P
rofile 2009
Progress
implementing the vision
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 Page1 =================================================================================================================================================================================
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Contents 5
25
49
37
Alix Sanders, 5 2009 Community Service Award winner
On a mission, 34 Area residents volunteer their time and services
Revitalizing Carroll County, 62 Development officials focus on history to bring revenue
Valley goes green, 90 Mississippi Valley State University using waste to make fuel
Economic development, 9 Organization aiming to strengthen community, prepare for growth
Oasis of love, 37 Friendship Church working to improve surrounding community
Tacketts still fishing, 65 Area catfish farmers not ready to cut bait despite tough times
Buddy Jones Ford, 13 Automobile dealer loves small-town atmosphere
Wade Inc., 39 Greenwood John Deere dealership celebrates 100 years of service
Farmers Grain Terminal, 68 Terminal doing big business as farmers plant more corn, soybeans
Royland “Budd” Messer, 16 Longtime Philippston farmer has great love for the land
Passion for hunting, 44 14-year-old girls enjoys hunting more than most men
Gresham-McPherson, 73 Company making service its top priority
Sunflower Home Health, 19 Home-health agency setting a standard of excellence
Career and Technical Center, 46 Adults take advantage of educational offerings
Viking Range Corp., 74 Company a step ahead of the competitors with new product line
Humane Society, 21 Volunteering at the animal shelter about more than playing
The Colemans, 49 Schlater family strives for excellence on the field
K.K. Henderson Kent, 77 Family important to Leflore County businesswoman, farmer
Baby’s first hours, 25 GLH Labor and Delivery a “hidden jewel”
Nashville showroom, 53 Maloufs growing family business with new showroom in Nashville
Bill Crump, 81 New chamber president recognizes the importance of teamwork
Safe and Secure, 29 Security system ensures safety of infants and children at GLH
J.J. Ferguson, 58 Company thriving and surviving using vertical integration
Carroll County Market, 84 Abels brings “good times” and entertainment to Carroll County
Curb Service and Curvettes, 32 Band has been entertaining area residents for more than 30 years
A new home, 61 Elks Lodge growing in new facility
Dr. Donna Oliver, 87 New MVSU president brings lifetime of experience
Life Help, 92 New programs and building projects helping agency bring better mental health to county Dixie Dusters, 97 Ag flying service using new technology to disperse chemicals on area fields PTA parents, 99 Parents help provide the extras for their children in school Prison ministry, 103 Volunteers give and receive blessings as they provide spiritual guidance to Delta Correctional Facility prisoners Race relations, 107 Committee working to bring more civility to discussions on race in Greenwood and Leflore County Ronnie Robertson, 109 Leflore County leader and businessman making a difference on the job and in the community
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Publisher’s note My boss, Wyatt Emmerich, chides me sarcastically for being such an optimist. He claims I will find the black cloud in every one of his silver linings. I don’t think that’s true. Rather, I’m a realist. I get neither way up nor way down, knowing that in almost all situations, there is going to be a dose of good and bad, and it’s best not to get blinded by either. Realism is a comfort during the present economic downturn. It tells me that this recession won’t last forever. Business cycles are just that – cycles. What goes down is going to go back up. Realism tells me that Greenwood and Leflore County aren’t likely to experience the same level of trauma as other parts of the country. Like the flat topography, we don’t have those huge swings of fortune. When the rest of the country is booming, we feel a modest blip upward. When the rest of the country is going bust, we feel a modest bump downward. Realism also tells me that this community has the leadership to weather the present storm. I can see the evidence. Look at the cover of this year’s Profile edition. It features three individuals – Bill Crump, Wade Litton and Dr. Donna Oliver – who represent the many and varied talents with which this community is blessed. Crump, the incoming president of the GreenwoodLeflore County Chamber of Commerce, can juggle a lot of responsibilities at once. He developed this skill early, serving as mayor of Schlater even while he was still in college. He has worked on Capitol Hill, owned his own small business, and for the last several years
Photo by Johnny Jennings
Tim Kalich, publisher
Staff
On the cover Business and industry, education and agriculture are all integral parts of what makes Leflore County a unique place to call home. This year’s front photo features key individuals in each of those areas. Bill Crump, left, is incoming president of the Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce. Crump also is director of governmental affairs and special assistant to the president of Viking Range Corp., one of Leflore County’s largest industries. Seated center is Dr. Donna Oliver, first woman president of Mississippi Valley State University. She took over the new position in January and brings a lifetime of experience in education to the Itta Bena campus. Standing right is Wade Litton, general manager of the Greenwood store for Wade Inc. Wade Inc. has been serving farmers in the Delta for more than 100 years.
been a key executive with Viking Range Corp., Leflore County’s largest employer. While Crump offers the seasoning of experience, Litton brings new blood and enthusiasm as a member of the next generation of agriculture leaders. Farming may not be the economic behemoth it once was in the Delta, but it still provides a rocksolid foundation, and a stable one. Litton’s farm implement dealership, Wade Inc., celebrates this year its 100th anniversary, and the company keeps growing. It has operations now in seven Delta communities. Crump and Litton are home-grown products. Oliver adds the outsider’s perspective, a career educator who has come to the Delta as the first woman president of Mississippi Valley State University. She brings both a respect for what’s come before her, plus new ideas about how to make it better. She also embodies the transformational role that women and minorities are playing in every level of leadership in this nation. Experience and energy. Insider and outsider. Male and female. White and black. Put it all together, and you’ve got an impressive team. That in miniature is the picture our Profile edition is designed to paint. Now in its 23rd year, it illustrates what works well in this community, and the people behind those successes. As you spend time with its 112 pages, we hope it will be a positive, encouraging experience.
Editor and Publisher Tim Kalich
Advertising Director Larry Alderman
Managing Editor Jenny Humphryes
Advertising Sales Kim Badome, Linda Bassie, Kim Clark, Susan Montgomery and Wanda Roché
City Editor David Monroe News Editor William Browning Sports Editor Bill Burrus Lifestyles Editor Rachel Hodge Staff Writers Bob Darden and Charlie Smith Contributing Writers Jo Alice Darden and Ruth Jensen
Graphic Designers Anne Miles and Joseph Cotton Production Manager Ben Gilton Circulation Manager Shirley Cooper Business Manager Eddie Ray Editorial and business offices: P.O. Box 8050 329 Highway 82 West Greenwood, MS 38935-8050 662-453-5312
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2009 Community Service Award Winner
Leading the way
Sanders a Leflore County trailblazer I
f he shuts his eyes and thinks back...through the memory of a shotgun-wielding white man threatening his life on a hot Delta plantation...through the memory of being one of six African-Americans practicing law in the Magnolia State...through the memory of having to haul his framed law school diploma into courtrooms so flattopped Mississippi bailiffs would know he belonged inside the bar...through the memory of becoming Leflore County’s first black supervisor...through the memory of slipping a ring around the finger of a girl who would be at his side for more than 40 years...through the memory of being a young man in Washington, D.C., amazed every weekend at the city’s cultural offerings...through the memory of being a law student who yearned to change the world...if his mind’s eye can hold the gaze that long, Alix H. Sanders Sr. Alix Sanders can still see himself as a little boy born into the segregated Mississippi Delta of the 1940s. It must seem half a world away. Few could have guessed the path Sanders would walk. What led that boy, whose mother was a maid and whose father worked for Greenwood Utilities, to accomplish so much? What led him to stand up and make his voice heard when the world around him told him not to? What kept him in the grind all those years? “I guess I just didn’t have sense enough to stop,” Sanders said recently in a self-effacing, disarming tone. With a smile spread across his youthful, handsome face, he wants us to believe this business of trailblazing is simple. We know better. Alix Sanders Sr. is the 2009 recipient of the Greenwood Commonwealth Community Service Award. But the honor isn’t based on his personal
“I guess I just didn’t have enough sense to stop.”
STORY AND PHOTOS BY WILLIAM BROWNING
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and professional accomplishments; it’s based there was less than inviting to Sanders and othon his inspiring belief that goals can be ers with dark skin. achieved regardless of circumstance. Over 66 “You were a non-person as far as a lot of people years, a common thread in his life has been were concerned,” he said of his law school days. his belief in the underdog, the downtrodden, “You weren’t called on in class. It was difficult. the oppressed, the undervalued. He’s an optiYou would receive threats.” mist who believes all can achieve dreams. Betty Sanders, who graduated from Alcorn “If I can do it, then you can do it,” he said. State University and would attend law school “There’s always hope. Things are never what about 10 years after Alix, added, “I couldn’t have they seem to be. And most often, they’re better done it when he did.” than they appear.” But Alix Sanders said he was undeterred. That simply stated faith is why people in “It didn’t upset me. I was there for a purpose, Greenwood feel Sanders has always been an and that was to learn law. I was going to go out and change the world.” asset and leader around his hometown. At the time, that didn’t include going back Leflore County Chancery Clerk Sam home. He remembers the day he graduated in Abraham: “As a leader, Alix played an inte1969. Standing with the rest of the law school gral role in the growth and development of graduates on the Ole Miss campus, Sanders, Leflore County. I have observed him working with his gown still about his shoulders, saw a endless hours in the pursuit of federal and Greenwood native, a white man who also state grants in an effort to improve the infrareceived his degree in law, walking toward him. structure of the county and provide a better The Sanders family had smiles all around the night Betty Sanders, “He asked me if I was going to go back to quality of life for its citizens.” center, Alix’s wife, was elected Circuit Court judge in Leflore Greenwood. I looked at him like he was crazy.” Greenwood School Board member County in 1985. Upon graduation, Sanders was named a Elizabeth “Pann” Powers: “Mr. Sanders has interest in Sanders, inviting him to enter graduate Reginald Heber Smith Community Fellow. The proexhibited outstanding leadership skills, compassion, programs. gram, two years old when he received the honor, was dedication to the betterment of our community, and a But Sanders wasn’t aware of his professor’s letterestablished in 1967. The program was intended to keen sense of duty to make a difference for the citizens writing campaign and didn’t answer the mail. The letattract talented young lawyers to the field of poverty of Leflore County and beyond.” ters piled up in a corner. law. Sanders went to work for North Mississippi Leflore County District 3 Supervisor Preston Ratliff: “One day my professor came to me and said, ‘Alix, Rural Legal Services. “He has met the challenges of rising above the narrow you haven’t been answering your mail,’” he rememBy then, he had married his wife, Betty, whom he confines of his own individual concerns to address bered. “So, as a matter of commitment to him, I sat had first known in the second grade. broader concerns of this community. ...He dared to down and responded (to the letters).” “I wouldn’t say I met her,” he noted. “I became smitdream from inside the box, of the world outside the One had come from the University of Mississippi. ten with her.” box, and set his goals to make the world a better place The school wanted Sanders to enter graduate school in Betty said he used his position with NMRLS to for all.” Oxford. But Sanders, not wanting to take a foreign “benefit the poor, underprivileged and disenfranchised Jessie Stewart: “He was always available to come language, opted for law school. citizens of Mississippi.” and talk with groups of young boys and girls and “Plus,” he casually added, “I had decided that I Sanders, though, puts it more simply: “If someone share his story with them, which motivated them to got arrested for protesting, for example, we’d make strive to believe they too could become a successful and wanted to change the world.” This was the late 1960s. The civil rights movesure they were set free, vindicated. contributing member of our society.” ment was progressing, and Sanders wanted to do “It was fearful times,” he said. “But we were after Reclining on a sofa in his home, thinking back his part. through decades of accomplishments and failures, change. Yes, we got run out of a lot of towns, but we’d He already had dealt with racism. Back home in Sanders offers one tiny glimpse into the approach to be back after the sun came up the next day.” Greenwood, his father, Cottie, had lost his job at life that led him to inspire so many and realize so One of the scariest memories Sanders has is of Greenwood Utilities for registering to vote. much. “I’ve always tried to be friendly, tried to be corgoing to a plantation in Bolivar County to gather facts “I had become aware of the high-profile individuals dial, with anybody who would allow me that latitude,” for a case. While he was there, a white man he was and their goals,” he said of Dr. Martin Luther King he said. questioning drew a shotgun from the back of a truck. Jr., Malcolm X and other black leaders. “But I’d also In order to make it off the plantation, Sanders lied to gotten to know others, the ones we don’t talk about the man, saying the FBI knew his whereabouts at all “I had decided that today. I met them and admired them.” times, and if he didn’t show back up at his office that I wanted to change the world” In 1962, James Meredith, with the help of federal evening, they would come asking questions. troops, had entered Ole Miss, becoming the school’s “I couldn’t afford to leave my brains out there in that Sanders was born in Greenwood in 1942. He attend- first African-American student. Still, the environment cotton field,” he said. ed Broad Street High, where he played on the football team. He might like to play the jock, claiming to have blindly stumbled across academic success, but his wife, Circuit Judge Betty Sanders, said he’s always had a bookish, learned side. “Even though he was the star quarterback on the football team, when the game was over and the lights went out, to me, he was still just a nerd,” she said. Sanders watched his sister leave the Delta to attend Jackson State University. When he graduated from high school, he followed her footsteps. At Jackson State he tried out for the Tigers’ football team, but it became clear early that his days on the gridiron were behind him. “Jackson State had a very good team then,” he said, grinning. “So I sort of focused on my studies.” He majored in history and political science and minored in mathematics. He also edited the yearbook, was actively involved in a political science club and joined the Methodist Student Union. After four years, with graduation looming, he didn’t know what to do with the rest of his life. But a professor – the same one who steered him toward history The Sanders family attended the Delta Sigma Theta Debutante Ball in Greenwood in 1991. Standing in the and political science – wrote letters on Sanders’ behalf front is Alix H. Sanders Jr.; behind, Alix H. Sanders Sr., Neysha Sanders, Neeka Sanders, Vernita Woodfork, to graduate schools around the country telling them Betty Sanders’ sister, and Betty Sanders. about a special student. Some of the schools showed
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Eventually, he was made director of the NMRLS. Under his control, the center opened offices in West Point, Holly Springs, Oxford, Batesville and Clarksdale. In 1971, wanting to broaden his fight for the lower class, Sanders went to work with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, first in Washington, D.C., then in Jackson. While his skills as an attorney sharpened, so did his urge to return home to Greenwood. After he did, in 1974, it didn’t take him long to enter the political arena. “I wanted to run the (Leflore County) Veterans’ Service Office,” he said. But the all-white board of supervisors voted against it. So, Sanders said, he replied, “All right. I’ll run for supervisor.” He lost the race in 1975 but ran again in 1979 and won. He held the post for 20 years. During that time, he served as vice president and president of the board, as well as President of the Mississippi Association of Black Supervisors. That’s hardly his only accomplishment in public service since moving back to Greenwood, though. During the past 35 years, Sanders has given his legal counsel to the Greenwood, Holmes County and North Panola school boards. He’s served as Greenwood municipal judge, Tchula municipal judge, Leflore County youth prosecutor, hearing officer for the State of Mississippi Personnel Board and hearing officer for school boards in cases involving adverse actions against employees. He also was instrumental in getting a voting precinct set up at Mississippi Valley State University, ensuring students there could vote without having to travel. During his years in Greenwood, Sanders has tried to bridge gaps between blacks and whites with his own simple actions. “I’ve always felt like I got along with everyone, black and white, good and bad, young and old,” he said. “No matter what I was doing, I’ve always tried to develop cordial relationships with people everywhere I’ve gone.”
“Getting over the mountain is one thing” Greenwood attorney Charles Swayze, who attended law school with Sanders, said: “Once (Sanders) complained to me of civil rights violations against AfricanAmericans in Greenwood. I suggested he return home and open his own practice if he wanted to correct any wrongs for which he espoused. To his credit, that is exactly what he did. I think he created some outstanding relationships between whites and blacks. Furthermore, I think he was a pioneer in doing so.” Pann Powers: “(Sanders) has represented the administrators, staff, school personnel, students, and Board members in an exemplary manner. His sense of integrity and legal expertise has served our school district extremely well.” Greenwood resident Vernita Woodfork: Alix Sanders “(Sanders) has touched the lives of many high school and college students by becoming a mentor, ensuring that these students make good choices about their education while offering free legal services. His philosophy is simple: ‘Learn to enjoy the process of education while acquiring the skills necessary for a lifetime of continuous learning.’” Somehow, when not at his office desk, Sanders found time to raise three successful children. Daughter Neysha L. Sanders practices law in Greenwood.
“I’ve always felt like I got along with everyone, black and white, good and bad, young and old.”
Another daughter, Neeka L. Sanders Johnson, is an obstetrician-gynecologist at Greenwood Leflore Hospital. His only son, Alix H. Sanders Jr., is a dentist who lives and works in Dallas. What does his wife, Betty Sanders, think people could learn from him? “I would hope that the people who come after him see that you have to be prepared, you have to be deliberate, you have to have goals and objectives,” she said. “Getting over the mountain is one thing, but you can’t stop once you’ve gotten there; you’ve got to be prepared for what comes next.”
“You lived your life knowing that” Sanders is retired today. “The doctor told me I needed to take a little time off, slow it down,” he said. “I did it for a while and thought, ‘Hey, I kind of like this.’” He and his wife live on Kimbrough Street, not far from his childhood home. “Sometimes I tell people it took me 40 years to move six blocks.” There are records of Brahms and Mozart in his living room and no television. The hard work behind him, he spends his time gardening and taking photographs, a lifelong passion. At one point during a recent interview, Sanders talked about all of the young attorneys – black and white – he met while working for NMRLS. “They’d come down here, put in one or two years and pack up and go back home. For those of us from Mississippi, we didn’t have anywhere to pack up and go to. There was no leaving for us. You knew that you would always be here, this was home, and you lived your life knowing that.” Sanders, the fourth child of five, born in 1942 to the late Cottie and Mary Sanders, knew that then and now. His hometown is a better place because of it.
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Greenwood-Leflore Industrial Board members Ronnie Robertson, Moses Newsome, Angela Curry and Bill Crump look over maps.
Foundation thinking big Organization aiming to strengthen community, keep it in position for future development
T
he front of the new brochure distributed by the Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll Economic Development Foundation has two words at the top: “Think big.” And despite recent setbacks in the economy, development leaders are still aiming high as they try to strengthen the community and keep it positioned for future development. In the last year, Friction Holdings LLC and Hamlin Sheet Metal announced that their Greenwood plants would close. Other companies also have laid off employees. All of those things have an impact, said Angela Curry, executive director of the Greenwood-Leflore Industrial Board. “Even any small layoff for a community of this size – it hurts,” Curry said. But the developers have access to a number of tools that can inform others about what the community offers. Site selection consultants want information quickly, so it’s important to make it accessible, Curry said. The whole point is to boost not only the economy but also citizens’ quality of life. “We’re focusing on getting through this cycle being a stronger community and better prepared for business and industry,” Curry said.
“We’re focusing on getting through this cycle being a stronger community and better prepared for business and industry.” Angela Curry, executive director Greenwood-Leflore Industrial Board v v v Much information about Greenwood and Leflore County already is available online at www.greenwoodms.com and www.greenwoodms.org, but other sites can offer specific details as well. For example, consultants can use the LocationOne (LOIS) program. The LOIS Web site lists available buildings and sites by county, and Curry can update Leflore County’s information as needed. A similar listing helped attract the attention of Raybestos when the Indiana-based company was STORY AND PHOTOS BY DAVID MONROE
looking for a plant site in 2006. They contacted local developers after seeing the former Irvin Automotive site online. “Having that up and running and accurate certainly can only help us when others look at this community to see what we have,” Curry said. Frank Short, manager of the Mississippi Development Authority’s northwest regional office in Greenwood, also stays busy collecting information that companies and developers can use. Short’s office covers 18 counties from Issaquena to DeSoto. In addition to many other tasks, he often has to go to other communities to find statistics that employers ask about, including water usage, sewer usage and many other things. He Short said a lot of work still must be done in that area, but much progress has been made. “It’s kind of challenging to get all that data and put it in there, but we’ve got a pretty good handle on it,” he said. He also is in the early stages of an asset mapping program. That involves going to communities with a digital camera and a GPS device and finding features that can be marketed. These might be more
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Above, Angela Curry, executive director of the Greenwood-Leflore Industrial Board, checks the LocationOne Web site, which contains information about available buildings for site selection professionals. Left, those promoting Greenwood and Leflore County to potential industrial employers use the success of Viking Range Corp. as an example of what can be produced in a small town such as Greenwood.
related to culture or tourism than business, but businesses ask about those aspects of a community as well, he said. Mapping work already has been done in Indianola and Winona, and he is working on something for Belzoni. The plan is to make all this information easily available online. Short said Leflore County also benefits from MDA’s Economic Development Marketing match grant program. MDA matches money for marketing efforts dollar for dollar, and the county has used this money for its Web site and some surveying in the industrial park. v v v Curry said she and other developers have a good sense of what site selectors want. They look at an area’s skilled labor, transportation facilities, public education, housing costs and availability, safety and health care. She wants to show what an asset Mississippi Valley State University is to this area, since not many communities have a four-year university. “We’ve got to do a better job of letting those outside this Delta region know that Mississippi Valley is here,” she said. Curry said she is pleased that Greenwood and Leflore County government officials have supported development and have shown a willingness to work with the Industrial Board. Periodically, she gets the chance to talk up the area at conferences and trade shows. This year, she plans to attend the CoreNet Global Spring Summit in Dallas in May and the International Plastics Showcase in Chicago in June. In addition, she said, Leflore County can benefit from the good words about the Delta put out by developers in nearby counties. That kind of regional approach is encouraged more
in economic development now, and Curry said it helped Mississippi land the planned Toyota plant near Blue Springs. That was a collaborative effort involving Pontotoc and Union counties as well as Tupelo and Lee County, she said. “Those three counties were able to pull that project off by working together, so we realized that regionalism is important, and that benefits pretty much everybody,” she said. v v v In addition to recruiting new employers, Short and Curry place a high priority on keeping local businesses where they are. To that end, board members and city and county officials visit with companies’ leaders from time to time to learn more about their work and listen to their concerns. Curry said this helps build trust, and it’s also a way to show appreciation for what they contribute. If a local company adds 100 jobs, Curry said, that’s just like adding a new company – plus there’s a better chance that those jobs will stay. “We’d be spinning our wheels if we couldn’t keep the jobs we have and then we’re trying to attract new companies,” she said. Expansions also make the area more attractive to other potential employers, Curry said. It speaks well of the work force that employees can produce high-end items such as those made at Viking Range Corp. or Milwaukee Electric Tool. Curry said a recent study, done for the Capps Technology Center of Mississippi Delta Community College, has given some insights into this area’s work force. Wadley-Donovan Group consultants of Springfield, N.J., in partnership with Younger Associates LLC, surveyed major employers in the region, compiled statistics about the work
force and conducted random surveys of residents at a number of sites in the Delta. It summarized labor market conditions for Bolivar, Carroll, Choctaw, Humphreys, Issaquena, Leflore, Montgomery, Sharkey, Sunflower, Washington and Webster counties as well as Chicot County, Ark. In the resident surveys, people were asked about their jobs, skills and training. The Greenwood interviews were done at WalMart Supercenter and Greenwood Market Place. The report cited several points in the region’s favor, including its high number of available workAngela Curry ers, their diverse skill sets and good work ethic, and lower-than-average industry earnings. It also listed some challenges, including a decline in population in recent years. This area lacks the work-force numbers to bring in an employer the size of Toyota. However, the researchers concluded that at least one “competitively paying” office operation with benefits could hire up to 250 qualified people in Leflore County within its first year, and a manufacturing operation could hire up to 275. Among other things, they recommended improving education, offering more vocational training and promoting more co-op and intern programs.
“We’d be spinning our wheels if we couldn’t keep the jobs we have, and then we’re trying to attract new companies.”
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Technology
REDESIGNING EDUCATION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY WORKFORCE The Leflore County School District is undergoing a makeover in its Career and Technical Education (CTE), formerly called Occupational or Vocational Education. The Leflore County School District has received grant money through the Mississippi State Department of Education to redesign the program by upgrading its equipment. The District has benefited from the many “add on” endorsements that have been added to the program. Charles Streeter, Director of the Career and Technical Education program, is really excited about the new changes to the program. He feels that with the latest technology that the students will be able to compete with other students in the state upon graduation.
Carpentry Class Teacher - Mr. Preston Brownlow demonstrates how to use the pipe cutter.
A new career pathway included in the Leflore County School District’s Career and Technical program is the Teacher Academy. The Teacher Academy is housed on both high school campuses, Amanda Elzy and Leflore High. Each campus received $75,000 to equip its Teacher Academy classrooms. The Academy is designed to attract students in grades 10-12 who are interested in pursuing a degree in education. The program could also help in reducing the teacher shortage in the Delta if the students chose to pursue a profession in education and remain in the Delta area.
Teacher Academy Class Teacher - Mrs. Cassandra Hansbrough assists one of the students.
Other areas of the program that received grant money include: 1) Carpentry, which will be changed to Construction Technology I & II, received $30,000. to purchase equipment; 2) Auto Mechanics received $174,000 for equipment; 3) manufacturing received $131,000. William Tolliver, the manufacturing instructor, stated that with the grant money, their programs will now have more equipment than centers in three counties combined. The students could also become certified by National Institute of Metalworking Skills (NIMS) if they meet the following criteria: • 18 years of age; • complete hands-on project; and, • successfully pass the required test
Teacher Academy Class Teacher Academy students.
Graphic and Print Design, which will change to Digital Media in the upcoming school year (2009 - 2010), is awarding funding for their upgrade. In the earlier years, many assumed that the purpose of the Career and Technical Education Program was to prepare young people who were “non-college bound” for direct entry into the workforce directly after completion of high school. However, in today’s new era of technology, students participate in CTE programs for a variety of reasons. Some of the reasons include:
Auto Mechanics Class Teacher - Mr. Tracy Ware demonstrates to students how to use the Verus Snap-on Scanner.
> To support students in the acquisition of rigorous core knowledge, skills, habits and attitudes needed for success in post-secondary and the high-skilled work place; > To engage students in specific career-related learning experiences that equip them to make well-informed decisions about further education and training and employment opportunities, and, > to prepare students who may choose to enter the workforce in a particular career area that will be valued in the market place. Manufacturing Class Teacher - Mr. William Tolliver and students examine their new equipment.
With the Career and Technical Education Program, there should no longer be an artificial split between academic coursework and CTE studies.
Career and Technical Education Director Charles Streeter
LEFLORE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT Jean Hall, Superintendent. Roy Curry, Assistant Superintendent. 1901 Highway 82 West, Greenwood, Telephone: 453-8566
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Greenwood Commonwealth Page13 PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
Buddy Jones Ford
Building relationships
Car dealer loves small-town atmosphere
R
Buddy Jones enjoys working in a community where his customers are the same people he sees at church, civic organization meetings and ballgames.
elationships are what make the car business fun for Buddy Jones. The longtime Greenwood dealer enjoys the small-town atmosphere here, where his customers are the same people he sees at church, civic organization meetings and ballgames. Jones, who first came to Greenwood nearly 27 years ago, says anyone can sell a car, but some things trump that. “Volume isn’t always the answer,” he said. “A lot of time we lose the relationship that is so important.”
“I like to see everybody do well, even my competitors.” Buddy Jones
STORY AND PHOTOS BY CHARLIE SMITH
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Members of the Buddy Jones Ford Lincoln Mercury sales team stand outside the dealership. From left are Leonard Spruill, sales; Dorothy Kelly, sales; Kevin Evans, general sales manager; Chad Hayes, sales; and Paul Andrews, sales manager.
“The car business has been good to me. It’s been good to my family. I still love the car business.” Carl DeLoach
Buddy Jones Ford Facts Buddy Jones came to Greenwood 27 years ago from Arkansas. He purchased Three Rivers Ford in 1982. Eight years ago, his company moved back to Arkansas with a dealership in Heber Springs, which is run by his son, Jayson. The Greenwood dealership has 35 employees.
Jones says what is good for the whole community is what is good for his business, Buddy Jones Ford Lincoln Mercury Inc. “I like to see everybody do well, even my competitors,” he said. His career with Ford began when the company recruited him out of college. The Vietnam veteran had graduated from the University of Central Arkansas through the G.I. Bill, and he worked for Ford’s finance arm. “I actually repoed cars as my first job,” he said. He worked his way up, learning the business at each level. However, Ford tended to move employees up north, which he didn’t really want to do. So he began working for a dealer in Little Rock. He learned that side of the business and set his sights upon one day owning his own store. Eventually, he purchased one in Stuttgart, Ark. After several moves, he decided to leave his home state because the Arkansas constitution capped loans at 10 percent, an onerous requirement for car dealers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when interest rates were around 24 percent. He bought Three Rivers Ford in Greenwood in 1982, later purchased Lincoln Mercury and finally added full-line Chrysler. Eight years ago, his company moved back to Arkansas with a dealership in Heber Springs that is run by his son, Jayson. Jones’ daughter, Robyn, serves as business development manager at the Greenwood store. “The car business has been good to me. It’s been good to my family,” Buddy Jones said. The Greenwood dealership has about 35 employees, and Jones plans to stay around for many more years. “I still love the car business,” he said.
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Royland ‘Bud’Messer Longtime Phillipston farmer Royland “Bud” Messer has seen many things change during his life. This season, he fulfilled a dream – to drive a six-row cotton picker that senses the stalks and guides itself once it’s started. Technology has come a long way for the farmer who started out picking cotton by hand.
Lifelong farmer
Messer says he would love to do it all over again
R
oyland “Bud” Messer hasn’t had the easiest life as a farmer, but he wouldn’t trade that life. In fact, he’d love to do it all over again. “I’d kind of like to start it over. I’d like to do it again from about 1937,” he said. “It’s been good.” The 77-year-old Messer, of Phillipston, has farmed in one way or another most of his life. These days he works for Garry Makamson farms, doing whatever is needed, from driving a cotton picker in the fall to repairing equipment in the winter. Messer says he wouldn’t like to stay home, especially since his wife, Bonnie Jean, had to enter a nursing home in 2008. “It gets lonesome sitting around the house,” he said. “I have farmed close to 60 years.” This season, Messer fulfilled a dream — to drive a six-row cotton picker that senses the STORY AND PHOTOS BY RUTH JENSEN
stalks and guides itself once it’s started. For someone who started picking with a sack, progressed to a one-row picker and then moved through everything up to six, it’s quite an experience. Messer said he was nervous at first, but with some help from farm manager Curtis Jolly, he soon got the hang of it. “Curtis worked with me for the first few hours,” he said. “It’s like going from an A Model to a Cadillac. You just get going and push a button and it goes.” Messer also drives a satellite-guided tractor, which he enjoys very much. Jolly said Messer is a great help on the farm. “He does a little of everything. If the shop opens, he’s there. We can rely on him. His being around makes others better.” Messer said his family had lived in Carroll County but moved to Phillipston when he was a young teenager.
Greenwood Commonwealth Page17 PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
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Page18 Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
“We hoped to get rich,” he said — but for his family, as for many others, that dream remained just that. “We farmed, but that was about as far as we got. We ended up sharecropping. We saved, bought mules, rented land. It was a pretty good struggle all the way through. Me and my daddy ran a sawmill for a while.” When he returned from serving in the Armed Forces in Germany, he married Bonnie Jean, and the two struggled to hold down jobs and farm after work. The couple worked their farm and had one daughter, Betty Messer Tanksley. “I’d come home, get on a tractor, go to the field,” he said. “We had a place. I sold it 11 years ago. Couldn’t hold on. I decided to get out while I was ahead.” When Makamson took over farming what had been Messer’s land, Messer approached him about working part-time for him. It has actually turned out to be a lot more, and Makamson said it has been good for both of them. “He’s extremely dependable. Even at his age, he is as good a guy as we have working. If anything is going on, he wants to be in the middle of it. He’s a lot of Royland “Bud” Messer help.” Messer said being able to continue working has been great for him as well. “I’ve been working for Garry now 11 years. Curtis and Garry have been wonderful to me.” Messer said that despite its difficulties, farming was a good life. “It took all of us working. It’s a hard life, but a good one, if you like it.” As for Makamson, Messer has brought something special that’s over and above his work ethic and knowledge of farming. “He’s one of those people you’re glad to meet — you’re glad you’ve known them.”
“We hoped to get rich. We farmed, but that was about as far as we got. We ended up sharecropping. We saved, bought mules, rented land. It was a pretty good struggle all the way through.”
Royland “Bud” Messer sold his land 11 years ago to Garry Makamson, but the longtime farmer continues to work for Makamson part-time. He said it has been wonderful for him to be able to continue doing what he loves.
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Sunflower Home Health and Medical Equipment
S
etting a
tandardof excellence
Agency striving to become home-health choice for community
S
Employees at Sunflower Home Health and Medical Equipment include, front row, from the left, Carmen Oguz and Rosie Brown; middle row, Justin McClain, Kim Simcox, Conchetta Cade, Vanessa Banks, Kathryn McCain and Eugene Lewis Jr.; back row, Hazel Ivory, Mary Fluker, Rena Buchanan, Lynne Wilson, Janice Reed, Lana Miller, Allison Staten and Nicole Beck.
unflower Home Health and Medical Equipment is one of the oldest homehealth agencies in the state, and though the local branch opened only about three years ago, its employees are working hard to stay at the top of the game in Greenwood. “We’ve been striving this year to become the home-health choice for the community ... we try to set a standard of excellence,” said Kim Simcox, the physician’s liaison at Sunflower Home Health in Greenwood. Aside from the Greenwood branch, Sunflower Home Health has four other offices that service STORY AND PHOTO BY RACHEL HODGE
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“We work with doctors and hospitals to provide personalized care to each patient ... We want to make sure we stay up-to-date on things. You have to set the bar really high.” Janice Reed, community educator Bolivar, Carroll, Grenada, Humphreys, Leflore, Sunflower, Tallahatchie and Washington counties. Home-health agencies are companies that work with doctors and hospitals to provide care to patients who are unable to leave their homes without assistance. Conditions that may require homehealth care include heart-related problems, cancer and diabetes, which is one of the most common illnesses in the Mississippi Delta. Home-health workers include nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, nurses’ aides, social workers and speech therapists. These representatives not only provide care to patients, but also help to train them so they are able to take care of themselves. They also go the extra mile to make sure patients are taking their medications and that they are living in a safe and healthful environment. “We work with doctors and hospitals to provide personalized care to each patient,” said Janice Reed, community educator for the company. Sunflower Home Health also sells durable medical equipment supplies for home use, such as hospital beds and wheelchairs.
Medicare, Medicaid and most private insurance companies will cover the costs of home-health care for patients. Part of Sunflower Home Health’s continued commitment to service in the community in the coming year will include working toward national accreditation for the first few months of 2009. A law was passed that required companies to get accredited by September 2009 in order to keep working with patients on Medicare, so the Sunflower staff has had to write a policies and procedures manual as well as get their warehouse ready for new equipment. This is the first time they have gone through this accreditation process, but it will be continually renewed from now on. “We want to make sure we always stay up-todate on things,” Reed said. “You have to set the bar really high.” One of Sunflower Home Health’s other improvements in the past year was the addition of woundcare specialist Lynne Wilson to their staff in the spring of 2008. “She’s highly sought-after, so we were glad to get
her,” Simcox said. Wilson graduated from the University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Nursing in 1988 and completed the Enterostomal Therapy Nurse Education Program at the University of Texas at M.D. Anderson in Houston in 1995. She also holds certification in wound, ostomy and continence nursing. She has worked in the home-health field since 1992, and she also has worked in sales and clinical consulting positions with durable medical equipment companies. At Sunflower Home Health, Wilson sees patients with wounds and ostomies – artificial openings used to eliminate bodily wastes – and she also helps educate the other nurses on wound care and advanced wound care treatment methods and tools. Simcox said home-health care is a competitive field, and there are several other agencies in town, but Sunflower Home Health has the advantage of being a local business that got its start in the Delta. “It’s always nice to do business at home,” Simcox said.
Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 Page21 =================================================================================================================================================================================
LEFLORE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY
Forthe love of
ANIMALS
“A lot of people say, ‘I couldn’t work here because I love animals too much.’But our joy comes from the satisfaction of when they do find homes.”
Seven-year-old Olivia Rowe, left, and her older sister, Shelby, 11, snuggle up to some cats at the Leflore County Humane Society. The girls have been regular volunteers at the animal shelter for about a year, and they help with a variety of tasks, including cleaning, feeding the animals, walking the dogs and more.
Volunteering at Humane Society about more than playing with puppies, kitties
P
eople might think that work at the Leflore County Humane Society is fun and easy – just come in and spend the day playing with all the cute little puppies and kitties. But the reality is that most animals arrive in bad shape – starving, hairless or covered in sores and fleas. It takes a lot of time and effort to get these dogs and cats healthy and keep them that way.
The shelter has only two paid employees – director Martha LaVere and Walter Brown, who cleans the building on weekends. All other work is done by volunteers. Becky Shaw and Sharon Stone are the shelter’s two “full-time” volunteers. On many days, they are at the shelter from the time they get off work until about 10 p.m. STORY AND PHOTOS BY RACHEL HODGE
The women help with many tasks, including rescuing and fostering animals, transporting dogs to Memphis on the weekends, answering e-mails, running the Pet Finder Web site and doing chores around the building. Above all, they are never afraid to get their hands dirty. “Nobody thinks they’re too good to poop scoop,” Stone said.
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Martha LaVere, director of the Leflore County Humane Society, is one of only two paid employees at the shelter. All other work is done through the help of volunteers.
Shaw and Stone, both AT&T employees, began volunteering at the shelter in September 2006 through the Telecom Pioneers community service group. The ladies soon helped bring the shelter “into the information age” with the Pet Finder Web site, which allows them to post photos of all the dogs and cats online. Animals from the Leflore County Humane Society have since been adopted by people from California, Florida, Maine and everywhere in between. More pets are now adopted through the Web site than in person at the shelter, but Shaw explained that’s mainly because the site reaches more people, not necessarily because people in town don’t adopt any animals. She said the economy has affected in-house adoptions recently as well. In addition to the support provided by Shaw and Stone, LaVere also has help from about 15 local children, teens and adults who volunteer on a regular basis. Shelby Rowe, 11, and her sister, Olivia, 7, have been volunteering at the shelter with their mother, Beth Rowe, for about a year. The girls said they help mop, clean cages, bathe and walk the dogs and let the cats out to play. Their family also has helped foster several animals at their home. Sharon Stone LaVere said having volunteers who can spend time with the individual animals is important because she sometimes doesn’t have time to socialize. While most volunteers come out because they care about dogs and cats, LaVere said the work also can be especially hard for animal lovers because they have to witness so much suffering. “A lot of people say, ‘I couldn’t work here because I love animals too much,’” LaVere said. “But our joy comes from the satisfaction of when they do find homes.” LaVere said another rewarding aspect of her job is that, as she and the volunteers have become more knowledgeable about local animal cruelty laws, they have been able to rescue more animals by removing them from situations where they are being abused and neglected. Many people who can’t work at the shelter try to help in other ways, such as donating money or supplies.
“Nobody thinks they’re too good to poop scoop.”
Main Street means business. One of the most effective things any community can do to improve its economic vitality is well planned historic preservation. The idea behind the Main Street concept is restoring the district that was and can still be the heart of our community. Main Street Greenwood has a vision for economic revitalization of our downtown which can restore not only the structures, but also the level and types of activity which occur here.
S E RV I C E A N D INTEGRITY I N E V E RY B A L E
Many communities all across America have discovered that historic preservation is really another form of economic development. Interested individuals who want to play a role in restoring our downtown heritage should consider becoming members of Main Street Greenwood. Call us for information about incentive grant programs and state-federal tax credits for historic rehabilitation.
Main
Street
GREENWOOD, INC.
intersecting past & future
Lise Foy, Executive Director • P.O. Box 8236 • 325 Main Street Phone 453-7625 • Fax 453-7992 • e-mail: mainstreetgreenwood@gmail.com
214 W. Market Street • Greenwood, MS 38930 662-453-6231 • www.staplcotn.com
Greenwood Commonwealth Page23 PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
For volunteers like Sharon Stone, working at the Leflore County Humane Society can be both heart-breaking and rewarding.
LaVere, Shaw and Stone said support for the Leflore County Humane Society in the community has improved over the past couple of years because of increased awareness and publicity. They cited last year’s break-in, when about 90 bags of pet food and cat litter were stolen from the shelter, as one of the main turning points that Volunteer drew in donations and Becky Shaw brought a lot of positive gets to know attention to the organization. one of the LaVere said at some point, puppies at the she hopes they can build a shelter. stronger volunteer base so that she can have a regular schedule for volunteers and know who is coming to help from day to day. Right now, she said, most people just come on the weekends. She also would like to improve the foster program, in which dogs and cats at the shelter go home with an individual or family on a temporary basis before they are adopted. The program helps with socialization by allowing animals to spend time in a home environment outside the shelter. LaVere said they need foster volunteers who love and understand animals and are willing to administer medications or perform other special tasks. Also on the wish list for the Leflore County Humane Society are a new building and a commercial van to use for transporting animals. „
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Baby’s first
hours
Greenwood Leflore Hospital labor and delivery a ‘hidden jewel’
W
hen Larry Earl “Tripp” Smith III entered the world Jan. 18 at Greenwood Leflore Hospital, he knew the sound of his Daddy’s voice. And his first scream after delivery almost made his Mom’s heart burst with joy at the birth of her first son. Tripp’s dad, Larry Earl Smith Jr., made a point every night while his wife, Leslie, was pregnant to kneel down in front of her stomach and talk to their unborn son. It appears that bonding time worked well for the first-time dad. “If you could have seen him when Larry spoke, his ears (and head) turned to his daddy’s voice,” said grandmother Judy Wood. “He knew Larry’s voice.” Leslie attested to her husband’s ritual of talking to their son. She said Larry could just touch her stomach while she was carrying Tripp, and he would go wild. The new parents gushed on and on about their little boy as they prepared to leave the hospital on Jan. 21 and take Tripp home. The Smiths said they enjoyed every moment of the birth of their child because of the care and understanding provided by the doctors and staff at Greenwood Leflore Hospital. v v v
Leslie Smith holds her new son, Larry Earl “Tripp” Smith III, as they prepare to leave Greenwood Leflore Hospital, where she delivered.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY JENNY HUMPHRYES
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Having a new baby is an exciting time for parents, and the Smiths wanted their child to have the best care possible. They found that care at Greenwood Leflore Hospital. Some people choose to go to Jackson or Memphis to have their children, but the Smiths couldn’t be happier with the care they received in their own hometown. “We didn’t have a reason to go anywhere else,” Larry said. “It was very convenient to be here and have doctors like Dr. (Neeka) Sanders and Dr. (Rana) Skaf,” Leslie said. “And the nurses have been just wonderful.” Like any new Judy Wood parents, Leslie and Larry were mostly concerned with their baby’s health. They wanted to know if he had all his fingers and toes and see if all his organs were developing and working properly. Leslie said it gave her comfort to know that she would have her baby in the hometown where she grew up and in the hospital where she was born. Wood seconded her daughter’s sentiment. “Dr. Sanders is like family, and the treatment here has been wonderful.” Because Tripp was a big baby, he was delivered by Caesarean section three weeks early. Leslie said she was told the morning he was born that the C-Section was necessary. Dr. Skaf was on call, but
Amy Brower, a registered nurse at Greenwood Leflore Hospital, weighs Tripp Smith before he is taken home by his parents, Larry Earl Smith Jr. and Leslie Smith. Weighing and measuring the baby are some of the first things the nurses do once the baby is brought to the nursery.
“Dr. Sanders is like family, and the treatment here has been wonderful.”
Dr. Sanders, Leslie’s primary doctor, came in to handle the delivery. Tripp was born at 8:19 p.m. January 18, weighed 8 pounds, 12 ounces and was 21 inches long. Leslie said she saw the baby briefly when he was born, but she had to wait about four hours to hold him because the nurses needed to make sure he was healthy. “Holding him for the first time ... it’s something you just can’t explain,” Leslie said. “It was 1 in the morning,” but she said it was amazing.
Like many dads these days, Larry chose to be in the delivery room when Tripp was born. “It was just wonderful,” he said. “He’s a treasure.” Larry and Leslie jointly changed Tripp’s diaper and clothing after he was brought to them. This gave them a little practice time before leaving the hospital. Being a new mom, Leslie said she hadn’t been nervous until the nurse came in and said she could go home. Then she felt a little overwhelmed.
This Picture May Save Your Life. Greenwood Leflore Hospital now offers the latest advances in diagnostic imaging. Diagnostic imaging is a key component in detecting illnesses. That’s why Greenwood Leflore Hospital remains on the cutting edge with the recent addition of the new Achieva 1.5 MR System. It’s the best technology in MRI’s and the most versatile whole body diagnostic tool available. For whole body imaging with increased speed and patient comfort, and a high-field power for detailed images, the Achieva MR is the newest asset to Greenwood Leflore Hospital and its patients.
1401 River Road s Greenwood, MS s 662-459-7000 s www.glh.org
Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 Page27 =================================================================================================================================================================================
process is not too bad,” she said. Sanders doesn’t always get to deliver the babies of all her patients because she might not be on call at the time. Still, she tries to be there if at all possible: “There’s a bonding experience over those nine months, and you try to be there at this critical time.” Sanders said it’s the old-fashioned notion of wanting to be treated by someone you know who knows you well.
Larry Earl “Tripp” Smith III was born at 8:19 p.m. on Jan. 18 at Greenwood Leflore Hospital. He is the first-born son of Larry and Leslie Smith of Greenwood. Here he is taking a little nap in the arms of nurse Amy Brower.
v v v
“But I’m more comfortable than I thought I would be,” Leslie said. Besides, she said she knows her husband will be there to help with everything when she gets home – and she has the support of the doctors and staff at the hospital. v v v Dr. Neeka Sanders takes great pride in providing the best possible care for the patients in her hometown, especially those who choose to deliver their babies at Greenwood Leflore Hospital. Sanders, a native of Greenwood, returned to Leflore County four years ago after completing her residency in Pittsburgh. She is the daughter of Alix and Betty Sanders of Greenwood, and she received her medical degree from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine. “I was born and raised here, and I wanted to return to the people who raised me and take care of them,” she said. Sanders said the process of having a baby in Greenwood starts with the first pre-natal visit. “We do a history on the patient to determine any conditions that may affect the mother and child,” she said. The first things a mother wants to know when she becomes pregnant are who will take care of her and who will deliver her baby, she said. When the mother is about halfway through her pregnancy, Sanders begins educating them on what to expect during delivery, which includes information on epidural pain management and childbirth classes. As the mother approaches the due date, an exam is done to determine whether the birth will happen naturally or the mother will have to have a Caesarean section or be induced into labor. Then she carefully discusses each option and process with her patients. “This is a small hospital,” Sanders said, “but this department is one of the hidden jewels.” The staff and doctors there have worked together for years, and they are like a family, Sanders said. That certainly applies to the post-partum wing, she said: “We know each other’s routines without saying a word.” Sanders said the care provided to mothers and their new babies in Greenwood is comparable to that available at larger hospitals in bigger cities.
“Delivery is still the only time people come to the hospital where families are happy, and it makes it special,” she said. Sanders also enjoys getting the parents involved in the process, such as letting the new dad cut the cord and take as many photos as possible when the baby is born. No matter which way the baby is delivered, it is OK, said Sanders, who had her own child by C-section. “It’s OK to have a C-section, and the recovery
When any baby is born at Greenwood Leflore Hospital, nurses look for certain things to ensure the baby is healthy. Registered nurse Amy Brower, who has worked in the GLH nursery for four years, said the nurse first looks for color, respiratory effort, tone, heart rate and reflex. The baby is given a rating of 0 to 2 in each of these, with the best possible score being a 10, Brower said. If there are problems with any of these functions, the nurses alert the pediatrician and treat them accordingly. The nurses also check to make sure all the baby’s body parts are there and working properly, and they look for telltale signs of birth defects or conditions that might not be obvious at first glance. Brower said a pediatrician is in the delivery room for every C-Section, but that is not always the case with vaginal deliveries. If the baby is born vaginally and there are no problems, then the pediatrician will follow up with the baby. However, if there is a problem, the pediatrician is called and comes in immediately. After coming to the nursery from labor and delivery, the baby is weighed and measured. The baby also is given the appropriate newborn medication, and dye is placed on the cord to make sure it starts drying up properly.
Dr. Neeka Sanders is shown in one of the labor and delivery suites at Greenwood Leflore Hospital. Sanders returned to Greenwood four years ago after completing her residency. She said she wanted to come back home and take care of the people who had helped raise her.
Page28 Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
ery baby is given a Hepatitis B injection in the first babies. four hours. “And she keeps in touch,” Brower said. “She keeps All babies born at Greenwood Leflore Hospital stay a record and phone number of everybody.” under the warmer for three hours before going to If moms need assistance with breast feeding or any their moms to make sure they are stabilized, Brower other issue after leaving the hospital, Lee is there to said. help. Initially, a baby is fed sterile water, Brower said. “She goes above and beyond what she actually has That way if the baby aspirates, it won’t cause pneuto do,” Brower said. monia. If the mom plans to breast feed, the nurse takes v v v the baby to mom for the first feeding. If the child isn’t going to be breast fed, Brower said the nurse gives Once the mom has delivered, she leaves labor and the baby an ounce of formula in delivery and goes to post-partum. the nursery. Registered nurse Cassandra Greenwood Leflore Hospital Brown, who has worked in the does not have an intensive care department almost five years, nursery. If a newborn has compliknows exactly what to look for in cations that can’t be treated at caring for her patients. GLH, Brower said the staff can “Primarily, when the mom take care of the baby and stabilize comes over here, we monitor her it until transport by ambulance or bleeding and watch her blood pressure,” Brown said. helicopter to a hospital with an Amy Brower, R.N. She looks for post-partum hyperintensive care unit. And the doctors don’t leave the Greenwood Leflore Hospital Nursery tension and monitors the mother’s breast-milk production. Post-parhospital until the baby leaves, tum nurses also help mothers bond Brower said. with their babies and look for early signs of post-parIt’s also easy for the nurses to get attached to the babies while caring for them. She said there was one tum depression. baby who stayed at the hospital for 22 days, and she “We watch the interaction between the mom and was calling her by her first name before she left. her baby,” Brown said. Then there are cases where babies are going to be The nurses also follow up with the patients to put up for adoption. Brower said nurses have make sure they are not having any problems once brought in clothes for the babies in some of those they leave the hospital. cases because they care what happens to them. But Brown said the most important thing she does One of the most beloved members of the as a nurse is teach. She said a lot of patient education Greenwood Leflore Hospital nursery staff is Genetta goes on – everything from helping a mom feed the Lee. She educates new moms and sends them home baby to issues with her own health and depression with a packet of information to help them with their following delivery.
“She (Genetta Lee) goes above and beyond what she actually has to do.”
DON’T PART WITH YOUR PROFILE We’ve got extra copies on file. You could feel there was something special about today’s Greenwood Commonwealth when you picked it up in the driveway or took it out of the news racks. One glance, and you could tell why. Today’s paper includes the Commonwealth’s 23rd annual Profile Edition, the largest and best single issue of the year. You think your aunt, who moved away last summer, would like to read Profile, too but you don’t want to par t with yours. No problem. We’ve got enough extra copies on file to keep you, your aunt and all the rest of your family and friends happy.
Let us mail them for you. Back copies of this keepsake edition can be picked up in our Circulation Depar tment for $2 each. If you need to send them out of town, let the Commonwealth mail them for you. All you need to do is fill out the following order form and send it to us with a $5 check or money order to cover the costs of the newspaper and mailing. We’ll send Profile to the destination of your request, anywhere in the United States.
PROFILE 2009 ORDER FORM Please Send Profile to:
NAME____________________________________________________ STREET ADDRESS________________________________________ CITY________________________STATE______________ZIP_____________
Above, proud papa Larry Earl Smith Jr. holds his new son, Tripp, as they prepare to leave the hospital. At left, Leslie Smith kisses her son’s hand as his dad, Larry, holds the newborn.
Life Help Mental Health Center 662-4453-6 6211 Region VI Nonprofit Agency Serving the Citizens of 8 Counties: Attala, Carroll, Grenada, Holmes, Humphreys, Leflore, Montgomery, Sunflower Some of Our Programs Are: • Crisis Intervention Facility • Denton House / Chemical Dependency Residential Unit • Life Help Industries / Day Programs for Adults with Developmental Disability • Friendship Clubhouse for Individuals with Serious Mental Illness • Garden Park Adult Day Care • Hope House / Halfway Residential Program • Male and Female Group Homes for individuals with Serious Mental Illness • Intensive Outpatient for Chemical Dependency (classes held at night Mon./Tues./Wed. 6 - 9
• Administration for Beacon Harbor Group Homes • Adolescent Offender Programs • School-Based Therapy for Children • Outpatient Treatment by Board Certified Psychiatrist, Board Certified Clinical Therapists & Clinical Psychologist • Elderly Day Treatment Program • Juvenile Detention Screenings • Nursing Home Psychosocial Services • DUI Assessments and Counseling • Elderly Day Treatment Program Building new buildings to house our new programs for 2009.
Mail order form, along with $5 check or money order, to Greenwood Commonwealth Circulation Department, P.O. Box 8050, Greenwood, MS 38930
Established 1974. Funded in part by the State Department of Mental Health. THE GREENWOOD
Commonwealth 453-5312
Toll Free 1-800-898-0730
354 employees served an average of 5945 individuals in 2008. 2504 Browning Road • Greenwood, MS 38930
Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 Page29 =================================================================================================================================================================================
Safe and secure
New security system ensures safety of infants, children at GLH
O
ne of the most important things to parents is keeping their children safe and secure, no matter where they are. Recognizing that need, employees at Greenwood Leflore Hospital put the Secure Care Infant Security System in place to ensure the safety of all of their pediatric patients. Kerri Reaves, child life coordinator at Greenwood Leflore Hospital, said the idea came about when the KING (Kind Investing Nurtures Growth) Club had money left over from renovation projects that included the pediatric wing and hospital chapel. Having seen a demonstration on the program earlier, employees agreed this was a good project for their additional funds that would provide extra security and protection for their patients, Reaves said. The KING Club is an employee giving program at the hospital that raises funds for projects that might otherwise take longer to bring about. “As co-chair of employee giving, we felt this was something we needed to protect our patients,” said Reaves. “And we are extremely proud our employees were able to make that happen.” The Secure Care Infant Security System was up and running in December 2008. It provides a transmitter bracelet for each pediatric patient so the staff can monitor their location while they are in the hospital. Each child is fitted with a bracelet upon arrival at the hospital, and it is activated by a staff member. The transmitter can be deactivated only by a security device that will turn off the bracelet when a patient is discharged from the hospital.
Greenwood Leflore Hospital nurse Cynthia Bess checks the security device placed on pediatric patient Kobie Austin, 2, as her mom, Camissha Greer, looks on.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY JENNY HUMPHRYES
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Antennas have been installed and access excited. “I had seen something similar to points have been strategically placed within this on television, and to have it here is the hospital to track the child’s location at great,” she said. all times. If a child goes past these access Cynthia Bess, an LPN on the pediatric points or if the transmitter is cut or damfloor, said the new system “makes the paraged, alarms will alert the staff, doors will ents and the nurses a lot more comfortlock shut, and elevators will cease to operable.” ate until a new band has been secured in Marian Brown, a nurse in the place, Reaves said. Greenwood Leflore “This system Hospital nursery, said offers our families the monitoring device Parental guidelines maximum protecis extra coverage for tion against a possithe mom. It also Notify the staff immediately if the ble abduction,” keeps mothers from bracelet slips off. Reaves said. leaving the hospital If the bracelet slips off, do not When a child has with their babies too allow your child to hold, place or chew to leave the pediearly and before being on it. atric wing or the discharged, she said. Do not take your child off the pedinursery for testing, Newborns get their atric floor, unless it is with a GLH the nurses can susemployee. Parents are strongly encour- monitors once they pend the alarm on are removed from the aged to escort their children. the transmitter for radiant warmer and Do not walk your child to vending a period of time are placed in the crib, machines. and then reactivate Brown said. The Do not allow your child to wander it when the child babies have them in in the hallways. returns to the floor. place before they ever So far, Reaves go to the floor to be said, the hospital with their mothers. has been very pleased with the system. So Each nurse’s station has a computer has mother Camissha Greer, whose daugh- monitor that shows the location of every ter, Kobie Austin, 2, was a recent patient. pediatric patient who has a security Greer said the new system gives her a bracelet in place. sense of security, and she is glad Brown said putting the bracelets on the Greenwood Leflore Hospital has put this babies has become a common practice, technology in place. She said she and her and the nurses have incorporated it into daughter have been frequent visitors to the their daily plan of care. So far, the new hospital, and when she was told of the new technology has been a smooth transition, system during her recent visit, she was she said.
Above, nurse Marian Brown checks the location of the babies in the nursery on a computer monitor, which is a part of the Secure Care Infant Security System. At left, Child Life Specialist Kerri Reaves checks one of the access panels on the pediatric wing of the hospital. If a child goes past these points, or if the transmitter is cut or damaged, an alarm will go off, doors will lock shut, and elevators will cease to operate until a new band has been secured in place.
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Members of Curb Service and the Curvettes include, from the left, Joe Seawright, Harrison Smith, Johnny Jennings, Charles Hall, Johnny Freeman, Duff Dorrough, Cathy Jennings, Connie Black and Vicki Morgan.
Curb
Service and the Curvettes Garage band has been together for more than 30 years
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ike most garage bands, Curb Service started out with a few friends getting together for some jam sessions. Unlike most garage bands, those friends are still playing together 30 years later. Some of the faces have changed over the years, but the overall goal remains the same – to have fun. “When we started off it was a typical garage band. It was a hobby band,” said Curb Service bass player Joe Seawright. “It’s still a hobby band after 30 years. We don’t make our living doing it, but we really enjoy it.” When the band started in 1979, the members included Seawright, Johnny Freeman and Johnny Jennings on guitar, Jim “Fish” Michie on piano and John Elliot on drums. Michie and Elliot have since left the group and have been replaced by guitarist Duff Dorrough, keyboardist Charles Hall and drummer Harrison Smith. The band’s repertoire consists mainly of dance music from the 1950s and ’60s, a time period that also served as the inspiration for their name, Curb Service. Seawright explained that in the ’50s and ’60s all the drive-ins and juke joints offered curb service, in which car hops would take orders and bring food and drinks right out to the cars. His wife, Rebecca, suggested the name, and the band members thought it was perfect. “We thought the idea of bringing the music to you was appropriate for the ’50s and ’60s rock ’n’ roll we played,” Seawright said. Curb Service covers songs by a variety of well-known acts, including The STORY BY RACHEL HODGE
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“Curb Service has such a huge following, but to add the girl songs in there gave it a little shot.” Connie Black, a member of the Curvettes
Above, members of Curb Service perform at various private parties about once a month. From the left are Johnny Jennings, Joe Seawright, Duff Dorrough and Johnny Freeman. Below, the Curvettes, including, from the left, Vicki Morgan, Cathy Jennings and Connie Black, joined Curb Service about two years ago and have been performing with the band ever since. Curb Service covers songs by a variety of well-known acts, including The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, The Temptations and more. All of the songs they perform have one thing in common – they must be upbeat dance tunes that will keep the crowd moving. “If a song isn’t a great dance tune, it doesn’t make our list,” Seawright said. The band is primarily a party band and doesn’t perform at bars or clubs. When Curb Service started, it was a popular act at college fraternity parties, but now it performs mostly at private parties, such as weddings or birthdays, and occasionally at festivals, including local events such as River to the Rails and Stars and Stripes in the Park. Seawright said about half of their gigs are in Greenwood, and most of the rest are in nearby cities between Memphis and Jackson. Early on Curb Service performed about twice a month, and soon they were booked up almost every weekend. Business was good, but it was more work than the band members had signed up for. “It got like a job. We got kind of worn out,” Seawright said. These days, they’ve cut back and perform together only about eight to 12 times per year. “We play enough that we don’t feel burnt out and don’t get tired of doing it,” Seawright said. The band now has its own Web site, www.curbserviceband.com, but the recent addition that really has proved to be a major turning point in the band’s career was the creation of the Curvettes, who first
appeared with Curb Service on New Year’s Eve in 2006. The Curvettes – Connie Black, Cathy Jennings and Vicki Morgan – usually come on stage about halfway through each Curb Service performance and entertain the crowd with popular “girl group” songs by acts such as The Chiffons, Aretha Franklin, Martha and the Vandellas and The Supremes. “Curb Service has such a huge following, but to add the girl songs in there gave it a little shot,” Black said. The ladies are now going into their third year of performing with the band, and so far there are no regrets on either end. “It’s the most fun I’ve ever had in my whole life,”
exclaimed Jennings, the wife of Curb Service guitarist Johnny Jennings. When hiring Curb Service to play at a party, people have to pay a little more to book the Curvettes, but almost everyone is willing to spend the extra money. “It’s the best thing we could do for the band. Our stock has really gone up,” Seawright said. The ladies had sung in church together before in a group called Harmony, but this is the first time any of them have performed with a rock group. They said some of the challenges have included performing from memory without having music or lyrics to look at, singing along to music that they sometimes can’t even hear and getting used to the more relaxed practice style of the men in the band. “We are all three perfectionists, so we had to learn to be a little looser,” Morgan said. Still, they insist that the positives far outweigh the negatives. “For three mature women who love music to get to do what we’re doing, it’s a dream,” Morgan said. Part of what makes performing so enjoyable for members of Curb Service and the Curvettes is that their first rule is always just to have a good time. “We’re good friends, we play music that our audience really enjoys, and it always ends up fun,” Johnny Jennings said. Seawright added that making sure the crowd is dancing and enjoying themselves is key to their own enjoyment during each performance. “When the crowd’s having a good time, we feed off that energy,” he said.
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On a mission
Area residents volunteer their time and services to help those in need
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merica is an incredibly generous nation, as seen in its armies of volunteers doing every sort of charitable work locally and around the world. Greenwood and surrounding areas have many who work with local children and feed hungry people here. While all of these are equally important, some choose to go far away to serve others. Something as simple as a pair of warm socks or as important as dental care or needed medications can mean much to people who have little. When you talk to those who regularly give their time and financial resources, it’s obvious that they do it for no gain or publicity, but simply a desire to serve others. Often they see it as a way to live out their religious faith, and a transforming life experience. When Muffett Dunn of the Black Hawk community in Carroll County arrived in Poleist, Romania, in October of last year, she was struck by the poverty there. “Every day we went out to different villages. There was no running water, no sewer systems. If they were wealthy enough, they had a horse and wagon,” Mrs. Dunn said. “Many people wear plastic
Muffett Dunn takes the blood pressure of a patient while on a mission trip to Romania.
STORY BY RUTH JENSEN
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Greenwood Commonwealth Page35 PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
“We love to go places where people need help, and especially to help new churches get started.” Claver Blair
Dawn McMinn, right, speaks with two ladies at a clinic in Kharkov, Ukraine, while serving on a mission trip. slides without socks, even in cold weather.” She and husband Malone plan to get donations of 1,000 heavy black socks to send or take to Romania next year. After seeing the enthusiasm of her husband, who had gone to Romania twice, Mrs. Dunn, a nurse, decided to join him on his 2008 trip. It took a doctor, 10 nurses, a pharmacist, a dentist, piles of medications and many pairs of glasses, as well as individuals like Mr. Dunn who shared the Christian gospel with others. Whether or not they wanted to hear made no difference in their getting medical care, Mr. Dunn said, but he added that he has a great desire to tell others about God’s love. “Being Christians, I believe we’re commanded to do this, to show love. We just go and do what we can.” District health nurse Dawn McMinn of Greenwood has put her nursing skills to work in Ukraine for the past two years. “This year we had two medical teams, so we could go in separate areas. The group takes medications – some donated, some purchased by group members. McMinn, a bioterrorism educator, has also gone on other medical mission trips to Honduras. She said she saw different needs in the two locations. “In Honduras there are lots of infections and a great need for antibiotics, and in the Ukraine, you see more chronic conditions, especially Claver and Jane Blair of Carroll County have been on numerous mission trips, in the United in the older population,” she said. Sates, Central America and Mexico. McMinn said that while there is no formal religious service, after patients have seen the medical personnel, the volunteers ask them if they have any needs for which they would like prayer, and they offer a New Testament. “We have interpreters from a local church,” she said. “We don’t preach. If they want, a local pastor talks with them. Some come back for a second year. They remember us and thank us.” There is usually no resistance in people taking a Testament, she said, adding that she feels God works without their preaching or teaching. McMinn said she also looks to prayer in deciding where she wants to lend a hand. “I try to open up my heart to hear where God wants me.” For Claver and Jane Blair of the Jefferson community of Carroll County, giving to others is a way of life. The two have been on numerous mission trips in the United States and to Central America and Mexico. They are part of a Mississippi Baptist Disaster Relief Team and join others from the area to go and help those affected by disasters, such as hurricanes. The Blairs use their talents as cooks to feed both victims and workers. They have also helped with church building in Colorado and taught Vacation Bible School, and they worked at the Paralympics in Atlanta, help-
ing disabled athletes with their needs and passing out Christian literature. Claver said the two have a heart for missions: “We love to go places where people need help, and especially to help new churches get started.” Closest to Jane Blair’s heart now is a ministry she has with women inmates in the Grenada jail. Since 2001, she has gone weekly to the jail, taking refreshments, and having a Bible study. In December, they have a wrapping party. “We take gifts and wrap presents for their children,” Mrs. Blair said. She said she enjoys the prison ministry very much. “It’s an experience,” she said. “I just love them all. I’ve seen a lot of girls come and go. I hear from some of them. I hope we let them know we loved them.”
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Oasis of love Friendship Missionary Baptist Church hopes to transform area that surrounds it
F
riendship Missionary Baptist Church has a grand design for the area that surrounds it – to turn what was once a crime- and drug-ridden area into an oasis of Christian love and a clean and well-kept area that residents can be proud of. They’ve gone a long way in working toward those goals, but they have even grander plans. The church has purchased 10 dilapidated buildings around its property, torn down all but two of the buildings and cleaned the grounds. Only two buildings remain between the church and Larry Griggs the railroad. One deacon, Larry Griggs, says the area has changed considerably since the church expanded. Some people even told them they shouldn’t build there,
“The church slogan is ‘Where God’s love is expressed,’and people try to live up to that idea as best as possible.”
Exercise class members, some from Friendship and some from area churches, pose outside the Friendship M.B. Church. They are, from left, Loretta Randle, Arlean McCain, Annie Covington Floyd, Randy Banks, WillElla Hudson, Devoe Thomas, and Cynthia Love.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY RUTH JENSEN
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Friendship Missionary Baptist Church has dedicated itself to renewing the community around it, rather than moving out and leaving it, as some have chosen to do. The church has remodeled the building, purchased dilapidated buildings around its property, torn them down, and cleaned up the lots. Members say there is less crime in the area now.
but they didn’t see it that way. Rather than move somewhere else, they wanted to stay and try to influence the community. “Crime was bad. There used to be a lot of guys on the corner. We heard rumors they were going to set the church on fire,” Griggs said. “I went and talked to them and asked how they felt about the church. They said, ‘We respect the church’ and said they would help take care of it. We didn’t have one thing come up missing when we were building.” Getting rid of unsightly buildings is just a small part of the plan. Members say they want to Pastor Valmadge Towner add a family life center, a credit union, a place for the elderly to come, and a Christian school. Pastor Valmadge Towner says this vision – to own everything from Avenue E to the railroad tracks and to make it useful for the community and God’s work – came from Pastor Henderson Fields Sr., who passed away some years ago. He concurs with Pastor Fields’ vision, he says. Towner has been trained in the “Evangelism Explosion” method of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Florida, made famous by now-deceased pastor D. James Kennedy. Towner says he is using the method in Greenwood and is working to train his people in evangelism. “We want to help people get saved, then train them to teach others.” The idea of a Christian school is “not to compete with public schools,” Towner said, “but to give more individual help to those that need it. I’m a product of a Catholic school in Clarksdale. My mother worked at Coahoma Community College and took me each day from Marks to go to school near her. I was a stutterer and very active. The nuns helped me a great deal.” He wants to give that same kind of help to other youngsters, he says. Towner is a third-generation pastor. His dad and granddad were both in ministry. He came to
“We want to get people saved, then train them to teach others.”
Friendship M.B. Church in August 2005 and was elected pastor in April 2006. He also serves as Quitman County school superintendent. Towner feels the church members have what it takes to achieve their goals. “We have many members with low incomes, but they’re thrifty and determined.” Griggs said his family joined the church in February 1998, and they found what they were seeking. “The church slogan is ‘Where God’s love is expressed,’ and people try to live up to that idea as best as possible.” Another deacon, Willie Hayes, agrees that the church is a place where he feels the warmth of Christian fellowship. “It’s not perfect, but it’s a wonderful place. We believe in ‘Thus says the Lord’ and try to teach and follow God’s word.” Devoe Thomas said she has been a part of Friendship for more than 30 years, and it means a great deal to her. “I get what I need from the church spiritually. The pastor preaches the word, teaches. If somebody needs something, we’re there for them.” Corinne Spells said she very much enjoys the worship services. “I love my church. We worship. We have a good time.”
Khaina Ball, 15, said the church is “a whole other family” to her. She was recently baptized in a Wednesday night service, along with Tristan Potlow, age 6, and five others. Tristan says he has a good time at church. Friendship has about 400 active members, according to church secretary Katie Jones, who said the church is as much a part of her as family. “I have been here all my life,” she said. “My mother and father were members here. Mother joined in 1932. I joined and was baptized in 1952. Our mission is to reach sinners, save souls and help those in need.” Getting youth involved is another important goal, Griggs said. “Many young black youth don’t respect the church because of what they view as hypocrisy in the church,” he said. But Friendship is working to reach out to young people and “find a hook to get them here,” he said. The next step on the road to seeing Pastor Fields’ vision become a reality will be paying off the church’s mortgage. Once that is accomplished, then the church can move forward with its plans of transforming the community, one building at a time.
Church members and baptismal candidates watch as Pastor Valmadge Towner prepares to baptize Khaina Ball recently at the church.
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Wade Inc.
The service team at Wade Inc.’s Greenwood store is a key part of the company’s success. The John Deere dealer is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2009. Kneeling in front is Roy McKay. Standing from left are Matthew Johnson, Fred King, Anthony Taylor, Tim Ansley, Adrian Peacock, Bob Buchanan, Sandra Matthews, Alvin Upchurch, George Davis, Lewis Doss and Kevin Avant, service manager. Not pictured is Keith Simmons.
100 years of success
Family-owned company attributes its success to its customers, dedicated employees and the John Deere line
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ong before green and yellow machines replaced mules on Delta farms, what is now Wade Inc. was selling John Deere equipment in Greenwood. The company is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and has successfully made the transition from animal-drawn plows and wagons to GPS-guided tractors. The Wade family, now in its fourth generation of leadership at the company, attributes its lasting power to three principal factors: customers on the cutting edge of new agricultural techniques, dedicated employees and the John Deere line, known as tops in the world. “It’s like a three-legged stool. If you pull any of those STORY BY CHARLIE SMITH
out, you're going to fall,” said Bill Litton, Wade Inc.’s president for 29 years. “We’re blessed and we’re humbled to be where we are today.” G.A. Wade started the company along with some investors in 1909, as Teddy Roosevelt was just leaving the White House and while Mark Twain was alive and writing. Stockholders of Wade Hobbs Hardware held their first meeting in Greenwood during July of that year. “At that time as a hardware company, we sold coal; we sold ice boxes; we sold farm equipment, hoes, cotton sacks, wagons, plows, and one of the things we sold from the beginning was the John Deere Plow Co. products,” Litton said. “We’ve had John Deere products from day one.”
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based on his conversations The company stocked with dealers across the plantation commissaries country. They’re quick to and country stores from its embrace anything that will home on Howard Street make their operations more downtown, where Ju Sai efficient, such as global Gai restaurant is today. positioning systems. The named changed to “They use GPS to autoWade Hardware in 1913, steer, drive the tractors, and a sister store opened in where the guy who’s sitting Clarksdale four years later. on the tractor’s not touching It continued under that the steering wheel,” Wade business model for more Litton said. “The tractor’s than three decades. driving itself.” Business really took off GPS makes an average after World War II, when operator perform like a mechanization entered skilled one, Pillow said, and farming in a big way. they have another advanThe man behind much of tage of being able to functhe company’s success was tion at night. George K. Wade, G.A. He’s seen efficiency grow Wade’s son. He had come tremendously during his into the business in 1934, lifetime, and although became president in 1952 there’s still no replacement and served in that role until 1980. John Deere recently honored the founding family of Wade Inc. for the company’s 100th anniversary. From for hard work, technology “He set a course for this left is Chad Mohamed, a Belzoni farmer, and his wife, Gerard, daughter of Bill and Ann Litton; Bill Litton, has helped industrious company back in the ’50s president of Wade Inc., and his wife, Ann, granddaughter of the company’s founder; Meagan Litton and farmers get much more that enabled us to be in a her husband, Wade, general manager of Wade Inc.’s Greenwood store; and Wendi Litton and her hus- done. “The name of the game is position to grow in the latband, Powell, general manager of the Clarksdale store. going over as much ground ter years,” said Bill Litton, as you can in a day’s time,” he said. Mr. Wade’s son-in-law. “He’s responsible for positioning Clarksdale. “They both have hit the ground running,” Bill Litton Horsepower on a standard tractor has leapt from us to be the successful company that we are today.” said. “They’ve got a lot of energy that is real refreshing, 100 to 250 or 300, and today’s hoppers are the size of Wade bought another store in Indianola in 1950 and they are really adding to the company. They will the trucks they used to take grain to bins in, Pillow and moved into its current home on U.S. 82 in 1960. be the next generation to take it further.” said. Other advances in seed technology and irrigation Later in the ’60s it dropped its hardware line and Wade Litton says he shares the passion for going to have also contributed to increased yields. became a 100 percent John Deere dealer, changing its Farming is now high-tech, Bill Litton says, and as a name to Wade Inc. A store in Marks came on board in work every day that his father has. Both agree that the Delta farmers they deal with play a big part in that. result servicing equipment for the American farmer is 1967. It’s satisfying to do business with the type of people a high-tech business. After working in the service and sales departments that a handshake can seal a deal with. Bill Litton puts “If they’re going to stay in business, they’ve got to get starting in 1972, Bill Litton was elected president in Walter Pillow in that category. more efficient,” he said. “If Wade Inc.’s going to stay in 1980. George Wade became chairman at that time Pillow, a fourth-generation Leflore County planter, business, we’ve got to do a better job today than we did and remained in the role until he passed away in bought his first tractor, a 4020 John Deere, from Wade yesterday.” 1988. Inc. and still has it today. The sophisticated equipment has created a need for a Financial conservatism and a strong balance sheet “We always had a good relationship with Mr. George new type of tractor technician who is intelligent and enabled another period of rapid growth that began in electronically literate. The Littons have high praise for 1995, when the company bought the John Deere deal- Wade, Bill Litton and Wade Litton now,” Pillow said. “They’ve been good people to deal with. They have their workers in the maintenance department, as well ership in Batesville. In 2000, the dealerships in as everywhere else. “From our parts to our service, to Charleston and Webb were purchased and consolidat- always been fair in their dealings.” He remembers when Mr. Wade started Bill Litton our sales staff, everybody really, they’re the face of Wade ed into one location in Webb. Greenville and out as shop foreman and was amused to see him start Inc.,” Wade Litton said. Cleveland were the next cities to join the burgeoning Wade off in the same place. “That’s a great thing, to see The company looks for hardworking, communityWade stable in 2002 and 2004, respectively. young people grow up and step into a business like minded people who will take root in the places they Today, they are a seven-store operation, having that and do a good job,” said Pillow, who himself works work. After a century in Greenwood, the company has closed the small shop in Marks. in a partnership with three of his sons. certainly done that in its birthplace. “We’ve doubled our locations, basically, and we’ve Farmers like Pillow have access today to a level of “We’re going to participate in the Chamber of more than doubled our revenues,” Litton said. technology their forefathers never could have imagined Commerce. We’re going to participate in the Industrial Wade Inc. has also added its fourth generation of 100 years ago. Wade Litton said the growers in this Board. We encourage our employees to participate in family workers this decade. area are probably the most progressive in the nation the civic clubs,” Bill Litton said. Litton had a deal with his two sons, Powell and He’s a past president of the Kiwanis, and Wade is a Wade, that after college they would work for five years Rotarian. Mr. Wade served as president of the Chamber somewhere else. If they decided they still had a pasof Commerce. sion for the family business, they would have places “We realize that for us to have good employees, our waiting for them. employees have to have a good place to live with a good Both gained valuable and diverse experience in quality of life, so we want to do everything we can to their time away from home. improve the quality of life in the city of Greenwood,” Bill Powell Litton finished school at the University of Litton said. Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and worked for a He compliments his competitors for what they bring cotton company down under. He then took a job with to the area, and Wade Inc. certainly feels like its future the secretary of the U.S. Senate. Wade Litton worked is bright in the Delta even as crops change. in Hawaii for a year, and then at an investment bank Mr. Wade used to tell Litton, “Bill, somebody’s going in Chicago. to farm this land. People have got to eat. They’ve got to In 2003, their father, busy with a growing business, wear clothes,” and that wisdom remains true today. gave them a call. “I said, ‘Hey, listen, there’s a lot of With a good water supply, rich soil and no threat of things going on in the business. Forget the five years; urban sprawl, acres here will remain in agriculture, if you want to come back, come on back.’” they believe. Wade Litton returned that year as service manager Wade Inc. stands ready to keep supplying their equipfor the Greenwood store, which he became general The late George K. Wade, right, served as president manager of in 2006. of Wade Inc. from 1952 to 1980. His son-in-law, Bill ment needs, hopefully for another 100 years. “It’s a passion with me,” Bill Litton said, “and I can Powell had just committed to a new position in Litton, has filled that role since then, and his grandWashington but came back about a year later, first at sons, Powell and Wade Litton, serve as general man- see that same passion not only in Wade and Powell, but in a lot of our employees.” Greenville and then as general manager in agers of two stores.
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We’ve been ” Green” before being Green” was cool. For 100 years, Wade, Inc. has built our reputation on service. And we’re more than just your source for John Deere farm equipment, we have utility tractors, mowers, Gator utility vehicles, trimmers, blowers, saws and more. We even have John Deere toys for kids of all ages. When you expect service, satisfaction and selection for farming, hunting or landscaping, come by and see what we have to offer.
Serving the Mississippi Delta since1909 Greenwood • Clarksdale • Indianola • Cleveland • Batesville • Webb • Greenville
Greenwood Commonwealth Page43 PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
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Passion for hunting
Men are not the only ones who love the thrill of the hunt
T
he hunting bug bit Greenwood’s Kristen Stephens at an early age, and she’s become quite the avid hunter since
“I was lucky enough to have great success at an early age, and I was hooked for life .”
then. Stephens, 14, killed her first deer at age 5; she bagged two monster turkeys a year later. The Pillow Academy ninthgrader has killed 13 turkeys total, including birds in Mississippi, Kristen Stephens Alabama, Texas and Oklahoma. Stephens has killed 15 deer, including six bucks. She also has killed a bobcat and a red fox.
Kristen Stephens drapes a turkey over her shoulder that she killed during a hunt a couple of years ago. The youngster killed her first deer at age 5, and she bagged two turkeys a year later.
STORY BY BILL BURRUS
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At left, Kristen Stephens, right, enjoys a turkey hunt with her dad, Shane Stephens. Kristen, a ninth-grader at Pillow Academy, fell in love with hunting and the outdoors at an early age. Shane says his daughter’s passion for hunting is as strong as that of many male hunters he knows. Inset below, Kristen shows off one of the many deer she has killed since she began hunting at age 5. She is one of the more than 1.2 million women who hunt each year.
She was introduced to the outdoors by her father, Shane, who quickly learned that he and his youngest daughter had the same passion for hunting. “Her passion for hunting is as strong as many avid men hunters I know,” he said. “She’s a better, more patient hunter than some men hunters.” Stephens also is getting into wing shooting. She bagged a limit of doves three times this past season, and she has killed close to 20 ducks. Kristen and her father recently took a trip to Texas for a quail hunt as part of her Christmas. “I was lucky enough to have great success at an early age, and I was hooked for life,” Kristen said. “I really enjoy all aspects of hunting, but turkey hunting is my passion. It’s more of a challenge. You have to call and do other things to have success. Deer hunting is more about being in the right place at the right time.” Stephens is part of what officials say is a growing number of female hunters in Mississippi and across the nation. Because the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks does not require gender information when a license is bought, spokesman Jim Walker said there is no statistical record of the number of female hunters in the state. However, based upon his experience, Walker said there is definitely an increase in women taking to outdoors sports. “Go to your local sporting goods store; go to a wildlife trade show; go to a hunting camp and you will see lots more women than you ever have before,” he said. “I have noticed a large increase in women, and that’s great.” According to the 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, the latest census available, the number of female hunters has held steady since 1996, while the total number of hunters has dropped slightly. An estimated 1.2 million women hunt in the United States each year, compared to 11.4 million men. Kristen’s older sister Kelsey, 17, also was introduced to hunting at an early age, but it didn’t have the same effect on her as it did on Kristen.
“Her passion for hunting is as strong as many avid men hunters I know.” Shane Stephens “Kelsey killed her first deer at age 10, but she hasn’t hunted in a couple of years. She’s had the same opportunities as her younger sister, but she has other interests. Kristen will set aside most anything for a chance to hunt,” said Shane, whose son, Shane Houston, 7, has also taken a big interest in the outdoors. Shane, 45, who has been an avid hunter since age 8, says there is nothing like having his children with him in the woods. He says it’s the perfect way of growing closer to them. “The excitement/adrenaline rush of hunting with my children far exceeds any experience on my own. The few times I hunt without one of my children, nowadays, just does not compare to the thrill I get hunting with them,” he explained. “The time spent in
the deer stand or turkey blind is when we bond and talk about a lot of important things. Having my child locked up in a box (stand or blind) for several hours at a time with not much to do but talk has created irreplaceable opportunities for us to get to know each other.” Kay McCrory didn’t grow up in a hunting family, but she eventually became an avid hunter and archer after marrying Jim McCrory. “I started hunting because I was tired of being left at home,” said McCrory, 67, former principal at Bankston Elementary School, who lives in Carroll County. McCrory hasn’t hunted much since Jim died in 2001, but she takes a great interest in the hunting exploits of her grandchildren. McCrory learned all she knew about the outdoors, hunting and archery from her husband. At one time, they were both top-ranked archers in the state and the nation. “Jim was a perfectionist when it came to hunting and shooting. We took our two kids to the stands with us. We made it a family event,” McCrory said. “His legacy is living on through our grandchildren.” Amanda Mills, host of MDWFP’s Mississippi Outdoors TV show and outreach coordinator for women and children, said many women and girls are taking to hunting through the same family-orientated process the Stephenses and McCrorys have. “It’s quality time spent outdoors with their family members, and that alone is a huge draw for females,” said Mills. “The numbers are increasing not only in Mississippi, but nationwide. We’re making it easier for women to learn to hunt, and they’re finding it less intimidating to go out and do it.” One way the MDWFP is trying to introduce more girls and women to the outdoors is a weekend event called “Women In The Outdoors,” which it will cosponsor with the National Wild Turkey Federation in May at Roosevelt State Park in Morton. The “Women In The Outdoors” weekend will feature clinics on sporting clays, archery, hiking, fishing, disc golf and Dutch oven cooking.
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Greenwood High School Career and Technical Center
Back
to class Adults take advantage of educational offerings
T
he Greenwood High School Career and Technical Center has long been a popular place for GHS students to learn valuable job skills, but in recent years, the center has expanded its offerings to reach out to local adults as well. By day, the Career and Technical Center holds classes for 10th-, 11th- and 12th-graders, including culinary arts, Allied Health, metal trades/welding, automotive service technology, building trades, business and computer technology and cooperative education. At night, the center now offers short-term adult education classes each semester where local adults can build skills or just learn for fun. Kirby Love, director of the Career and Technical Center, said the center had offered adult classes before but had not done so for several years before he became director. One of his first goals was to bring them back. The program started small, with just a basic computer class the first semester. For the second semester, there were not even enough students signed up to hold any classes. But in the fall of 2008, with the help Kirby Love, director of increased advertising and word of mouth, the program grew to include four classes and about 60 students. The adult courses offered were art, basic computers, cake decorating and welding. Love said they had also wanted to offer automotive and brick masonry classes, but not enough students signed up. “The four we had were very well received,” Love said. Love said the short-term adult classes stick to a fairly informal and relaxed pace – with no grades or attendance policies – but that doesn’t mean the students aren’t learning anything. “It’s so rewarding to see some of the older citizens walk in the first night terrified as a beginner and leave so excited with some of their new abilities,” Love said.
“It’s so rewarding to see some of the older citizens walk in the first night terrified as a beginner and leave so excited with some of their new abilities .”
Above, Carlos Harris works on a welding project at the Greenwood High School Career and Technical Center. In addition to serving GHS students, the center now offers a variety of courses for adults in the community. At left, Gerri Dangelo, one of the instructors for the Greenwood High School Career and Technical Center’s short-term adult education program, assists one of her students during last semester’s basic computer class.
Some of the teachers for last semester’s courses came out of the local school system. Computer instructor Gerri Dangelo is a former Greenwood teacher; art instructor Paul Howard teaches art at Greenwood High School; and welding instructor Will Toliver is the metal trades teacher at Leflore County High School. Students in the short-term adult classes must be 18 or older and out of high school. There is a small fee charged, which mostly helps pay to provide night security at the center. Adult classes for the spring semester are scheduled to begin March 3 and will be held on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Love said they already have instructors lined up for basic and advanced computer classes, and they hope to offer several other courses as well. In the past year, the Career and Technical Center also offered three welding classes and one residential wiring class for adults through the Mississippi Construction Education Foundation. These courses provide free training for unemployed and underemployed adults and are meant to promote careers in construction and welding. STORY BY RACHEL HODGE
MCEF, which was formed by commercial contractors and trade organizations, is based in Ridgeland. It serves communities all over the state by working through facilities such as the one at Greenwood High School. “Our idea is to go where the people are and use local facilities,” said Gary Bambauer, president of the foundation. The construction courses are 160 hours each, including 10 hours of OSHA 10 training and 30 hours of classroom and safety training before working in the shop. Participants in the MCEF classes must be 18 or older and registered with Selective Service, and Bambauer said they are subject to stringent rules regarding drug testing and attendance. Love said the center is not involved with job placement, but Bambauer reported that they have had “reasonable placement,” with about 50 percent of the students finding employment following the training. Love said through MCEF the center also could offer courses in brick masonry, plumbing, carpentry and metal trades, but right now they lack the instructors to teach these classes.
Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 Page47 =================================================================================================================================================================================
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Webster’s Food & Drink
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Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 Page49 =================================================================================================================================================================================
The Colemans
All about athletics Schlater family strives for excellence on the field
LSU pitcher Louis Coleman of Schlater is pictured here with his three sisters following an LSU football game. They are, from left, Katy, 14; Lauren, 20; Louis, 22; and Meredith, 24. Louis, one of the Tigers' top closers, has been named to two different preseason All-America teams.
T
he Colemans are Leflore County’s first family of athletics. Some parents hope to have just one kid skilled enough in sports to earn a college scholarship, but the odds aren’t in their favor as many find out
during their kids’ high school years. Kathy and Hal Coleman of Schlater have been blessed to have their first three kids receive athletic scholarships. Louis, 22, is in his senior season as one of the top pitchers STORY BY BILL BURRUS
for Louisiana State University, which began the 2009 season ranked either first or second in most national polls. Lauren, 20, is a sophomore softball player at Mississippi College, where she also played basketball last season.
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“Our kids have worked extremely hard, and obviously they were blessed by God with some athletic ability.
”
Hal Coleman Meredith, 24, was a standout softball player at Delta State from 2002 to 2006. The former AllGulf South Conference performer is now the head softball coach at her alma mater, Pillow Academy – where all of the Coleman trio attended elementary and high school. They have a younger sister, Katy, 14, a member of the Lady Mustangs ninth-grade basketball team. “This whole thing has been a thrill. I wouldn’t trade places with anyone in the world,” Hal said. “It hasn’t all been easy, though. Our kids have worked extremely hard, and obviously they were blessed by God with some athletic ability.” Kathy and Hal, both successful high school athletes in their own right, made sure of that. “Right, wrong or indifferent. Hal and I pushed them to a limit where they might not have had this much success. Both of us are very competitive, and we wanted the best chance for success for them,” Kathy said. “They had routines each day, whether it be hit 200 balls or take 200 shots. And if they didn’t do it, they would not be in good graces.” Louis credits the guidance of his parents for much of his and his sisters’ success. “They were hard on us, but they always picked us up when we needed it most. We didn’t have the newest TVs or cars, but we always had anything we needed to get better in sports. They made sure of that,” he explained. “They also instilled a strong work ethic in us.” “You weren’t going to beat us by outworking us,” said Hal, who went to Mississippi Delta Community College on an athletic scholarship. Meredith remembers many days when she didn’t feel like working on hitting or shooting, but she’s glad she always found the strength to follow through. “There were times when I wasn’t up for it, but my parents pushed me because they saw something special in me. Having Louis there with me definitely made it easier when it came to training,” she said. “When I got to college, I knew my coach couldn’t overwork me because of all I had put in through the years. “I work hard to this day at all I do, and I know that comes from what I learned from my parents growing up.” Meredith and Louis, the two oldest, were born 22 months apart. They loved to compete in sports against one another while they were growing up on a farm in Schlater. “They were real competitive, even if it was seeing who could eat supper the quickest,” Hal recalls. “We
Lauren Coleman, a sophomore softball player for Mississippi College, gets set to field a ground ball. She followed in the footsteps of her older two siblings, Meredith and Louis, with an athletic scholarship out of Pillow Academy. joke now, but there was a stretch where they didn’t even act like they liked one another.” “There was constant competition. It was a great balance with the girl being two years older,” Kathy said. “They helped each other get better.” That’s something not lost on Louis or Meredith. “She was bigger than me, and she was able to push me and help me get better,” Louis said. “For a while our athletic ability was on the same playing field because of the age difference, so we did everything together. It could get intense,” said Meredith, who ranks in the top 5 in eight career softball offensive categories at Delta State. “Now we laugh about some of the stuff that we and did to one another. Each of us says we’re Louis’ biggest fan, but I definitely think I am. There is a lot of respect between us.”
When Lauren got old enough to join in the competition, she didn’t back down at all. And when she got to high school, she didn’t have a problem following the successful footsteps of her older siblings – both star athletes at Pillow. “Sports were always such an important part of our lives. It was a daily part of our lives, and I knew I couldn’t let Meredith or Louis one up me,” Lauren said. “I am so glad for the road they paved athletically. They pushed me to be a better athlete.” Louis has been the most successful of the three scholarship athletes. He is expected to be the Tigers’ top closer this season after a banner junior campaign, when he appeared in 23 games (three starts), recording an 8-1 record and a team-best 1.95 ERA. He worked 551/3 innings with two saves, 10 walks and 62 strikeouts.
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One of his biggest highlights of 2008 came against Ole Miss in the championship game of the SEC Tournament as he worked the final six innings in relief to help the Tigers erase a five-run deficit and rally for a 9-7 victory. Louis allowed no runs on three hits and no walks while striking out seven. He also was the winning pitcher in Game 2 of the Baton Rouge Super Regional against University of California Irvine – working three scoreless innings, allowing one hit, no walks and fanning one. Following his standout junior season, the 6-foot4, 190-pound right-hander was taken in the 14th round of baseball draft by the Washington Nationals. He decided to return Kathy Coleman to LSU for his senior season and hopefully improve his draft stock with another standout season. The Colemans will likely have a professional baseball player in the family soon. No matter what the future holds, Kathy is proud of what her children have already accomplished. “They left their comfort zones and their friends to pursue their athletic careers and have all gone through a maturing process. They’ve had success on the playing field, but they’ve also grown as people through their experiences in athletics.” And what about a fourth athletic scholarship for the Coleman family in a few years? Hal thinks that Katy has some physical talents to get there but will have to work much harder.
“They’ve had success on the playing field, but they’ve also grown as people through their experiences in athletics.”
Above, the Coleman family is pictured at a party. They are, from left, Louis, Lauren, Hal, Kathy, Meredith and Katy. At left, from left, Hal, Kathy, Lauren and Katy Coleman pose for a picture outside of Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb., at the 2008 College World Series. They were there to watch Louis pitch for the LSU Tigers. He went 1-1 on the mound in Omaha.
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John-Richard John-Richard’s 11,000-square-foot showroom in Nashville, Tenn., opened in October. Its general manager, Natalie Carr, says the place has a lot of positive energy.
Showcasing excellence
Carr excited about prospects for company’s new Nashville showroom
G
rowing up in a family with a long history in the furniture business, Natalie Carr couldn’t help but pick up a lot of knowledge about that field along the way. Her father, Alex Malouf, grew up around his father’s business, Malouf Furniture, before taking it over, and he later co-founded John-Richard. Two of her brothers work in the family businesses as well. “John-Richard has been part of my family since I was a baby,” Carr said. “We grew up talking about it at dinner and on the golf course and on weekends.” So, last year, when her father needed some help with John-Richard’s new 11,000-square-foot showroom in Nashville, Tenn., he knew where to turn. She began working there in August, initially concentrating on marketing and promotion. In October, she became general manager. Carr is excited about the potential of the showroom and pleased to work with other people who feel the same way. She said they share the belief that a well-designed home can be rejuvenating.
STORY BY DAVID MONROE
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“Our primary goal is to have a good team of people who are passionate about what they do and show Nashville and the greater community that your home can be the most exciting place that you can be every day,” she said. v v v Carr, 38, graduated from Greenwood High School in 1989 and went on to earn a degree in international business and management from Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Ind. One of her brothers, Shane Malouf, is vice president of operations at JohnRichard; another, Gardner, owns and Natalie Carr operates a Malouf Furniture retail store in Foley, Ala. Carr said her father has always been open and honest with her about the state of the business. She has seen the success his entrepreneurial spirit has brought him, and she believes she inherited his talent for selling. “I can attribute a lot of good things to my mom,” she said, “but sales comes from my father.” Even today, she is impressed by her parents’ ability to visualize how raw product can be made into a room setting. Sometimes, if a friend asks, she will help redo a room, but she doesn’t claim to have a designer’s knack for putting things together from scratch.
“I can attribute a lot of things to my mom, but sales comes from my father.”
Shown at the grand opening for John-Richard’s Nashville showroom are Alex Malouf, CEO of John-Richard; his wife, Pat; Bishop David Choby of the Diocese of Nashville; and Natalie Carr, the Maloufs’ daughter and the showroom’s general manager.
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Natalie Carr, general manager of John-Richard’s Nashville showroom, says the company already has a reputation for high quality, and now the showroom will help spread the word to more people.
“Honestly, when I did my own house, I needed help,” she said. But in buying and other matters, she tends to go with her gut decision and stick with it – and she says it’s always been that way. “I have always known what I like and what I don’t like,” she said. Carr said she is able to come to Greenwood only two or three times a year – “which is not enough,” she emphasized. But she is close enough that her parents can visit, and her father takes dealers to Nashville sometimes. She also talks to her brothers every so often, and she says she has benefited from Shane’s knowledge of manufacturing and Gardner’s experience in retail.
In terms of the spectrum of products, she said, “we don’t know of another company who is able to do what we do.” John-Richard is known among distributors and designers for the quality of its work, and now the showroom helps spread the word to more people, she said. To see “how rich and elegant and at times sexy our product can look – you don’t realize it until you see it all in one place,” she said. The staff includes five designers, a management team of three, and two people who handle delivery and warehouse work. The designers are very talented and experienced, and everyone works well together, she said. Carr said the showroom has a lot of positive ener-
gy. It has attracted visitors from many places – including some celebrities – and dealers come in to see how the items are displayed. It also benefits from being in a growing, vibrant city – a great place to educate consumers about John-Richard, she said. “That has actually been fun – getting to tell our story and educate the Nashville general public on who we are and what we do and how awesome our product is,” she said. As to whether the showroom might expand someday, she said other businesses are on either side of it, but if one of them decided to move, it might open up an opportunity to add some space. “I’ve learned, never say never,” she said. “You’ve got to be open to the flow of life.”
v v v When her father recruited her for John-Richard, Carr had lived in Nashville for about 13 years. Most recently, she had spent more than nine years at home, raising her three children and doing volunteer work. Before that, she worked for AT&T and Lucent. For about six years, she also has overseen food services for the twice-a-year markets in High Point, N.C., and she will continue to do so. The difference now, she said, is that she will be able to spend more time talking to dealers because the food staff has things running so smoothly. Carr estimated that the John-Richard showroom offers 25 percent to 30 percent of the more than 7,000 products in the company’s line. All the product categories are represented at the Nashville site, including accent furniture, lighting, mirrors, botanicals and other items. When she came on board, she went through intensive training about the products, the terminology and the stages of production. It helped that she already knew John-Richard well; not only was she comfortable promoting the company, but she also was passionate about it.
From left at John-Richard’s Nashville showroom are Angela Malouf, Natalie Carr, Shane Malouf, representative Gary Odom, Alex Malouf, Pat Malouf, Patrick Malouf and Kristin Malouf.
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J.J. Ferguson Sand and Gravel Co. Inc.
Thriving and surviving
The new U.S. 82 Mississippi River Bridge in Greenville features pre-stressed concrete beams from J.J. Ferguson. The bridge, which is project to open sometime in 2011, features a modern suspension bridge design.
Vertical integration key to company’s continued success
W
J.J. Ferguson founder Jesse Ferguson is shown here as a small boy. The company that he founded in 1941 is a leader today in asphalt, concrete and pre-stressed/pre-cast bridge components, as well as sand and gravel.
hile most of the country experiences the full impact of the economic recession, Greenwood’s J.J. Ferguson Sand & Gravel Co. Inc. keeps soldiering on. “Considering the economic state of the world and the state of the general economy, I think we’re holding our own. It’s been a rough ride for a lot of contractors. We’re thankful to be one of those that are still able to maintain work,” said Rocky Steen, Ferguson’s owner and president. Steen, 47, said the company currently employs about 100 people. That’s down from a height of 225 employees in 2007. The key to Ferguson’s continued success – starting with its founding by Jesse Ferguson back in 1941 – has been vertical integration, Steen said. The company today has several elements that contribute to the success of the whole operation, he said. From its asphalt and pre-stressed/precast concrete bridge beam manufacturing operations to its long-established concrete,
gravel and sand sales arms, Ferguson has been able to “thrive and survive” despite the recent economic downturn, Steen said. Asphalt production is the company’s mainstay, he said. “We’re set up along the U.S. 82 corridor. We pretty much cover from the Mississippi River bridge in Greenville all the way to the state line,” Steen said. The company has three strategically placed asphalt plants located in Greenwood, Inverness and Mathiston, he said. The Mathiston plant – which is within 30 miles of Starkville – helps provide potential business for the company in the eastern half of the state, Steen said. Steen said gravel is a basic building block in the manufacture of every yard of asphalt and concrete that the company produces. “It’s a component in everything we do,” he said. Ferguson has other advantages. “We have several market advantages. We furnish our own concrete to ourselves.
STORY BY BOB DARDEN
We furnish our own sand and gravel to our concrete plant – that gives us some advantage,” Steen said. Another advantage is in the area of trucking, he said. “We have our own trucking companies that we are able to utilize in the asphalt industry, the sand and gravel industry as well as in the pre-stressed business. We rarely have an idle moment with a truck,” Steen said. “Idle moments with trucks is what kills anyone in the business.” v v v Ferguson’s growing pre-stressed/pre-cast concrete operation is rapidly becoming an essential part of the state Department of Transportation’s long-term bridge maintenance program, Steen said. The operation has produced all the prestressed concrete beams used in the construction of the new U.S. 82 Mississippi River bridge in Greenville, which should be open sometime in 2011, he said.
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In addition, the company probably has $2.5- to $3-million worth of business as a prime subcontractor supplying bridge beams and products for other contractors throughout the state working on their own bridge projects, Steen said. The nation’s crumbling infrastructure – with as much as 80 percent of its bridges being declared deficient – is something that should bring Ferguson even more business in the future, he said. “It’s an unfortunate situation for us to be in as a people, but it’s fortunate for us being a contractor,” Steen said. “We’re still sitting at around 50 percent with some type of deficiency, whether it be those that are severe enough to close it down or those severe enough to take note of,” he said. v v v While sand, gravel, concrete and asphalt weren’t naturally in Steen’s blood, hard work always was. Steen, a one-time resident of Philipp, was in fact a college educated farm boy. After he received a major in business management and a minor in accounting from Delta State University, Steen went about working at Fennell Farms in Philipp. “Coming off the farm, I knew a lot about work. I knew a lot about ethics,” Steen said. The jobs of farming and the gravel trade are similar, he said. “It’s all about dirt here and it’s all about dirt on the farm. The same inclement weather that bothers you when you were trying to raise a crop is the same one that hinders you when you’re trying to build a road,” Steen said. As a farm worker, Steen knew all about the
Rocky Steen, foreground, owner and president of J.J. Ferguson Sand & Gravel Co. Inc., relies on the assistance of his trusted employees, Christy Powell, left, officer manager and comptroller; and Tanya Blakely, personnel manager and personal assistant to Steen. machinery that made a farm work, and that was a plus when he went to work for Ferguson in 1989 as a staff accountant, he said. “Even though I was a college boy, I wasn’t ignorant in the fact that I knew what a piston was. I knew how to tear a motor down and put it back together,” Steen said.
Jesse Ferguson, the company’s founder, was impressed by Steen’s determination. “He liked the fact that I wouldn’t never quit on nothing – I stayed with it. He liked the fact that I put in long hours – without being told to – that’s all I knew. I just thought that’s what you did. Five o’clock didn’t mean anything to me,” Steen said. Slowly, Steen rose through the ranks of the company – personnel manager, comptroller, vice president, president and then, following Ferguson’s death in December 2005, president and owner of the company. Steen said the company has been blessed by a strong work ethic that was exemplified by Ferguson himself and good, loyal, long-serving employees. “It is the key to success for this business. They follow me just as they followed Jesse,” he said. That loyalty often means long hours, providing established customers with the products they need, Steen said. “If a contractor, if they’re getting on the job at 7, we’ve got to be getting ready for them at 6. If they knock off by 5, we’ll be working until 6 cleaning everything up,” he said. “Long hours are just the nature of the beast here,” Steen said. Still, in spite of the long hours at work, Steen has managed to find time to build himself a family. He and his wife, Shannon Boyles Steen, have two sons, Tristian, 6, and Eli, 4; and a daughter, Sara Beth, 8. Asphalt, concrete, sand and gravel have made for a good life, Steen said. “It’s been a constant reward since the day I started here. When I was a young man, I thought I’d never leave the farm. Then, I got into this business, which has a lot of similarities with farming, and I can’t leave,” he said.
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Greenwood Commonwealth Page61 PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
Anew home Elks Lodge No. 854 growing in new facility
M
oving into a new hall on Sgt. John A. Pittman Drive has already paid major dividends for Elks Lodge No. 854.
As of Oct. 18, the lodge had 62 members; three months later, it had about 85. Limited only by the building’s capacity of 280 people, the Elks hope they keep growing. Trustee Jamie Stowers said the lodge had more than 500 members many years ago, and he’d love to see the number grow to 100 and beyond. About three years ago, Viking Range Corp. approached the organization, proposing a swap in which Viking would take over the 15,000-square-foot Elks Lodge on Washington Street, and a new facility would be built for the Elks. The hall was constructed by Kenneth Thompson Builder over about a year and was turned over to the club in October. With the exception of some small modifications, it has everything the Elks said they wanted early in the process. Stowers kept tabs on the construction regularly. “I work for Greenwood Utilities, and I visit every construction job every day,” he said. “But I made a certain point of running by here.” The old lodge, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, had never been anything other than an Elks hall – right down to the elks’ heads on the doorknobs. But getting around in the three-story building was difficult for many older members, who had to climb stairs to get almost anywhere. The new hall is only 4,200 square feet, but it’s only one story. “We can have any member with any handicap get in this building,” Stowers said, “and they absolutely could not use the old building.” The new hall has a ballroom, a kitchen, a club room and a covered patio out back. Secretary Barbara Biggers said the third floor of the Washington Street building
Officers of Elks Lodge No. 854 include, from left, Exalted Ruler Sonny Long, Past Exalted Ruler Bobby Haley, 2-Year Trustee and Esquire Charlie Staten, Interguard Ron Sliwinski, 1-Year Trustee Daryl Bush, Loyal Knight Roger Haley, Secretary Allen Smith, Treasurer Barbara Biggers, Tiler Melvin Brodofsky and 3year Trustee Jamie Stowers. Not pictured are Leading Knight Jim Wiseman, Lecturing Knight Dudley Pleasants and Chaplain Keith Chapman.
The new Elks Lodge No. 854 building on Sgt. John A. Pittman Drive opened in 2008. Since the move, the lodge has increased its membership from 62 to 85. “has the best dance floor and the worst acoustics in town.” The echo there might have been OK in the old days, but the advent of electronic equipment changed things, she said. The new building’s patio is a major upgrade; the other hall had a small screen porch, but it wasn’t used much. Also, the dining room, kitchen and bar in the Washington Street location were in the basement – a setup Stowers likened to a cave. The new hall has a mixture of old and new – for example, new tables in the bar area but also some older furniture moved over from Washington Street. “We did buy some new furniture; then we bought some history with us,” Trustee Allen Smith said. Everything usable from the old hall has been moved, but it took months. Members would get together on Saturday or whenever else they had free time. Stowers said the move was emotional for the Elks, some of whom have been members 40 years or more. But the downtown building needed some improvements, and they are confident that it is in good hands. “We never ever could have raised enough money to do anything with it,” he said. “We’re all proud Viking’s got it, because we know they’ll fix it up.” He is convinced that the new building has contributed to the gain in membership. It also got good reviews during the visit of the district deputy – the national president’s representative for north Trustee Jamie Stowers Mississippi – and Elks from other areas of the state. All the Elks have unlimited access to the new building, as they did downtown. “This is the only lodge in the state that is available to any member at any time,” Stowers said. “All of us can get in here whenever we want to do whatever we want. All other lodges are locked up unless they are officially open.” The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the U.S.A. was founded to help veterans, and it remains active in that effort today. But the organization also is dedicated to other causes, such as funding scholarships and promoting drug awareness among young people. Lodge No. 854 gives money to Cottonlandia Museum each year for summer programs. Its members also ring bells for the Salvation Army, staff the inflatables at Stars and Stripes in the Park, and assist with other activities of the GreenwoodLeflore County Chamber of Commerce, among other things. The membership at Lodge No. 854 now includes three women. Biggers is trying to bring in more, and the men would welcome that, too. “If she goes after a project, she gets it done,” Smith said. “She’ll get more.”
STORY BY DAVID MONROE
“This is the only lodge in the state that is available to any member at any time. All of us can get in here whenever we want to do whatever we want. All other lodges are locked up unless they are officially open.”
Page62 Greenwood Commonwealt PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
Revitalizing Carroll County
Development officials focus on using history to bring in revenue
T
Tommy and Libba Goodman enjoy a little time on the front steps of their renovated 1840’s home in Carrollton. The Goodmans hope to encourage others to take on projects that will save the past and provide hope for the future in Carroll County.
he qualities that brought Tommy Goodman and his wife, Libba, to Carrollton – a simpler, quiet life in a setting that evokes a feeling of past times – also can bring needed revenue to the town, Goodman says. “Carrollton is an almost complete example of a 19th-century Mississippi village,” Goodman said. “It’s like Salem, Mass., or Williamsburg, Va., as far as historic buildings are concerned.” Goodman, an architect, thinks Carrollton can capitalize on these features to bring in tourists and their money. “We could be a day trip for people who come to Greenwood.” The Carroll County Development Association and its president, George Johnson, have relished having Goodman to inform the public about the value of what residents see every day. “We hope to use the historic, cultural and artistic assets of the entire county, not just Carrollton, to develop into elements of the economy,” Johnson said.
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They have specific plans to build on what is already happening in the area. “We’re excited about the possibilities. Folks are doing some great things with old structures that will attract people here. We’re proud of that as we can be,” Johnson said. “Also the people moving in setting up small businesses. We’re worried about their survival, but it’s exciting. I think it’s going to be a great tourist attraction for us – the historical structures, civil rights, Civil War stuff.” Goodman says a number of things must happen at the same time, and that revitalization includes adding small businesses as well as preserving the past. “We need more antique shops, more places to eat, other tourist-type shops,” Goodman said. Wessie Gee – who, with the help of her son Peter, a Boston plastic surgeon, is a renovation machine – has purchased and re-done five nearly gone houses and then rented them. She would prefer to sell them, she said, adding that her and Peter’s goal is not to
STORY AND PHOTOS BY RUTH JENSEN
Greenwood Commonwealth Page63 PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
own property but just to preserve what could soon be lost. In fact, they’d be happy to sell all of it. “Peter loves Carrollton and hated to see these buildings fall down,” she said. Betty Ray decided to open a business in Carrollton after purchasing an antebellum home once owned by her great-grandfather. An airline hostess for Southwest, she liked the location near Memphis, as well as the connection to an area where she grew up with its relationship to her family’s past. She opened Ms. Sippy’s, a café on the Courthouse square, and says business is getting better after a slow start in another location. “People told me it would take three to five years to be profitable, and we’ll be starting into our third in April,” she said. “Each year it gets better.” In addition to the Carroll County Schools office and Farm Bureau Insurance, which have had a presence for many years, other businesses on the square include the Carroll County Market, a restaurant with live music, and Merganzers, a gift shop recently opened by Scotty and Payge Thornton. The Goodmans have special feelings about Carrollton for personal reasons: They were married in the Episcopal church here. When looking for a way to move out of a fast-paced lifestyle in Birmingham, they turned to a place that already had good memories for them. After some negotiations, Goodman bought an antebellum home from Simpson Hemphill that was just about beyond repair. “You could see through the floorboards,” he said. “Termites and rot had about gotten it.” He began to renovate the home, which was built in the 1840s, and now has a beautiful, livable dwelling that suits its owners very well. Just next door, Gee continues work on the restoration of Seven Gables, known for its gabled roof. To say that it was a near goner is an understatement, but when finished it will house two apartments. Gee says this may be her last project, but she hopes others will take on similar work. “If I can do it, anyone can,” she said. “I read books, studied. I want to encourage others.” Goodman also hopes others will take up the cause and will do it with history in mind. “These houses can be made airtight and modern, with materials appropriate for the community. We did it.” Ray says Carrollton is a great place to establish a home and a business, and there’s much to look forward to. “I love living here,” she said. “I’m excited about seeing new things and in revitalizing commerce. It gets better every year.”
At top, George Johnson, president of the Carroll County Development Association, is proud to show new businesses opening in Carrollton. Here he stands near Merganzers, a new gift shop opened in recent months by Scotty and Payge Thornton. Above, the Merrill Museum is full of of interesting treasures, Indian lore, McCain family mementos, and many other remembrances of times gone by. At right, Wessie Gee of Carrollton is in the process of renovating Seven Gables, a house owned by several families and built by William Sanders, who constructed a number of homes in the area.
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A worker endures a shower as farm-raised catfish are culled from a pond. The job of catfish farm worker is hard, and there’s no let-up over the winter months as next season’s harvest continues to grow and mature.
Tacketts still fishing Area catfish farmers not ready to cut bait despite tough times
D
espite the impact of rising feed and fuel costs and foreign competition on Delta catfish farming, Tackett Fish Farms isn’t ready to cut bait – not by a long shot. “This is probably about as bad as it’s been since I’ve been in it,” said Jon Cooper, who has been Tackett’s chief operating officer since 2005. “We’ve made some adjustments, just to try and be more competitive. We try to run a neater operation,” Tackett has about 8,000 acres of catfish ponds in Leflore and Sunflower counties. The operation, one of the largest aquaculture farms in the world, employs as many as 150 people during the height of the catfish harvest season, Cooper said. Tackett has been in business since the mid-1970s. Founder William Tackett, his son, Jim Tackett, and his son-in-law, Joe Walker, still oversee the company. Running a farm-raised catfish operation is an increasingly tough proposition, Cooper said. “There have been some people to get out because they had to. And there are people who got out of fish
farming because they could – they were in a position where they could get out,” Cooper said. “There are some people that are still fish farming that probably wish they weren’t but they can’t figure out how to get out.” Some fish farm operations have closed, and some workers choose other jobs, maybe just because of the physical demands of working on the ponds, he said. “We don’t take the winter off. We break ice if the ponds freeze over,” Cooper said. v v v Feed costs have shot through the roof over the past two years. “Right now, feed is $346 a ton,” Cooper said. “That same feed, last year, was $375 a ton. Two years ago, that feed was $225 a ton.” When commodities such as corn increased dramatically in price in 2008, catfish feed prices quickly followed suit. STORY AND PHOTOS BY BOB DARDEN
Farm-raised catfish are loaded into a tank truck for shipment to the processing center.
Page66 Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
Fuel costs in general, and utility rates specifically, also affect catfish prices, since each of Tackett’s ponds has an electrically powered aeration system that is often operated 24 hours a day. v v v The importing of tilapia, a farm-raised fish grown in mainland China, has affected domestic catfish demand as well. Tilapia is very cheap in China, but by the time it gets to retail in the United States, its price is comparable to that of catfish. Importers and wholesalers make a lot of Tackett COO Jon Cooper money on tilapia, and “Americans don’t realize they are paying too much,” Cooper said. “I was at a restaurant recently where they had a tilapia item on the menu and a catfish item on the menu. The tilapia item was $2 more. That’s for a fish
“There’s not another country in the world that puts as much quality demands and safety demands as are put on American food products – not just catfish.”
Workers pull in a net full of catfish at Tackett Fish Farms. The fact that Tackett conducts its own seining operations means that it is able to survive in tough economic times, said Jon Cooper, the farm’s chief operations officer.
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Greenwood Commonwealth Page67 PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
that when it came into the country, was probably coming in at half the cost of what catfish is,” Cooper said. Some tilapia is grown in ponds and some in cages, he said. By contrast, he said, America’s food safety is second to none. “There’s not another country in the world that puts as much quality demands and safety demands as are put on American food products – not just catfish,” Cooper said. Under Mississippi law, restaurants must list the country of origin of all fish products, specifically to address the concern of foreign fish being marketed at the expense of the domestic catfish industry. There will always be a market for Delta catfish, which has set a high standard, Cooper said. “People are buying because they feel better about U.S. farmraised catfish. There are people buying because of the superior quality,” he said. v v v
A feed truck shoots catfish feed into a pond. Feed costs, linked to the price of commodities, have increased substantially from 2007.
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Harvesting a single catfish, from egg to mature ready-for-market fish, is usually a two-year proposition, Cooper said. “From egg to market, you could do it in 18 months, that would be ideal.” Tackett does its own egg production and operates its own hatchery. Once the fish reach maturity, Cooper said, “We’ll stock them in the winter or spring. We’ll feed them all that year, and then we’ll sell them the following spring. We have to grow enough in one summer to carry us until the new crop comes off the following summer.” Typically, once a pond is fished out, it can be restocked with fingerlings within a week, he said. Cooper said the vertical integration of the company has helped it weather these tough times. “If you do your own seining, then you’re not giving those couple of cents to somebody else. If you’re doing your own trucking, then you’re not giving those couple of cents to somebody else,” he said.
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Page68 Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
Farmers Grain Terminal
Grain
explosion More corn and soybeans being planted means cotton will take a back seat as the preferred crop this year.
L
eflore County’s cotton crop will take a distant back seat this year as farmers plant more soybeans and corn, a group of farmers and crop specialists said. “The explosion of grain in the Delta means almost the disappearance of cotton as a crop,” said Bud Tate, general manager of Farmers Grain Terminal Inc. of Greenwood. Tate, a third-generation cotton farmer, says there’s simply no worldwide market for the fiber this year. That sentiment was shared by others. “We’re not going to plant any Tate cotton,” said Jim Thomas of Cruger, who farms in Leflore and Holmes counties. “We’re going to plant 55 percent corn and the rest beans.” However, he added, “I won’t say that cotton is going to disappear. I know some farmers that are STORY AND PHOTOS BY BOB DARDEN
going to plant cotton.” That leads to the big question: Will soybeans or corn be the most planted crop this year? According to Jerry Singleton, an agent with the Leflore County Extension Service, farmers have some latitude through the end of February on deciding what to plant. “Fortunately, our farmers have the ability to switch back and forth, depending on market prices,” he said. “Before Christmas, the trend was less corn, less cotton, more soybeans and more rice.” Farmers must consider the high cost of fertilizer and other input costs. Singleton In September, Farm Journal magazine reported that U.S. farmers’ production costs shot through the roof from 1998 to 2008. Seed costs went up 58 percent. Fertilizer costs increased by 218 percent, and fuel rose by 376 percent, the magazine reported.
Greenwood Commonwealth Page69 PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
Above, Iris Juchem, a weigher/grader at Farmers Grain Terminal Inc. of Greenwood, uses a remotecontrolled arm to sample a trailer full of corn coming to the elevator. The probe checks for moisture content among other things. Right, John Coleman, president of Express Grain Terminals LLC, left, talks with David Lavender, terminal manager. The terminal is gearing up for the 2009 grain season. In 2007, Singleton said, farmers in the county planted 49,800 acres of corn, which requires applications of expensive nitrogen fertilizer. The one-year love affair with corn in Leflore County began to wane last year. Singleton said the 2008 corn acreage in the county was estimated at roughly 41,000 acres, and he predicted it would likely decline still further this year. In contrast, farmers planted 91,000 acres of soybeans in 2007 and 118,000 acres in 2008. This year, Singleton expects even more acreage to be dedicated to soybeans.
Bud Tate, general manager of Farmers Grain Terminal Inc., keeps track of grain stored in the elevator by use of a low-tech chalkboard, which tracks the moisture and condition of grains in each silo in the elevator.
v v v Leflore County farmer Erle West Barham says it’s a little more attractive for farmers to consider corn since fertilizer costs have recently dropped considerably. “It’s a moving target. Your decisions can be swayed on a week-to-week or a day-to-day basis,” he said. “Today, the actual cost of a barrel of oil is falling. That has an impact on the cost of fuel.” Federal mandates for the increased use of cornbased ethanol and soybean-based biodiesel – for use as motor fuels – is the driving force behind a farmer’s crop planting decision, Barham said. He credits the government’s energy-based agriculture mandates for the recent drop in the price of crude oil. “The price of oil fell when the combines started to run,” Barham said. In 2007 and 2008 some critics of ethanol almost succeeded in gutting the domestic ethanol and biodiesel mandate. “If we were to change or lose the federal mandate, it could spell catastrophe for the agricultural economy,” he said. Gone are the days of government-guaranteed prices for crops, such as cotton, Barham said. “We’re going to let the market decide what the crops are going to be,” he said. v v v
like a good alternative this year to crops with higher input costs, such as corn and cotton. “You don’t have to put nitrogen fertilizer on soybeans. It’s the least costly crop to grow,” he said. Tate also said soybeans are the cheapest option for the most return. “There’s less fertilizer required, less chemicals required and your seed is cheaper,” Tate said. For around $85 per acre, he said, a farmer can purchase seed and provide for two applications of “Roundup” herbicide. “If your fertility levels are high, because you’ve been maintaining it for cotton for all these years, you could get by not having to put fertilizer out for a year or two before you’re going to see your yields go down,” Tate said.
For a lot of farmers, Singleton said, soybeans look
v v v
Tate said much of the corn he handles now was actually contracted back when corn prices were high. He said most farmers have a small, “shirttail” amount of corn left over from the 2008 harvest, and they are bringing it to the elevator over a longer period of time. Tate said most farmers unloaded 75 percent of their corn back when prices were good. The year of 2007, he said, was a banner year for corn in the Delta. During the harvest season in August, Tate said, “My lines would be three or four hours long for weeks at a time. This last year, 2008, it was a little more comfortable. Maybe we had a week’s worth of time where we had long lines.” The difference was that many farmers built their own private grain storage bins to store their grain before marketing it, he said.
Page70 Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
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“The main reason people like us is we’re close. Hopefully, we’ll get a little bit more business this year.” John Coleman, Express Grain president That makes a difference in a couple of ways, he said. Most importantly, freight costs for farm-stored grain are paid for by elevators at the time of pickup. The freight costs are factored into the cost of the grain the elevator handles, instead of being incurred on the farmers directly. When the farmer is ready to move corn, elevators like Farmers Grain come pick it up. It helps reduce the long lines, and the freight costs are already factored into the corn’s sale price, Tate said.
still “pretty good” overall, said John Coleman, Express Grain president. “This year will go a lot smoother,” Coleman predicted. Express Grain has its own train loading system, capable of handling 100-car “unit” trains. It’s one of a handful of such operations in the South. In 2008, Express Grain shipped six unit trains, each carrying about 350,000 to 400,000 bushels of grain, depending on the car size. Most of the grain was desv v v tined for the poultry feed mills in south Mississippi. Singleton said cotton’s high input A 12-row combine makes a pass on Elmwood Plantation in Holmes County during the By comparison, an 18-wheeler costs aren’t the only thing limiting 2008 harvest season. Corn and soybeans, because of their high commodity price, are grain truck can carry about 1,000 its attractiveness as a cash crop. bushels per haul, he said. likely to replace cotton as the Delta’s major crop this year. “In the United States, we con“The main reason people like us sume as cotton fiber 22 to 24 milis we’re close,” Coleman said. He says nationwide cotton production will likely “Hopefully, we’ll get a little bit more business this lion bales annually. Last year, U.S. cotton farmers drop by another 30 or 40 percent this year. produced 13.6 million bales,” he said. year.” Singleton said some 7.1 million bales were carUltimately, whether it’s corn or soybeans, 2009 v v v ried over from the 2007 crop. Worldwide the cotlooks like a good year if the weather cooperates. ton carryover is approaching 50 percent, he said. David Lavender, Express Grain’s manager, said For Express Grain Terminals LLC, 2008 was Or, to put it another way: “At the end of this while there were some headaches last year, 2009 very productive. marketing year, there will be enough cotton in looks promising. While the terminal experienced its fair share of warehouses to supply 50 percent of the world’s “When all is said and done, I think we’re quite growing pains in its first year of operation, it was needs next year,” Singleton said. happy,” he said.
Page72 Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
Greenwood Commonwealth Page73 PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
“GreshamMcPherson has known what it takes to service customers for the last 50 years, and they’ve stuck to it.” Ed Lucic
Gresham-McPherson Oil Company employees work to load a fuel truck at the company’s station in Greenwood. The employees are, from left, Travis Burtin, Steve Hambrick, Jimbo Dawson and Wayne Aldridge.
Focused on the customer Gresham-McPherson Oil Co. makes servcice its top priority
W
hen Ed Lucic began working for Gresham-McPherson Oil Co. in the late 1980s, there were five other oil companies in the Greenwood area. During the past 20 years, four of them have shut down. “We kind of feel like a lone survivor on a deserted island, with a big mean shark just offshore waiting for us,” Lucic said. But Lucic, manager of the Indianola-based company’s bulk station in Greenwood, said the reason for the company’s survival is pretty simple. “We’re customer-oriented 100 percent,” said Lucic. “Gresham-McPherson has known what it takes to service customers for the last 50 years, and they’ve stuck to it.” Gresham-McPherson Oil Co.’s roots reach back to the early 1920s, when W.W. Gresham Sr. built a service station in Indianola. It was the first drive-in station in the Mississippi Delta that had two pumps and two driveways for vehicles to use. That business grew and expanded until 1958, when the decision was made to create Gresham Petroleum Co. W.W. Gresham Sr., his son, W.W. Gresham Jr., and John McPherson were the incorporators of that business. In 1965, the company purchased the Greenwood-
based Amoco petroleum business of J.E. Pond, and GreshamMcPherson Oil Co. was born. “We’ve been here so long, we feel like we’re part of this town’s history,” Lucic said. Today, the Greenwood site, another bulk station in Belzoni and the home site in Indianola represent GreshamLucic McPherson Oil Co. The Greenwood location today has 10 full-time employees. “In our workforce, we don’t have turnover,” Lucic said. “The whole company is one big family, from top to bottom.” He credits that to the company always revolving around “consistency and reliability.” An employee may be a fuel man one day, and the next day he may be a service man, Lucic said. “Even me,” the Mississippi State graduate said. “I do a little bit of everything each day. It’s something that makes us special.” While the company sells its gasoline, diesel and oil through about eight service stations, Lucic said, providing fuel to Delta farmers is the company’s “bread and butter.” “More than half our business is farm-related,” he said. STORY AND PHOTOS BY WILLIAM BROWNING
The Greenwood station is on 3rd Street, right behind Greenwood High’s football stadium. It sits near the railroad, Lucic said, “because in the old days, the oil would come in by train.” In the early days, business was conducted in a trailer. In the early 1990s, though, the company constructed its current building. On any given day, the Greenwood station may send out three trucks full of bulk gasoline or diesel, two trucks full of propane and one truck full of oil. Its fleet also contains five service trucks. The company began providing propane in 1993. While some of those sales are in bulk sizes, Lucic said the company’s propane is also available to residential buyers. The same goes for oil, he said. They might sell a quart of oil one minute and then turn around and haul 7,000 gallons of diesel to a farmer. But regardless of the size of the load, meeting a customer’s needs will always come first on Lucic’s staff’s list of priorities. “We’re bigger now than we’ve ever been,” he said. “But this company has never tried to get too big.” The reason is simple, he said. “Time changes things, but we keep that attitude of serving customers prevalent in everything that we do.”
Page74 Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
Viking: A step ahead
Company constantly researching other industries to see the newest trends, technologies
I
f you want to know why Viking Range Corp., a manufacturer of high-end kitchen appliances in Greenwood, always seems a step ahead of its competitors, consider the company’s newest products. With all its success, it would be understandable if the 20-plus-year-old company opted for a relaxed outlook, sitting quietly atop its perch as the premier kitchenware manufacturer. But the company’s name is known worldwide not only because of its high-caliber products, but because of its imaginative and entrepreneurial outlook. The company seems to constantly reach for a new level of perfection. “The management, design, engineering, manufacturing and marketing teams at Viking are constantly researching not only the appliance industry, but other industries as well, to see what the newest trends and technologies are,” said Fred Carl Jr., founder and CEO of Viking Range Corp. “The Viking production system, which is based on the renowned Toyota Production System, utilizing incredibly efficient ‘just in time’ production methodology and inventory control, allows us to introduce new products and improve existing products quickly and efficiently,” he said. This year, the company is unveiling seven new products – from a new line of ranges to dishwashers. “With all of these new product introductions, Viking is going to have the most impressive, appealing and extensive lineup in the high-end consumer appliance industry in every category – cooking, ventilation, refrigeration, kitchen cleanup and outdoor,” Carl said. “The sheer depth and breadth of the Viking line gives us a formidable arsenal to help gain additional market share this year, regardless of it being a very difficult selling environment.” Carl said the “upscale market will remain contracted for a while, but we are confident that it will be robust again once the economy returns.” “However, our new Designer series is intended to diversify the company into a somewhat less exotic product segment at slightly lower price points,” he said. Here’s a sampling of Viking products that have recently hit the market and a few more that are still to come. Viking Custom Ranges – This new line is simply a step up from the Viking Classic series. In development for years, the line offers a new, professional look. Items from the Custom series come equipped with sealed burners, stainless steel knobs and updated aesthetic features and are available in 24 color finishes. When coupled with Classic series, this new line gives Viking a broader lineup than any other manufacturer, the company said. Viking Electric Induction 30-inch Range – This is the only electric commercial-type 30-inch-wide induction range on the market. The MagneQuick induction power generators use a magnetic field to instantly transform cookware into a heat source. The heat is lost just as fast when the element is turned off. Through the magnetic field, the heat is produced by the cookware, not the cooking element. For example, a paper towel could be placed between the element and the cookware during heating and it would not burn. The process of induction is extremely energy efficient, operating at a rate of 90 percent.
This commercial model marks Viking’s first foray into commercial cooking equipment. The division is based in southern California, but the new products will soon begin production in Greenwood.
Viking Dishwashers – The newest addition to this group is the 450 Series. With heavy-duty racks, quiet operation and notable performance, the company considers the series a true Viking professional dishwasher. In the coming months, Viking will also introduce the 325 Series, which will have fewer features than the 450 Series and will be priced lower. Later in the year, a third dishwasher, the 650 Series, will be introduced. This top-of-the-line model is expected to give the company its most solid line ever in the clean-up category.
The newest edition to the Viking dishwasher line is the 450 Series. In the coming months, Viking also will introduce the 325 Series, which will have fewer features than the 450 Series and will be priced lower. STORY BY WILLIAM BROWNING
Saint Charles Steel Cabinetry – This division of Viking has recently begun producing a frameless, full-overlay line of steel cabinetry in Greenwood. The high-end cabinetry comes in stainless steel and 23 colors of powdercoated, cold-rolled steel. The cabinetry is made of recycled content, making it ideally suited for hypoallergenic environments. It is 98 percent recyclable. Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as other iconic architects, often incorporated Saint Charles cabinetry into many mid-century designs. Saint Charles Cabinetry distribution is made up of about 29 dealers in 20 states and continues to grow. Viking Commercial Products – These products mark Viking’s first foray into commercial cooking equipment. The division is based in southern California, but the new products will soon begin production in Greenwood. The introductory product line from Viking Commercial Products was unveiled to chefs and restaurateurs in early February at the North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturer Show. Viking believes its commercial line will be the most distinctive and highest-quality line of restaurant cooking equipment made in America. Abeautiful and functional line, it incorporates quality components as well as innovative style and design. Viking Designer Series – In early May, Viking will introduce this series at the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show in Atlanta. Being further differentiated from the Professional line, the new Designer series will also have more competitive pricing. The company feels this series will help serve a broader market. Viking Chef Series – Inspired by the Viking Commercial Line, this series will be introduced late in the year and will represent the ultimate residential professional-style range. The company says it will have a unique design and will have numerous features exclusive to Viking. It is essentially a residential version of the Viking Commercial line. The company has dubbed this series “the Mercedes S-Class of the Viking product line.”
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Greenwood Commonwealth Page77 PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
Business becomes her
And family is even more important
I
K.K. Kent, left, and her son, Will Kent, love their pets. K.K. is holding Tuey, her micro-miniature Chihuahua, as the two cane corso puppies, Sammy, left, and Ivy, brother and sister, drape themselves comfortably across both their laps.
f you’re in a hurry, “What do you do?” is not the best question to ask K.K. Henderson Kent. She owns a restaurant, a farm, a historic home and several rental properties. She collects antiques. She’s an award-winning architectural restorer, a caterer, a scratch cook, a widow and a single mom. A Greenwood native, K.K. Kent lives the American work ethic on steroids. An 80-hour work week is closer to the norm than the exception for Kent, 46, who has been working or going to school or both since she was 12. Back then, she got a part-time job after school and on Saturdays at the Greenwood Pet Shop, which was in the Highland Park Shopping Center on West Park Avenue. “I inherited my strong work ethic from my mother and my father,” Kent said. She continues that tradition by setting an example for STORY AND PHOTOS BY JO ALICE DARDEN
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her son, Will, to follow, while also showing him the importance of family in the shaping and fulfillment of their lives.
Family influences Some of Kent’s fondest memories are of learning from the cooks in her family. “You know the difference between a chef and a cook?” she asked. “A chef is formally trained and has to develop a certain set of skills. A cook has a Godgiven talent. I’m a cook, and I learned from some of the best cooks.” Kent recalls watching and helping her maternal grandmother, Zara Arrington, who had a hotel and restaurant in Bruce, as she and her two cooks, who were sisters, worked in the kitchen to feed the hotel guests. “She never measured a thing except by eyeballing, and she made everything from scratch.” A great uncle, Joe Ballou of South Dakota, a cook in the U.S. Army, inspired Kent also, and her mother, Margaret Henderson of Greenwood, a scratch cook herself, taught her the basics and made cooking fun. “Thanks to them, I’ve always enjoyed cooking,” Kent said. When she was 14, Kent started working at Malouf’s Delicatessen, which was across from The Village shopping center on U.S. 82. She worked there while attending Greenwood High School (Class of 1979) and Mississippi Delta Community College, where she went to learn how to landscape. She changed her major when her dad told her she couldn’t make a living planting other people’s trees for them. “So I took the fastest route I could to get through and graduate,” she said. She got an associate degree in nursing. “I nursed for six weeks,” she said. “And then I bought the deli from John Malouf.”
“You know the difference between a chef and a cook? A chef is formally trained and has to develop a certain set of skills. A cook has a God-given talent. I’m a cook, and I learned from some of the best cooks.” K.K. Henderson Kent Kent’s mother and father advanced some cash and co-signed the note that allowed the 24-year-old to purchase the business in 1986, and she paid them back. In 1989 she bought the Cotton Patch on U.S. 82 near the railroad tracks and ran it until 1992, when she started leasing it. Also in 1992, she bought Malouf’s Liquor Store, next door to the deli. She sold that in 1997. That same year Kent moved the deli to its current location on Grand Boulevard because of the frequent thefts and break-ins she experienced. The move allowed her to expand the dining area in front, the kitchen and the back rooms, which are enormously popular with civic groups and businesses as places to hold meetings and parties. Kent said their constant
use allows her to keep the pricing reasonable for both the rooms and the catering. K.K.’s Deli is a crowd-pleaser, with a loyal following. And in 2006, it was voted to have the best tamales on the Hot Tamale Trail between Memphis and New Orleans. Nearly every morning, Kent shows up at the deli around 6 a.m., ready to help her staff serve breakfast. She has one full-time and three part-time employees. Kent loves doing the cooking and has a terrific memory for what her regular customers order. The most popular meals are purely Southern – like the ones she learned to make from her mother, grandmother and uncle. “Hamburger steak and creamed potatoes, chicken and dumplings, pork chops and butter beans, pasta, peach cobbler, cake, cheesecake, just good ol’ comfort food – that’s what my customers love the most,” she said. Kent’s catering is not limited to onsite meetings and parties. She enjoys catering weddings and corporate meetings at other locations, and she supplies box lunches to Cotton Belt Aviation when called upon, driving the meals out to the airport. Her cake-making talent is becoming the stuff of legend, too. Kent has made “way up in the thousands” of caramel cakes, and it should come as no surprise that the recipe for the frosting came from her Aunt Lucille in Coffeeville. After tasting one of these cakes last Thanksgiving as a guest of one of Kent’s clients, a gentleman from Jackson called and placed an order for 140 of the cakes, to be picked up at the rate of around 35 a week for four weeks of the season. “I hope he does it next year, too!” she said. Other business ventures have helped supplement Kent’s coffers at various times. She has acquired rental property in North Greenwood and southwest Greenwood, investing in houses and apartments
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“My heart and soul go out to farmers,” she said. “It’s irritating when people say farmers just sit back and collect government subsidies. It’s the hardest job I’ve ever done in my life.” K.K. Henderson Kent when the economy and her accounts feel right. “It’s a huge challenge now,” she said. “I’ve never seen the economy like this.” In the late 1990s, Kent bought a downtown property known as the Provine-Sabin-Wiggins Building at 109 Howard St., in the Cotton Row District. Built circa 1900, the structure was in disrepair and had undergone remodeling that had paid little attention to its period or its style, vernacular Italianate. Kent rehabilitated it, restoring it to its former glory, thinking she would run an antiques auction business there. She even took a course at the University of Missouri to become an antiques auctioneer. And in 2000, she won a Mississippi Heritage Trust Award of Merit for the renovation. But she lost interest and sold the building to Viking Range Corp. in 2001 after the sudden death of her husband.
What really matters: love, responsibility The Henderson family has had its share of loss and tragedy. Kent listed the deaths of her great aunt and uncle, Ruth Ballou in 2001 and Joe in 2002; her father, Bobby Henderson, and her grandmother Zara, both in 2004; and her brother, Bob, in 2006. She was very close to all of these people, as each one had had a strong hand in shaping her life and values. But her most stunning loss by far was that of her husband, Hunter Kent, in 2001. The couple had recently purchased the farm known as Ten Oaks and were excitedly working to make it their own, Kent said. The house is pre-Civil War vintage, built by Gayden Peteet, who called his property “The Lady” and sold it to a Col. Rhodes after the war. The story goes that Rhodes became so upset that his fiancée refused to move here from the North, that he committed suicide in front of the kitchen fireplace. Named for the 10 oak trees planted in the yard of the home in 1903, the place held a special attraction for the young Kents. Hunter’s father lived and worked on the farm many years before, after Joe and Allene Flautt bought it in 1944. And now it was his. Grateful to local antiques dealers Russell Cohron, Sara Ann Carter, and David Pitts for their guidance, Kent began furnishing her house in antiques that were true to the period of her home – a graceful mahogany dining table and chairs, a massive mahogany and rosewood sideboard, etageres and
K.K. Kent collects antique furniture and accessories to fill her pre-Civil War home. Part of her collection of American-Clear Fostoria crystal was arrayed on her antique mahogany dining table, and some Blue Willow pottery sits on the mantel. other pieces. K.K. concentrated on the interior, and Hunter worked the land. The couple had dated for five-and-a-half years and had been married 13½ years. Their son, Will, was 11 and a student at Pillow Academy. In May 2001, Hunter was on the property blowing beaver dams, Kent said, when he had a sudden heart attack and died. He was 44. Kent decided to keep the farm and operate it herself. Her life had to go on; she had a son to rear. “My heart and soul go out to farmers,” she said. “It’s irritating when people say farmers just sit back and collect government subsidies. It’s the hardest job I’ve ever done in my life.” Kent worked the farm, growing cotton and soybeans, for about five years. She finally leased it to
Poe Farms, which has managed it since 2006. Will is now 19 and attending Mississippi Delta Community College on a football scholarship. He plans to be a nurse anesthetist. He likes to travel and is thinking about moving out west when he finishes school. Following his mom’s lead – not only into nursing – Will is a good cook, Kent said. A hunter, he makes venison jerky and grills steaks and burgers. He grows peppers in his garden in the summer and puts up hot sauce every year. “I make a pretty good breakfast,” Will said, winking at his mom, “when she won’t feed me pancakes when I come home after huntin’ at dawn.” The two enjoy a comfortable relationship, and Kent’s pride in her son is obvious.
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K.K’s Favorite Recipes Pasta Alfredo 1 stick butter, melted 1 cup cream 4 tablespoons flour 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese 2 cups chicken stock Pasta of choice Chicken, cooked and diced (optional) Vegetables of choice, diced (optional)
Being a successful businesswoman means that sometimes you take orders yourself instead of simply issuing them. Here Kent takes a lunch order from longtime friend and customer Robbie Upchurch, co-owner of Upchurch Plumbing Inc.
To make sauce, over low heat, whisk together the butter, cream and flour until smooth. Add the cheese. Add the chicken stock slowly, stirring constantly. Cook until mixture is smooth and of desired consistency. Prepare pasta according to package directions. Toss cooked pasta with sauce; add diced chicken and/or vegetables, if using. Serve hot.
Red Velvet Cheesecake Crust 1½ cups chocolate graham cracker crumbs ¼ cup melted butter 1 tablespoon sugar
Kent delivers a platter full of sandwiches at her delicatessen. Janet Westerfield of Greenwood, left, a longtime customer of the deli, says the food is great and Kent provides a valuable service to the community. “Two of the happiest times in my life were with Will,” she said. “When he was 11, he came to me and told me he was ready to be baptized. It was his own decision, and I was so proud of him. And Hunter was ready to move his letter from First Baptist to our church, North Greenwood Baptist. They walked down the aisle together, and I’ll never forget seeing that.” Hunter died the following May. “The second time was when Will became an Eagle Scout,” Kent continued. He was 16. His project was landscaping North Greenwood Baptist Church’s educational building and all the surrounding beds. “I thank God for Dr. (John Fair III) Lucas’ Troop 100,” Kent said. Kent has exceptionally strong views on parenting and responsibility for bringing up children. “Children are the ultimate responsibility of their parents to educate and teach them manners and give them principles to live by,” she said. “Parents need to set good examples and teach by example. You should be the example you want your kids to
Filling 3 (8-ounce each) packages cream cheese, softened 1½ cups sugar 4 large eggs, beaten 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa 1 cup sour cream ½ cup buttermilk 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 teaspoon white vinegar 2 (1-ounce each) bottles red food coloring
follow.” Kent said Will is extremely focused and goal-oriented, like her. “He has great manners. He’s mature and responsible,” she said. “Hmm. Sounds like I’m trying to marry him off, doesn’t it?” She gives ample credit to her dad and brothers for helping her with Will, for being there for him when he needed a male influence. Most of the other members of their family have four legs. Kent has rescued animals for years and has always had dogs and cats. Now she also has horses and even ducks. When her pet Rottweiler, Belle, died at age 13, she wanted a protective dog because of her home’s rather remote location. She did some research on the Internet and found an Italian breed called cane (pronounced kah-NAY) corso. “They’re very family-oriented and protective of their perimeter,” she said. She bought a brother and sister named Sammie and Ivy and is working to train them. She said they’ll grow to about 140 pounds. Neither of them is any match for Tuey, however.
Topping 1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened ¼ cup butter, softened 2 cups powdered sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Prepare a day ahead or very early in the day for an evening dessert. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Stir together cracker crumbs, melted butter and 1 tablespoon sugar. Press mixture into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the 3 (8-ounce) packages of softened cream cheese and 1 ½ cups sugar for 1 minute. Add eggs, cocoa, sour cream, buttermilk, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, vinegar and food coloring, mixing on low speed until fully combined. Pour mixture over crumb crust. Bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes; reduce heat to 300 degrees and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until center is firm. When done, remove from oven and run knife along outer edge of cheesecake. Turn oven off; replace cheesecake in oven; let stand in oven for 30 minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven; cool in pan on wire rack for 30 minutes. Cover and chill at least 8 hours. In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, beat 3 ounces cream cheese and ¼ cup butter at medium speed until smooth. Continue mixing, gradually adding 2 cups powdered sugar. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, beating until smooth. Spread evenly over top of cheesecake. Remove sides of pan; slice and serve.
Tuey is a micro-miniature Chihuahua, Kent said. He rules the house and is best friends with Cheddar, a massive orange tabby cat with a bottle-brush tail and a playful disposition. “All these animals help lower my stress level so much,” she said. With little time for relaxation, Kent spends it wisely. She enjoys just being with her family, including the animals, and her “significant other,” Larry Fuller of Greenwood, known affectionately as “Fuller.” She likes to cook for her loved ones – again, not a surprise – often trying new twists on old favorite dishes. Gardening is good therapy, too: Kent is a Master Gardener and a member of the Greenwood Garden Club. Kent collects American-Clear Fostoria crystal and is always on the lookout for good antiques from 1850 to 1900 for her home. And she is taking the final steps in the long and involved process of having the house added to the National Register of Historic Places. Kent thrives on all the responsibility she takes on. Given her upbringing, though, and the example her family set for her to follow, she wouldn’t have it any other way.
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Bill Crump
Chamber
president recognizes team effort
Bill Crump, who took over as president of the GreenwoodLeflore County Chamber of Commerce in January, says he is amazed at the volunteer spirit of chamber members.
‘It’s not one person’s show to run’
B
ill Crump says he got a true sense of the Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce’s community spirit soon after becoming a chamber officer. “One of the first things I really was involved in as one of the officers was the 300 Oaks Race,” he said. “And I was amazed that at 5:00 in the morning, people were mixing up Gatorade.” Since then, he has seen the big role volunteers play at the chamber, which has only two paid staff members. Volunteers help with 300 Oaks, the Roy Martin Delta Band Festival or whatever they’re interested in. The chamber has representatives from small business, large industry and other segments of the community. Crump, director of governmental affairs and special assistant to the president at Viking Range Corp., took over as chamber president in January. But because so many others pitch in, he doesn’t expect his workload to increase much. “Even though one has the title of president, it’s a team effort, and it’s not one person’s show to run,” he said. Photo by Johnny Jennings
STORY BY DAVID MONROE
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Crump, 55, a native of Schlater, says the development in Greenwood the last few years has been exciting. Seeing the old buildings – both those Viking has renovated and others – brings back a lot of memories, he said. “Just walking the streets of Greenwood now, I remember different things, different times about it,” he said. “It’s really encouraging to see what’s happened.” Years ago, his family would watch the Roy Martin Delta Band Festival each year from a room at the Hotel Irving, where his mother would fix ham sandwiches and hot chocolate. So when The Alluvian opened at the former Hotel Irving location, he had to keep up the tradition. “I told my wife, ‘We’ve got to have ham sandwiches and hot chocolate,’ so we sat in the windows of The Alluvian and watched the parade that year,” he recalled. The Alluvian has spurred significant development downtown, as have other Viking projects there. And it’s not just Viking, he said; Staplcotn, churches, banks, and others also have played major roles in the revival of downtown. The development on Sgt. John A. Pittman Drive and in other areas is a good sign, too, he said. “A few years ago, Greenville was kind of the showplace of the Delta, and now we’ve kind of changed hats,” he said. “And that’s nice and encouraging to see, and I just hope we can keep all that going.” v v v Crump has been involved in the chamber and economic development since he returned home from Washington, D.C., in 1992. He also serves on the Greenwood-Leflore Industrial Board, the Board of Directors of the Mississippi Economic Council, the Greenwood Leflore Hospital
“I enjoy being busy. I can’t stand not to be busy.” Bill Crump, president Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce Foundation Board, and the Task Force for the Revitalization of the Delta. “I enjoy being busy,” he said with a smile. “I can’t stand not to be busy.” He said the slow economy will make the chamber’s work difficult this year, but he plans to stay focused on promoting Greenwood. In fact, he said, with more limited funds, even more people will have to be involved. The area has made progress, but it still has many needs, such as affordable housing, he said. The economy also presents a challenge for the Industrial Board. But that organization is continuing to recruit new employers and working with existing companies to ensure that they stay, he said. v v v Crump said being a public official in Schlater taught him a lot about dealing with people. He was elected to the town’s Board of Aldermen at the age of 19 and later served as mayor for 16 years. So, when he watched Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin talk in interviews last year about her days as a small-town mayor, he identified with what she said. “People don’t think about it, but you’re closer to your constituents than the mayor of New York is,” he said.
“And you can’t avoid them.” You also can’t burn bridges or make people angry because you’ll probably have to deal with them later, he said. He took those skills with him to Washington, where he spent 10 years. He was chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Webb Franklin and then held the same job in the office of U.S. Rep. Connie Mack. He later was deputy to Lee Atwater, chairman of the Republican National Committee; served as special assistant to the secretary of labor; and arranged travel for President George H.W. Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle. Washington was the biggest city he had ever seen, but he said the political environment was similar to that of a small town. “It’s a very small and very tight sphere of activity,” he said, “and when you learn to deal with people in a small-town setting, that helps you deal with people in a political setting.” v v v Crump said his 10 years in Washington were the most exciting time of his life up to that point. But he returned to Mississippi to work for Viking, and he said the last few years have been just as exciting. “It’s been a wonderful ride both directions,” he said. People often have asked whether he misses Washington. He said he has fond memories of it but likes what he does now. He still gets to return to the nation’s capital every so often, and his oldest son is now a legislative assistant for U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. In fact, if he ever writes a book, Crump plans to title it “From McNutt Lake to the Potomac and Back.” “If it ended tomorrow, I would have to say I’ve had the best life that anybody could have,” he said.
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“Where quality still means something.” CH PLU U RCOMMERCIAL M
INDUSTRIAL
WO
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UPC
BI
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UPCHURCH PLUMBING, INC O D , M IS
SI
“Service”
Greenwood, Mississippi
Commercial / Industrial Serving Mississippi and Surrounding Areas Since 1970 is a word that is tossed around often these days. Every business claims they offer it, but only a select few truly embody what the term means. At Upchurch Plumbing, Inc., Mechanical Contractors, in Greenwood, Mississippi, service is not only a slogan; it is THE ONLY way to conduct business. Providing the client exactly what they want, when they want it, and how they want it, is Upchurch Plumbing’s long-standing method of putting service into action. It is the company’s mission.
Mechanical Contractors, Design, Build, Plan & Spec, Negotiated 2606 Baldwin Road • Greenwood, Mississippi 38930 P. O. Box 8106 • (662)453-6860
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Good times guaranteed Abels entertains area residents through Carroll County Market The Carroll County Market has a festive entrance along the main drag in historic downtown Carrollton. The market, located on the courthouse square, has brought “good times” and entertainment to area residents.
G
ood times guaranteed” is Cecil Abels’ production company’s motto, and when he returned to Carrollton after 21 years in the Navy, he brought good times to the town in the form of the Carroll County Market. The market, located on the courthouse square, was established last year with Abels’ sister, Glenda Jones of Carrollton. As for his motto, Abels said he’s never had to return anyone’s money. He has produced numerous concerts in the Northeast and served as master of ceremonies at many bluegrass festivals. But the market has given him a special satisfaction, he said, since part of his growing-up time was spent in Carrollton, where his father was principal of J.Z. George STORY AND PHOTOS BY RUTH JENSEN
High School. Though the money is not quite there yet, there are other rewards for now. “I love to see that other people have a good time,” he said. “If I book someone who’s shy and reserved, I will introduce the artist in such a way that the people will ‘get it.’ Even on nights when we have only 40 or 50, they’ll say, ‘That’s amazing.’ “I have had so much joy here, at this place,” he said. “Being in New England with a vibrant arts community, I felt it should be done here. It brings joy to my life. I have to have that.” People have responded well to the varied musical offerings, Abels says, and “having people say they enjoy it means a lot.”
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Cecil Abels relaxes with his dog Hank in a back room of the Carroll County Market in Carrollton. Abels has brought many well-known and up-and-coming musicians to the Market.
Because he is a musician, it isn’t difficult to get the acts booked. “The musical grapevine is small. We had a band from Brazil, the Cozinheiros, that called and asked to come,” he said. “As a musician, I know what’s important to them. I respect them and treat them like the artists they are. I try to pay as much as we can. They love the way we treat them. We feed them. They love our food. I don’t know how to explain it, but I know that certain something that musicians need.” The Brazilian band was an example of being adventurous, Abels said. “The guys were so good. It happened to pay off. Customers are coming to hear music they’ve never heard. They’re willing to try.” He said customers have come from Oxford, Grenada, Greenwood, Tupelo, Jackson and even Birmingham, since the market was featured in a number of regional publications. “Everybody feels at home here no matter where they come from. It’s a way for people to enjoy life. For me, there’s a message in the music. A lot of our artists are people who are writing their songs, like Tricia Walker. The songs are poignant and deep.” The market has hosted Will Kimbrough, a nationally known singer/songwriter, and Kingbilly, an up-and-coming band, with Charlie Worsham from Grenada. A friend of Abels’ from Nashville, with the group String Dusters, has been here and will return. And there are other exciting acts in the future, he said. The only hard part is filling the market and paying the acts. Some nights there are 150 people, but sometimes the crowd is much smaller. Abels sends out about 400 e-mails each week with the offerings for the weekend. People often forward those, so that 1,000 e-mails may go out. He and nephew Greg Jones – who with his wife Heather, has stepped in to handle the food end – hope to establish an earlier seating with folks who just want to eat, not stay for the music. “We have great food – wood-fired pizzas, grilled vegetables, fish, shrimp, steaks and ribs. Ribs are our number
one thing. I would love to open every day.” Jones said he is doing what he has always wanted to do. “It’s satisfying for people to come and enjoy the food. We served three chefs in the past month.” He also loves music and enjoys finding young bands to book. Abels came back to Carrollton after his father became ill. He had lived in New Hampshire and Maine for about 15 years, and after his Navy career ended, he worked with his production company putting on bluegrass festivals. He was also a music events coordinator for the Bay View Pavilion and put on concerts there. Even then, his Mississippi roots were always close to the surface. His New Hampshire tag read MrSippy, and his music company is called Mr Sippy Productions. “My Southern roots always came out,” he said. “I brought in Southern musicians. We had a blues festival. I had Pinetop Perkins, a blues piano player from Mississippi. I hired him to headline, and he was a huge success.” On a lark, he wondered if that kind of entertainment would make it in Carrollton – and then he and his sister decided to become partners. She had moved back to Carrollton with her husband Sterling and their kids and retired from teaching some years ago. Another sister, Carla Shackelford, married and raised a family here. Carrollton was always a special place to him, Abels said. “It was a magical place to grow up,” he said. “I stayed in the creeks, rode my bicycle everywhere. I was in ‘The Reivers.’” So after considering everything, he decided to take the plunge. A small town has other advantages for opening a business, such as a lower level of risk, he said. Now Jones and Abels are trying to make the business more profitable, adding more seating space, and working toward a no-cover food-only time. “It’s a non-profit thing now. I even lose money on the music.” But that’s the part he must have.
Music has always been a big part of Abels’ life. His mother taught his three sisters to sing harmony, and he said he “got it by osmosis.” He learned to play guitar, and in high school in Belmont, was good friends with Mac McAnally, now a lead guitarist for Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band. “We’ve remained good friends. He gets me backstage passes to concerts.” The Navy was a very satisfying career for him, Abels said, but he was never far from his guitar. He earned a college degree in environmental health services and was commissioned an officer. He usually found someone to play music with, whether in Japan, Korea, or Europe, and found opportunities to play in clubs around the world. He would come off a plane as part of the Inspector General’s team to inspect veterans’ hospitals, and everyone would have a bag. “I would have a bag and a guitar case. Everybody Cecil Abels loved a guitar player. I’d have admirals, captains singing. They liked that.” When he ended up in New Hampshire, he often was invited to play with various groups. He formed a group that he still is active in, the New England Bluegrass Band. “I always played with people who were really, really good – far better than me,” he said. “If you keep playing, you get better.” Abels plays guitar, mandolin and bass. The market has worked out better than he dreamed it would, he said. He hopes to continue. But that goal depends on two important factors. “If I can keep my wanderlust in check, and the people will support it, we’ll keep it going.”
“If I can keep my wanderlust in check, and the people will support it, we’ll keep it going”
Page86 Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
A SALUTE TO LEFLORE COUNTY INDUSTRIES, BUSINESSES AND FARMS! “BUILDING A STRONG TOMORROW FOR GREENWOOD TODAY” We salute our industries, businesses and farms. Our economy depends upon incomes generated by the industries, businesses and farms in Leflore County.
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Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 Page87 =================================================================================================================================================================================
“I often tell people I was called to teach just like men of the cloth were called to preach.” Dr. Donna Oliver
Focusing on
academics New university president brings lifetime of experience in education to MVSU
C
onfident and cheerful, progressive and poised, Dr. Donna Oliver brings a lot to the table as Mississippi Valley State University’s first female president. But perhaps most importantly, she carries a new attitude with her to the Itta Bena campus, where she began her tenure in January. The 59-year-old North Carolina native has set a theme of excellence, ethics and equality – the “Triple E’s” – as a guide for the historically black institution. Making Valley’s academics first-class is her top priority. “Valley, it is time for a change,” she told faculty and staff in her inaugural address. “It is time to double our success. We need change that will cause us to commit ourselves to a higher level of academic excellence.” Oliver has spent a lifetime in education in almost every role possible. She has been a public school biology and chemistry teacher, a college professor and an administrator. Perhaps her most prominent recognition came in 1987 when she was named National Teacher of the Year from among 2.5 million teachers. President Ronald Reagan presented the award. However great her accomplishments, she hasn’t forgotten where she came from. Her passion for teaching was first kindled while a student at Williams High School in Burlington, N.C, where she was one of the first 15 black students to integrate. “I often tell people I was called to teach just like men of the cloth were called to preach,” she said during her first visit to Valley in October. She went on to Elon College, a private school in North Carolina, and graduated in 1972 with a degree in biology and education. She then taught for five years at the high school level before going back to school for her master’s degree, which she received in biology and curriculum and instruction from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Mississippi Valley State University President Donna Oliver speaks with master of social work students, from left, James Bartlett, Connie Hearns, Freddie Edmonds and Pat Williams, during a visit to tour the department's facilities. The Department of Social Work received a site visit for accreditation in February. Oliver has completed her first month as the university's sixth and first female leader of the public university.
The Oliver File Dr. Donna Oliver became Mississippi Valley State University’s sixth president in January. Here’s the basics on the new leader. Age: 59 Hometown: Burlington, N.C. Family: Husband, James; one daughter and two grandchildren
STORY BY CHARLIE SMITH
Experience: Provost and vice president for academic affairs at Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Fla. Has taught at the high school and collegiate levels. Education: Biology degree from Elon College, master’s and doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Awards: 1987 National Teacher of the Year
Page88 Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
Dr. Donna Oliver, president of Mississippi Valley State University, is flanked by two former MVSU presidents, Dr. Ernest Boykins, left, and Dr. William Sutton, right. The presidents were recognized by the Eta Theta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority's Black Tie Inaugural Ball in Greenville on Jan. 20. Oliver also earned a master’s degree in educational administration with licensure as an elementary principal from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University. After working as a college teacher educator, she returned to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, earning a doctorate in curriculum and teaching with a concentration in multicultural education. She spent several years at Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C., serving as vice president of academic affairs before leaving for Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Fla. She became provost and vice president of academic affairs there before coming to Valley. Throughout it all, she managed to find time for family. She and her husband, James C. Oliver, have one daughter, Rachel Oliver-Cobbin – a former Miss Black America and a recording artist – and two grandchildren. As Barbara Baymon, MVSU’s director of theater and instructor of speech, said repeatedly in a precise, deliberate diction while introducing Oliver recently, “When I say this person has everything, I mean everything.”
Greenwood Commonwealth Page89 PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
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MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY
Turning grease into
biodiesel
University using waste to make fuel
At left, Dr. Abigail Newsome, director of the Mississippi Valley State University Bioinformatics Program, describes how a reactor on Valley’s campus converts grease to biodiesel. Dr. Louis Hall, assistant professor of biology at Valley, looks on.
Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 Page91 =================================================================================================================================================================================
Dr. Abigail Newsome, director of the Mississippi Valley State University Bioinformatics Program, points to where waste goes when grease is converted to biodiesel.
Biodiesel project the ‘hidden gem of the campus,’professor says
D
oes raiding a cafeteria’s grease pit for a source of energy sound nutty?
If so, consider these points. Gasoline and diesel prices were unpredictable during most of 2008. Fossil fuels, as scientists keep saying, are dwindling toward extinction. And disposing of grease costs money. So in the words of Dr. Louis Hall, assistant professor of biology at Mississippi Valley State University, “Why not take that waste and begin working with it so we can use it as fuel on campus?” Last semester, Hall, along with Dr. Abigail Newsome, director of bioinformatics at Valley, started doing just that. Since fall 2008, the duo have been hauling cooking grease out of Valley’s cafeteria and turning it into biodiesel. Their reasons are plentiful. First, there’s the environmental side. Using biodiesel instead of diesel helps reduce harmful emissions, gets people thinking about “green jobs” and puts the idea of renewable energy in minds. Many say the world’s energy sources are limited. And while some disagree, Newsome cites the greenhouse effect scares from 40 years ago that went largely ignored. “Now we see that greenhouse gases are, in fact, a very real thing,” said Newsome, an Itta Bena native. The fact that energy sources were routinely discussed during last year’s presidential debates proves the seriousness of the issue, added Hall, who has been at Valley since 2004. “We have to make this Earth, this blue marble in space, a better place to live,” the Pass Christian native said. “Anything we can do to make this world more sustainable, it will benefit not only Valley, this campus, this state, but this world.”
world,” Newsome said, noting a growing worldwide interest in making biodiesel. “This will happen in the near future.” They said their biodiesel efforts are in the “infancy” stage, but they’ve learned a few things. For example, you can make 50 gallons of biodiesel It takes eight hours in eight hours; a mere 12 steps separate the subto turn reg- stance you fry chicken in from the substance you ular kitchen pour into weed eaters; grease into and “it can be a messy process, a slippery biodiesel. process,” Newsome But once the process said smiling. Newsome and Hall is done, it’s time to fill- have differing areas of expertise. Hall studies her-up. science, and Newsome studies how to apply technology to science. But their work intersects at a common point: the ins and outs of their home planet. “One concern we Newsome, who recycles her own water in her personal life, wants other people to follow her lead. have in common is the Earth and the self-sus“I hope people become more environmentally containability of the camscious. Nothing in this world suggests we are.” pus,” Hall said. “That Apart from the obvious environmental and conDr. Abigail Newsome being said, one of the servation benefits, though, Hall and Newsome things we decided to look at is the idea of making hope their students learn from the biodiesel work. our own energy.” “You tend to learn more when you do what Maybe one day, the university’s grounds crew you’re being taught, when you can see it in action,” will be able to use the biodiesel in their small Newsome said. engines, and the school will benefit financially. So far, only about five students are actively Until then, though, Hall and Newsome are enjoyinvolved in the work. But Newsome said as their ing watching their students glean the educational studies progress, they hope to see other students benefits. “We are the hidden gem of the campus,” get involved and learn from the process. Newsome, who has been at Valley since 1997, “We’re training the students to do this because, said. in a sense, it’s sort of a rehearsal for the real
“We’re training the students to do this because, in a sense, it’s sort of a rehearsal for the real world. This will happen in the near future.”
STORY AND PHOTOS BY WILLIAM BROWNING
Page92 Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
Life Help
Focusing on mental health
Agency launched new programs and building projects in past year
L
Annie Fair, 97, enjoys her visits at Riverview Nursing Home with Charlie, a Boston Terrier that visits all three Leflore County nursing homes through a Life Help program for seniors. He is held by his coowner and trainer, Charlene Gressett, program manager for elderly psychosocial rehabilitation.
ife Help is continuing its efforts to bring better mental health to Leflore and seven surrounding counties. The state-sponsored agency has launched several programs and building projects in the past year. One example of each is a nursing home program that provides activities to keep elderly residents with mental problems physically and cognitively sharp, and a new $3 million drug treatment center. The Denton House Chemical Dependency Center began in 1979 as a center for male alcoholics. Some time later it began accepting women and drug users, and now it has beds for 20 men and 12 women. Its buildings were built either as Depression-era public works projects or as support for the World War II military air base that is now Greenwood Leflore Airport, according to Fred Guenther, the center’s director. STORY AND PHOTOS BY CHARLIE SMITH
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Greenwood Commonwealth Page93 PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
Charlie D. Riot stands up on a table to get a treat while making one of his regular visits to nursing homes through a Life Help program designed to improve seniors’ social and mental situations. The 1year-old Boston terrier is a full-fledged member of the Life Help team, dutifully wearing his employee badge.
“We’re making huge strides. The past decade has just been a terrific leap forward.” Fred Guenther, director Denton House Chemical Dependency Center
They’ll soon be replaced by a state-of-the-art facility, which will offer 12 more men’s beds and a transitional treatment program similar to a halfway house. Construction began in September 2008 on what is scheduled to be a yearlong project. The Denton House’s 45-day treatment is open to anyone at least 18 years old with a diagnosed substance abuse problem. It sees twice as many women as men, and the average age is between 34 and 37. About 60 percent have a problem with combined drug and alcohol use. Today, referrals often come from the criminal justice system. “Drug court plays a big part,” Guenther said. “Nowadays, most of the people we see have been involved in some sort of criminal activity.” “Treatment works if you work it” is one of his mottos. If drug users and addicts apply themselves wholeheartedly, they can remain abstinent. He’s seen it happen. “People who might be dead now are making straight A’s in college,” Guenther said. The Denton House’s daily schedule involves six hours of classes, a devotional and chores. Families can visit on Friday nights and go through an orientation session about addiction, recovery and what the center does. Its treatment program has a three-pronged approach: education, therapy and a 12-step course. “The whole package goes together,” Guenther said.
The finger-in-the-face, confrontational style is long gone. Now counselors realize the importance of educating addicts on the scientific and medical aspects of their disease – for example, how cocaine works differently than opiates in the brain. “True addiction – not use – is simply a disease of the brain,” Guenther said, stating a fact that has now been recognized by health officials and government agencies. Every facet of addiction and the treatment of it fascinates Guenther, and he reads constantly to keep up with the latest proven methods. “We’re making huge strides. The past decade has just been a terrific leap forward,” he said. The Denton House does an hour of group therapy each day and at least one hour per week in individual counseling. It’s important for addicts to identify the thoughts, feelings and urges and people, places and things that make them use. They must retrain their brain’s conscious powers to replace what are often subconscious urges and develop practical ways to deal with temptation, such as a list of places not to go. “It sounds real simple, but it’s awfully hard to do when maybe everyone you know uses drugs,” Guenther said. A 12-step program is the most historically successful method of treating any addiction, Guenther said. “When a person leaves treatment, they need continued involvement. They need support,” he said.
Page94 Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
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Greenwood Commonwealth Page95 PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
“It benefits our residents greatly. Their whole attitude is very positive. I sit in my office, and it cheers me up greatly.� Margie Guthrie, administrator Riverview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center An exact recovery percentage for Denton House graduates is difficult to pin down, Guenther said, but they often hear from recovered addicts. Sometimes they’ll stop by the center or call out of the blue after 10 years. “I think we do a darn good job,� he said. It costs $400 to get into the Denton House, the second cheapest public rate in Mississippi and far less than the $5,000 to $30,000 it costs at private facilities. The staff consists of four primary individual counselors, one intake counselor, four cooks, a secretary, the director and six resident managers, who stay overnight and on weekends. Guenther, who has been there nearly 13 years, said the staff has been able to maintain continuity and works well together. “They know what they’re doing, know what they’re talking about and most of all, they care,� he said. Keeping senior citizens in all three of Leflore County’s nursing homes mentally active is the goal of Life Help’s elderly psychosocial rehabilita-
tion program. For five hours a day for the past year, mental health professionals have worked with residents of the homes who have some type of mental problem. It can be anything from minor confusion to depression to feelings of isolation. They interact in social activities and practice things that keep them mentally and physically active. One important part of their treatment is once or twice a week visits from Charlie D. Riot, a 1-yearold Boston terrier. He bounces through the halls of nursing homes, interacting with patients and accepting the occasional cheese puff they slip his way. Charlie is a full member of the Life Help team. He wears an employee badge, carries the title of “pet therapist� and receives compensation. “He gets paid in treats,� said his co-owner and trainer, Charlene Gressett. Gressett, program manager for elderly psychosocial rehabilitation, said they try every way
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they can to help the residents, whose worlds are turned upside down when they enter a nursing home. “It gives them a feeling of being home again,� she said. Annie Fair of Kosciusko, 97, first requested a dog to come to Riverview Nursing Home. “I love puppies,� she said, while petting Charlie during a recent therapy session. Margie Guthrie, administrator of Riverview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, said the program is one of the best she’s ever seen inside a nursing home. “It benefits our residents greatly. Their whole attitude is very positive,� she said. “I sit in my office, and it cheers me up.� The program is a proven success. It has reduced the number of geriatric psychiatry admissions to the hospital from the nursing home. “That’s how we know we’re doing what we’re supposed to do,� Gressett said. Life Help plans to expand the program into all eight of its counties. „
Page96 Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
Front Row, Left to right: Lynee Murphree, Christine Lymon, Diane Kelly, Stephanie Gray, Mary Hicks. Back Row: Beverly C. Smith, Sam Abraham, Joyce Rodgers.
Committed to Making Leflore County a Great Place to Live and Work Leflore County is in an enviable position new jobs are being created in a number of different areas, from manufacturing to service and retail. This kind of growth we are sharing in is no accident. It is the result of a great deal of effort by local entrepreneurs, civic leaders and elected officials. But more importantly, it is a reflection of you, the men and women who staff the many jobs which keep us moving. Without you, there could be no progress. As your Chancery Clerk, I am committed to providing the kind of county government which will promote continued growth and prosperity. As taxpayers, you deserve the very best of service -- and that’s precisely what my staff and I plan to deliver.
Office Hours: 8am-5pm Monday through Friday. Closed on holidays.
Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 Page97 =================================================================================================================================================================================
Dixie Dusters
Mark Kimmel, right, owner of Itta Bena-based Dixie Dusters, confers with pilot David Habig. Dixie Dusters is Mark Kimmel, right, owner of Ittadry Bena-based employing Accu-Rate, a precision and liquid Dixie chemiDusters, confers with pilot David Habig. Dixiechemicals. Dusters is cal dispersal control system for agricultural employing Accu-Rate, a precision dry and liquid chemical dispersal control system for agricultural chemicals.
Embracing new technology Ag flying service using new dispersal system to apply chemicals to fields
M
ark Kimmel loves to embrace new technology, especially if it helps him save or make money. Kimmel owns Dixie Dusters, an ag flying service outside Itta Bena. He has equipped his Air Tractor AT502B plane with Accu-Rate, a hydraulically controlled precision dry and liquid chemical dispersal control system specifically designed for ag planes. Developed by Pete Jones, the owner of Air Repair
Inc. of Cleveland, Accu-Rate takes information – gleaned from soil samples and advanced aerial surveying – and delivers the precise amount of fertilizer or chemicals as the plane passes over the field, Kimmel said. “In the past, if we were going to spray a field, we’d spray the whole field at the same rate,” he said. “Take an average of, say, 200 pounds to the acre STORY AND PHOTOS BY BOB DARDEN
of potash. There were some spots in that field that needed 300, and there were some that needed nothing. We had to put the same thing on everything. That’s all our plane would do,” he said. Such all-or-nothing applications of fertilizer are costly, Kimmel said. Enter Accu-Rate. Last year, the 46-year-old Kimmel, a Leflore County farmer himself, used the system for the
Page98 Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
At left, Mark Kimmel, owner of Dixie Dusters, discusses the Accu-Rate flow control mechanism located on the underside of his Air Tractor AT502B plane. The system provides for precise aerial application of chemicals, which greatly reduces farm costs. Below, Kimmel shows off the pilot’s controls for the Accu-Rate system. The system allows the pilot to spend his time flying the plane instead of tracking his location in a field.
first time to deliver phosphate and potash to his 1,400-acre farm. He estimated it saved him $14,500 in fertilizer costs. This year, he said, he expects to expand his use of the Accu-Rate system on his own farming operation. Accu-Rate is often used in conjunction with aerial GPS mapping of fields and soil samples taken from the field, which is divided into 5-acre grids. “Once we get that report back, they can put it on the computer disk. We then run it through the program so that our plane can read it. As our flight is flying, it’s automatic; we do nothing,” Kimmel said. He said sophisticated aerial mapping of a crop in a field can also pinpoint trouble spots, which can then be addressed using Accu-Rate. v v v Kimmel, who lives in Greenwood, has been involved in ag aviation for more than two decades. His parents, Stewart and Dorothy Kimmel, were big into aviation when they were married. Kimmel received his pilot’s license on his 16th birthday. He was certified as a commercial pilot during spring break in his senior year of high school. At that time – 1981 – Kimmel was the youngest ag pilot in the state, he said. In 1986, he purchased the flying service from his father-in-law, David
Branham, who remains an active partner in the business. Today, Dixie Dusters has five employees. Its pilot is David Habig of Greenwood, a veteran of 29 ag seasons. Dixie Dusters’ typical flying season runs from February through November. v v v Kimmel said Accu-Rate was a substantial investment for his flying service. “It cost me about $60,000 to put in on my airplane. I knew, no matter what, I was going to use it on my place,” he said. Accu-Rate is pilot-friendly, giving a pilot more time to devote to flying the plane rather than monitoring a cluster of gauges and instruments. “It gives you more ‘heads up’ time.” Kimmel said the system will be increasingly used by other aerial applicators to help save farmers money. The fact that Accu-Rate works with both dry and liquid chemicals, such as cotton growth inhibitors, makes it even more valuable during the upcoming growing season, he said. When damp soil conditions, which are commonplace in the Delta, prevent ground equipment from spraying fields, Accu-Rate offers an attractive, thrifty alternative for farmers. This year, Kimmel said, Accu-Rate is ready for takeoff. “I think farmers are going to use it a lot this spring,” he said.
Greenwood Commonwealth Page99 PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
PTAParents
Meeting the need in schools T
Parents help provide the extras for their children in school
hey may not leap buildings in a single bound, but sometimes it appears they have super powers – these parents who always seem to be there when anything’s needed at their child’s school. They run bake sales, sell raffle tickets, make phone calls or hit the pavement to get donations and generally seem to never lack energy and willingness to help provide the nice extras that wouldn’t be there otherwise. STORY AND PHOTOS BY RUTH JENSEN
Taking care of the trophy case is one of many duties performed by the Pillow Academy Parents Association. These members of the PAPA group dust the trophies. Kneeling are, left, Betty Downs, treasurer of the group, and Georgeanne Smith, past president. Standing are Dana Ainsworth and Julie Dunn, board members.
Page100 Greenwood Commonwealth PROFILE 2009 =================================================================================================================================================================================
They go by a lot of different initials these days — PTA, PTO, TPA, PAPA, and others. But regardless of what they’re called, these parents share intense devotion to their children’s education. For Betty Downs of Carrollton, who has a sixthgrader at Pillow Academy and serves as treasurer of the Pillow Academy Parent Association (PAPA), the motivation is multi-fold. “I can see what’s going on at school, keep up with activities, and help with things going toward Melissa’s education,” she said. “Being there, you get to know the teachers, what they need, who Melissa’s friends are.” Downs helps out whenever asked, especially taking turns staffing the Mustang store during football season. The group does other projects as well, such as selling tickets to lunches they carried to local businesses, raising enough money last year to purchase the Rosetta Stone Latin program for the school. They also do smaller things, such as taking students to lunch to celebrate being selected students of the month. Karen Fleming, whose son Dejuan is a junior at J.Z. George High School, says she has been involved ever since he started school. “Whatever was going on, I was always there,” she said. “I believe a parent should be involved with their kid. I also raised a niece and was there for her as well.” It isn’t always easy. Like most parents, Fleming works full-time, driving to Grenada each day from the Summerfield community between Carrollton and Vaiden. But she feels it’s worth the effort. “It takes sacrifice in whatever you do,” she said. “Like my pastor says, a lot of times you just have to ‘press your way.’ Somebody’s got to keep going.” And it’s not just for her son that she works. Fleming says she looks at all of the students at George as her own. “They all belong to me. That’s
“Whatever was going on, I was always there. I believe a parent should be involved with their kid. I also raised a niece and was there for her as well.” Karen Fleming parent of a J.Z. George student the way I feel.” Fleming is in her fourth year as president of the PTO at George. Last year, the group purchased a bus for the athletic teams, and each year they give money to purchase plaques for student awards night, as well as do other projects. Currently they’re working on raising funds for a changeable sign to go outside the school building. Fleming says when the group gets going on a project, they’re like bulldogs. “I told them recently, we’ve got to get focused and get the money raised for the sign.” Melanie Shelton, who heads the Carroll Academy TPA, can’t imagine not being involved with the school. “We’ve been part of CA for so long,” she said. “I
want it to be the best it can be.” The group has helped with landscaping the grounds and last year completed remodeling a restroom. They raise money with an annual chicken barbecue supper and annual sales of various items from the Sally Foster Company, done each fall. Shelton says she has done almost everything around the school, including some of the dirtier jobs like cleaning toilets and doing yard work. But it’s all for the benefit of CA. Since her twin daughters are just in the fourth grade, the Sheltons will likely be helping out for some time to come. Shemeka Collins, whose children attend East Elementary School, has such a passion for school improvement that she gave up presidency of the school’s PTA to run for the school board. She said her participation in the school helped her see many things that could be improved – often small things – and she felt she could better serve as a member of the board. She won the race for the District 5 seat in November. Collins says she is disturbed that so few parents come to school to help, but she hopes that situation will improve. “It’s sad,” she said. “We need them. We could get a lot more done.” Collins said she and her husband always went to everything their children were involved in. She knows from personal experience that it means a lot. “My mom was not involved,” she said. “Kids love to look out and see parents there. If you don’t show your kids you’ll be there for them, they’ll turn to someone else.” Like other active parents, she doesn’t do it just for her own children. “Every student at East knows me. I’m always there.”
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Blessings given blessings returned
C
Volunteers provide spiritual guidance to Delta Correctional prisoners
haplain Amos Speight spends as little time as he can in his office. He is almost always out among the prisoners at the Delta Correctional Facility in Greenwood, counseling and ministering. Speight knows that although he may spend 10 to 12 hours a day caring for the prisoners’ spiritual health, his job is greatly enhanced by the volunteers who come to DCF and the Leflore County Jail to do prison ministry. Speight said the volunteers have helped change many prisoners’ attitudes. He even sees a reduction in rule violations by those who have met with the volunteers for Bible study or Sunday school lessons. He often receives letters from former inmates who mention what the ministry meant to them when they were incarcerated. “Just in the last two weeks, I’ve gotten two letters from former prisoners asking me to thank the volunteers for their services,” he said. “Their blessings have made such a difference for them.”
Witnessing – the most important thing he does
Wylie said he has developed a bond with prisoners – so much so that he occasionally ran afoul of the correctional institution’s rules because he did more for the prisoners than the rules allowed. Today, he works within the rules, much like a skilled defense attorney. More importantly, Wylie’s message of Christ’s universal love has opened the hearts of the prison guards he sees regularly. “I guess I won also some of the guards to my way of thinking,” Wylie said. Wylie said he often encounters prisoners he’s witnessed to outside the prison’s or jail’s walls. One man he witnessed to in prison is now an active member of First Presbyterian Church, he said. With another fellow church member and “special partner,” Bill McCain, Wylie visits Delta Correctional Facility every Tuesday and Thursday. Wylie also visits the county’s Juvenile Detention Center by himself once a week. Wylie plans to continue to spread God’s word to all who will listen. “He is the only one that can give us that gift of eternal life. He also says he will give us a new body like his own glorious body, which is suitable for living forevermore in heaven,” Wylie said.
For 50 years Al Wylie has been witnessing for Jesus Christ in Greenwood. He is a living A pair who care embodiment of the “Great Commission” for all Christians. Betty Reynolds of Greenwood and her According to the Gospel of Matthew, the friend Genice Bradshaw of Carrollton entered last thing Jesus told his disciples before prison ministry together. Both are members ascending into heaven was that they should of Calvary Baptist Church, and Bradshaw is preach the Gospel to all people and baptize a mail clerk at Delta Correctional Facility, them. where she has worked for four years. “He said ‘I will be with you Reynolds had a relative in Arkansas who always to the end of the had been incarcerated, and she felt the need world.’ I believe that,” said to reach out to people in this area who were Wylie, who will be 90 in dealing with the same kind of pain her relaApril. “I believe that he’s tive was encountering. coming back again someday.” “I really felt the Lord had spoken to my Wylie’s journey as a witheart about this (prison ministry),” said ness for Christ began in Reynolds. “There are so many hurting people. Father Greg Plata, right, talks with fellow prison witness Marvin Edwards I want to tell them about the Lord. But Oxford in the mid-1940s, Wylie outside the Delta Correctional Facility. Plata, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi instead of giving them a blessing, I get a while he was a student at Catholic Church, Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church and Sacred blessing.” the University of Mississippi’s School of Heart Catholic Church of Winona, and Edwards, a pastoral minister at Pharmacy. Reynolds, 57, is an LPN in the endoscopy Sacred Heart, make the trek to the prison weekly. In 1946, after graduation, Wylie became a unit at Greenwood Leflore Hospital. sales representative for Abbott Laboratories. Although she acknowledges the urging in In 1959, Abbott transferred him to Greenwood, where he was assigned a sales territo- her heart to witness to prisoners, she was scared at first, not knowing what to expect ry of about 15 counties. or how she would be received. She enlisted Bradshaw’s help and encouragement A member of the Christian Church in Tupelo, Wylie migrated to the Presbyterian because of Bradshaw’s familiarity with the local prison system. The two friends Church while in Oxford – ostensibly, he said, because the pews had cushions. When now go together to talk with the ladies at the Leflore County Jail. he and his family moved to Greenwood, he became a member of First Presbyterian “I get a blessing every time I go in there,” said Bradshaw, 50. Church. At each ministry visit, the ladies gather around a table and discuss their Sunday Still, being a busy salesman didn’t stop Wylie from witnessing. school lesson and their Bible study. Usually about six women are present, “As part of the church ministry, I came to a knowledge and the understanding and although that varies because of turnover. Some feel free to speak up, and others acceptance of Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I have tried to live in obedience to are a little shy. “I may see a lady over in the corner who’s not joining us, but I the commandment of loving God and loving each other, at that time,” he said. know she’s listening,” said Reynolds. “She might ease her way over to our table Since Wylie retired from Abbott in 1981, he’s been witnessing every week and has and eventually make eye contact.” enjoyed it. For women, the Leflore County Jail is a place where they are kept for a relativeWitnessing to those in jail or prison – as a Christian and as a family man – is, and ly short time after an arrest, before they post bail and are released or before they always was, his duty, he said. are processed through to a longer-term facility. “I do not think that there’s any more important thing that I could be doing than wit“I feel privileged to be able to go and witness and help the ladies know the Lord and nessing for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” he said. “There’s nothing else as impor- let them know there’s hope,” Reynolds said. “It’s not just me doing this; it’s the Lord tant – finances, social standing or anything else. I try not to let that be a hindrance.” doing it through his servant.” STORY BY BOB AND JO ALICE DARDEN, PHOTOS BY BOB DARDEN
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Reynolds was saved when she was a teenager, but she said she strayed away. In the last seven years, she has returned to the Lord and now cannot imagine living without him and his direction in her life. It’s especially gratifying to reach out to people who are hurting and need hope so badly, she said. “I always tell the ladies, ‘I’m not any better than you,’ and all I want to do is tell them about the Lord,” Reynolds said. “Then it just flows.” She continued, “Some of these people have just made bad choices, or they’ve come from bad circumstances, or they’ve married wrong or made bad decisions. Sometimes it doesn’t take but one bad life decision to make our lives just spiral down. But God loves them, and there is hope.” Bradshaw and Reynolds are just starting their ministry journey, having made their first visit after Christmas 2008. Right now they work only with the ladies at the Leflore County Jail, but each said it’s possible they’ll expand their ministry to the men at some point. “When we’ve finished, there’s a peace that wasn’t there when we got there,” Reynolds said. “God prepared (the ladies) for us. They need so much. When we leave, they have a sense of his peace.”
Father Plata, Edwards spread Gospel Father Greg Plata, 53, has been preaching God’s word in prisons and jails in Greenwood for more than 10 years. The pastor of Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church and the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church says witnessing to prisoners is the Lord’s work. Briefly during the tenure of Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, Delta Correctional Facility was shuttered. The prison was later reopened by Gov. Haley Barbour. Plata, a Franciscan priest, hasn’t missed a beat since becoming pastor at St. Francis in 2002. “I made sure that I got right back in there,” he said. Plata said the process of becoming a Christian isn’t easy. “Before a person is baptized, we want them to understand the commitment they are making to Christ and also to understand the Bible,” Plata said. He said many prisoners are interested in learning about Christ. “I find a lot of the prisoners are very respectful when I go in there. Most of them are not Catholic. They seem to have a very good appreciation of the message that we preach,” he said. Plata and Marvin Edwards, a pastoral minister at Sacred Heart Catholic Church of Winona, divide the work equally. Edwards conducts the Bible study portion of the visit. “I go out there on Tuesdays for a religious service and Bible study. Then I go over to the drug and alcohol rehab unit,” Plata said. The priest said his prison ministry work has been rewarding, and the prisoners are eager to listen and learn. Still, he said, the faith of witnesses for Christ is tested in a prison. Many of the inmates aren’t interested in religion and grew up in a setting where it wasn’t discussed, he said. “The challenge is to convince them that although they did something wrong – sometimes something terribly wrong – in their past, God still loves them and wants them to be redeemed,” Plata said. Edwards, 58, the retired owner of a metal fabricating business in Jackson, says witnessing in prison is a blessing. Most prisoners are bright but just haven’t had much direction and need to know someone else cares, he said. He also introduces newly converted Christians to the Catholic Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, better known as RCIA. In the heavily Protestant South, Edwards and Plata have made some strides for the Catholic faith. Edwards said he tries to help the prisoners nearing the ends of their sentences to prepare for life outside prison. “I try to prepare them for when they get out with counseling about finances,” he said.
Betty Reynolds conducts a Bible study at the Leflore County Jail wing of Delta Correctional Facility.
in prison ministry for the past 19 years. In 1990, Turner’s pastor at Greenwood Restoration Revival Church on Carrollton Avenue asked her to participate in the church’s ministry at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. “I was scared at first, a little nervous,” she said. “I didn’t know what to expect. At first, I really didn’t want to go, but my pastor asked me, and helping others – well, that’s what we’re supposed to do, so I said I would.” The experience has changed Turner’s life. “You see people behind bars of iron, and you know that’s not so different from being behind bars of sin, just like we all are,” Turner said. “Jesus set me free, and I wanted to see how I could help others be free.” “It has to be in your heart,” Turner continued. “God gives everybody talent to do something. I guess I’ve always had compassion for people in the street.” Turner’s ability to empathize with young men and women is a lifelong talent. She and her husband, Bennie, have reared five daughters and nine sons, now ranging in age from 28 to 49. She also used to get involved in the lives of her children’s classmates. Turner For about 20 years, Turner worked at Irvin Automotive, where a co-worker who recognized her maternal traits started calling her “Mother Turner.” She carries that nickname to this day. “Coming from a big family, you want people to be nice to your people, so you have to be nice to them,” she explained. “So many people today are really hurting. I want to express love to these young men (prisoners). They are searching for love. Somebody has to be a mama to them.” Turner said she and one of her sons and a friend often go together to minister to the prisoners in the Leflore County Jail on Sunday mornings. She spends about 30 minutes with the ladies and then 30 to 45 minutes with the men, discussing Scripture. The teachers ask the prisoners questions and vice versa. Everyone who wants to participate does so. Each prisoner has his or her Bible or one supplied by the facility. “Black and white sit around the table and talk, and color just doesn’t matter,” said Turner. Turner said helping others makes her feel good. “It’s not anything for me to boast or brag about; it’s just God,” she said. “I love those guys. When I go out in the morning and minister to them, I’ve done something the Lord is pleased with. I’ve helped somebody.” Turner is grateful that the wardens and chaplain allow her to do her ministry. “It’s such a blessing that they let us come out there to do God’s work,” Turner said.
Volunteers always welcome Genise Bradshaw is a regular in prison ministry at the Leflore County Jail wing of the Delta Correctional Facility. Both Edwards and Plata said some former prisoners have contacted them after being released. “There are about five guys who have been released and three that were transferred to other prisons that stay in touch with me,” Plata said. Edwards, who is pursuing a master’s degree in theology from Loyola University in New Orleans, said he looks forward to witnessing. “This is what I love. I wouldn’t give it up for anything,” he said.
Rosie reaches out Rosie Turner of Greenwood doesn’t meet strangers, she said. She is in the habit of reaching out to people and trying to help them with their problems, no matter where they are in their lives. She has been involved
Charlotte Burns, assistant warden over programs at Delta Correctional Facility, said anyone who wants to volunteer for prison ministry should contact Chaplain Speight at 453-9099. They can come to the prison and pick up an application packet, fill out the forms and return them for processing. A background check will be conducted for security purposes, and after an orientation program, the volunteers can start doing their ministry. “We’ll plug in those volunteers as often as they can give of themselves,” Chaplain Speight said. “We are so Burns grateful to them for their support, their service and their prayers.” Volunteers can be part of an established group from a church, or they can be individuals not affiliated with a church. Speight also said he welcomes the opportunity to speak to church and civic groups about how they might participate. All denominations are represented – from the Muslim faith to missionary Baptist to Jehovah’s Witnesses.
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Getting a grasp on race
Committee working to bring more civility to discussions about race in Greenwood
E
fforts to change the way race is viewed in Greenwood have been more successful than members of a committee charged with that task initially thought. “It’s going good, and I have every expectation that it is going to greatly improve race relations between a lot of people,” said Gray Evans, a retired circuit judge who helped start the Greenwood-Leflore Committee on Race Relations. They are working together to improve Greenwood and bring more civility to the discussions about race in town. Evans said they’re trying to show “that we’re all part of the same community.” “It’s going to have to take time. We’re going to have to go slow, but I’m willing to stick with it, and they will, too,” he said. The William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, based at the University of Mississippi and named for a former governor, has helped start the discussions and organize meetings. The process has helped other Mississippi towns with divided histories and first came to Greenwood in 2007. “The very first meeting I had, there was a pessimism that things could change, but that pessimism has been erased,” said Dr. Susan Glisson, institute director. Glisson said an important factor was getting getting leadership to believe that change can happen. “A com-
mitment to racial reconciliation has been demonstrated by a board, representative group,” she said. A diverse 16-member steering committee has worked to establish common ground between whites and blacks and develop goals for the community. They will attend a retreat in February for dialogue training and are working on other plans. From the beginning, though, increasing the number of racially diverse social activities was a clear need. “One of the problems we found is we don’t know each other because we don’t associate with each other,” said STORY AND PHOTO BY CHARLIE SMITH
Irvin Whittaker, a retired Leflore County school superintendent and a participant in the reconciliation efforts. Monthly meetings, some held at night and some at lunch, have given Greenwoodians a chance to mingle and overcome feelings of distrust and suspicion. They’re also a forum where problems related to skin color can be talked about openly. Evans and Whittaker both acknowledge that some people – both whites and blacks – are too set in their ways for the committee to reach them. Still, that doesn’t mean their efforts are in vain. “We have decided that regardless of the negatives, we’re going to be positive,” Whittaker said. Even if change comes slowly, racial problems seem unlikely to get worse. “It’s been my experience that many younger people don’t have some of the problems that older people have with racism,” Whittaker said. Evans would like for the committee to obtain grants from the Mid-Delta Empowerment Zone Alliance to clean up deteriorated areas of the city and provide job skills for young men who have nothing to do. “I hope to eventually have it where we will come together to give unemployed people some hope and some training, if necessary,” he said. To get involved with the reconciliation effort, visit their Web site at www.greenwoodinclusive.org.
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Ronnie Robertson
Making a difference Robertson committed to service on his job and in the community
S
ervice is an important concept for Ronnie Robertson.
As general manager of Delta Electric Power Association, he oversees about 70 full-time and parttime employees. Delta Electric serves 27,000 consumers in 13 counties. He says its mission is simple. “What we strive to do here at Delta Electric,” he said, “is give the best quality service we can – quality power that stays on as much as we can keep it on, without it blinking, without it surging, at the lowest possible price.” Working in economic development is similar in some ways, said Robertson, who is chairman of the Greenwood-Leflore Industrial Board and the Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll Economic Development Foundation. Both jobs provide important services that make a difference in people’s lives. Another service opportunity came up when Robertson received a surprise call from Gov. Haley Barbour tapping him for a spot on the state Board of Health. And Barbour wanted a decision quickly. “I said, ‘How much time do I have?’” Robertson recalled. “He said, ‘How about five minutes?’” Robertson said yes. So he has plenty on his plate. But improving the quality of life for the area remains a high priority for him. v v v Robertson, 55, was reared in Greenwood and graduated from Greenwood High School in 1971. He completed a bachelor’s degree in political science at Delta State University in 1976. After graduating from college, he worked at RiteA-Way Electrical Contractors, a family business that his father started in 1956. He joined Delta Electric in 1988 and has been its general manager since 2002. He said he learned a great deal about government processes while serving in the state House of Representatives from 1980 to 1987. He ran because he wanted to help create a business-friendly environment, and he thought government could be run like a business, with emphasis on maximum services for the lowest cost. He eventually realized that, although business principles can be applied to government, it can’t be run exactly like a business. “Whether it’s bureaucracy that you want to call it, red tape, politics – whatever all the factors are that are involved in government that are not involved in day-to-day mom-and-pop shops – that’s why it can’t be the same,” he said. “It’s a different animal altogether.”
Ronnie Robertson strives to serve his community and state through his job and on the various boards on which he serves. Even so, he added, “it still should be efficient and still should be effective.” He said his work in the Legislature led him to Delta Electric – and he believes his reputation as a fiscal conservative, as well as his business skills, had a lot to do with his selection for the Board of Health. v v v Robertson has served as a director of the economic development foundation since 1997 and has been chairman since 2007. He said a community needs that kind of strong, organized unit. “There’s no doubt in my mind communities will suffer without an active, aggressive economic development effort, however it’s stationed – one that works with the city and county officials, other community leaders, banking institutions,” he said. But economic development also is expensive, and that’s why he and other leaders are pushing to get more people involved so costs can be spread out. It’s similar to the challenge he faces at Delta Electric, which has four consumers per mile over 13 counties. By contrast, the city of Greenwood has about 40, he said. “I think it’s pretty easy to see that it’s more costly for four people to pay for a line of infrastructure than 40,” he said. “The same holds true for schools, for utility infrastructure, water, sewer, streets, property taxes, the police protection – for all government services. The more you have paying for it, the less the STORY AND PHOTO BY DAVID MONROE
unit cost is on each of those individuals.” Companies today are looking at their costs very closely, often looking at consolidating wherever they can. In trying to add jobs, the Delta has some factors working against it. The region has lost population in the last two censuses, and it doesn’t have the work force to attract a 4,000-employee plant. However, Robertson said, it can accommodate one with 100 to 200 or possibly 400 people – and companies have been impressed by the employee pool in the Leflore County area. “Every time we bring somebody in here – when they relocate here, they expand here, they locate here or whatever – and they have experience with other locations, the one thing I can tell you they say is that we have a very willing work force,” he said. At the same time, it is important for the community to project a positive image, he said. “Whenever you have a constant flow of issues that seem to be divisive or seem to show some lack of respect, some lack of coordination, some lack of cooperation, those things have an impact,” he said. His term with the health board expires in 2011. As for the Industrial Board, he plans to serve the remainer of his term, which concludes at the end of September, and then step down. He added that there certainly are other capable people who can take his place. Whatever success the board has, he said, “it’ll be because of the efforts of a lot of folks, and not just me.”
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Index of advertisers
Agriliance 64 Ainsworth Signs 108 Artrageous 41 Ayers-Delta Implement Inc. 111 Bank of Commerce 72 Bank of Commerce 86 Beard & Riser 1 Bowie Realty, Inc. 64 Buddy Jones Ford Inside Front Cover C&M Maintenance 86 Capital City Beverage 72 Carrollton Clinic 62 CB&S Bank 13 Charles Spain Auto 37 Chawla Lodging 55 China Blossom Restaurant 83 Clevenger's 106 Coca-Cola 86 Conerly’s Shoes 31 Cottonlandia Museum 77 Country Meadow Personal Care Home 17 Crazy Charlie's 82 Dawkins Office Supplies 77 Delta Bistro 44 Delta Correctional l99 Delta Distributing 105 Delta Farm & Auto Supply Inc. 41 Delta Health Alliance 112 Dixie Dusters 62 Dixie Electric, LLC 48 Downtown Drugs 70 Dubard Realty 44 EMI Staffing 17 Entergy 59 Expressions 14 Fast Cash 60 First South Farm Credit 2 Flanagan Realty 102 Flatland Grill 102 Flowers Equipment, Inc. 17 Four Paws 70 Fresh Laundry 70 Golden Age Nursing Home 67 Grand Buffet 70 Greenwood Animal Hospital 47 Greenwood Convention and Visitors Bureau 51 Greenwood Leflore Hospital 26 Greenwood Market Place 75 Greenwood Public Schools 52 Greenwood Sheet Metal/Quinn Roofing & Sheet Metal 72
Greenwood, City of 101 Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce 30 Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll Economic Development Foundation 30 Grenada Lake Nursery 63 Gresham-McPherson Oil 57 Gresham-McPherson Oil 76 Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics, Inc. 100 Harold Floyd Heating & Air 66 Heartland Catfish 86 Indywood Glen Personal Care 107 Isle of Capri Casino/Lula 112 J&N Trucking 86 J.D. Lanham Supply Company 60 Jack’s Package Store, Inc. 96 Jim’s Home Furnishings 111 Jones Sign Co. 75 Kenneth R. Thompson Jr. Builder 34 Kirk Brothers 86 Lamb’s Photography 12 Leflore Ace Hardware 75 Leflore County Board of Supervisors 54 Leflore County Chancery Clerk 96 Leflore County Schools 11 Leflore Steel 78 Legends 102 Life Help Mental Health Center 28 Lusco’s 23 Magnolia Home Center 8 Magnolia Manor Apartments 1 & 2 67 Mai Little China 60 Main Street Greenwood, Inc. 22 Mallette Furniture 14 Malouf Construction 86 Malouf Furniture 20 Mane Tamers 12 Master Scales 81 McCaleb Discount Furniture 18 MDCC 35 Mid Delta Auction Company, LLC. 18 Mid South Copier Systems, Inc. 94 Mid-Delta Regional Airport 75 Mid-South Copier Systems, Inc. 19 Mims Wholesale 48 Mississippi Alarm Co. 81 Mississippi Gift Company, The 12 Mississippi Valley State Back Cover Mobile Auto Glass & Truck Accessories 106 Nichols & Associates 37 Norris Bookbinding Company 86 North Greenwood Baptist Church 19
North New Summit School 105 Northwest Regional 24 Old Time Farmers Market 83 Parker Wrecker & Salvage 86 Parker Wrecker & Salvage 94 Parlor, The 108 Patmar Computers 71 Performance Tire & Ag. 64 Pillow Academy 7 Pioneer Credit Company 60 Planters Bank 86 Port Eliot 23 Prime Time Plumbing 94 Print Shop, The 71 Professional Business Services 108 Rexel Southern Electric Supply Company 92 Riverview Nursing & Rehabillitation Center 47 Rozier Construction 95 Sanders & Sanders Funeral Home 88 Shane Sanders 111 Sims Realty 105 Sonic 55 South Delta Planning District 55 Southern Duplicating 64 Southern Pipe 86 St. Francis Church/Immaculate Heart of Mary 14 St. John’s United Methodist Church 12 Staplcotn 22 Steve Daves Heating & Air 111 Sunflower Home Health 36 Sunflower Home Health Inside Back Cover Tangles Styling Salon 96 Three Rivers Check Cashing 8 Top Dog Powersports 34 Top Dog Powersports 72 Top Dog Powersports 88 Toshiba Business Solutions 112 Upchurch Plumbing, Inc 83 Upshaw Law Office 63 Viking Hospitality Group 89 Viking Range Corp. 84 Wade, Inc. 42 Wade, Inc. 43 Webster's Food and Drink 48 Westminster Presbyterian Church 8 What's Cooking? 47 Williams & Lord Funeral Home 31 Wilson & Knight Funeral Home 99
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Ayres - Delta Implement, Inc. Farm And Industrial Equipment 1904 Hwy 82 West • Greenwood, MS 38930 Office: 662-453-6525 • Cell:662-836-8662 Danny Guthrie • General Manager
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Mississippi Valley State University President Donna H. Oliver reads to students in the MVSU Child Development Center.
造
At The Valley, we prepare students to combine their broad and wellrounded general education with specialized training so they will be ready to enter into their respective careers or into graduate schools to
PREPARING TOMORROW’S LEADERS
further their formal education. Our graduates stand ready for careers that require decision making in a complex setting, one interwoven with a dynamic and diverse social, political, and global environment. We welcome our new president, Dr. Donna Oliver, shown here with students enrolled in the MVSU Social Work program. Changes are happening at The Valley and we invite you to explore education in a brand new way. Come see us at the main campus in Itta Bena, at the Greenwood Center, or at the Greenville Higher Education Center.
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