Stories from Saturday, May 18, 2019

Carolyn “Sue” Craft, 74, of Cassville, died Tuesday, May 14. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 18, at Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville. Burial will be at Corinth Cemetery in Cassville. Visitation will be held from 12:30-2:00 p.m. Saturday, at Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville...

Richard Lee Pyle, 64, of Purdy, died Friday, May 17. Graveside services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 21, at Summit Cemetery in Mt Vernon, under direction of Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville.

Jamie Hobbs-Schoelzel, 50, of Butterfield, died Tuesday, May 14. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Monday, May 20, at Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville. Burial will be at Maplewood Cemetery in Exeter. Visitation will be held from 5-7:00 p.m. Sunday, at Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville...

Linda Sue Rogers, 70, of Shell Knob, died Wednesday, May 15. No services are scheduled at this time. Cremation arrangements are under direction of Fohn Funeral Home in Shell Knob.

Billy James Schmidt, 94, of Mt. Vernon, died at 6:05 p.m. on Sunday, May 12, at Mercy Hospital in Joplin. Graveside services will be held at 3 p.m. on Friday, May 17, at the Missouri Veterans Cemetery in Springfield. Arrangements are under the direction of the Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon...

Steven Carl Thomas, 57, of Cape Fair, died Sunday, May 12. Graveside services were held May 17 at I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Monett, under direction of Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville.

To gain insight on how far we live from the rest of the world, I recently attended Drag Queen Storytime at the Carpenter Library on South Grand Blvd. in St. Louis, part of the St. Louis Public Library system. In the public meeting room in the basement of this very attractive public library, a large group of adults and mostly small children had gathered for Storytime. ...

Making playoff runs is nothing new for the Purdy baseball team, and the Eagles punched their ticket into the sectional round with a 10-0 win over Crane on Wednesday. “It is cliché, but we hit well, pitched well and played good defense in the district tournament,” said Joshua Hughes, Purdy coach. “Our pitchers struck out 23 batters in 13 innings and allowed just one run. We scored 15 runs over that two-game stretch and our defense was great.”...

The high school golf season for Monett’s Clayton Kaiser ended on Tuesday with his final round at Columbia Country Club at the state championships. Kaiser finished 29th in the 88-person field. He shot a 79 Monday on the par 72 course and a 82 on Tuesday for a two-day total of 161...

History was made on a hot evening in Hurley on Wednesday when Verona topped Exeter, 12-2, to take the Class 1, District 5 tournament crown. It marked the first time in the program’s short history that the Wildcats claimed that honor, advancing to the sectional playoff round on Monday...

Monett turned to two unlikely heroes in its 3-2 win over Carl Junction for the Class 4, District 12 championship. Gunnar Bradley pitched the last two innings to earn the victory after surrendering the game’s tying runs. Cole McCollough entered the game in the fifth inning and helped driving in two runs, including the game winner, in the seventh...

The March 2 concert by the Southern Gospel trio Sunday Drive at the First Presbyterian Church, 700 Sycamore in Monett, has been rescheduled for 6 p.m. today, May 18. Monett Main Street will sponsor a walking tour of historic downtown Monett at noon today, May 18, beginning at the Monett Museum, Fifth and Broadway...

Students gaining top honors at Aurora High School were named at the 130th annual graduation celebration, which took place Friday, May 10. Those graduating summa cum laude, earning a 4.0 on a 4.0 scale or 11.0 on an 11.0 scale, included: Spencer Briggs, Emma Freitas, Amber Gorman, Julia McVey, Savannah Miller, Ethan Mooneyham, Madelynn Schmidt and Kaleb Sharpe...

Meg Young, left, and Katie Long, center, presented Ray Hartrup, an Air Force veteran at Oak Pointe Assisted Living and Memory Care in Monett, a door hanger honoring veterans at the assisted living community.

They’re just hula girls at heart. From left, Janice Meyer, Margaret Whitlock and Willadean Chapman donned their leis and got ready for some fun in the sun at the annual carnival and barbecue, held Thursday on the grounds of Lacoba Homes in Monett.

Work crews for Branco Enterprises have been moving rapidly this week constructing the connecting hallway between the Pierce City High School and the middle school buildings, providing a bypass route for traffic instead of cutting through the gym.

Up to 600 freshmen through juniors at Monett High School disbursed into the community on Tuesday to participate in the eighth annual Service Day, finding a variety of tasks in different locations in which they could give back to the community.

As the school year wound down this week, many classes from Monett and elsewhere made trips to Monett’s South Park for outdoor outings in perfect weather.

Some of the MHS students spent their Service Day on Wednesday helping to supervise games for Field Day at Monett Elementary.

Employees with the Monett-Lawrence County 911 Dispatch Center attended the first Telecommunications Banquet in conjunction with National Telecommunicator Week, April 14-20. Several local telecommunicators who were recognized for their efforts to assist the public and their efforts going above and beyond the call of duty...

Cox Monett Hospital has maintained its prestigious five-star rating in patient satisfaction from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The five-star rating, earned from patient feedback via the national HCAPS Survey, puts Cox Monett in the top seven percent of the 3,505 hospitals surveyed nationwide...

The Monett City Council plans action to advance sewer service for the new Cox Monett Hospital location and advance work on the Kelly Creek buy-out at the May monthly meeting of the Monett City Council, slated for 9:30 a.m. on May 20 at Monett City Hall...

The Verona school board hired staff for the coming school year and addressed computer security issues recently. Superintendent Tony Simmons reported that after the district announced plans to switch to a four-day school week, both the number of applications and the quality of applicants rose...

Space for books and library needs for the Monett school district remains a pressing need, as the library and media services review came before the Monett Board of Education in April. The library system, according to staff running the service, provides hard copy and digital resources to extend students' learning beyond the classroom. Each campus has a certified library or a library clerk who provides instruction and collaboration with teachers in planning and pulling resource materials...

The end of the academic year heralds the traditional shift in personnel for classes starting next fall, and Pierce City school board members are feeling the pinch in administrative personnel. In April, members accepted the resignation of Kristi Marion, Central Elementary School principal, who has opted to accept the assistant superintendent’s seat in Seneca, making a clean sweep the district’s principals...