Stories from Saturday, January 11, 2020

Hulda Anne Barker, 89, of Aurora, died Monday, Jan. 6, at the Sunrise of Lenexa Assisted Living in Lenexa, Kan. Services, under the direction of the Crafton-Cantrell Funeral Home in Aurora, were held Friday, Jan. 10, at the Aurora United Methodist Church. Burial was at the Maple Park Cemetery in Aurora...

Joe Forest Bedwell, 87, of Aurora, died Sunday, Jan. 5, at the Seneca House in Seneca. Graveside services were held Thursday, Jan. 9, at the Maple Park Cemetery in Aurora under the direction of Crafton-Cantrell Funeral Home, Aurora.

Shirley M. Bowling, 82, of Exeter, died Wednesday, Jan. 8. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Monday, Jan. 13, at First Baptist Church in Exeter, under direction of Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville. Burial will be at Maplewood Cemetery in Exeter...

Daniel LeRoy Clark, Sr., 72, of Cassville, died at Saturday, Jan. 4. Graveside services were held Friday, Jan. 10, at Union Cemetery, South of Stella. Cremation arrangements were under direction of Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville.

Judy Ann Dawson, 69, of Miller, died at 2:05 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 7, in Little Rock, Ark. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 17, at Round Grove Baptist Church. Burial will follow at the Round Grove Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 16, at Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon...

Shane Gibbons, 39, of Shell Knob, died Wednesday, Jan. 8. Cremation arrangements are under direction of Fohn Funeral Home in Shell Knob.

Clifton Andrew Morgan, 58, of Mt. Vernon, died Monday, Jan. 6, at his residence. A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 24, at Buchanan Funeral Home with Rev. Ken Lampe officiating. Visitation will be at 2 p.m. prior to the service...

Betty M. Neeley, 91, of Cassville, Wednesday, Jan. 8. Funeral services will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 12, at Corinth Baptist Church in Cassville, under direction of Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville. Burial will be at Maplewood Cemetery in Exeter...

Jane Evelyn Yarnall, 85, of Cassville, died Wednesday, Jan. 8. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 11, at First Baptist Church in Exeter, under direction of Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville. Burial will be at Maplewood Cemetery in Exeter...

Obituaries this week brought the sad news of friends passing, as they usually do. This week two brought up memories of public labors that made life better in three communities. Dan Neal, who died at 62 in Tennessee of cancer on Jan. 3, had been an active figure around Pierce City 30 years ago. Dan had young kids and teens back then, as did his friends and extended family, and they provided the spark that propelled him into the public spotlight...

Missouri State University and head football coach Dave Steckel have entered into a separation agreement, effective Jan. 14, university officials announced Thursday. According to the terms of the agreement, Steckel will step down from his head coaching position, and the university will provide him with a maximum buyout of $340,000, plus moving expenses. ...

Hannibal Smith of A-Team fame was fond of say that he loved it when a plan comes together, and he would have been thrilled at the way the Monett basketball team conducted itself in a 70-56 win over Aurora on Tuesday. The Cubs’ assault on their rival was spearheaded by a career-high 34-point performance by senior Trevon Price...

While it has been said that rankings are more for the fans than the teams, the Monett wrestling team is being shown respect by Missouri Wrestling and MoWrestling.com Monett is ranked No. 1 in Class 2, per a composite score based on match results instead of the usual in-person input...

CRIMINAL Annie Elizabeth Burdett, failure to maintain vehicle insurance, misd. D, fined $175. Sherry D. Compamitz, tampering with physical evidence, misd. A., 90 days in Lawrence County Jail, suspended execution of sentence (SES), one year unsupervised probation...

Outstanding students of the second quarter have been named at Trinity Lutheran School in Freistatt.

Eight students at Trinity Lutheran School in Freistatt had perfect attendance during the second quarter.

Seven students at Trinity Lutheran School in Freistatt had near perfect attendance during the second quarter for missing less than half a day.

Nineteen students at Trinity Lutheran School in Freistatt were recognized for earning high honors on the all-A honor roll for the second quarter.

Dining for Diabetes 18th annual fundraiser is Friday, Jan. 10. The dinner is Jan. 25 at Monett High School. Cost is $25. Tickets may be ordered by calling 417-354-1280. The 91st annual Barry County Soils and Crops Conference will be held at 6 p.m. on Jan. ...

How do you learn to read? Let me count the ways. Students at Central Park Elementary School in Monett engage in Guided Learning small group sessions, working on specific skills.

New at Central Park Elementary in Monett is this mural by the office.

Major gains in technology have been achieved for the Monett school district in the past year, according to the annual technology report released to the Monett school board. Technology director Stephen McMillin and network administrator Weston George reported that over the summer, their team established a new internet cache system that lowered the district's external bandwidth usage. They noted that classrooms will often have about 20 requests for access to the internet per session...

Monett Middle School has received a new honor, the title of Missouri state winner in the National STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) competition from Samsung. The Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Contest encourages teachers and students to solve real-world issues in their community using classroom skills in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)...

At Central Park Elementary, the library is a refuge.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services announced recipients of 86 licenses to manufacture products that can be sold as medical marijuana. No applicants from Barry or Lawrence counties received a license. Holistic Missouri in Cassville, which received a cultivation license, did not receive a manufacturing license. The only successful local cultivator fell about 20 points below the lowest scoring successful manufacturer...

A Verona man has now been charged with the Nov. 19, 2019, murder of Coy Cole, 52, of Miller, and the man originally suspected of the murder has had his charges amended. Matthew Abney, 36, of Verona, has been charged with first degree murder, first degree robbery, two counts of first degree assault, two counts of armed criminal action, tampering with a witness, abandonment of a corpse and two counts of tampering with physical evidence in felony prosecution...

When Lawrence County commissioners sit down to unveil their 2020 budget on Thursday, they appear positioned for a dramatically different scenario than they faced as little as three years ago. The “Year of Austerity” in 2017 and the “Year of Recovery” in 2018 both generated forceful declarations of protest from officeholders. ...

Halfway through the filing period for the April 7 election covering cities, school boards, road districts and emergency services positions like ambulance districts, more candidates have emerged for a number of positions, while others remain vacant. Jan. 21 is the final day to file. City council, school board and ambulance district candidates file at offices for those government entities. Road district candidates file at the offices of the county clerks in Mt. Vernon and Cassville...