Stories from Wednesday, June 1, 2011

We still have numerous civic clubs and organizations in our communities, but membership seems to reflect a disturbing trend. Next time you attend a civic club luncheon, a women's club meeting or other various volunteer groups, take a good look around the room. Chances are you will see a lot of gray hair...

James A. Ping, 79, of Piggott died Tuesday, May 24, 2011, at Piggott Community Hospital. He was born May 8, 1932, in Piggott to the late Louis Sherman and Mattie Lois (Fitzgerald) Ping. He was a member of Emmanuel Baptist Church, where he attended until his health would no longer permit. He was a 25-year Navy military retiree and was a lifetime member of the VFW. After his retirement he worked as a master electrician. As a hobby he enjoyed working with wood...

Richard "Rich" D. Mathis, Sr., 71, of Boydsville died late Saturday, May 21, 2011, at the VA Hospital in Poplar Bluff. He was born at St. Louis, Mo., to the late Melvin and Emma Mathis. He was a Navy veteran, served during the Viet Nam Conflict and had worked for the Norfolk and Western Railroad and Normandy Osteopathic Hospital...

Gaylon Lee Dunlap, 63, of Piggott, Ark., passed away Tuesday, May 31, 2011, at his home in Piggott. He was born Dec. 25, 1947, in Poplar Bluff, Mo., and was the son of the late Clifford Dunlap and Winnie Kathryn McCrory Dunlap. Gaylon worked for the Clay County Road Department for 36 years as a backhoe operator and his own backhoe business part-time. He attended church at Oasis in St. Francis, Ark., and served in the Navy during Vietnam...

Charles Leroy Dowdy, 83 years old, affectionately known as "Mr. Pete, the Tomato Man," died Monday, May 30, 2011, at his home in Rector after a 10-month battle with lung cancer. His parents, Tom Dowdy and Nettie Shannon Dowdy, along with 13 brothers and sisters, preceded him in death...

Lori Ann Collier, 48, of Piggott, Ark., passed away Sunday, May 29, 2011, at the Piggott Community Hospital in Piggott. Lori was born on Sept. 18, 1962, in St. Louis, Mo., and was the daughter of William Hudson and Maxine High Hudson. She was united in marriage to Bill Collier, who preceded her in death. To this union her son, Josh Collier, was born...

Ella Katherine Butler, 76, of Rector, Ark., died Monday, May 30, 2011, in Rector. She was born Aug. 25, 1934, in Clay County. She was a retired teacher and a member of Cappadocia General Baptist Church. She was preceded in death by her parents, Jessie and Bertha D. McLeskey, and a great-grandson, Thomas Butler Smart...

Longtime Johnny Cash friend and collaborator Kris Kristofferson will be a headline performer at the Johnny Cash Music Festival benefit concert on Thursday, Aug. 4, at Arkansas State University's Convocation Center. Kristofferson, at age 75, has lived a well-spent life. ...

Memorial Day is a U.S. holiday observed on the last Monday of May. It began as a day of commemoration for U.S. service members who died during military service. Memorial Day now has become an occasion for more general expressions of memory, as ordinary people visit the graves of their deceased relatives, as well as a day to honor all veterans -- living and deceased...

Beautiful weather and clear skies formed the backdrop for Rector's annual Memorial Day service, held Sunday, May 29, at Woodland Heights Cemetery, with 35 people in attendance. Tommy Huggins, local veterans service officer and commander of Rector Veterans of Foreign Wars post 10480, opened the program with appreciation to Rector high school students for their hard work and diligence in placing 751 flags at the gravesites of veterans in the cemetery...

The Clay County Sheriff's Department recovered the body of Charles Dickens at approximately 10 a.m. Wednesday, June 1. Dickens, of Campbell, had been missing since Sunday after a Jon Boat he and three others were fishing in capsized in the flood-swollen waters of the St. Francis River near Brown's Ferry...