Friday, August 9, 2024

Aug 09, 2024

Dorcas Dorsett, center, was named Shelbyville Business Professional Woman of the Year this week at the organization’s monthly meeting. Pictured with Dorsett are her family members, who surprised her with their attendance and with flowers.

Below is a photo of members in attendance for the program. Front row, left to right: Dorcas Dorsett, Lossie Laird and Etheleen Swango. Back Row, left to right: Sherry Mohr, Sue Gassert, Joanne Bowen, Carolyn Austin, E. Ann Myers, Martha Collier, Charlotte Towne, Brandy Moore and Gayle Henderson. | submitted

SHELBY COUNTY SKY

The moon is in its final stages in this sunset photo taken Wednesday, approximately one mile west of Shelbyville. | photo by JACK BOYCE

FIRST DAY ACTIVITY

Alivia Lee, right, answers a question during a Squib (yearbook) class teambuilding exercise on the first day of school while (left to right) Yelena Rolon, Adelyn Marshall and Lyla Wilson wait their turn. | photo by KRISTIAAN RAWLINGS

NOTEBOOK:

NATIONAL NEWS: A pair of class-action lawsuits allege an unexpected reason that people are cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs: high lead content. Two federal lawsuits seeing a total of $5 million claim that a one-cup serving of the cereal contains discernible amounts of lead following a recent report from George Washington University researchers who analyzed 72 consumer cocoa products over eight years and found that 43 percent contained levels of lead that exceeded guidelines. A 2023 Consumer Reports analysis found high levels of lead or cadmium in 16 of 48 chocolate products tested. (Food Drive/Numlock)
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580 West Taylor St.

Editor’s Note: The following is the next installment in a serialized version of “580 West Taylor Street,” by Joseph E. “Joed” Landwerlen.

by JOSEPH E. LANDWERLEN

Five Points

On school mornings, kids from all over the west end of Shelbyville were walking toward Thomas A. Hendricks School. A few students brown-bagged lunch, only because they lived the farthest away. There were no bused students at Hendricks. All the rest of us walked to school in the morning, walked home for lunch, back to Hendricks in the afternoon, and home after school.

There were literally no cars parked on Taylor street during the day, because even if a family owned a car, it would be used by the worker in the family to go to work, and the streets were clear.

Weather permitting, we boys played marbles to and from school in the street gutters. It was sort of a marble game that we made up as we went along but it kept us occupied for a few moments going to and coming from school. In front of every house where children lived, there would be a hopscotch in chalk on the sidewalk, and no kid could pass that up without skipping through it. To a young child, every trip to and from school was an adventure. The stick that you found lying there is transformed into a knight's sword for a moment, and someone else sees it as a rifle being used in the war. Then, it's laid aside to be found again on the way home, and it becomes something else. A dead bug or a dried up worm needs inspecting and discussed with your walk mates.

Although all of us boys enjoyed going to Hendricks, it was pure torture to walk by Doug Moore's Five Points Drug Store, four times every day, and not be able to enter and spend money that we did not have.

On the rare occasion that we did have a little money to spend at Five Points, the trip began when you climbed the three steps and entered the drug store. You were confronted on either side by a rack of comic books, with heroes of every kind, and your young mind could only imagine the countless exploits that were going on in those pages. Then, you walked by a drug section in glass-fronted cases and finally a case of why you came in the first place: candy, every flavor, size and cost, from a penny to a nickel to a dime. It could take a long time deciding just how to spend the nickel or dime to get the most for your money. If you had a brother or two along, you had to work together to please everyone. Then as you walked toward the back, there were a few small tables with chairs, some booths and a six stool soda fountain where you could order sundaes, malts, sodas, floats and several flavors of Borden's Ice Cream. Moore's Five Points was a childhood paradise.

That triangle of land held at one time or another, a bakery, a grocery, a barber shop, a diner, a beauty shop and a shoe repair shop.

Gene Fox had a shoe repair shop behind the drug store that faced Miller Street. At that time, you had your shoes repaired, resoled, and reheeled, and Gene would let you go in and sit at his counter and watch him repair shoes, both men's and women's, stretch shoes, and polish and shine shoes on his fantastic machinery. It was fascinating to watch him cut off the soles of shoes, rip off the heels, and start the rebuilding process. He would first glue on the new sole and then sew around the outside of it and then trim it close to the body of the shoe. He then nailed on the new heel section and applied liquid polish. After a few moments he placed them on his buffer to give the shoes a proper shine, and they were ready for another year or two of wear. Shoes could be refurbished many times. He installed steel heel plates on shoes so that each step that you took made a clicking sound, which was very popular at that time.

The barber shop was owned and operated by Webb Stewart, whose son Ronny was often at our house and became close friends with my brother Jim and played in our pick-up baseball games.

In the summer of 1948, my Dad won a single shot .410 shotgun on a punch board at the barber shop. This shotgun ended up being my 10th birthday present, and all of us Landwerlen boys carried that gun as our first shotgun to begin our hunting careers. I still have it. At that time until we got old enough to carry a gun, we were the dogs when Dad and his companions would go hunt rabbits. Our job was to help flush out the rabbits by walking the fence rows and stomping on the many brush piles that dotted the fields.

The Lucky 7 Diner was operated by a lady named Juanita and was a typical neighborhood eatery. My reward for passing the 6th grade at Hendricks was to go to the Lucky 7 Diner by myself and get a hamburger, bowl of chili, and a Coke.

Across Miller Avenue from the barber shop was a small Texaco filling station owned by Richard Means. He took a liking to all of us boys around the neighborhood and taught us early on how to repair the inner tubes on our bicycle tires and how to work on the chains, and just put up with us. By the time we were 8 or 9 years old, we could fix a flat, which we had a lot of, repair a chain, and just generally take care of our bikes.

SHS Courier Archive Highlights:

April 25, 1962 (Part II)

Directed Martin Schulz, members of the Show Group presented twin convocation programs before the student body. Following “You Gotta Have Religion” by the Singing Stars, Gary Hamner impersonated Marilyn Monroe in a pantomime of “I Wanta Be Loved By You.” Mike Mount played a banjo and a barbershop quartet - Mary Jo Soller, Emily McKeand, Penny Jones and Ann Staats - sang “Never on Sunday” and “May You Always.” Lyndel Metz and Sally Wilson sang, and Gary Hamner and Dave Brewer gave their respective versions of the twist. Pat Gregory tap danced.
Mr. Stephan Sever, a graduate of Waldron High School and a senior at Franklin College, was doing student-teaching in Mr. Arthur Barnett’s classes.
Steve Jenner, SHS sophomore, received the rank of Eagle Scout.
Janet Kaster was named the first winner of the Vestavia Scholarship. The ward was a medal given to the senior girl who had achieved the highest scholarship ranking in her class.
Construction started on excavating the basement for a 12-room addition to SHS. The addition would include 10 classrooms, basement storage rooms and a greenhouse.

This Day in Shelby County History

News around Shelbyville and the surrounding area as reported on or about this date in history. Selections are curated from the Shelby County Public Library Genealogy Department.

2014: Knauf Insulation acquired Guardian Insulation.

Katie Nuthak, a junior at Shelbyville High School, was named the 2014 Bears of Blue River Festival Queen at the Strand Theatre. Allie Bruner, a senior at Waldron High School, was named runner-up and Samantha Toler, a student at SHS, was named Miss Congeniality.

2004: The state approved a wild-turkey hunting season in Shelby County for the first time ever. Wild turkeys had been so overhunted in Indiana that around 1900 there were none left. In the 1950s, the birds were reintroduced to the state. Wild turkeys had been released in Shelby County in 1999, but no hunting had been allowed.

1994: A Shelby County jail inmate was charged with public intoxication after returning from work-release with alcohol in his system. The man then resisted law enforcement, adding a second charge.

Gasoline prices in Shelbyville had risen 20 cents over two months, following a national trend.

1984: The Shelbyville Parks and Recreation Department offered a course in 35 mm photography at the Civic Center.

1974: Lloyd Thurston, of Shelbyville, won first place in an Old Fiddlers’ Contest held in Rushville. Accompanying Thurston were Hazel Thurston and Paul McCalip.

The new Waldron Elementary School opened for registration. Claude B. Smith was principal.

1964: Mayor Ralph VanNatta blocked off the 100 block of E. Washington St. while striking union workers of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. voted at the National Guard Armory on whether to accept company proposals.

1954: Mrs. Viola Murphy, 76, was in “fair” condition at Major Hospital after being struck by a car at Harrison and Locust Streets. The driver told officers he was reaching up to get a fly out of the car and did not see Mrs. Murphy.

Despite steady rain, fair attendance reached 10,000 on opening night. Recent opening nights in good weather had drawn about 11,500.

1944: The local Soldiers Gift Fund was down again, with the recent draft draining the allotment used for pens given to departing soldiers.

1934: Lightning struck the cupola on the east wing of William S. Major Memorial hospital, cutting a path through the slate shingles and burning out the fuse of the x-ray machine in the basement. No one was injured.

1924: Bert Osborne, a driver for the American Express Company, found a pocketbook in a local dry goods store with several hundred dollars in it. The owner of the pocketbook was found. The newspaper did not name her, but called her “a well-known wealthy woman of this city, who lives on a prominent street.”

1914: Dr. Adam Quincy Baird, 78, died at his home, 18 Colescott St. Dr. Baird, a local physician, had been involved in numerous organizations. He was survived by his widow, sons Clint, John, Huber, Bert (a missionary in China), Eddie and Harry, and a daughter, Mrs. Rollyn Barnes of Shelbyville.

OBITUARIES

Sandra Lea “Sandy” Murphy, 76, of Shelbyville, passed away Wednesday, August 7, 2024, at Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital. She was born July 16, 1948, in Shelbyville, the daughter of Lee and Thelma (Crecelius) Adkins. Sandy is survived by her son, Todd Day of Shelbyville; daughter, Brandy Coomes and husband, Timothy, of Shelbyville; brothers, Jim Adkins and wife, Julie, of Fairland, Wayne Adkins and wife, Anita, of Carmel, and Dale Adkins and wife, Runea, of Boggstown; sisters, Jane York and husband, Richard of Shelbyville, and Roxy Eldridge of Fairland; grandchildren, Jacob, Grace and Luke Coomes; brother-in-law, Roger Wheeler; special friend, Dale Richardson; and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents; and sister, Wanda Wheeler.

In 1966, she graduated from Triton High School. She retired in 2004, as a clerk for Kroger, with 33 years of service. Sandy was a member of the American Legion Auxiliary. She enjoyed gardening and listening to music.

Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to Noon, Saturday, August 10, 2024, at Freeman Family Funeral Homes and Crematory, Carmony-Ewing Chapel, 819 S. Harrison St. in Shelbyville. Funeral services will follow at Noon, at the funeral home, with Joan Miller officiating. Interment will be at Fairland Cemetery in Fairland. Memorial contributions may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, Greater Indiana Chapter, 50 E. 91^st St., Suite 100, Indianapolis, Indiana 46240. Online condolences may be shared with Sandy’s family at www.freemanfamilyfuneralhomes.com.

Jonita J. (Craig) Smith, 83, of Shelbyville, passed away Sunday, August 4, 2024 at the Willows Nursing Facility. Born in St. Paul on October 4, 1940, she was the daughter of Orville and Lucille (Miller) Craig. She married William R. Smith, and he preceded her in death. Survivors include three children, Jerry L. Rafferty (Pattie Stone), Tina M. Rafferty and Shawn R. Rafferty, all of Shelbyville; three brothers, Jay Craig (Nancy), Douglas Craig (Rebecca) both from Florida, and Rodney Craig (Barbara) of Shelbyville; and three grandchildren, Eddie Seals, Dustin Seals, and Michelle Rafferty, all of Indianapolis. She was preceded in death by her parents, her spouse, and a brother, Larry Craig.

Jonita enjoyed fishing, camping, reading, puzzling, and going to the casino, and was a member of First Presbyterian Church.

No services will be observed at this time, per Jonita's request. Online condolences may be shared at glennegeorgeandson.com.

Keith R. Wickizer, 46, of Manilla, passed away Saturday, August 3, 2024 at his family's cabin at Lake Santee. Born February 6, 1978 in Lafayette, Indiana, he was the son of Hugh Eric Wickizer and Kim (Thornburg) Wickizer. He married Jessica (Baker) Wickizer on July 27, 2002, and she survives. Other survivors include his parents, Hugh and Kim Wickizer of Shelbyville; grandmother, Mary Wickizer of Franklin; three children, Zachary James Wickizer of Shelbyville, Abigail E. Baker-Wickizer of Manilla, Kenneth R. Wickizer of Manilla; and a sister, Amy Piper (Clark) of Bloomington, Indiana. He was preceded in death by his grandfather, Hugh B. Wickizer, grandparents, Kenneth and Kathryn Thornburg, and nephew, Keaton Piper.

Mr. Wickizer was a lifelong resident of this area, and graduated from Shelbyville High School in 1996. He had been a self-employed handyman for many years. Keith was a social member of Knight's of Columbus, and was an Eagle Scout, and a Boy Scout troop leader with troop # 203. He was also a member of the National Muzzle Loader Rifle Association. Keith enjoyed hunting, fishing, playing disc golf, and spending time with his cousins at the lake. He was involved in Scales and Tails, which is an exotic animal rescue organization, and was an avid Indianapolis Colts fan.

Memorial services will be 6 p.m. on Friday, August 16, 2024 at Glenn E. George & Son Funeral Home, 437 Amos Road. A Gathering of Friends will be from 4 p.m. until the time of the service, at the funeral home. Memorial contributions can be made to the Blue River Foundation, Boy Scouts of Shelby Co. Fund, in care of the funeral home. Online condolences may be shared at glennegeorgeandson.com.

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