Stories from Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Nov. 25, 1940 - Jan. 27, 2007 CULBERTSON?-- Floyd Alton "Ton" Marks, 66, died Tuesday (Jan. 30, 2007) at his home south of Culbertson. He was born Nov. 25, 1940, to Floyd A. and Flora L. (Osborn) Marks at Trenton.  On Feb. 3, 1963, he married Alice Eileen Clary at the Church of God in McCook.  He had worked for the Co-op in Culbertson, then for Kugler's. He also drove a fertilizer truck for UAP. ...

Nov. 17, 1926 - Jan. 27, 2007 THE?VILLAGES, Fla. -- Virgil "Bill" Dwight McMahan, 80, died Saturday (Jan. 27, 2007) at The Villages, Fla.   He was 80 years old. He was born Nov. 17, 1926, at McCook to Joseph and Belva (Rowland) McMahan.  He graduated from McCook High School in 1944...

Feb. 10, 1922-Jan. 28, 2007  BENKELMAN -- Doris K. Pettit, 85, died Sunday (Jan. 28, 2007), at Sarah Ann Hester Memorial Home in Benkelman. She was born Feb. 10, 1922, to Robert and Mabel (Solberg) White on a farm near Oxford, and attended school near her home...

McCook Daily Gazette McCook schools are reporting absences of around 15 percent of the student population but nothing at this point should require school closings, said Myra Stoney of the Southwest Nebraska Public Health Department. School officials attributed absences this week to an assortment of illnesses...

McCook Daily Gazette Road crews from the Work Ethic Camp have logged in 2,915 hours for December, Raleigh Haas said. Haas, director of the Nebraska Department of Corrections Work Ethic Camp, said many of those hours were used helping out around the city hauling branches after the ice storm and shoveling snow...

Potholes showing up around town as the snow melts look pretty bad until you compare them to rutty rural roads like the one along the Red Willow and Hitchcock county line west of McCook, viewed from U.S. Highway 6-34. County maintainers and street-repair crews will have their work cut out for them once they're able to get to work...

HASTINGS -- McCook girls and boys varsity basketball teams finished up the GNAC tournament Monday. The Bison boys won their game against Lexington 53-52, while the girls lost to Norfolk 52-33. Cory Gaston led the Bison in the game with 23 points. Seth Schaeffer followed with 11 and Eric Rippen had 9. Gaston put in 8 two-point shots and had 2 three-pointers. Schaeffer also had 2 three-point shots and 2 two-pointers. Rippen made 4 two-points shots and Josh Cherry had 2...

SOUTHWEST -- The Southwest girls basketball team knocked-off Hitchcock County 50-36 Tuesday afternoon. Chelsey Quigley led the Roughriders with 19 points, Lisa Lord added 13. Lexy Lewis put up 15 points for the Falcons. Southwest the No. 1 seed and will meet Maywood the No. 5 seed in the semi-final game at 6 p.m. Thursday at Southwest...

"Put on your coat -- you'll catch your death of cold!" Sorry, despite what your mother told you, you won't catch a cold by having wet feet, going out in the rain or being exposed to cold air, according to Children's Hospital in Omaha. In fact, experts say, children you live on the equator get colds just like those who live in northern latitudes...

Growing up, I don't remember ever railing at my parents, "When I grow up and have kids, I'm not going to treat them the way you treat me!" as my sister sometimes did when a discipline seemed unfair to her. But I thought it more than once. The folks weren't afraid of using corporal punishment, even making us go and fetch our "belt of choice" when they felt our infraction was deserving. ...

Officials at the Nebraska Department of Corrections Work Ethic Camp are hopeful LB83 will be passed by the Legislature and help fill empty bed space at the camp -- and reduce over crowding in state prisons. Introduced by Sen. John Synowiecki of Omaha, LB83 faced no opposition at its first hearing in the Judiciary Committee Jan. 25, said Raleigh Haas, superintendent of the Work Ethic Camp...