Society

Ruff and Susan Fant and son, Henry, of Washington, D.C., met up with Harper Fant of Oxford, for the weekend in Holly Springs. While here, they attended the wedding of Susanna Moore and Tudor Moldoveanu Saturday. They all got to visit with lifelong friends.

Get well wishes go out to Dene Reeder, Linda Stewart’s mother. She is in the hospital in Oxford having some tests.

Bea and Jimmye Dale Green visited their granddaughter, Mary Bea Green, in Oxford last week for her birthday.

Happy birthday to Nancy Jones! May you have many more wonderful years ahead of you!

Nancy Jones and daughter Mary Neely, Anita Barnett and daughters Amanda and Rosamond, Linda McKinney and daughter Sonni, Jill Hubbard and daughter Maggi, Lisa Rodgers and daughter Ava and Dawn Larson and daughter Anna Mathis spent a nice weekend in Hot Springs, Ark. While there, they went to Magic Springs park and rode every ride offered!

Congratulations to the Marshall Academy Patriots in their victory over Pillow Academy under the lights Friday night!

How sad it is to ride by Piggly Wiggly now and see what is left - virtually nothing. For decades, the Piggly Wiggly employees were like family. Every time I would go in, someone was there asking how the children were doing in school, sports or whatever, if they weren’t with me. It was nice to know if I was in a mad dash right at closing time, Levi would hold open the door and let me get that one ingredient I didn’t have at home for the recipe. It is a crying shame that a grocery store that has been a constant in Holly Springs is now gone. Good luck to all of the employees in their future ventures - y’all will be sorely missed!

(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 southreporter@dixie-net.com).

Misty Durdin and Stacy Byrd

Misty Durdin and Stacy Byrd to wed at Lamar Presbyterian Church Oct. 29

Aubrey, Johnathan and Shane May and Tabitha and Hunter Byrd announce the upcoming marriage of Misty Durdin and Stacy Byrd.

Misty is the daughter of Carol Durdin of Southaven and John Douglas of Cordova and the granddaughter of Mildred Miles and Wallace Durdin.

Stacy is the son of the late Ransom Byrd and Judy Wilburn Byrd of Lamar. He is the grandson of Ala Mae Conrad and the late Jack Wilburn of Early Grove, and grandson of Callie Skelton Byrd and Wilber Byrd of Holly Springs.

The wedding will be held on Oct. 29, 2011 at 2 p.m. at Lamar Presbyterian Church, 84 Maple Road in Lamar.

A reception will follow at Stacy Byrd’s house at 2181 Hwy. 7 North, Lamar. The couple will make their home in Lamar.

Emily Gray and Justin Presson will exchange vows October 22 at Iuka Baptist Church

Dr. and Mrs. Phillip H. Gray, of Iuka, announce the engagement and upcoming marriage of their daughter, Dr. Emily Amanda Gray, to Justin Ross Presson, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Steve Presson of Byhalia.

The bride-elect is the granddaughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. James Rogers of Vernon, Ala., and the late Nell Pharr of Belmont.

Emily is a 2002 honor graduate of Tishomingo County High School. She is a 2006 Cum Laude graduate of Mississippi State University with a bachelor’s degree in microbiology. She is an alumnus of the Beta Mu Chapter of Tri-Delta Sorority. She is a 2010 graduate of Southern College of Optometry, and has joined the family optometry practice of Dr. Phillip Gray, P.A. in Iuka.

The prospective groom is the grandson of Patsy Hannah and the late Glenn Hannah of Byhalia and Harriet Presson and the late Francis Presson of Jackson, Tenn. He is a 2003 graduate of Marshall Academy. He is a 2008 Magna Cum Laude graduate of Mississippi State University with bachelor’s degrees in landscape architecture and landscape contracting and management. Justin is currently employed by the Department of Agriculture with the Natural Resource Conservation Service as a Soil Conservationist.

The couple will exchange vows at 6 p.m. on Saturday, October 22, 2011, at Iuka Baptist Church. All family and friends are invited to attend the ceremony and the reception to follow at Iuka Country Club.

We have a local person on the History Channel! Do you remember that handsome guy with the movie star looks named George Anderson? He flew Admiral Byrd to the South Pole in August 1946. Thanks to Robert, the computer wiz from the library, for helping me with this article.

There were a select group of pilots and air personnel on the exhibition. Admiral Byrd chose George to fly him over the South Pole. Quite an honor. That means he was the best pilot.

They spent the summer months down under and got home in February of 1947. Shown at right in the picture are the tents where they stayed.

Can you imagine sleeping on that ice when it was that cold? Living down there would be like living in the deep freeze.

On one of Anderson’s air excursions in Antarctica he flew so high over the mountain top that he was out of reach of the world! This was indicative of his life and the way he did things.

That summer there were over 400 men on the expedition. Later in 1947 while flying on an obscure mission from Pensacola, Fla., to Jacksonville, Fla., he was killed when his plane crashed.

We have had two explorers to the South Pole. George and Cole Jones (today, age 62) Cole went there two summers in a row. Cole brought the Marshall County Historical Museum a great meteorite from there and said that Antarctica is the magnetic field of the earth and it draws meteorites out of the sky.

The terrain down there is covered with meteorites and most of them are as big as a house -- not the one he brought us. He also bought us a fossil rock from there, which means that the earth shifted as not even a fossil could live where it’s so incredibly cold.

(Record high for the South Pole is 7.5 degrees; record low is -117. Average highs are -51 and average lows are -61.)

Mississippi has few rocks, and many of the rocks we do have are hollow and lined with either blue clay, red clay, or white clay. The Indians used the clay to paint their faces and that’s the only use of the rocks as they seem to be sandstone geodes.

A meteorite hit Mississippi a million years ago and left Mississippi with petrified mud. We used to collect the mud and sell it but we can’t do that anymore.

Today the mud has washed down by streams in Mississippi but nobody has time anymore to have the joy of picking up rocks by the streams. We call it petrified mud and we sold buckets full but don’t have any now.

The Wrecking Ball to save 175-year-old Chalmers Institute was great Saturday night.

Local citizens built the building in 1837 hoping to be chosen as the first University of Mississippi as they had heard that the committee to select a site in north Mississippi for the university was coming to town. When they came, the plan backfired as the committee said, “Since you have a university, we’ll place this one in Oxford.”

Chelius Carter and his group of preservationists did a magnificent job of working, planning, and profiling the Wrecking Ball.

Our own incredible , fantastic music star, Shannon McNally and her band, played for the evening.

A delightful art show will be in Herndon during the Christmas tour. Bring your art and come and sell or show. It will be wonderful. We are having an antique show and sale on December 2 at 6 p.m. at the I.C. Levy store as a premier opening of the Christmas tour. Please plan to come.

Next week on Monday, October 17, we have a treat in store for you as Tom Dulaney is going to play the piano, tell us jokes, show us his art work. He is a real ball of talent in all directions and is so much fun.

The show will be here at the museum at 6 p.m. You are invited. There is a fee at the door for the museum.

Tickets are here for the “Christmas in Holly Springs” event and they are priced $15 each for groups of ten or more, $18 for a single ticket if they are bought before November 26. The week of the tour, the tickets will be $22 each.

The tour is always unique, different and amazing. This year we have new houses that have never been on our tour before.

Tickets may be bought at the museum at 220 East College Ave. We are open five days a week from 10-5 Monday through Friday and Saturdays from 10-2.


Thursday, October 13, 2011
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