Stories from Thursday, July 24, 2003

The finals of both the Juniors and Seniors American Legion Area 6 District Tournament will be taking place at the Jaycees Sports Complex in McCook. The Juniors will be playing a best 2-out-of-3 series against Gothenburg. The first two games will be played on Saturday afternoon ( 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.)...

LYONS, Kan. -- Velda Maxine Mack Gray, 83, died Tuesday (July 22, 2003) at Lyons District Hospital in Lyons, Kan. She was born April 27, 1920, to Clarence E. and Etta Avery Mack in Clay County, Kan. On Oct. 1, 1941, she married Carol W. Gray in Salina, Kan. The couple resided in Chase, Kan., from 1951 to 1995 and then moved to Lyons. She was a secretary at Chase High School...

ROSEVILLE, Calif. -- Dorothy Marie Hansmeyer, 81, died Saturday (June 28, 2003) in Roseville, Calif. She was born July 29, 1921, to Sander and Margaret (Bates) Hizel in Colorado. She and her family moved to McCook, where she grew up. She graduate from McCook High School in 1939...

BENKELMAN -- Elizabeth Belle (Eddingfield) Speck, 92, died Sunday (July 20, 2003) at Hospice of St. John in Lakewood, Colo., of lymphoma cancer. She was born April 29, 1911, to Howard Ellis and Elinor Elizabeth (Law) Eddingfield near Brady. She grew up in Brady and graduated from Brady High School in 1928. After graduation, she taught school for seven years in the rural school districts of Lincoln County...

When planning your trip to the Red Willow County Fair, be sure to include a visit to the air conditioned, exhibit-filled Community Building. It will be worth your time, because the open, indoor space abounds with more than 750 Open Class exhibits. These homemade and homegrown exhibits are extra special because they fulfill the fair's original purpose of displaying the bounty of the county. ...

If you listen to those who subscribe to the Buffalo Commons theory, the Plains will soon return to an open pastureland where buffalo will roam freely, without fences, through the central part of the United States. I have a philosophy: if those open fields are used the way one Central Nebraska entrepreneur has chosen to use them, the buffalo are going to have to wait...

In the early moming of Thursday, May 29, a group of mostly senior citizens boarded two comfortable motor coaches for a tour through Iowa to Chicago, through Michigan to Wisconsin Dells, then through Minnesota and back through the southeast corner of South Dakota. ...

Sarah Bamesberger of Indianola rod Little JD (center) to the reserve championship title in the junior reining division, and rode Shaky Made Melody (right) to the championship of the junior western horsemanship class at the 2003 Fonner Park State 4-H Horse Exposition in Grand Island last Monday through Thursday. ...

Christian comedian Torry Martin regaled a standing room only audience Wednesday night with Torry Stories from "a sad and pathetic life that other people seem to find amusing." Working from a flat bed trailer turned stage in the Kiplinger Arena, Martin brought tears of laughter with a tale about his encounter with a black bear in Alaska and how he fended the marauder off with pepper spray. ...

A private college from Eastern Nebraska has expressed an interest in offering advanced studies at McCook Community College and North Platte Community College. Dr. Henry Dorr and Dr. John Leber of Bellevue University presented the college's request to the Mid- Plains Community College Area Board of Governors Monday night. Dr. Dorr told the board his college works with several community colleges to offer a more traditional 2 + 2 program as well as accelerated ways to complete a four-year degree...

BEAVER CITY -- Growing up during America's Great Depression and in the heart of the High Plains' Dirty '30s instilled lessons that are nearly impossible to forget. "We grew up in hard times," Katherine (Ruf) Atteberry of Arapahoe said as she entered 48 jars of canned foods in the Furnas County fair open class Wednesday...

Michelle Walkenshaw-Herrera/McCook Daily Gazette Mark Keaton (left) of Denton won first place Wednesday in the Colgate Country Showdown on the first night of the Red Willow County Fair. Second place after a tie-breaker went to McCookite, Brett Schmitz (above), who sang and played two original songs and third went to Kaylene Christian (right) of Omaha, whose performance also included one original song. ...

Exhibitors who are used to sweltering through the Red Willow County Fair were treated to a temperate opening day in the 90s, with near capacity crowds turning out for Wednesday night events. The Kiplinger Arena was filled for church entertainment and comedian Torry Martin, and the grandstands were filled as well for the Colgate Country Showdown...

The McCook Titan boys placed second at the Sutherland 12 and under baseball tournament Saturday and Sunday. Cody Broomfield and Vince Chancellor were selected for the all-tourney team and were awarded medals. (Front row from left) batboy Zane Gillen, Austin Huffman, Andy Smith, Vince Chancellor, Connor Larson, Spencer Gillen, batboy Travis Wallen. ...

Dorothy Grace Sawyer, 82, died Tuesday (July 22, 2003) at Hillcrest Nursing Home in McCook. She was born July 5, 1921, to Henry Francis and Cora Edna (McNish) Offner in McCook. She graduated from McCook High School in 1939. On April 12, 1941, she married Lorence Edgar Sawyer in Oberlin. She was a homemaker...