Stories from Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Ruby L. Wilks, 90, of Purdy, died Saturday, March 9, at Cox South Hospital in Springfield. Graveside services for will be held on Thursday, March 14, at 10:30 a.m. at the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in Butterfield. Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of the Bennett-Wormington Funeral Home in Monett...

Earl David Seitz, 80, of Verona, died Saturday, March 9, at the Mercy Hospital in Aurora. A visitation will be held from 10-11 a.m. on Thursday, March 14, at the Crafton-Cantrell Funeral Home in Aurora with a funeral service to follow at 11 a.m. Burial will follow at the Spring River Cemetery in Verona...

Wanda “Jean” Realmuto, 85, of Jenkins, died Monday, March 11. No services will be scheduled. Cremation arrangements are under direction of Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville.

Jerry Price, 86, of Fairview, died Saturday, March 9. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, March 13, at McQueen Funeral Home in Wheaton. Burial with military honors will be at Dice Cemetery in Fairview.

D.W. Mead, 77, of Monett, died on Tuesday, March 12, at Lacoba Homes in Monett. Funeral services will begin at 11 a.m. on Friday, March 15, at Buchanan Funeral Home with Rev. John Henry officiating. Visitation will begin at 10 a.m. prior to the service...

Cherie N. McCullah, 56, of Mt. Vernon, died Thursday, March 7, at her home. Funeral services were held Monday, March 11, at the Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon. Burial was at the Mt. Olive Cemetery.

Crystal “Yvonne” Fry, 92, of Rocky Comfort, died Friday, March 8, at Cassville Health and Rehabilitation Center in Cassville. Services will be held at a later date. Cremation arrangements are under direction of McQueen Funeral Home in Wheaton.

Roy J. Dean Jr., 90, of Shell Knob, died Thursday, March 7, at Cassville Health and Rehabilitation Center in Cassville. Services will be held at a later date in Wichita, Kan. Cremation arrangements are under direction of Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville...

Vergil Earl Dahlstrom, 83, of Neosho, passed unexpectedly after a sudden illness March 11, 2019. Vergil was born May 3, 1935 in Savonburg, Kan., to Kermit and Hazel (Nelson) Dahlstrom. He moved from Kansas in 1956 to work for Rocketdyne in Neosho. He was employed with Branco Construction for many years. ...

The last time Shawn Beeson donned a singlet for Monett was in February of 2014. He stood in the middle of the mat in Columbia with his hand raised high after taking fifth in the state. Last week, the Graceland University junior grappler stood in the middle of a mat in Des Moines, Iowa, and earned his way to a fourth-place national finish in the NAIA Championships, claiming All-American status...

In his 14 years at the helm of Purdy, Joshua Hughes has led the Eagles to 10 district titles. Last year, they won a share of the Ozark 7 crown with Southwest, but a conference change to the SouthWest Central League (SWCL) will make that repetitive task more difficult...

Baseball at Monett has been on the upswing for the last several years. Last year was a bit of an anomaly, as the Cubs were 14-11 after four straight seasons of winning 18 or more games. With five starters returning this year, the team is ready for action...

Ribbon cutting ceremonies by the Monett Chamber of Commerce have been held at Jami Lynn’s Dinners To Go at 13th and East Cleveland in Monett.

The Lawrence County Historical Society will meet at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 17, at the MRC Museum, 112 W. Dallas St. in Mt. Vernon, one block west of the courthouse. Jami Lewis, archivist for the Missouri State Historical Society, will speak about “What’s in a Letter?”, revealing how a 1844 letter reveals lost clues to the formation of the county, and alludes to vigilante justice and murder in the county at the time...

A helicopter from Mercy Hospital dropped into a landing zone behind St. Mary’s Catholic Church on Saturday evening in preparation of transferring a patient from Barry-Lawrence County Ambulance unit to the air ambulance for a quick trip to the hospital...

Serenity Bradshaw, 2, carefully made her choice at the duck pond, one of the many children’s activities taking place during Trinity Lutheran School’s annual carnival fundraiser, held Friday evening in Freistatt.

McKaylen Moore, 3, happily accepts a balloon sword from Lydia Hopper at Thursday night’s Winter Carnival at Central Elementary School in Pierce City.

Cox Monett Hospital will offer free mammograms from 2-4 p.m. on March 21, inside the hospital’s north patient registration entrance. The service is offered in partnership with the Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks. No appointment is necessary for a mammogram, which are available for or underinsured and uninsured women. Participants do not need to be a CoxHealth patient to receive one...

Students in more than 20 districts throughout the Ozarks now have access to healthcare without leaving school. In early March, CoxHealth System expanded its telemedicine services to schools in Buffalo, Lamar, Liberal, Rogersville and Seymour, ultimately helping reduce absenteeism due to illness...

Verona City Council members have approved an additional expense hooking up a generator for city hall and scheduled workshops for preparing a budget for the 2019-2020 fiscal year. Mayor Joseph Heck explained that the generator donated by the Aurora Rural Fire District has enough power to run the city hall and fire station, but the building was not wired properly to handle a simple generator unit...

New directors were elected and service honored during the annual membership banquet of the Monett Chamber of Commerce, held Thursday at the Scott Regional Technology Center. Elected from the slate of candidates for a three-year term on the board were Anita Prow from International Dehydrated Foods, Jim Randall Jr. ...

Members of the Pierce City School Board met recently and reviewed the special education program, overseen by Jennifer Graves. Currently, the district has 133 students in the program, 52 at the elementary campus, 31 at in middle school and 33 at the high school. A total of 22 students with individualized education plans have transferred into the district since the start of classes in August...

A 17-year-old Monett student is facing a possible charge of first-degree terrorist threat following an incident regarding a possible school shooting threat at Monett High School on Monday...