Society

Beverly Fitch and Sandor Viradi of Olive Branch spent the afternoon last week with Becky Cupp.

Kay and Laura Wheeler and Landry Hearn spent Sunday afternoon visiting with Nancy Fant Smith in Oxford.

Friday night, the Marshall Academy gymnasium was a magical place for 13 young ladies. After watching the high school girls annihilate the Lee Academy Lady Colts, the high school boys started play. At half time of the game, the Lady Patriot softball team was presented with championship rings.

Fans who followed the girls’ phenomenal softball season packed the stands with cameras and camcorders, as they are parents and siblings of the players. One by one, the player’s names were called to the center of the floor. Once there, they were presented with awesome championship rings. On each of the rings, the girls have their names, numbers and positions. One side states they are back-to-back state champions, a magnificent feat in and of itself. The center of the ring states they are the overall state champions - once again, something that has never been accomplished by any girls team at Marshall Academy.

They were also presented with single red roses. The PTC presented the school with a banner after the ring presentation. It is a four color banner with their championship picture on it - wearing both medals that they were presented in the fall after the tournaments.

Afterwards, there was a small reception on the stage. Strawnworld Productions had produced a wonderful CD of the girls’ softball season, set to music. Refreshments were served to the players and their loyal fans - their parents, siblings and grandparents.

It really does not hit home what a great accomplishment this truly is for a school of Marshall Academy’s size until you see a picture of the senior girls wearing not one but two championship rings - one on each hand. As a parent of a softball player, my heart is overflowing with pride at the notoriety that this should bring our town. Everyone should thank a softball player, as the team was written up in newspapers and posted on websites all across Mississippi.

Remembering back a year or so when Coach Hayes, head basketball coach at Holly High, took his team all the way - the banner that hung on Craft Street coming into town made me feel proud to live here, even though I did not have a child playing for him. He worked tirelessly to get his team to the state championship! No need in being in it unless you are there to win it! It is exciting to know that we have such athletic talent located in our small little zip code!

Something to think about is this - the Lady Patriots had 13 players on their team. In softball, for those who do not know, you field nine girls. Some might would say that they would rather have 13 girls who are whole-heartedly into softball than a bench full who could care less. In this case, there was not one girl who did not give it her all each and every time she stepped on the field to play. Even during practices, which were long and sometimes grueling in the heat of the summer...the girls always wore smiles on their faces at the end of the day.

Having Susan Rodgers at the helm of this team was a dream. As hard as she would ride the girls to perform, she loved them just as much. She has also accomplished a wonderful thing being named Coach of the Year not once but twice!

The girls are having winter workouts now getting in condition. Next season is going to be a great one, possibly as great as the past two. Who knows? When you see a softball schedule hit the paper, be sure to mark the dates. Come on down and support the Lady Patriots - they deserve the accolades ten fold!

(To put your news in City Personals, please e-mail maryclayb@yahoo.com; mail to City Personals, The South Reporter, P.O. Box 278, Holly Springs, MS 38635 or call 662-252-4261. You may also e-mail your City Personal news to south@dixie-net.com).

Dr. and Mrs. Henry Paul Sullivant Jr. of Memphis are pleased to announce the marriage of their daughter Thankful Connell to Joseph Eric NeSmith of Highlands, North Carolina. The couple was married December 20, 2009 at Calvary Episcopal Church in Memphis, Tenn.

Mrs. NeSmith is the granddaughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Henry Sullivant of Holly Springs and Kosciusko and Mr. and Mrs. Farley Salmon of Clarksdale.

She is a graduate of Hutchison School in Memphis and the University of Georgia in Athens, where she received undergraduate degrees in English and in journalism and a master’s degree in English literature. She was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. She teaches upper school English at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School in north Georgia.

Mr. NeSmith is the son of Mr. and Mrs. William Henry NeSmith Jr. of Athens, Ga., and the grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Lamar Shirah of Camilla, Ga., and Mrs. William Henry NeSmith of Jesup, Ga., and the late Mr. NeSmith.

He graduated from Athens Academy in Athens, Ga., and the University of Georgia in Athens with a degree in journalism. He was a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity. He is editor and publisher of The Highlander newspaper in Highlands, N.C., where the couple resides.

Deborah Weldon of Ashland proudly announces the engagement and forthcoming marriage of her daughter, Melissa Ann Hailey to Phillip Keith Rikard of Olive Branch, the son of Denise Rikard and Michael and Lisa Rikard, all of Olive Branch.

Melissa is the granddaughter of Cheyenne Hunt of Ashland and the late Phillip Hunt and the late Barbara Carroll Hunt of Memphis, Tenn.

She is currently enrolled full-time at Northwest Community College seeking a degree in elementary education.

Keith is the grandson of Barbara Rikard of Victoria and the late Ed Rikard and Ray Harris of Olive Branch and the late Sylvia Harris.

The couple will exchange vows on March 14, 2009 at Calvary Baptist Church in Ashland. All family and friends are invited to attend.

Jack Whaley welcomes Brennan Smith

Smith

Kent and Amanda Smith of Holly Springs are pleased to announce the birth of their second child, Brennan Adams Smith, born December 12, 2008 at 9:44 a.m. at Baptist Women’s Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. He weighed eight pounds, two ounces and was 20-1/2 inches long.

Maternal grandparents are Rodney and Betty Whaley of Potts Camp. Great-grandparents are Fred and Mary Jo Whaley and Ruby Churchill, all of Potts Camp.

Paternal grandparents are Jacque Smith of Memphis, Tenn., Linda Smith of Oxford and the late Richard Adams Smith.

Brennan was welcomed home by a very excited big brother, Jack Whaley Smith.

Allens rejoice over birth of baby girl

Allen

Alex and Hannah Allen of Potts Camp are pleased to announce the birth of their daughter Ava Elise Allen. Ava was born on December 29, 2008 at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. She weighed six pounds, 11 ounces and was 20 inches long.

Maternal grandparents are Billy Huff and Carrie Jarrett, both of Potts Camp.

Paternal grandparents are Tony and Quma Vinson of Olive Branch and Bud Allen of Lamar.

Great-grandparents are Billy Joe and Elaine Jarrett of Potts Camp, Kathleen Huff of Hickory Flat and Emma Gene Allen of Lamar.

I remember Januarys past when the winters were so hard. On January 17, 1940, I remember walking to the post office from the south side of the square. I’ll never forget the wind that day. I had never heard of wind chill factor but I thought the bitter cold wind was straight off the North Pole as it felt like zero. The actual temperature was 17 degrees. The deep freeze had set in for a couple of weeks and I remember it well.

On the morning of January 20, 1940, cousin Lucy, a country cousin who had married a northerner from Cincinnati, was spending a few days with us. She came in my room about 8 o’clock that morning and in her intense southern drawl said, “Sara Lois, get up, there is a foot of snow outside and it’s still coming down!” I jumped out of bed, thinking that would be too good to be true. The snow was already a foot deep and still coming down. Lucy was right. I skipped breakfast in my haste to be out in the white stuff. My friends and I thought the snow was heavenly. We sledded down every hill in town and the town was inundated with snowmen in every yard. We are sure that we used just about every flake of snow. School was out because the school buses couldn’t go on the route because of the wet muddy frozen roads, which weren’t paved.

For two weeks, the cold weather was frozen and stayed with us. My good Daddy built a big sled and tied it on the back of his truck and pulled us around town as there was no traffic. My folks bought me some new boots at I.C. Levy. I sat on the bench to try them on.

The bench is now in the museum. It is a work of art as it’s bentwood. Even the boots are in the museum now. They look like Civil War boots but aren’t! They are small (of course) but all leather.

Everybody walked everywhere. It was too slippery to drive anywhere. We had lots of hot chocolate and popcorn. The cook walked to work everyday as life goes on and my daddy’s grocery store and hamburger stand were still open. Remember you could buy a hamburger and a Coke, at his walk-by stand inside the store, for a dime (a nickel each). At the end of two weeks we were glad to get back into school. The snow had turned into slush and wasn’t fun anymore and I know the parents were glad to have us back in school.

For a while Holly Springs had been a winter wonderland with snow a foot or more deep. One child couldn’t come out to play. Fifty years later I asked him why he wouldn’t play in the snow. Remember in January 1940, the Depressions’ fingers were still holding on. He said his only shoes had holes in the bottom and his feet would get wet and cold.

When I lived in Minnesota did you know that I became the best igloo maker in town? I made the cutest igloos around. The first year I lived in Minnesota was the coldest winter that was ever there; some days the high temperature of the day was -20 below zero. It was like living in a deep freeze. I lived on a lake with six- to seven- feet-thick ice. The ice was so thick that they were moving houses across the lake. The first week I was there I went to town and bought three fur coats with hats to match so I wouldn’t freeze.

Have you seen the moon this week? Instead of being a perfect ball, it’s kind of wampy-jawed, not a perfect circle, but it’s gorgeous. They said it is now closer to the earth than it has been in ages. From my house it is so beautiful behind the black lace winter trees.

I love January. Everybody has seen the man in the moon, but have you seen the woman in the moon? She is in profile with a mop of black hair at the top of her face. And did you see the man picking up sticks in the moon? He is upside down and gathering wood for a fire. And, then, there is a running rabbit stretched across the topside. He covers around one fourth of the moon’s outer edge. Of course, by the time this is published in the paper, the wampy-jawed moon will be over and you will have to wait until next month to discover what all the moon holds!

Oh folks, my great radio show is now over and will be no more. Someone new has bought the station. It was great while it lasted and loads of fun and something Holly Springs needed. All good things must come to an end. Thank you for all your wonderful support with my radio show for the last year and a half.


Thursday, January 15, 2009
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