Friday, July 5, 2024
A GRAND OLD FLAG
A layer of fog rests over the Shelbyville High School campus yesterday morning, July 4, before heavy rain set in. A dry afternoon and evening cleared the way for residential firework displays. | photo by KRISTIAAN RAWLINGS
NOTEBOOK:
HOOSIER NEWS: The Indiana University Police Department will offer higher pay for police across all nine IU campuses starting later this month. The raises begin at about $7,000 more annually, bringing the pay for a probationary officer, or one with no prior policing experience, up to more than $70,000 annually. Once in place, IUPD will outpace the salaries offered by the Bloomington Police Department, which starts probationary officers at $63,683. (Indiana Public Media)
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Local Corn Festival Was a ‘Shock’
by GEORGE YOUNG
On October 26 and 27, 1956, Shelbyville hosted the Shelby County Corn Festival, conceived by the Shelbyville Chamber of Commerce to celebrate the county's farming achievements. With the county known as the home of the world corn kings, the festival was held in Shelbyville’s Public Square on a Friday and Saturday.
Television comedian Jack Paar served as Master of Ceremonies at the preceding talent show at Paul Cross gym. During the festival, a Corn King, Queen, and Princess were chosen to honor Shelby County's outstanding growers. Impressively, the international corn champions had hailed from Shelby County in nine of the previous 12 years, bringing widespread recognition to the area.
The Corn King, Victor Gallagher, was the farmer who presented the best 30 ears of corn, judged by five former world corn kings. The Queen, Thelma Lillian Mitchell, was selected from each township's most outstanding personalities and homemakers. The Corn King and Queen along with their spouses were awarded a three-day trip to New York via TWA to attend TV and stage shows. The Princess, Peggy Robinson, was chosen by popular vote from one of the county's eight high schools. (Sharon Sipe was runner-up princess and Sharon Love, top ticket-selling princess.)
The festival featured free shows with well-known talent on Saturday in the square, a giant western-style barbecue, and free pony rides downtown. The 'Big Attraction' was movie and television star Ronald Reagan.
Amid the festivities, burglars took advantage of the distraction and broke into a safe at the J.G. DePrez Co, stealing $830, equivalent to about $10,000 today.
A notable centerpiece was the world's largest corn shock, constructed around the Julius Joseph Fountain in the center of the square by Shelby County 4-H members. This impressive structure stood 70 feet, 6 inches tall, and was made from 14,500 stalks of corn, taller than any building in town. I wonder if today's parents would allow their children to take part in building this 4-H project. This photograph, taken by Art Chaffee of Chaffee Studio, captures his two children, Mike and Christie, posing in front of the giant shock, with Christie's famous ponytail easily recognizable.
The Shelby Jaycees, driven by a competitive spirit, challenged the Iowa State Junior Chamber of Commerce to show a taller shock of corn and to match a record of producing five world corn kings: Floyd Hiner (1941 and 1953); Peter J. Lux (1919, 1922, 1926 and 1934); Charles N. Fisher (1940, 1949 and 1950); Ed N. Lux (1931); and Ralph L. Heilman (1924), who collectively held the title eleven times.
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: Police and fire department officials responded to reports of heavy black smoke coming from the doorway of the girls’ bathroom at Morrison Park. While responding, a woman told police she believed her 12-year-old daughter and friend were the ones who had started the fire. The girls later confessed to setting different things on fire in the bathroom and then leaving. The girls were transported to the Johnson County Juvenile Detention Center.
2004: The last class at the old Shelbyville High School building - the Class of 1959 - toured the old campus, bounded by Meridian and Tompkins streets and since converted to apartments. The former girls gym had become one huge 2,000-square-foot apartment. What was once a science lecture hall incorporated a spiral staircase. The windowed area spanning the front entry, where school secretary Goldie Craige once sat to make daily P.A. announcements, bridged two wings of one apartment The hallways looked almost the same, including the worn wooden floors and the original tin ceiling on the lower level. All of the original doors had been retained. On the tour, Paul (Jones) Karmire stood at the railing overlooking one of the staircases from an upper floor with its vantage point over the students below. “This is where I used to wait between classes for my boyfriend,” she told Judy Sprengelmeyer with The Shelbyville News, but she wouldn’t reveal his name. “He knows who he is,” she said. Bill and Loretta (Taylor) Greenlee were on the tour. They were never classmates, but their romance had its start in the building nevertheless. Bill had spotted Loretta, who was a physical education teacher, when he came back to his old school to inquire about substitute teaching. Willard Day had prodded Bill to ask her out. The Greenlees had arrived from Louisville for the weekend in a 1948 Stylemaster Chevy Coupe, not too different from the 1948 class Ford coupe he’d driven in high school. He even parked in his favorite spot, on Meridian Street just a few spaces north of Second Street.
1994: John Eberhart, Shelby County’s weights and measures inspector, was named the party’s candidate for the 2nd District seat on the Shelby County Council. Republican Party Chair Dick Fero said the party’s only vacancy would be for the office of prosecutor. Eberhart, 58, would face incumbent Democrat Phil Gorrell. Eberhart’s wife, Claudine, was a branch manager for National City Bank. They had two grown sons, Dirk and Sean, and two grandchildren.
1984: The Shelbyville News reported that cellular phone service was available in New York and Los Angeles. “The drive to convince businessmen that a car phone is a competitive necessity has zoomed into high gear,” the paper said. Car phones averaged $2,400, and calls were about 50 cents each plus a monthly $50 charge.
1974: Construction continued at the site of the Morristown Branch of the Farmers National Bank location at the west edge of town on U.S. 52. The vault was constructed first.
1964: Marian McFadden was elected Shelbyville school board president, succeeding Larry Lewis. George L. Stubbs was appointed school attorney, succeeding Warren Brown and returning to a position he had held years before. Other members of the board were Morris Tobian, Gerald Nelson and Dr. Roger Whitcomb.
1954: More than 400 boys and girls participated in the pet and hobby parade and took part in the “free eats, contests, softball game and fireworks,” all of which were features of the annual Kiddies Day in Waldron. Several thousand were present for the fireworks in the evening. Pat Kelley and Linda Kay Winkler won first place in the respective boys’ and girls’ class of the parade and second and third place winners were Jeff Wright and Jimmy Ross. Runners-up in the contest were Doug Hatton, Linda Stickford, Ann Cuskaden, Mary Beth Shelton, Calvin Stickford, Marvin Hinkle, Terry Rick, Elaine Turner and Robert Allen Hatton. Mrs. Wallace Cassady won the hog calling contest, with second place going to Mrs. Don Scott.
1944: Sgt. Chester Dean Lindsay and Lt. Frederick B. Smith were both listed as missing by U.S. military officials. Sgt. Lindsey had been in action in Europe and Lt. Smith on a mission over Austria.
1934: Construction began on a new shelter house at Kennedy Park, as well as rebuilding the tennis courts and constructing picnic tables. A shelter house was already under construction at Morrison Park. All projects were federally funded.
1924: City Council discussed plans to approach the water company about reducing the cost of the operation of Joseph Memorial Fountain, located in the center of Public Square. With monthly water bills for the fountain exceeding $25 ($450 in today’s money), the council considered turning off the water at 11 p.m. each night. The council also hoped the water company, “as a matter of civic pride,” might be willing to negotiate a flat rate.
1914: The Shelbyville Republican reported the annual Fourth of July fireworks display and balloon ascensions put on by the Birely, (John Day) DePrez and Messick families had been “one of the grandest displays of fireworks ever seen in Shelbyville.” More than 200 guests attended.
OBITUARIES
None today.