Society

Frank and Vicki Swords, along with Perry and Amy Mask and their children, Josh and Juston, went to Chicago for five days for Josh’s 14th birthday. They dined at many great restaurants, ate Chicago pizza and shopped on North Michigan Avenue. They attended a Cub’s/Cardinals game at Wrigley Field, toured the city, went boating on Lake Michigan and rode the famous ferris wheel at Navy Pier. They also attended the Great Circus Parade in Milwaulkee, Wisc., where they enjoyed the beautiful array of antique, horse-drawn carriages, Ringling Brothers’ style wagons, bands, clowns and great food. Happy birthday, Josh!

Nancy and Ki Jones and children, Mary Neely and Jake, just returned from a fun-filled week in Sandestin, Fla. While there, they enjoyed deep sea fishing, sunning and fabulous food!

Last week, a beautiful person left this earth - Constance Ann Lanier. She had a brief, yet hard battle with ovarian cancer.

I remember growing up hearing tales of Constance Ann. For years, she would blow in the back door of my grandmother’s house and just announce she was here! Like a gypsy, she travelled light, would stay long enough to brighten the spirit of anyone around her and then, poof - she was on the road again.

She finally decided to resume her ancestral roots in Holly Springs and moved back. I will never forget the time she pulled up to Becky Cupp’s house in a little yellowish car - it looked like a clown car. It was, as she nicely put it to me, “called a Fiat.” It was so small that I went out to investigate to see if it had a floor-board. It was very similar to what I had seen on the cartoon, The Flintstones! She did not think that was too funny, but she let me go check to make sure, nonetheless!

Having been the wayward traveller none of us were, she would always bring things that we had never seen (well, things that had yet to make it to our neck of the woods). One night, she came in holding what looked to me like an oil can - blue in color, though. It was a can of Foster’s beer. When I say a “can,” I mean it was more like a six pack rolled into a single can - that thing was huge! I was so impressed with it that, after I turned 21 of course, I had to try the Foster’s beer, thanks to Constance Ann.

Carmex lip balm was an addiction of hers for years on end. She would slather her lips down with the stuff every ten minutes, or so it seemed. Not too long ago, she broke a jar of it out of her purse and started it up again. I laughed and told her I saw that she was still all about the Carmex. She let me know that she replaced the actual Carmex in the jar with vaseline because she was truly addicted to Carmex! Ha - I thought that was the funniest thing - a trick to keep by substituting another for what you truly love in its place!

Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Thomas Funeral Home, there will be a celebration of Constance Ann’s life. If you were lucky enough to have known this phenomenal creature, please come and pay homage to her. It will be a time of reflection on the good times and the joy she brought to everyone.

(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).

Miss Laken Cook and B.J. Thomas to wed August 8 at Pine Grove

B.J. Thomas and Laken Cook

Mr. and Mrs. Terry Cook of Hickory Flat announce the engagement of their daughter, Laken Cook, to B.J. Thomas, son of Mr. and Mrs. Barry Thomas of Holly Springs.

The bride-elect is the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Larry Cox of Potts Camp, Mr. and Mrs. Fort Knighton of Ashland, Mrs. Helen Cook and the late Wayne Cook of Holly Springs, and the late Michael Westmoreland of Ashland.

She is a 2009 honor graduate of Hickory Flat Attendance Center. She is employed with the Bank of Holly Springs, and is currently enrolled at Northwest Community College to pursue a degree in elementary education.

The prospective groom is the grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Thomas of Holly Springs, and Mr. and Mrs. John Frank Bolden of Holly Springs.

He is a 2005 graduate of Victory Christian Academy, and is now the owner and operator of B.J.’s Dry Cleaners in Holly Springs.

The couple will exchange vows at 4 p.m. August 8, 2009 at Pine Grove Baptist Church in Hickory Flat. A reception will follow at the church.

All family and friends are invited.

The couple will spend their honeymoon in Hawaii, and reside in Holly Springs.

Miss Michelle Russell and Ben Bolden to wed August 1

Benjamin Douglas Bolden and Michelle Nicole Russell

Michelle Nicole Russell, daughter of Bryant and Linda Russell of Moscow, Tenn., is the bride-elect of Benjamin Douglas Bolden, son of Timothy Bolden of Ashland and Sarah House of Waterford.

The bride is the granddaughter of the late John Willingham and James and Janelle Biffle of Southaven and Charlie and Ethel Russell of Moscow, Tenn. She is a graduate of Fayette Academy and attends the University of Memphis, where she is pursuing a degree in business finance. She is currently employed with Slayden Bank in Slayden.

The groom is the grandson of Cecil and Hazel Johnson of Potts Camp, and Ransom and Judy Bolden of Ashland. He is a graduate of Potts Camp High School and attended Mississippi State University. He is currently employed with Big M Transportation in Hickory Flat.

The couple will exchange vows on Aug. 1, 2009 at 2 p.m. at Slayden Baptist Church in Slayden. All friends and family are invited to attend as no formal invitations are being sent.

Following their honeymoon, the couple will make their home in Moscow, Tenn.

Kirk

Brandon and Candis Kirk of Darden Lake are proud to announce the birth of their first child, daughter Vera Abigail Kirk, born May 16, 2009 at 10:50 p.m. at Baptist Memorial Hospital in New Albany. She weighed eight pounds and nine ounces and was 21 inches long.

Proud grandparents are Bruce and Debra Kirk and Mike and Sandra Cooper, all of Cornersville.

Maternal great-grandparents are Kathryn Cooper and the late Doyle Cooper of Cornersville and Judy Vann and the late Jack Vann of Southaven.

Paternal great-grandparents are Sue Kirk and the late Cooper Kirk and the late Leonard Whitehorn and Bobbie Whitehorn, all of Cornersville.

Moving at the museum has been such fun! Some of you are missing a great opportunity to help.

Teenagers should be taught to help and in 50 years, they could tell their grandchildren, “I helped set up that museum!”

We still have much work to do. Remember, I alone can’t do it all. I’m not sure it will get done by April. It might take 10 years or longer if I don’t have help.

Please don’t come if you are sick or ailing. Running up and down the stairs is great exercise, but also strenuous.

Having so many beautiful artifacts is a real thrill. I recently found Bennie Munroe’s portrait. He was twice bicycle champion of the world, in 1907 and 1908. He was from Hudsonville and he and another world champion bull rider, Knotty Bolden, are both buried in Hudsonville. If I had asked him, he would have given us his bicycle, but I didn’t ask. We are lucky to have his portrait, which is him on the bike.

We have been blessed, as the Lord has sent us remarkable people to help us. Without them the place wouldn’t be as great!

We found a punkah. Does anybody know how to put it up? A punkah is a fan that is suspended over the table to keep off the flies. We need electricians to come give us a bid.

In the 1930s, on Craft Street, the block between Gholson Avenue and Chulahoma Avenue was full of interesting people. On the big southeast corner lot lived Deadrick Smith, who was the first person in town to own a radio and he was a ham operator. He was the only son of Judge and Mrs. Eagleton Smith.

When he was born, his mother (like a lot of us) declared, “One day he will be president of the United States!” He turned out to be a plumber and electrician instead. But he and his cute, piano-, jazz-playing wife produced just one child and she was the belle of Holly Springs and her name was Margaret.

She was so cute-looking and was sweet and smart too. She was the first queen of the Pilgrimage because it was the year of the Centennial, 1936. My brother, Jimmie, was really smitten with her. Judge Smith was very important to the community but he was before my time.

Across the street lived the Brown family and they had two boys and a daughter. Horace married Dorothy Seale, Dr. Seale’s beautiful china-doll daughter and he became a professor at the University of Oklahoma. The other son was William Russell Brown, who became a Texas lawyer. The one daughter, Lucy Matthews, also became a lawyer and she, too, practiced law in Texas.

On the next street corner of Gholson and Craft lived the three Cochran brothers; Vadah, Bin and Clark. They were all so handsome. One day when Vadah was in the seventh grade, he was playing in the backyard with fire and caught on fire. He was burned, but, thankfully, survived to become a teacher.

Vadah was delightfully dramatic and studied drama and art in New York. He became a college professor of art. He married Dr. Sandusky’s daughter, too, who was a doll and she is still one. Bin went to the Naval Academy and was an officer in the war. He was lost at sea for a few days and the town prayed diligently for him. He survived. He moved to Mobile and lived there until he recently died.

Clark lived here. He was very popular, not only through school, but all of his life as he was everybody’s friend. He married beautiful Harriett, another artist for the Cochran family. When all three boys went to war in World War II, they received a wonderful surprise, a baby sister, Rita, who later was fantastic Rita. She, too, lived and still does in Mobile.

Across the street lived the two Buchanan brothers, Jim and George. Their daddy was mayor and later Jim became mayor too. He married wonderful Frances Moore. On the morning of December 7, 1941, Jim was in the war and he was flying into Pearl Harbor. Just as the plane approached Hawaii, the Japanese planes had done their dirty work and were leaving, flying back to Japan. Jim’s plane wasn’t equipped to do any damage to the Japs.

Later, Jim was downed at sea and we prayed him home too, where he later followed in his father’s footsteps and he, too, became mayor. George married lovely Ann Ferris, who in World War II, served as a Red Cross worker. They all lived here and the Buchanan brothers reared their families here, proving Holly Springs is a great place to live.

Carey James Tucker, daughter of Jim and Carey lived in Tuckahoe, now Polk Place, She was an incredible, vivacious and gorgeous Southern belle. After high school, she moved to Memphis. Her mother was a fantastic artist. She was one of the ten children of the Howard girls (another generation back) She had a little antique shop behind Tyson’s Drug Store that was filled with treasures like I ’d never seen before.

On the corner was the Gholson family. He was a doctor, who practiced here but I don’t know where his office was. They, too, had two sons and a daughter. One son was named Don Penick and the daughter was named Mary Caruthers.

Since their daddy was in medicine and very clean, the house smelled like Lysol out to the street. I was never in their house. One of the sons lived in Washington, D.C., for years, but now lives in Texas where he is a fantastic artist. I thought he was going to leave his paintings to us since we’re his hometown.


Thursday, July 23, 2009
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