Stories from Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Mid-Plains Community College has a new rodeo team coach. Wyatt Clark, of McCook, has been hired to lead the timed events, joining roughstock coach Aukai Kaai. Clark takes over the role of former MPCC rodeo team coach Garrett Nokes who passed away in February...

COLUMBUS, Neb. — McCook High's golf boys are holding fifth place among Class B teams through 18 holes of state tournament play at the Elks Country Club on Monday. The Bison totaled 339 with senior Payton Craw tied for fourth place overall after carding 77...

McCOOK, Neb. -- An Indianola man was killed and several others injured in a head-on collision Saturday night east of McCook. Thomas D. Stritt, 72, was killed in the accident, which occurred at 7 p.m. According to the Red Willow County Sheriffi’s Office, Stritt was the driver of a westbound 2014 Toyota Camry which crossed the center line of U.S. Highway 6-34, made contact with the rumble strip and struck an eastbound Chevrolet Tahoe driven by Anthony Truksa, occupied by six people...

McCook, Neb. —When Richard Lawton, M.D., Ph.D. was a young boy, he liked fixing things, building bikes and spending time in the woodshop. Those types of interests lend themselves toward surgery, he says, and pointed him, in his adulthood, to a career in orthopedic surgery. It helped that his father, who recently retired, was a family practice doc, “so I got some initial exposure through watching him when I was a kid.”...

Annie Nunamaker July 10, 1951 - May 22, 2021 WAUNETA, Neb. — Annie Elizabeth McDonald Nunamaker was born July 10, 1951, in Johnstone, Scotland, to James and Agnes (McNamara) Murney. As a young girl, Annie attended school in Scotland and graduated from St. Margaret’s High School...

Dorothy Ann (Lunbery) Barger Aug. 13, 1926 - May 27, 2020 CULBERTSON, Neb. —Services for Dorothy Ann (Lunbery) Barger, age 93, of rural Culbertson, will be Saturday, May 29, 2021, at 3 p.m., in the West First Chapel in McCook, Neb., with Pastor Johnny Walker officiating. Inurnment will follow services in Memorial Park Cemetery, McCook...

Warren and Pauline Harper ARAPAHOE, Neb. — Visitation for Warren Harper (Feb. 6, 2021) and Pauline Harper (Nov. 26, 2020), is Friday, May 28, 2021, 3-6 p.m., at Wenburg Funeral Chapel, 652 Main Street, Arapahoe. Memorial services are Saturday, May 29, 2021, 11 a.m. with a meal at 4 p.m., at Island (East of Edison, south on Road 432, first road south past Turkey Creek)...

OMAHA, Neb. — McCook’s 11 first-time state qualifiers all won Class B medals in a dazzling Omaha Burke Stadium debut Friday and Saturday. In other words, it’s safe to say these Bison are only getting started considering not one senior resides among this talented group that won both the GNAC and Southwest Conference team titles along with many other meets...

OMAHA, Neb. — Branson “Billy Ray Cyrus” McDonald should know the actual country singer couldn’t match all of McCook’s big hits delivered on one beautiful weekend at Burke Stadium. Senior Mark Arp was soaring to heights he’d never seen before, high jumping a career-best 6’6” for No. 3 among Class B...

OMAHA, Neb. — One Longhorn pondered if Happy Death Day had arrived in Burke Stadium’s infield grass. “I was trying to cheer, but I was dying,” senior Kamrie Dillan said about her Chase County mile relay team. Another had just gotten off the Burke track after tripping and taking quite a post-lap tumble...

OMAHA, Neb. — Her knees suddenly feel a little wobbly at the finish like that double scoop of goodness awaiting Shawna Wilkinson Saturday night. “Coach (Clint) Hosick promised me ice cream if I run a personal best and win a state championship,” the McCook sophomore reveals about her Class B 400-meter race at Burke Stadium. “The crowd is cheering, it’s so exciting...then about 10 feet away (from the finish), my knees start giving out.”...

What a difference a few hundred miles down the road makes. Grannie Annie and I drove to Omaha to attend a young relative’s graduation party. Proud to say that she graduated cum laude. Earned great scholarships also for the next step in her life. Good celebratory party too with a lot of seldom-seen relatives present...