Stories from Thursday, June 6, 2019

Whether you’re a budding nature photographer or it’s a longtime passion, it’s time to gather your best images because the entry period for the 14th annual Mingo Swamp Friends Flora and Fauna Photography Contest now is open. As in recent years, the contest will be divided into two divisions - youth and adult. The youth division is for those entrants aged 17 and younger as of Aug. 1, and the adult division is for everyone else...

As the unmistakable smell of burned gunpowder loomed over the fields at the Arkansas Game & Fish Foundation Shooting Sports Complex in Jacksonville last weekend, Corning’s Senior Black trapshooting squad found itself in a familiar position - battling for a state championship. But it wasn’t meant to be, and the team finished in second place for the second year in a row...

Black River Technical College, in Pocahontas, Ark., is pleased to announce its 2019 spring graduates. BRTC celebrated 227 graduates during the May 16 ceremony at the Randolph County Development Center on the BRTC Pocahontas campus. Earlier ceremonies were held for nursing, respiratory, and law enforcement training academy graduates...

Black River Technical College, in Pocahontas, Ark., is pleased to announce the students who have been named to the President’s List. To be eligible for the President’s List, a student must be enrolled in at least 12 college credit hours excluding developmental courses, not be on any type of probation, and must have a minimum grade point average of 4.0...

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” Acts 2:1 In Judaism, Pentecost is seven Sabbath’s from Passover and is the 50th day (Leviticus 22). Passover is first mentioned in Exodus 14 and 50 days afterward the Law and Plan for Tabernacle worship is given at Mt. ...

Today I watched a building come down. Wood, brick and mortar all piled into trucks and hauled away. The effort that was made to accomplish this was no small task. Several men and excavators worked for two weeks to bring this structure down. Organization and planning had to be done several days in advance for everything to flow smoothly, and still there were issues that had to be addressed during the process. ...

Editor’s note: Several names on the Poplar Bluff Middle School fourth, fifth and sixth grades fourth quarter ‘B’ honor rolls were inadvertently left off the original list published in the Thursday, May 30 edition. The DAR regrets the error and apologizes for any inconvenience this may have caused. The missing lists are as follows:...

VAN BUREN, Mo. — Marybelle Godsey, 77, of Van Buren, died Monday, June 3, 2019 at the Riverways Manor Nursing Home in Van Buren. Visitation will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday, June 7 at the McSpadden Funeral Home in Van Buren. The funeral will follow at 11 a.m. in the funeral home chapel with Rev. Johnny Gipson officiating. Burial will be in the Dry Valley/Poca Hollow Cemetery in Carter County, Mo. Memorial donations may be made to the Carter County Library or the Carter County Nutrition Center...

FISK, Mo. — G. W. Stitz, age 76, of Poplar Bluff, Mo., died Monday, June 5, 2019 at his residence. Graveside services will be at 10 a.m. on Monday, June 10 at the Missouri State Veterans Cemetery at Bloomfield.

East Carter R-2 High School has announced Liberty Scott and Bailey Gargac have earned the top two spots in the graduating class of 2019. Valedictorian Liberty Scott is the daughter of Doug and Jan Scott. She was active in Beta, FBLA, Scholar Bowl, newspaper, Math Team, yearbook, Art Club and Book Club. Scott was awarded “Most Likely to Become President” by her peers and plans to attend the University of Missouri in Columbia to study journalism...

IRONTON, Mo. — A Neelyville woman was sentenced Thursday afternoon to the maximum punishment she could receive for burglarizing a Wappapello home in 2016. Circuit Judge Megan Seay sentenced Felicia K. Crumley to seven years in the Missouri Department of Corrections on the Class C felony of second-degree burglary, according to a court official...

QULIN, Mo. — Stephen Ray Tompkins, age 62, of Piggott, Ark., died Thursday, June 6, 2019 at his residence. Visitation will begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 8 at White-Sanders Funeral Home in Qulin. Funeral services will follow at noon in the funeral home chapel with Rev. Gary Hancock officiating.

DEXTER, Mo. — Milan Jeffery Thompson, 22, of Sikeston, Mo., died Wednesday, June 5, 2019 at the Missouri Delta Hospital in Sikeston. Visitation will be from 10 a.m. until time of services at 1 p.m. at the Watkins & Sons Funeral Home in Dexter. Burial will follow in the Macedonia Cemetery in Malden, Mo. with Watkins & Sons Funeral Service of Dexter in charge of arrangements...

City firefighters responded at 7:06 p.m. Wednesday, June 5, to 615 Bartlett St. to assist emergency-medical-services personnel in lifting a person. According to the report, firefighters were told they were not needed upon their arrival. ————

A new sculpture program is helping bring art into Poplar Bluff parks and outdoor areas. Four pieces have been placed this spring, with hopes to add more in the future, explained Clark Allen, park director. The works are provided by the program Sculpture on the Move, a St. Louis-based effort to get people to explore outside their own communities. Poplar Bluff is one of only two outlying towns with artwork in place, in addition to St. Louis area locations...

“As soon as she was talking, she was singing,” laughs Brandy Bradford, sharing memories of her talented daughter Hailey. “She always had a sense of rhythm, and at 3-years-old she declared she was going to sing on the Grand Ole Opry!” The talents of the soft-spoken, demure 14-year-old are well known in the East Carter County School District, and among members of her local church...

Professor of Art at Three Rivers College David Fielding was the exhibiting artist in May at the Margaret Harwell Art Museum. Fielding generously gave the museum its choice of any of his works for their permanent collection. The committee at the MHAM chose Fielding's beautiful tryptic, “Natchez” to add this magnificent piece to their collection...