 76, of Aurora, died on Wednesday, June 8, at his home. Funeral Mass will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 18 at the St. Edwards Catholic Church in Cassville. Arrangements are under the direction of White Funeral Home in Cassville...

J.H. "Dick" Harris, age 97, of Monett, MO, passed away on Wednesday morning, June 15, 2011 at Benchmark Healthcare of Monett following a lengthy illness. Funeral services for Mr. Harris will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 18, 2011, at the Buchanan Funeral Home in Monett, with Reverend Larry Wormington officiating. Interment will be at the Purdy Cemetery...

Purdy High School has announced its honor roll for the fourth quarter of the 2010-11 school year. Students are listed below by grade and achievement level. Named to the A Honor Roll from the senior class were: Tyler Fletcher, Jessica James, Brittany Mareth, Rebecca Neill, Audrey Patton, Shelby Scott, Brittany Smith, Jennie Smith, Brooke Swadley, Madeline Tate, Shelby White and Carissa Willey...

The Purdy Middle School has announced its honor roll students for the fourth quarter of the 2010-11 school year. Fifth graders named to the All-A Honor Roll are: Zoe Brown, Jose Cecenas, Tyler Keeler, Mikey Schad and Layne Skiles. Sixth grade All-A Honor Roll students include: Rion Boyd, Taylor Dill, Morgan Grissom, Samantha House, Steven Murray, Morgan Schilly and Megan Thomas...

Central Methodist University in Fayette recognized students during commencement activities held on May 7 for their outstanding achievements. Megan Elizabeth Welker, daughter of Amy Welker, of Aurora, received the William Randolph Hearst Education Scholar award...

Monett Elementary School recently celebrated the end of the first week of summer school with "Fun Friday." The students enjoyed water games, sidewalk chalk, bubbles and popsicles.

The Area 11 FFA officer interviews were recently held at the Verona High School agriculture department. There were 16 candidates running for eight area offices. This year Monett FFA officer candidate was Jared Childress, pictured center. The candidates are scored on FFA knowledge test scores, FFA leadership points and the interview. The voting delegates were Leanna Marion, left and Bailey Pfitzner, right. Childress will be serving as president of the Monett FFA for the 2011-12 school year...

The Monett Speedway tore up the track on Sunday. The Speedway ran a full slate of races with six feature races on the evening. Results for the races were as follows: Street Stock Heat Race #1 1. Jeremy Huffman 2. John Coats 3. Carl Davis 4. Nick Korte...

The Monett WaterThrashers swam to a third-place team finish at the Carthage Invitational over the weekend, scoring 955.5 points in the two-day meet. The Siloam Springs Flyers won with 1,019 points, followed by the Joplin Stingrays with 1,005.5. A total of 12 teams participated, representing Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas...

The Ladies Auxiliary to the Hubert H. Kleiboeker American Post #419 in Freistatt has named its representatives to Girls State, the model government program to be held June 19 through June 25 at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg. Delegates for the Legion Auxiliary are Nicollette Fellwock, daughter of Phillip and Stacey Fellwock, of Monett; Ashton Gaddy, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Eric Gaddy, of Mt. Vernon; and Loren Schoen, daughter of Jeff and Amy Schoen, of Springfield...

Premiere Estate Buyers are in Monett this week to evaluate family treasures. Above, holding some of the items brought in this week, are, from left, Sara Heafner, of Godfrey, Ill., Sandy and Scott Kubala, of Farmington, and Brian Camp, of Roodhouse, Ill. Below,...

A single-vehicle wreck on Highway 39 one mile south of Mt. Vernon left one person injured. The crash occurred at 10:05 a.m. when the driver of a 2006 GMC Yukon, Cheryl L. Jones, 39, of Mt. Vernon, crossed the center line and struck a 2000 Peterbilt, driven by Joshua W. Mark, 29, of Marionville. The Jones vehicle then left the roadway and struck a fence and tree...

Starwalk Entertainment, of Oak Grove, Ark., recently hosted an event at the Monett City South Park, "Jump for Joplin." The company set up inflatables under the F-4 Phantom jet veterans memorial next to the city park lake. This was a free event for the community of Monett and the surrounding area to contribute to the city of Joplin following the tornado. ...

The Ozark Garden Railway Society will host its 10th annual pre-convention tours for southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas June 18 through June 20. The pre-convention tour is free to the public and is being held in conjunction with the national convention which will be held in Kansas City June 21 through June 25...

The Monett Regional Junior Livestock Show will be held Saturday, June 18, at the Monett South Park, south of the soccer fields. The public is welcome to view the show. The event is open to all southwest Missouri youth. Registration information is available by contacting the Monett Chamber of Commerce at 417-235-7919. Participants can register the day of the event, and should sign in at least an hour prior to exhibiting...

When the May 22 tornado devastated the Joplin community, a very special group of Purdy teachers sprang into action. The AmeriCorps Purdy Reading Coaches were called to assist in the disaster on Monday morning, according to Renae Neill, Purdy's AmeriCorps director. As soon as teachers finished up with the final day of classes on May 23, they were off to Joplin to help staff the phone banks for the American Red Cross...