Stories from Thursday, March 15, 2012

For many elders in the community, the Black River Area Development (BRAD) Senior Center, housed at the Piggott Community Center, has become almost a second home. Providing good nutrition is a large part of the center's goal. At 11:30 a.m. Monday through Friday, the center provides hot, nutritional meals for those in attendance. ...

A Rector High School welding team took first place in the third annual NEA Weld-a-Thon held Friday, Feb. 17, at the Arkansas State University Newport Jonesboro campus. The competition included tests in welding, print reading, fabrication, oxy fuel cutting and a written test of welding knowledge and safety...

Valuable information was combined with fun, interactive presentations at the annual Piggott Elementary Science, Health and Safety Expo held Monday at the elementary gymnasium. Hundreds of students and adults visited the two-hour event, which covered a wide range of topics...

The congregation of Rector's First General Baptist Church recently welcomed their new pastor, Rev. Ron Byrd, and his wife Kay to the church and the community. The couple recently moved to Rector from Bigelow (Perry County), where Bryd was interim pastor at the Pine Mountain General Baptist Church in Damascus (Faulkner County) during the past year...

Are you in a rut? Are you boxed in, unable to think outside the box. The box is what you know; the familiar. To think outside the box is to move beyond everyday patterns of thinking, to try something innovative, original. How can you think outside the box?...

Maynard Lee Sisler, MD, FACP, of Kennett, Mo., died peacefully in his sleep on March 7, 2012, at Heritage Nursing Center. He was 88 years old. An amazing individual, Maynard was an editor, writer and poet, a historian, a physician, an officer and gentleman. He is remembered for his intelligence, wit and charm, and for his genuine delight in others, his warmth and kindness, and his ability to bring out the best in people...

Jim Reese, 86, of Prairie Grove, Ark., passed away Friday, March 9, 2012, in Fayetteville. He was born Jan. 19, 1926, in Rector, Ark., to Robert Lee Reese and Hinda (Bell) Reese. He was retired from Campbell Bell and Crescent Department Stores. He was very active with the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis Club, First Christian Church of Fayetteville and was a U.S. Air Corp veteran...

Alyssa Louise Gibson, the newborn daughter of Jeff and Tanya Taylor Gibson, passed away March 5, 2012, at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Mo. She is survived by her parents, Jeff and Tanya Gibson of Piggott, Ark.; brother, Dustin Bloodworth; sister, Carol Taylor; grandparents, Jim Thompson, Ruth Phillips and Marty Taylor, and many other relatives and friends...

Edna Jean Wheeler of Piggott, Ark., died Wednesday, March 7, 2012, at Jonesboro, Ark., at the age of 79. The daughter of Loy R. and Zora May Underwood Watson, she was born in Pollard, Ark., on Nov. 2, 1934. On June 17, 1951, she was married to Samuel D. Wheeler. The couple moved to California, where they were both employed at General Dynamics until they returned to Piggott in 1988...

John James "Bud" Ragsdell, 88, of Rector passed from this life on Tuesday, March 6, 2012, at the Arkansas Methodist Medical Center in Paragould. He was born on Nov. 15, 1924, to the late John and Della (James) Ragsdell in O'Kean, Ark., and married Shirley (Jones) Ragsdell on April 2, 1963 in Hardy, Ark...