65 years ago, April 28, 1955
"The J. C. Penney Company department store opens its doors today at 8:30 a.m. after brief ribbon-cutting ceremonies. Mayor Roy Goss will cut the ribbon across the front doors officially opening one of the finest new department stores in this area."
"Three Marion County dairymen have each given a heifer calf to the Mr. and Mrs. L.A. Higgins scholarship fund, D.O. Scott, county agent, announced this week. This scholarship fund is to be used to help worthy boys and girls to attend Mississippi State College to study dairying, the county agent added. Calves were donated by Allen Simmons Sr., Earl D. McLean Sr. and Lewis Wesley, all outstanding and successful dairymen in the county."
"A heavy fog is expected to form along city streets Wednesday afternoon and night as the city's fogging machine begins its fight against mosquitos for this season. City Engineer Scott Hathorn stated earlier in the week that the machine is being readied to begin operating Wednesday and offered a word of caution to parents. Some children, he stated, like to play in the smoke behind the machine. The smoke, Hathorn explained, is absolutely harmless to the health of the child, but he cautioned that the child might run into something or be run over by a car that he couldn't see in the smoke."
60 years ago, April 28, 1960
"Willie B. McCain has confessed to the ambush shooting of Sheriff J.V. Polk last Friday night. His confession was complete and strictly voluntary, according to District Attorney Vernon Broom. ... McCain was already under charges of murdering Sheriff Polk and had refused to take a lie detector test, before he made the confession that he fired the shot that killed the sheriff on his own front porch. He said that he had made other trips to the sheriff's home to kill him, but that something always happened to prevent him carrying out his plans. A murder charge was also placed against Hillary Thornhill, said to be the kingpin of Marion County bootleggers, for the slaying of Sheriff Polk. He, too, is in custody. Official information is that McCain was the trigger man, but that Thornhill was sufficiently implicated to justify murder charges against him. In fact, it was confessed by McCain that Thornhill had promised him a half interest in his extensive bootlegging operations in return for killing Polk. ... Polk was gunned down as he walked onto the front porch of his home near the Bunker Hill school and Baptist church Friday night around 10:30. He had just returned from a tour of the Kokomo, Bedwell and Ten Mile Creek communities with two of his deputies. ... The Marion County Board of Supervisors met Saturday morning and named Sheriff Polk's widow, Mrs. Ollie Polk, 42, as the temporary sheriff. She will serve until a special election is held to elect a sheriff to fill the unexpired term. ... The new sheriff said she would carry on the fight against bootleggers which her husband had begun."
50 years ago, April 23, 1970
"Georgia-Pacific has authorized the State Employment Service to announce that applications for work are being accepted at the local employment office in Columbia, beginning the 27th of April. ... Announced just after Hurricane Camille passed through this area, construction soon began on the site at Goss with the area being graded and graveled. Actual construction of the building began about the first of the year, when the dry kiln building was begun. The mill will manufacture chips for pulpwood mills and one and two inch thick boards."
40 years ago, April 24, 1980
"Anyone wanting to enter a float or other unit in the Celebration South parade Friday, May 9, can contact Ronnie Herrington. ... Walter Payton will be grand marshal of the parade and will have his mother, Mrs. Alyne Payton, accompanying him."
30 years ago, April 26, 1990
"Dr. Tupper Lampton Allen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thad B. Lampton Jr., has been awarded the PhD in sociology from Tulane University. She is a native of Columbia, attended Columbia Public Schools and graduated from Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas. She received her college education at Newcomb College Tulane University."
20 years ago, April 27, 2000
"When Bruce Browning and Malcolm White arrived on the banks of Pearl River in Columbia on Monday, they were ready for some rest. And Winston and Becky Cox provided them with the lodging they were looking for good food, an actual bed to sleep on and a nice, hot shower. Leaving from the Nanih Waiya birthplace of the Choctaw Indians in Louisville on March 30, the two canoeing buddies are headed for the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico and expect to be there in about 30 days. ... Browning, who plays in a band, and White, who owns Hal and Mal's Restaurant in Jackson, as well as Malcolm White Productions, are raising money to help Blair E. Batson Children's Hospital expansion. ... At first they wanted to travel the Mississippi, but thought it would be more feasible to travel the longest river in the state, which is the Pearl."
"Lake Columbia has re-opened to the public, according to the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. Located about 12 miles southeast of Columbia on the Marion County Wildlife Management Area, the 90-acre lake has been closed for the past several years for repairs and restocking. Fisheries personnel stocked largemouth bass, bluegill and channel catfish in 1997."
10 years ago, April 22, 2010
"On April 1, Wilma Stogner McKenzie celebrated her 102nd birthday, with family members joining her for a lunch celebration on April 2. ... McKenzie was born in Walthall County in the New Zion community in 1908. ... She moved to the Hurricane Creek community in Marion County in 1939 and married Homer McKenzie in 1940. They had two children, Brenda McKenzie Valin, with whom McKenzie lives now, and a son, the late Alden McKenzie. ... McKenzie said her advice for living a long life is to take care of oneself and don't drink or smoke."
