Stories from Thursday, January 2, 2003

TRENTON -- Three truckloads of hay from an Amish community of Mennonites are being sent to aid Southwest Nebraska farmers. Marvin Harms, member of the board of the Mid-Nebraska Community Action Partnership, will be host of the hay drop in Trenton on Monday, at Wertz Farms starting at 10 a.m...

Dear Editor, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Years filled with family, friends, Christmas presents and programs, lots of good food and a truly thankful heart for the birth of a Savior. The Christmas carols are fraught with such tremendous meaning...

Dear Editor, I would like to compliment Walt Sehnert on his article "A football practice gone horribly wrong" that was featured on Dec. 16. My name is Debra (Sloniker) Crockett and I live in Kearney. I have an uncle who lives in McCook, Robert Lenhart, and he sent me the article. I want to say thank you for writing such a nice article about Ted Sloniker...

Travelers through Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas these days will tell you that the dry conditions are as bad -- or worse -- than they have ever been before. Pastures are the hardest hit, with vast stretches of rangeland turned into brown, brittle patches of near nothingness...

SMITHFIELD -- Congressman Tom Osborne will be at the Smithfield town hall Friday, from 10:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. The public is invited to visit with the congressman.

ELWOOD -- The acquisition of First National Bank of Elwood by Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. will be complete by March 1. The Elwood Bulletin reports Pinnacle Bank-Nebraska owns banks in 23 Nebraska communities, and affiliate locations in Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, New Mexico and Texas...

Calm and quiet were the words that McCook Police Chief Ike Brown used to describe the New Years holiday. Information from the Red Willow County Sheriff's Department and the Nebraska State Patrol agreed with Brown's revelations. "Everything went well ... it was a pretty good holiday," Brown said...

Jeff Peterson, a lineman with Nebraska Public Power District, removes a Christmas decoration along Norris Avenue this morning, bringing the holiday season to an unofficial end. City of McCook crews and workers from the Work Ethic Camp also took down and put away the holiday decorations today...

Analise Crystal Hernandez, born 10:57 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2003, in Community Hospital of McCook, is the apparent winner of the Gazette's New Year's Baby contest. She was born to Marcy Rodriguez and Ismael Hernandez, weighing 6 pounds, 15.8 oz...

The forecast called for snow throughout Southwest Nebraska, but the weatherman fooled us again, dropping heavy snow in Benkelman but leaving most other places with little more than a dusting. Almost eight inches had fallen by late Wednesday afternoon in Benkelman, the Dundy County Sheriff's office said...

As dry as it was in 2002, it wasn't the dryest it's ever been in McCook, according to Al Dutcher, state climatologist with the High Plains Regional Climate Center in Omaha. According to data compiled by the National Weather Service in Goodland, Kan., McCook showed a 9.68-inch deficit for 2002 with little change in the forecast. McCook received 11.94 inches of precipitation for 2002, and only a trace for the entire month of December...

LINCOLN -- Mary Lou (Miner) Kelly, 42, died Wednesday (Dec. 18, 2002) at the Tabitha Health Care Center in Lincoln after a three-year battle with cancer. She was born June 20, 1960, to Melvin and Beulah (Brown) Miner at Cambridge. She attended Republican Valley High School and graduated from Platte Valley Academy in Shelton in 1978...

ENDERS -- Donald Grosbach, 73, died Tuesday (Dec. 31, 2002) at his home near Enders. Survivors include his wife, Pauline of Enders; son, Duane Grosbach and wife, Tina of Enders; daughter, Anita and husband, Martin Rediger of Geneva, Ind.; two sisters, Maxine and husband, Vincent Gennaro of Fort Lauderhill, Fla., and Gladys and husband, Dwight Hoff of Imperial; a sister-in-law, Alberta Grosbach of Enders; and five grandchildren...

McDONALD -- Margaret M. Jenik, 76, died Tuesday (Dec. 31, 2002) at the Good Samaritan Center in Atwood. She was born Sept. 3, 1926, in Rawlins County to Clarence Ralph and Lela Belle (McDonald) Long. She was a 1944 graduate of McDonald High School. On Oct. ...

SENECA, S.C. -- Merrill Eddie Best Jr., 73, a longtime resident of McCook, died Monday (Dec. 30, 2002) in Westminister, S.C. He was born Dec. 31, 1928, in Denver, Colo., to Etta May (Henderson) and Merrill E. Best Sr. On March 10, 1945, he married Darlene E. Blume in Atwood. They owned and operated Best Floral and Merrill's Greenhouses in McCook for more than 30 years. He retired to the South in 1989, finally making Seneca, S. C., his home in retirement...

BEAVER CITY -- Charles A. Crawford, 86, died Wednesday (Jan. 1, 2003) at the Beaver City Manor. He was born June 14, 1916, to John and Mable (Tonkinson) Crawford at Madrid. He was raised in the Lexington area. He moved to the Denver, Colo., area in the mid 1930's...

Dorothy F. Lunkwitz, 92, died Monday (Dec. 30, 2002) at Hillcrest Nursing Home in McCook. She was born July 27, 1910, at Basehor, Kan., to Thomas Elmer and Mary Ella (Morach) Tirrill. On April 12, 1936, she married John E. Lunkwitz at the West Side Congregational Church in McCook. She took care of foster children at different times. She was a seamstress. They sold their farm southwest of McCook and moved to town in 1963...

Have you done it yet? For years I've promised myself that I will never do it again, but for some reason the thoughts keep finding their way out of the little place I've tucked them and rearing their ugly heads right there in the front of my conscience...

OBERLIN -- Beldon Jenik, 82, formerly of McDonald, died Tuesday (Dec. 31, 2002) at the Decatur County Hospital in Oberlin. He was born May 6, 1920, on a farm near Menlo, Kan., to Benjamin and Rose (Volock) Jenik. He was a World War II Army veteran, serving in the 22nd Antiaircraft Search Light Battalion, obtaining the rank of Technical Sergeant...