Looking Back 6/26/25

75 YEARS AGO June 29, 1950 Two of Coffeeville’s Eagle Scouts, J. Russell Bailey, Jr. and Ralph Lawrence Peeples, left last weekend for the Second National Jamboree of the Boy Scouts of America, which is being held at Valley Forge National Park in Pennsylvania June 30-July 6. More than 30 people drove to Coffeeville from Durant, Winona, and West Point last Sunday evening to hear their young friend, J. A. Dinas, preach. Sunday was the first preaching day in the Coffeeville Methodist Church. Among the 4-H Club members from Coffeeville who are attending 4-H CLub Congress at State College this week are John Ewell Kimbrough, Donald Summers, Gale Denley, Bobby Gene Burney, Nancy Stone and Martha Ann Walker. W. H. (Henry) Perkins has recently been named as a member of the county school board to fill the place left vacant by the death of J. W. Pendregrass. 70 YEARS AGO June 30, 1955 The five candidates for governor of Mississippi are Ross Barnett, Mrs. Mary Cain, J. P. Coleman, Paul B. Johnson and Fielding L. Wright. This week our community is well represented at Camp Yocona. Ralph Peeples and Edward Woodall were already there to welcome Gorden Sanders, Jr., Cecil Shaw, Roy Bennett Stevens, Charles Jones, Billy Rowsey, Vicky Branum, Deebe Peeples and Gary Meeks. Francis Williams, John Wayne Purdy, Roy Lynn Davis and Boyd Hughes, four Coffeeville boys, received State Farmer Awards Wednesday at the annual State FFA Convention at State College. 65 YEARS AGO June 30, 1960 Early Monday morning, June 27th, Levarda Purdy, prosperous farmer of the Pittman-Purdy section west of town, was waiting at our door with the first cotton bloom of the season. Among the members of the Clark College Baptist Student Union Council for 1960-61, who were recently installed in a very impressive ceremony, at the First Baptist Church in Newton, is Roy Vickery of Coffeeville. Taking part in the G. A.’s Coronation Service at the Baptist Church Sunday night, May 15, were Martha Gray, who became Queen with a Scepter; Brenda Adams, Crown Bearer; Fran Parker, Kay Chapman, Cindy Denley, Virginia Arrington, Pat Bowling, Judy Chapman, Vicki Parker, Peggy McNulty, Wanda Brewer, Sandra Rowsey, Mary Ann Chapman, Patsy McNulty, Janice Shaw, Jean Adams, Pat Harrison, Libby Lowe, and Shirley Price. 60 YEARS AGO July 1, 1965 Mr. and Mrs. Billy Rowsey are announcing the arrival of a second daughter who was born Monday afternoon, June 28, in the Baptist Hospital, Memphis. She has been named Sheila Gayle Rowsey. Jack T. Peeples, Jr. is a Dean’s List Scholar for the Spring Semester at Mississippi State University. On the Dean’s List at Delta State College for the 1965 spring semester is the name of Joan Wright. Among the young people who are filling key positions in the Coffeeville Baptist Church this week are Brenda Adams, Organist; Sam Pace, T. U. Director; Steve Brower, Pastor; Jimmy Denley, Sunday School Superintendent; Virginia Arrington, Pianist; Johnny Price and Mike Jones. 55 YEARS AGO July 2, 1970 The Red Bugs, one of Coffeeville’s Kiddy League baseball teams, is made up of eleven of the winningest youngsters anywhere. Coached by Jay Beck, they are Ricky Todd Mixon, Billy Scott Blackwelder, Andy Harrison, Gary Ayers, Jr., Jerry Fly, Todd Smith, Brad Miller, Barry Mixon, Ben Pace, Kevin Miller and John Summers. Miss Pamela Denley, 16-year-old Coffeeville High School senior, has qualified as a condidate in the 1970 Mississippi Miss American Teenage Pageant. Mrs. Judy Chapman Jones, who is employed on the technical staff in the laboratory of Baptist Memorial Hospital, Memphis, recently received a certificate as one of the first persons in the country to be recognized as Medical Laboratory Technicians by the Board of Registry of Medical Technology of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists. 40 YEARS AGO July 25, 1985 Tommy Lee Fondren, Michael Glen Houpt and Melissa Edwards Joyner, all of Water Valley; Shelia J. Smithson and Linda Jeanette Smithson, both of Oakland; and Kenneth Wayne Lane of Scobey, were named to the President’s List and Michael Riley, John David Yarbrough, and Mary Whiteside, all of Water Valley; Patricia McDaniel of Scobey, Thomas Rex Shannon of Coffeeville and Marie A. Richardson of Tillatoba, were selected to the Dean’s List at Northwest Junior College for the spring semester. Miss Kaye Elizabeth Marble and Benjamin Clyde Pace pledged their marriage vows on Saturday, June 1, 1985, at the Chapel of Memories on the campus of Mississippi State University in Starkville.