Stories from Saturday, June 13, 2020

Velma Elizabeth Woolis, 79, of Cassville, died Saturday, June 6. Funeral services were held Friday, June 12, at Grace Community Church in Shell Knob, under direction of Fohn Funeral Home in Shell Knob. Burial was at Lake Park Memorial Gardens in Shell Knob...

Vernal “Poss” Wittenborn, 93, of Aurora, died on Sunday, June 7, at his home. A funeral service was held Thursday, June 11, at the Williams Funeral Home in Marionville. Burial was at the Marionville IOOF Cemetery.

Martha Louise Toft, 89, of Aurora, died Wednesday, June 10, at the Mercy Hospital in Joplin. Services will be held on Saturday, June 13, at the Southside Baptist Church in Aurora with visitation at 10 a.m. and the funeral service at 11 a.m. Burial will follow at the Maple Park Cemetery in Aurora under the direction of the Crafton-Cantrell Funeral Home in Aurora...

Beatrice “Betty” Emma Rakoski, 88, of Pierce City, died June 9, at Lacoba Homes in Monett. Funeral Mass will be held at 2 p.m., Friday, June 12, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Pierce City. Burial will follow at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Pierce City. Visitation will be held from 6 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 11, at Lakin Funeral Home in Pierce City...

Marilyn Kaye Larson, 79, of Mt. Vernon, died at 5:50 a.m. on Thursday, May 7, at Republic Nursing and Rehab in Republic. Visitation will be held from 1 to 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 20, at Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon with a memorial service to follow at 2 p.m. in the funeral home chapel. Burial will be at the Summit Cemetery...

Joanne Funcannon, 88, of Cassville, died Saturday, June 6. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Monday, June 15, at Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville, under direction of Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville. Visitation will be held from 1-2:00 p.m. Monday, at Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville. A private burial will take place immediately afterward...

Mark Edward Courdin, 60, received his last pair of wings when he passed away on Tuesday, June 9, 2020, from injuries suffered in a car accident. Mark was born on November 30, 1959, in Monett, Mo. In 1981, he married his high school sweetheart, Retta Sprouse Courdin. He is a 1978 graduate of Springdale High School. He graduated from Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology where he specialized in aircraft systems, engines and design...

Last weekend, I went to the Kansas City area to make a purchase for the Pierce City Museum. There, I met with two sisters whose mother, Lois Rae Kennedy, died in 2006, and whose father, Bob Kennedy, now 91, has just gone to a nursing home. They were selling his stuff to help pay for his final years of care...

Oscar Hinojosa, an 11-year-old entering the sixth grade, hauls in a deep pass during the skills camp held at Burl Fowler Stadium on Wednesday.

Former Purdy and Drury standout Addy Roller will return to Drury University as an assistant coach. Roller will join the program after four seasons at Pittsburg State, where she was the Gorillas top assistant coach for the last two years and was a graduate assistant from 2016-18...

Central Methodist University provost Rita Gulstad announced this week the students included on the Spring 2020 Dean's List. More than 780 students met the requirements for placement, including a grade point average of 3.50 or higher for the semester. The following local students were among those earning recognition:...

Monett resident Gabrielle Gollhofer has been named to the Dean’s Honor Roll for their work in the spring 2020 semester, a distinction given to those who achieve the university’s highest academic standards. To be included on the Dean’s Honor Roll, a student must record a 3.5 grade point average or better for the semester and no grade lower than a B for their work in qualifying classes...

CRIMINAL • Jerry E. Baker, operating a vehicle on the highway without a valid license, misd. A, suspended imposition of sentence (SIS), two years unsupervised probation. • Just L. Barnett-Soole, take or attempt to take deer with artificial light or vision equipment, misd. A, fined $500; drive/flush game from private land or discharge firearm at driven/flushed game, misd. B, fined $500; unlawful use of a weapon, misd. B, fined $500...

An Independence Day celebration will take place at nightfall on Saturday, June 27 at Marionville City Park. Attendees are asked to enjoy the fireworks from their vehicles in the parking lot, at Marionville High School and other vantage points, or by observing social distancing rules throughout the park and ball fields. Concessions will not be offered this year. Extra hand washing stations will be provided...

A two-vehicle crash Friday afternoon on Highway 37 south of Monett resulted in one person taken to Cox Monett Hospital.

Three Aurora residents were injured on Thursday in a wreck at 5:44 p.m. on Highway 60, one mile east of Monett at the entrance of Berean Christian Academy. According to a Missouri State Highway Patrol report, Tyler A. Lamastus, 20, of Aurora, was driving a 2003 Ford Ranger westbound when he struck the rear of a 2007 Ford Edge, driven by Clara Graves, 25, of Nixa. The Edge then struck the rear of a 2015 Ford Flex, driven by Paul V. Gripka, 60, of Aurora...

Barry-Lawrence County Ambulance District Office Manager Paula Brown received high praise from Dawnata Hopkins, of The CPA Group in Monett, for her work in preparing financial documents for the district’s annual audit. “She was always right on, right in line with what it should be,” Hopkins said. “This is the first time in 15 years the district has had management writing the financials and taking charge.”...

A southwest Missouri family whose advocacy to legalize medical marijuana made them synonymous with the burgeoning industry was elated Tuesday when a judge agreed their lawsuit against Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services over its handling of the program should proceed to trial...

A group of area service providers and program directors are banding together to form a new organization, the Southwest Missouri Coalition of Charities. Representatives from day care providers, an area pregnancy center, a food distribution group and an advocacy center which deals with parenting, criminal issues and other social services, met to discuss setting up a not-for-profit “one-stop” shop for persons in need of assistance...

Members of the Pierce City board of aldermen were privy to some of the first glimpses of historical artifacts acquired by Murray and Julie Bishoff, who, in turn, donated them to the Harold Bell Wright/Pierce City Museum. The Bishoffs recently traveled to Lee’s Summit, where they met with descendants of Harold Otto Taylor, the son of John Wesley and his wife, Ray County Taylor, friends of Harold Bell Wright. ...