Stories from Saturday, September 5, 2020

Betty Belle (Hood) Ray, 96, of Miller, died Wednesday, Sept. 2. A visitation will be held from 1-2:00 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 11, at the Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon, with a funeral service to follow at 2 p.m. in the funeral home chapel. Burial will take place immediately following at Sycamore Cemetery northeast of Miller...

William Rae “Bill” Fly, 93, of Aurora, died Thursday, Sept. 3, at Mercy Hospital in Springfield. A graveside service under the direction of the Crafton-Cantrell Funeral Home in Aurora will be held at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 8, at the Maple Park Cemetery in Aurora...

Dorothy Pearl Campbell, 91, of Mt. Vernon, died Thursday. Sept. 3, at the Good Shepherd Nursing Home in Lockwood. A graveside service, under the direction of the Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home, in Mt. Vernon, will be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 8, at the Goss Cemetery, northwest of Mt. Vernon. Visitation will be held from 5-7:00 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 7, in the funeral home chapel...

Joseph Dean Biellier, 45, of Mt. Vernon, died at 11:15 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 26. A celebration of Joseph’s life will be held at a later date at the Eagles Lodge in Mt. Vernon. For information on the celebration of life, please visit https://www.facebook.com In loving memory of Joe Biellier...

Charles Victor “Charlie” Gleaves, age 45, of Fairview, Missouri, passed away at 12:33 a.m. on Sunday, August 30, 2020, at Freeman Neosho Hospital in Neosho, Missouri. He was born February 12, 1975, in Winfield, Kansas, the son of Bob and Cari (Coberly) Gleaves...

Shirley May Darby, 80, of Purdy, Mo., passed away on Sunday, July 5, 2020, while at the Roaring River Health and Rehab Center in Cassville, Mo. Shirley was born on December 10, 1939, in Martin Grove, Ill., daughter of the late Matt and Inez (Pickinpaugh) Darby. For several years, Shirley worked for a local restaurant and at a Laundromat. She had attended the First Baptist Church in Purdy when before her health limited her...

We have made it a practice to keep the subjects of our columns local. We will probably continue to do that, with some exceptions, and this will be one of those. We all began Jan. 1, 2020, with our normal optimism and with a chance at a new lease on life. ...

The Monett tennis team is off to a roaring start to the 2020 season. The Lady Cubs open the year with back-to-back wins. On Thursday, Monett topped conference foe Lamar, 5-4. Results are as follows: • No. 1 Singles: Meagan Hull (Monett) lost to Alexia Phipps (Lamar), 0-8...

The 2020 season is off to a slow start for the Verona volleyball team. The Lady Wildcats are 1-3 after finishing last season with a 15-15-1 record. The team is still learning, as the Lady Wildcats are replacing five starters, and growing pains were expected...

On Aug. 29, the SkillsUSA Kickoff meeting was held. The SkillsUSA theme this year is “SkillsUSA: Champions at Work, Empowered to Succeed.” Brianna Vanderlaan helped in the SkillsUSA Kickoff, and she has a big reputation with Missouri SkillsUSA. Vanderlaan is a SRTC alumni and 2018 graduate from Aurora High School. During her tenure at Scott Tech, she served as a local and state SkillsUSA Officer, and is currently Current SkillsUSA Missouri state officer trainer...

The Monett Special Road District will meet in regular session at 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 8, at the Road District Barn, 220 S. Eisenhower St. The meeting is open to the public. The Purdy Craft and Vendor Show will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12, at The Gathering Place in Purdy (100 Old Hwy. 37 & Hwy. C). There will be food vendors and more than 70 booths available. For more information, contact Julie Terry at 417-236-4139...

Dale Spencer, of Stotts City, rolls his International tractor down the track at the annual Pierce City FFA tractor pull on Saturday.

Two people were injured in a two-vehicle crash that occurred at 4:10 p.m. Wednesday evening at Highway 60 and Bridle Lane.

At least one person was injured in a Friday morning crash that occurred at approximately 10 a.m. on Highway 60, west of Monett.

City workers spent part of Thursday morning cutting and removing trees along Fifth Street in anticipation of the sidewalk improvement project that Monett City Council recently approved.

Employees with AD Demolition are completing work on removing buildings as part of the Kelly Creek Flood Buyout project.

While forensic exams have long been available at CoxHealth Emergency Departments (EDs) in Springfield, access to these services in rural areas was limited. In some cases, sexual assault survivors could have been transferred to outlying facilities as far as 65 miles away for exams...

With the Labor Day holiday weekend here, officials with the Monett Police Department are urging safe travel for motorists on the state’s highways and byways for the coming days. “If people are leaving for the weekend, we ask they please be sure to lock their homes, remove all valuables from their parked vehicles and lock those as well,” said Lt. Dennis Camp. “Have neighbors keep an eye out for suspicious activity and by all means, if they see something, say something.”...

Pierce City school board members were taken to task by patrons for the district’s non-mandatory policy on wearing masks at school, prompting the August board meeting to be moved into the gym, where several dozen patrons could spread out while others addressed the session...

Members of the Lawrence County Emergency Services Board are looking at other operations for ideas and advice on how to best plan, design, equip and staff a county-wide stand-alone facility. Mike Palmer, chairman, has visited with the director of the Stone County facility, Keith Kinnard, on that county’s 4,250-square-foot center...

A local man charged with multiple felonies, Devon James Scott, 24, of Monett, was apprehended at 12:08 p.m. on Thursday, based off of information received by a Crime Stoppers tip. Law enforcement officials were seeking the whereabouts of Scott, who was wanted on multiple warrants in Monett and Barry County. One warrant stems from the theft of items from multiple vehicles during the overnight hours of Aug. 22. Items allegedly stolen included a woman’s purse, cash, and credit/debit cards...

A second student at Monett High School has tested positive for COVID-19 (coronavirus). The student was last at school on Aug. 29, and the case is not related to the first case or a result of community spread at the campus. The student was also masked while on campus...