Monday, July 11, 2022
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Final Call for Chief Buckley
Pallbearers (left side) Tony Logan, Tim McKenney, Kurt Lockridge, (right side) Mike Haehl, Kevin McLeod and Doug Lutes carry the casket of former Fire Chief Bob Buckley to its final resting place in Forest Hill Cemetery yesterday. | photo by JACK BOYCE
by KRISTIAAN RAWLINGS
The loading of former Shelbyville Fire Chief Bob Buckley’s casket onto a 1953 Ford fire truck once used by the City was only fitting. Buckley was, after all, a “traditionalist,” as Jack Boyce said.
Buckley would have appreciated the cadre of local firefighters yesterday dressed in their Class A uniforms filling the back rows of the Freeman Family Funeral Home’s Carmony-Ewing chapel. While piano renditions of Ella Fitzgerald’s “Blue Skies” and the Air Force anthem “Wild Blue Yonder” played before the service, American Legion members filed past to offer salutes.
In addition to a eulogy from First Christian Church associate minister Rev. Beth Crouch, Buckley’s long-time friends Tom Debaun and Jack Boyce spoke.
Debaun’s first memories of Buckley go back to Bob’s service as a Special Deputy for Sheriff Edghill Moore in the mid-1960s. “That was about the time I got my driver’s license,” Debaun said. “He spent a lot of time in his unmarked black Pontiac, making sure that all of us younger people were behaving. Apparently, I was, because I don’t recall him ever stopping me.”
Although a Republican sheriff came into office in 1968 and relieved Democrat employees of their duties, Buckley, who had started at the fire department in 1964, returned to his additional position in local law enforcement in the 1970s when Norman Murnan, a Democrat, became Sheriff.
Debaun, by then a deputy, and Buckley once worked a break-in at a tack shop on State Road 252. The burglars had dropped an envelope at the scene with their Virginia address on it. Debaun and Buckley traveled out-of-state and located the suspects, who were reselling the stolen items. The alleged thieves were eventually brought back to Shelby County for trial.
“Unfortunately, the ringleader of this group had enough money to hire (attorney) Harold Soshnick, and Harold outdid the deputy prosecutor at that time,” Debaun said. After the not guilty verdict was returned, Circuit Court Judge Ellison called Debaun over to offer his opinion that the man was indeed guilty.
The detective pair remained friends for over 50 years. Buckley served as best man at Tom and Millie Debaun’s wedding. “We watched each other’s kids grow, and we had grandkids play baseball together. We spent the better part of one summer together at the Babe Ruth park,” Debaun said. “I’m certainly going to miss him.”
Mr. Boyce focused his remarks on Buckley’s time as fire chief. Buckley had succeeded Chief Meredith Mann upon his death in 1983. Mayor Dan Theobald, who along with his wife, Peggy, attended yesterday’s funeral, had appointed Buckley to fill the position.
Buckley was a class of 1958 Shelbyville High School graduate and had been a member in the U.S. Air Force Reserves. He and Jimmie Ann (Hickman), who survives, were married 44 years. He is also survived by his son, Mark Goodwin, and daughter, Kristin Wines.
Boyce closed his remarks with a “final call” in the chief’s honor: “This is the final call for Badge 1, Shelbyville Fire Chief Robert W. Buckley. May he rest in peace.”
ABOVE: Members of the Shelbyville Fire Department load Buckley’s casket onto a 1953 Ford fire truck once used by the city. | photo by JACK BOYCE
BELOW: Fire department members, left, cross Harrison Street to return to their vehicles while Buckley’s remains depart Freeman Family Funeral Home yesterday. | photo by KRISTIAAN RAWLINGS
BELOW: Members of the local fire department pay their final respects yesterday at Forest Hill Cemetery. | photo by JACK BOYCE, taken through his windshield while in the motorcade.
Local Optometrist Has Looked Into Eyes for 50 Years
Fifty years ago today, local resident Ron McDaniel received his license to practice optometry. He has provided optometry services in Shelbyville for generations of residents all of those years. In his second year as an optometrist, McDaniel started screening of every kindergarten student. The school nurses and Dr. Lynn Johnson, now retired, assisted with the screenings that continue today. | by LUANN MASON
by LUANN MASON
He has looked into the eyes of thousands of you over and over again for decades. Today, local optometrist, Dr. Ron McDaniel celebrates a milestone.
It was on this date 50 years ago that McDaniel received his license to practice optometry. He has provided optometry services all of those years right here in Shelbyville for generations of residents.
Seventy-five-year-old McDaniel, born in Shelby County, was raised in Rush County, and came back here in 1972 ready to begin his practice with the support of his wife, Ann. The two dated in Milroy High School and in college and are approaching their 52nd wedding anniversary.
“We both went to IU (Indiana University-Bloomington),” said McDaniel. “My plan was to go to Purdue and major in Forestry and be a forest ranger. Ann was going to IU to study speech pathology.” So, he decided to go to IU, too, but not to study forestry.
McDaniel thought he could be a biology teacher so he enrolled in courses in the IU School of Education.
“One fateful day – he was the first person I met at IU – Pat Richard asked me what I was doing,” said McDaniel, who at the time, was standing in front of his mailbox in the dorm where he was living, trying to get the key to work to open the box. “He said, ‘No. What are you doing with your life?’ I told him I was going to be a biology teacher. He said I’d be terrible at that and that I should join him in Optometry School.”
Near the end of their conversation, Richard gave McDaniel $25 to cover the required fee to apply to the IU School of Optometry, which McDaniel did after first earning a four-year bachelor degree in science. He was accepted into the school and studied optometry for four more years. “We are still very close friends,” said McDaniel of Richard who lives in the Rockport, Ind. area and is retired.
The McDaniels settled back in Shelbyville and when Dr. McDaniel was licensed to practice optometry in 1972, he practiced with Dr. Steve VanCleve locally for about seven years before opening his own private practice.
He, Dr. Don Robbins, and Dr. Lynn Johnson shared space but operated private practices for a time. In 1985, McDaniel and Johnson had a building constructed where the Golden Bear Preschool is now, to continue their practices. McDaniel’s practice continues in that building, but not in that original location.
Marsh Supermarket Co. wanted the property, according to McDaniel, and paid “an exorbitant amount of money” for their office building. He had purchased the land across the road and in 1990 bought the building back from Marsh and had it moved across the road to its current location, 441 Amos Road.
The practice experienced a growth spurt after its move when two optometrists settled in and started accepting patients in the early years of the 2000s. Both were 26 years old.
It was appropriate at that time to change the business’s name to McDaniel Family Eyecare, since the new optometrists were the McDaniel’s daughters, Katherine (Kate) McDaniel Garringer and Anna McDaniel Stegemiller.
Garringer, 45, entered the practice in July of 2003. “When I joined, many patients were hesitant to see a new doctor so I ran loads of errands, answered the phones, and adjusted glasses,” she said. “In time, they must have decided I was an acceptable replacement when Dad was fishing. Anna and I grew up in and out of the office saying hi to the patients in the lobby, helping clean after hours, and seal-coating the parking lot. It was a very natural transition to look to optometry as a profession because I saw how much Dad cared about it and (cared) for his patients.”
Like her sister, Stegemiller, 43, had no doubts that her profession would be in optometry. “Looking back, it’s incredible that I never had any doubts about working with Dad,” she said. She entered the family practice in July of 2005.
“I was destined for a medical career. I was always science oriented and never squeamish. We fished a lot as kids and I loved helping Dad clean the fish. He’d let me scoop out the eyes and examine them, probably to keep me out of the way! Once, we were cleaning a turtle and Dad gave me the beating heart to look at. I ran inside to show Mom, but she was less than impressed. Dad thought it was hilarious, of course!”
Stegemiller said as a child, her parents, who had fulfilling jobs, inspired her because they both loved their careers. “They never treated work with any sense of drudgery and I felt like they were constantly learning something new or had a new experience worth sharing with me and Kate.”
One of the most important experiences shared with his daughters would be how to run the business. After graduation, McDaniel said, “None of us were prepared for the business aspect of running a practice” like saving money for malpractice insurance and other insurances and so on. Schools focused on the medical aspects. “I think that’s part of the reason why there are so few private practices,” he said. “The girls and I are the only private practice around.”
At this time, “the daughters own the practice,” said McDaniel.
“That was always the goal, that it was for the girls,” said Ann McDaniel. “We had the blessing of seeing it go to the girls who practice like Ron and share the same business practices.”
McDaniel said his professional career has been so much more than he ever expected it would be. “My patients are friends and as my staff can tell you, about half of the time I spend with my patients is visiting and catching up. The other half is the exam. I have spent so many years with them.
“This would only be possible with Ann’s support and my staff. I’ve had Barb Ivie in the office for 35 years and I was her optometrist before that. Julie Watkins came as an intern when she was in high school and after graduation was hired. This is the only job she’s had.”
As he continued to reflect on his career, McDaniel said that none of it would have been possible without his wife. “When I first started practicing, there is no way I could have supported myself. She was a speech pathologist in Rush County schools, then in Shelby County for many years. It’s been a partnership. None of it would have happened without the two of us together.”
Retirement is still some years away, however, McDaniel said he has reduced his work schedule to 30 hours a week.
In his spare time throughout the years, McDaniel built a log cabin on his property where he goes for solace and to host a weekly gathering with family. He is an avid fisherman. He enjoys primitive camping. He is restoring a WWII-era Jeep. As a woodworker, he has made furniture, muzzle-loading rifles and so much more. He played stand-up Bass in a local Dulcimer band for 30 years and is teaching his grandchildren to drive.
“He’s an ingenious person,” said Ann.
He even played a role in the big-screen movie, The Patriot that was released in 2000. McDaniel made the silver-framed eyeglasses that actor Mel Gibson wore in the movie. “I had made glasses for museums and other re-enactors (about 300 pairs total). The property manager of the movie contacted me to make those.”
McDaniel has the glasses (Gibson) wore in the movie, even though he never met the actor. “They wanted two pair,” he said. “One was a backup.” He said he agreed to make two pair as long as the pair Gibson wore would be sent back to him so he could have “a little Hollywood souvenir.”
NOTEBOOK:
HOOSIER NEWS: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have confirmed five cases of monkeypox in Indiana since the state reported its first on June 18. But experts say the average Hoosier probably shouldn’t be too worried. The U.S. accounts for about 10 percent of the world’s total monkeypox cases. Brian Dixon is the interim director of the Regenstrief Institute’s Center for Biomedical Informatics. “What we’re seeing is that this virus is spreading in predominantly urban areas, in predominantly in large gatherings where people are coming into contact with one another and that leading into, especially sexual contact,” Dixon said. (Indiana Public Radio)
This Week in Shelby County" works by George L. Stubbs Sr. are owned by the Shelby County Historical Society (Grover Center) and used with permission.
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.
20 YEARS AGO: 2002
BLIMPIE Subs & Salads opened next to Marsh Supermarket on E. State Road 44.
Farmers from Illinois, Michigan and Indiana visited the Rex and Susan Kuhn Farm and the Foltz and Sons Farm run by Robert Fultz, his wife Bonnie and sons Dan, Jason and John Foltz as part of an Indiana Farm Management Association tour.
30 YEARS AGO: 1992
After 20 years of discussion and two years of planning and design, the first shovelfuls of dirt were dug to start construction of the new Shelby County jail. County Commissioner Maurice Leap described the history leading to the new jail. County Attorney Jerry J. Lux called the groundbreaking a historic occasion as he and others gathered in front of the jail site, which had been pockmarked with craters where nine houses used to be. Eight houses had been demolished and one moved to clear the block. Sheriff Mike Herndon and Chief Police Kehrt Etherton thanked all the police officers serving in the city and county.
40 YEARS AGO: 1982
Two Molotov cocktails were tossed at a parked pickup truck on the former Roselyn Bakery lot at S. Harrison and Colescott streets, but the makeshift bombs did not explode. A woman, whose son had parked a truck on the lot, reported smelling gasoline and looked outside to see broken glass near and on her son’s truck. Each of the bombs was in a soda bottle. The 21-year-old truck owner gave police the name of a suspect who had reportedly threatened to blow up his house and truck. The young man also had a car damaged by a Molotov cocktail several months prior.
50 YEARS AGO: 1972
Six girls would be competing for the Flat Rock Festival Queen at the end of July. Contestants were Marti Follett, Tammy Tennell, Kristine Nading, Jenny Hughes, Cindy Monroe and Ruthann Crosby.
Official papers of incorporation were signed by the Girls’ Club Steering Committee at a meeting at the Civic Center. Names of the new officers of the board of directors were Mrs. James Swanson, Jack Tindall, Mrs. Clifford Grigsby, Mrs. Al Melton. Those in charge of committees were Mrs. Sirkus, Mrs. William Tindall, Lee McNeely, Kay Woollen, Ethel Harbinson, Charles Reynolds, Mrs. Earl Wilson and John Wetnight Jr.
60 YEARS AGO: 1962
Economy Cleaners opened at 15 N. Noble, across from the train depot.
A song written by SP4 Dale Charles and SP4 Jerry Feuerstine called “Dust on the Pillow,” which they composed in Korea, was accepted for publication. Feuerstine was from Shelby County.
70 YEARS AGO: 1952
Hundreds of Legionnaires and veterans from across the state attended the American Legion state convention held at the Shelby County Fairgrounds. The famed 102-piece Dixie Division band from Camp Atterbury performed. Perry Faulkner, former city resident, past commander of Shelbyville Post 70, past state commander of the Indiana department of the Legion and then chief of employment in the U.S. Labor Department in Washington D.C. was the principal speaker. George Yarling, 10th District commander, was master of ceremonies.
80 YEARS AGO: 1942
The Shelbyville Beauty Shop, 13 1/2 N. Public Square, near Sears & Roebuck, offered “summertime permanents” for $1. “Keep your hair neat and smart looking with one of our lovely oil permanent waves,” the ad read.
90 YEARS AGO: 1932
Local farmers were encouraged by the county agricultural agent to clean grain bins and premises thoroughly following several reports of a “grain weevil” infestation.
100 YEARS AGO: 1922
The power was out throughout the city between 9 and 10 p.m. due to a lightning strike west of town (on a Monday night). “Crowds in the local motion picture theatres sat through the darkeness, waiting for the resumption of the shows,” The Republican said.
OBITUARIES
None today