Grant City Auto Parts Marks 30th Anniversary

Grant City Auto Parts quietly marked their 30th anniversary this year. Owner Dennis Adams said that he would like to thank all his friends and customers over the years. He said they were the reason he stayed in business for so long. They were originally located on Front Street next to where The Petaler is currently located. After the Square Fire, they relocated to their present location across from Worth County Lumber. Dennis is married to Ann; they have two children, Mitch and Brooke.

Worth County Vietnam Vets Recognized on 50th Anniversary of Conflict's End

The Worth County Senior Center put up a poster recently recognizing all the veterans who served in the Vietnam War as the 50th anniversary of the end of the conflict nears. Veterans who are still alive include Bob Hull, Ron Richards, David Maudlin, Mark Apblanalp, Gene Groom, John Williams, Paul Hunt, J.C. Parman, Buddy Jackson, Biff (Barry) Jones, Eldon Maudlin, Max Calhoun, Donnie Jay, Don Fletchall, Pat Groce, Larry Jones, C.B. Adams, Bill Girling, Jerry Burns, Jackie Hamlen, David Parman, Paul Myers, Roy James, Dean Smith, Wayne Smith, Daniel Crabtree, David Seat, Keith Lambert, Steve Pointer, Darrell Biddle, Don Noll, Harold Davidson, Leroy Mincy, Jimmy Ross, Bill Tracy, John Kenney, David Burns, Ralph Kobbe, Bill Calhoon, and Joe Marshall.

Those who are no longer with us who served in Vietnam include Wendell Calhoon, John Hamlen, Jerry Groce, Tony Myers, Galen Miller, Richard Williams, Joe Maroone, Darrell Lamb, Danny Jackson, Danny Fletchall, Eddie Costin, Ben Brackin, Ronnie Force, Jerry Runyan, and Martin Fletchall.

Alicia Smith Organizes Successful Variety Show; Raises $338 for NEN Hope Foundation

Northeast Nodaway Junior Alicia Smith showed she has many talents. She is an outstanding softball player and cheerleader for Northeast Nodaway. She is also a professional dancer, competing at the regional and national levels. She teaches cheer and dance for a new generation of young Bluejay cheerleaders. Saturday, she successfully organized a variety show for Ravenwood, showcasing talent from around the area. She won Miss Teen Show-Me State Tourism for Missouri and will compete in the national and international pageant this summer, where she will share Missouri with teens from around the country and the world. Saturday's Variety Show successfully raised $338 for the Northeast Nodaway Hope Foundation.

The junior cheerleaders from Northeast Nodaway opened with a routine, followed by a song from Tabby Adwell. The Dymanic Duo, featuring Ms. Smith and Summer Swalley, performed next. Alicia has been in dance for 13 years and Swalley for 12. Linda Adwell, who has played in Branson as as well as area country music shows, played the Unchained Melody on saxophone. Tracy Smith, Alicia's mother, organized a cup race, where contestants had to move the bottom cup to the top until the red cup was on the bottom; it was harder than it looked. A dance trio known as the MDA Trio performed.

Members of the Stanberry Boys Basketball Team performed, putting on a dunk contest as several of their players can dunk. The Bulldogs were the first team in state history to go undefeated in both basketball and football; a few teams had won state in both sports, but Stanberry was the first to go unbeaten in any class. A group of promising Northeast Nodaway elementary boys basketball players were pitted in a game of knockout against the Stanberry team. To make things fairer, the Stanberry players had to shoot from half court; nonetheless, the Stanberry players made things interesting, knocking down a couple of half court shots and knocking out all but two of the local favorites before bowing out.

The next contest was a Minute to Win It contest where two contestants had to shake five ping-pong balls out of a tissue box without using their hands. The winner was Julie (Godsey) Dack, who showed she still has all the right dance moves almost 20 years after graduating from Northeast Nodaway. Northeast second grader Miley Wilmes put on a dance routine and performed at a high school level despite her young years.

Alicia Smith has performed at four Chiefs games and one Harlem Globetrotters game in addition to her competitions; she finally performed in front of her hometown fans with the moral support of the rest of the juniors, who have renamed themselves the Team of 2017 in memory of their late classmate Caleb Adwell. Using a picture of her cousin Caleb, Alicia's solo dance depicted what he was going through as he battled cancer. A.J. Hinson of St. Louis, a Northwest student and teacher of Alicia at the Bearcat Boogie Dance Studio, performed solo next, persevering despite the tape crashing at one point. "Alicia is one of my best students," he said about her afterwards. Finally, three junior cheerleaders performed a Hawaiian dance; one of the performers was Merrideth Adwell, sister of the late Caleb. Her grandmother, Omi, was originally from Hawaii.

Tiger Girls Tie for Second at Varsity Early Bird; Boys 8th

Mound City's girls had little competition in taking first place at the Varsity Early Bird, winning with 167 team points. Worth County tied with Rock Port with 50 points for second. South Harrison had just as little competition on the boys side.

Payton Adwell was third in the 100, getting a time of 13.68.

The girls speed relay teams both finished second. The 4x100 finished with a time of 56.31, while the 4x200 finished with a time of 1:57.92.

The two longer distance relay teams both placed sixth, with the 4x400 getting a time of 5:17 while the 4x800 got a time of 13:08.

Elizabeth Lyle picked up right where her sister Alyssa left off; the Tiger freshman won the High Jump with a height of 5 feet.

The girls placed two in the Pole Vault. Jessi Badell was 4th with a height of 7 feet. Tess Andrews was edged out on tiebreaks and also had a height of 7 feet.

Lyle's second medal was in the Long Jump, where she placed fourth with a distance of 13'9".

Another freshman showed some promise in the discus. Kennedy Galanakis was third with a throw of 87'5".

On the boys side, Brevyn Ross was third in the 200 with a time of 24.07.

With Ellis of Stanberry graduated, there was nobody to stop Brevyn Ross in the hurdle events. He won the 110 Hurdles with a time of 16.20, beating out Seth Cline of Albany, who had 16.54. Ross had little competition in the 300 Hurdles, his specialty event, as he won with a time of 41.73. That was almost three seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.

Two of Worth County's relay teams placed. The 4x100 was 6th with a time of 50.49. The 4x400 was also 6th with a time of 4:05.

Ben Badell placed in both height events for Worth County. He was third in the High Jump with a leap of 5'8", narrowly missing out on tiebreaks. He was also third in the Pole Vault, getting a height of 9 feet.

Caleb Parman was fourth in the Triple Jump with a distance of 36'4".

Drake Kinsella was fifth in the Shot Put with a throw of 37'10".

Mustangs Down NEN for First Baseball Win in Bitter Cold

The weather was bitterly cold, at around 43 degrees at gametime, and it dropped a degree or two Thursday as North Nodaway won its first game of the year while last year's Northwest Missouri Baseball Conference Champs crashed and burned. Vance Proffitt's squad had every reason to expect a win; the Mustangs had fallen hard against Maryville JV to start out in a game arranged at the last minute and then 5-3 to East Atchison. In that game, they dug themselves into a big hole early, and then Koby Reynolds nearly singlehandedly kept them in the game by striking out 17. But they had yet to put things together. But then all hell broke loose in Ravenwood as North Nodaway put together their most complete game in two years and downed Northeast 14-5 Friday.

Coach Andrew Webster said it meant a lot to get a win earlier in the year for his Mustangs; last year, his squad had not picked up a win until late in the season. "Now, we can push them harder in practice, because they know what we tell them works," he said. He said they were trying to do the right thing; it was a matter of understanding the processes involved.

With Max Giesken at the helm for Northeast, it looked like there would be no problems for Northeast as he shut down the Mustangs down early. But then a precursor to what would happen occurred in the bottom of the inning when Mustang pitcher Peyton Coleman froze Giesken, Northeast's most dependable hitter, looking. Later in the inning, Rowdy West hit a monster shot almost as long as Spencer Weir's against North Harrison the night before, only to have it hook foul; the kid who ran and got it stood in shock for a few minutes thinking it had landed fair. Proffitt thought the same thing and had a conversation with the plate umpire, but was unable to change his mind.

It looked like Northeast would be able to take a good pitching duel; they would go on to score as Andrew Freemyer grounded out to score Spencer Weir to make it 1-0. But another bad omen happened as North Nodaway's batters at the bottom of the order started getting some good swings off Giesken; Wyatt Tate, the #9 hitter, took a line drive the other way with two strikes on him for a single and later scored when Dakota Smyser flied out in the top of the third to tie it 1-1.

It still looked like it would be OK for Northeast as Max Giesken took Peyton Coleman's first pitch down the left field line as it sliced away from Arron Coleman at third for a single. Giesken stole second and advanced again when Spencer Weir, with two strikes on him, got a slow roller in play that advanced him to third. Rowdy West flied out to score him and Northeast was up 2-1.

Northeast thought they had nothing to worry about as the bottom of the order was coming up, but then Ben Hart singled off the wall in right, and Taylor Coffelt made a good hustle play to get it back in and hold him to one base. Arron Coleman then beat out Chet Spire's throw after a slow roller for an infield hit and Ben Hart tried for third on the play. Northeast first baseball Korey Adwell threw the ball away as Coleman took second and Hart scored to tie it at 2.

Although Giesken threw away a pickoff throw, allowing Coleman to advance to third, it looked like Northeast would get out of the inning with no further damage done as Kendrick Calfee and August Hoepker struck out. But then all hell broke loose as Wyatt Tate whistled a single just over Jill Spire at second to score Coleman. Peyton Coleman then hit a towering popup, but Korey Adwell dropped it and another run scored. With runners on second and third, Dakota Smyser hit a grounder to Spencer Weir at short; he made a great play to his left to stop it, but Smyser beat out the throw and Peyton Coleman scored all the way from second as two runs came home to make it 6-2. Protecting against runners taking extra bases seems to be an area in need of improvement for Northeast.

It still looked to be no problem for Northeast; they had faced a 5-2 deficit against North Harrison the day before and had survived. But after they were shut down in the fourth and fifth, all hell broke loose in the top of the sixth as the first six North Nodaway batters got hits and five more runs came across to make it 11-2. North Nodaway continued to score, putting three more runs across as Northeast made three errors in the inning to make it 14-2. Northeast finally scored three in the seventh as Peyton Coleman started tiring in the bottom of the seventh, but it wasn't enough. As a team, Northeast made ten errors, something they will have to fix before their next game with South Nodaway.

Obituary -- Michael LeRoy Jackson 1951-2016

     Michael LeRoy Jackson was born April 5, 1951 in Maryville, Missouri to Hale and Coyla (Dehart) Jackson. He departed this life March 27, 2016 at a hospital in Kansas City, Missouri at the age of 64. 

     Michael graduated from Worth County RIII High School.  He worked in a Transmission Shop in Omaha, Nebraska before moving back to Grant City. 

     He was preceded in death by his parents and one brother, Danny Jackson. 

     Michael is survived by son Jeffrey (Kathy) Jackson of Lincoln, Nebraska,

daughter Stacey (David) Siebolt of Independence, Missouri,  six grandchildren,  brother Buddy Jackson and sister Barbara Jackson both of Grant City, nieces, nephews and other  relatives. 

     Memorial Service was 2:30 P.M. Saturday, April 2, 2016 at the Prugh-Dunfee Funeral Home in Grant City.  Inurnment will be at a later date in the Redding Cemetery, Redding, Iowa. 

Obituary -- Jay Sanders, Maryville

Born, Hale Jay Sanders to Hale J. and Evelyn McClain Sanders in Maryville, Missouri, August 12, 1948, Jay passed away from this life on April 1, 2016 at his home in Maryville, with his loving family at his side.

Jay graduated from Sheridan R-II High School in 1966, Northwest Missouri State University in 1970 and attended the University of Missouri, Columbia for several years before returning to join his Grandfather, Father and Brother-in-law in forming Sanders Ranch, Inc.

On September 20,1976 he was joined in marriage to Bonnie Thompson.  Bonnie brought to this marriage her son, Les New and daughter Mellanie New.  He loved them as his own.  To this union son P.J. Sanders was born.

Jay attended the Sheridan Christian Church, Sheridan, Missouri for many years.  He was recently baptized into Christ by Jason Hawk, Pastor of the Bridge in Maryville.

Jay was preceded in death by his parents, Hale and Evelyn Sanders, sister Jackie Schmidt, nephew Bradley Thummel, Parents-in-law Wayne and Wilma Thompson and brother-in-law Carl Coffey.

Leaving to mourn his passing are: his loving wife Bonnie of the home, Maryville; sons P.J. (Jessica) Sanders, Parnell, Missouri, Les (Rebecca) New, Sheridan, daughter Mellanie Faustlin, Maryville; sisters Kim Sanders, Sheridan, Ruth Ann (Jack) Thummel, Maryville, Paula (Doug) Caldwell, Greenfield, Iowa; brother-in-law Gary Schmidt, Webster City, Iowa, brother and sister-in-law Doy and Shirley Allee, Maryville and sister-in-law Joyce Coffee, Osborne, Missouri.

Grandchildren, Jacob New, Kristin New, Tyler New, Caleb New, Taylor Sanders, Hayden Sanders, Jeremy (Cammi) Faustlin; Great Grandchildren Maddy and Gauge Faustlin.

Jay also leaves nieces, nephews, cousins and many friends who will truly miss his wonderful smile and great sense of humor.  Jay had fought this terrible disease for eight years and through it all he was an example of courage and determination, all the while undergoing many test, medical treatments and being away from loved ones many weeks at a time while receiving treatment.  Cancer may have taken his life but it didn’t rob him of his dignity, grace, or the love for those he loved and who loved him.

Funeral Services will be held 10:30 AM, Tuesday, April 5 at the Sheridan Christian Church.  The Rev. Delbert Biehle, Rev. Jeff Blaine and Rev. Jason Hawk officiating.  There will be no formal visitation but friends may call at the Andrews-Hann Funeral Home in Grant City.  Interment will be in the Grant City Cemetery.  Memorials may be given to the SSM Hospice of Northwest Missouri, The Sheridan Christian Church, Sheridan or The Bridge, Maryville, Missouri.

Arrangements: andrewshannfuneralhome.com