Stories from Thursday, September 20, 2001

Hip! Hip! Hooray! Hip! Hip! Hooray! Southwest Nebraska is cheering North Platte today! What wonderful, wonderful news it was at 9 a.m. (CDT) this morning when Wal-Mart announced it will build a distribution center in North Platte which will eventually employ up to 600 people...

They looked like big, strong towers. When I was a youngster, my Dad worked in downtown Denver. His office was in a 20 or 30 story building, which seemed enormous to us at the time. Very infrequently, Dad would take one or more of us to work with him on a Saturday. His job, which I'm sure he found interesting and compelling, held no allure for us, and we would seek ways to amuse ourselves while he finished the duties of the day...

NEW YORK -- Flying over Manhattan into Laguardia Airport, I was looking out the window at the tops of skyscrapers, it seemed as though I was looking at a 3-D graph. Then I saw the smoke billowing from the site of what used to be the World Trade Center. Plane passengers stretched to look out through the windows on the right side of the aircraft. Everyone was silent...

Students from more than 10 area schools participated in the first ever A Capella festival Saturday, sponsored by the Prairie Statesmen of McCook. 65 students from grades seven through 12 were in attendance. The students spent the day in A Capella music workshops directed by McCook's own Evie Caldwell, and music specialist Jim DeBusman. Each chorus, the boys' and the girls', learned three songs, seeing the sheet music for the first time that day...

The Shangra-la Chinese Acrobats will open the season for the McCook Concert Association Monday evening at the Fox Theater. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. and is open to members of the McCook Concert Association. Season tickets may be purchased at the door (adults, $25; students, $10; and family memberships, $55). ...

Back by popular demand, the Chicken Lips Comedy Theater group will perform Saturday at the Gateway in Oberlin. The show, "Lipservice," includes improvisational stand-up comedy packed with improv acting, comedy and satire about the world and national events, customized to reflect local culture as well. The show is unlike any in the area...

The Decatur County Museum and Oberlin Arts and Humanities Commission are sponsoring a tour of the Decatur County portion of the Last Indian Raid in Kansas on Sunday, Sept. 30. The day marks the 123rd anniversary of the Sept. 30, 1878 attack of the Cheyenne Indians as they tried to return to their homes in South Dakota...

Neal Eldon Pursley BENKELMAN -- Neal Eldon Pursley, 64, died Sunday (Sept. 16, 2001) at his home in Benkelman. He was born Feb. 3, 1927, at Benkelman to Clarence and Pearl (Osborn) Pursley. He attended school in Benkelman, graduating from Benkelman High School in 1957...

Evelyn I. Perry Holdrege -- Evelyn I. Perry, 92, died on Monday at Phelps Memorial Health Center in Holdrege. She was born to Jens Christian and Anna Sophia (Petersen) Anderson on Dec. 12, 1908, in Red Willow County, near Quick. She was the youngest of six children. Her childhood was spent on a family farm in Red Willow County. She graduated from McCook High School with the class of 1926. She then continued her education at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln...