Saturday, May 24, 2025
ADDISON TIMES MAJOR SPONSOR: STEPHENSON RIFE ATTORNEYS
SHS Class of 2025 Celebrates Commencement
photo by KRISTIAAN RAWLINGS
Shelbyville High School seniors sing “Turning the Page” at last night’s commencement ceremony. (Video available here.) Other program items included the concert band performing prior to the program, opening with “Pomp and Circumstance” as the graduates entered and playing the national anthem. Senior Class President Emory Higgins provided an introduction; Wesley Bailey, an enlisted member of the Army National Guard, led the Pledge of Allegiance; Principal Amy Dawson gave a formal welcome and advice; Student Council President Karina Calderon recognized academic achievement recipients; Superintendent Dr. Matt Vance recognized the golden anniversary class of 1975; Whitney Dellinger delivered Salutatorian remarks; Valedictorian Emory Higgins spoke; senior soloist Ava Sims performed; and Principal Dawson and School Board President Michael Turner presented the class of 2025. SHS Leadership Council members Jonah Anspaugh, Mia Rolon, Brayden Schultz and Kylie Stader granted the diplomas, and Leadership Council member Michael Creech led the traditional turning of the tassels.
Twelve members of the class have enlisted in the military. The class in aggregate earned over $4.6 million in scholarship funds.
All members of the Shelbyville Central School Board - Mike Turner, David Finkel, Dr. Katherine Garringer, Amanda Bunton, Dr. James Rees, Dennis Hearne, and Andrea Lee - were present. Also seated on the stage along with Dr. Vance was Assistant Superintendent Kathleen Miltz.
ADDISON TIMES MAJOR SPONSOR: FULL CANOPY REAL ESTATE
NOTEBOOK:
A drive who admitted he had been drinking drove over the curb while turning left onto Culbertson from W. McKay Road and struck a stone retaining wall, disabling the vehicle.
CORRECTION: First United Methodist Church will be hosting the free Comedy Night, June 4, 7 p.m., listed in yesterday’s edition. Comedian Dan Hansen will be featured at the family-friendly stand-up act in the Fellowship Hall. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
HOOSIER NEWS: Last school year, nearly 18 percent of Indiana students were chronically absent — a slight improvement from the prior year. Chronic absenteeism is when students miss 10% of the school or more, including excused and unexcused absences. Absenteeism surged during the pandemic, and it has remained stubbornly high. (Indiana Public Radio)
COSMIC NEWS: Earlier this year, a new paper revealed a whole new set of 128 moons for Saturn that had been confirmed back in March. A decade ago, there were 62 known moons of Saturn, and today there are 274 official satellites. One person — Edward Ashton — has helped to discover 192 of those moons. He’s now a postdoc at the Academia Sinica Instiute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taiwan, and only got into the brisk business of discovering moons of Saturn when an academic advisor suggested it might be a nifty project for his Ph.D. back in 2018 at the University of British Columbia. These moons were just waiting to be discovered in the vast data troves of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, which can capture moons by taking sequential images of the same patch of sky over a three-hour period. It was this technique that detected the moons of Uranus and Neptune. (Scientific American/Numlock)
The Addison Times is pleased to offer free milestone announcements. Forms are available here: Engagement Announcement, Wedding Announcement and Anniversary Announcement.
Want the daily edition read to you? Struggling with your email provider filtering out your local news? The Addison Times Substack app will solve those challenges!
SHS Courier Archive Highlights
April 10, 1931, Part I
The band gave a Sunday half-hour concert, from a truck, at the Elks’ Easter Egg Hunt. They also played at Marion Township School, at the baseball game, a County Health Week program and the annual Spring Concert at Paul Cross gym within the month.
SHS students Wilbur Gahimer, Thomas Lux and Maurice DePrez had won the Shelby County corn-judging championship honors for the year. They were awarded a silver cup.
Several students attended the dedication of the Mary Jane Thurston Memorial Chimes at First Baptist Church. Mrs. Thurston had passed away the previous year. Her husband had been a trustee at the church for many years, in charge of the building committee after a fire in 1902 and listed as “the oldest living trustee of Franklin College.”
The Class of 1931 decided to wear formal caps and gowns instead of dress clothes. The Class of 1930 had been the first to opt for caps and gowns, The Courier said. The Class of 1931 also opted to continue the tradition of electing a May Queen.
The SHS newspaper had first been published in 1903. The first editors were James Carter, who became a specialist in child diseases practicing in Indianapolis, and Bert Morris, who had since passed away.
Raymond Rice, who had been looking into the typing room while walking down the hall, ran into the statue Winged Victory and injured his eye.
ADDISON TIMES MAJOR SPONSOR: MAJOR HEALTH PARTNERS
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 by The Addison Times from Shelby County Public Library Genealogy Department materials.
2005: Shelbyville ended a seven-year drought by defeating Waldron to win the girls’ tennis sectional. Ashley Ayres, Christin Ashcraft, Shanae Taylor, Dana Gardner and Julie Snuffer all won. Waldron’s Ashley Sawyer finished the season 17-1. Other members of the Golden Bears’ sectional team were Mandy Bowlby, Megan Blain and Jennifer Plymate. Stan Wilkison was the head coach. Kyle Fix was the assistant coach.
1995: Sir Alastair Pilkington, who developed the flotation process that revolutionized the way flat glass was formed, had died in London earlier in the month. He was 75. Pilkington PLC became the largest flat glass company in the world. By 1995, Pilkington controlled Libbey-Owens-Ford Co., the second largest glass maker in the U.S. Libbey-Owens-Ford employed 515 workers at its Shelbyville plant, located at 300 W. Northridge Dr.
1985: Attitype Inc. announced an expansion to its factory at 739 E. Franklin St., adding 20 jobs to the company.
The Shelbyville Central Teachers Association honored six retirees: Loren Spear, J.W. Jenkins, Pauline Wertz, Homer Wertz Jr., Helen Tobin and William Leffler. Karen Kreinhop, who planned to become a teacher, received a scholarship from SCTA.
1975: Rev. Robert Hampton, pastor of First Baptist Church, was the guest speaker at the Memorial Day ceremony on the courthouse lawn at dusk. Ted Kuhn and Charles Ogden read the mortality lists, and the Shelbyville High School band played patriotic songs. Rev. W.B. Jenkins, pastor of Rays Crossing Christian Union Church, gave the invocation, and Rev. Edward McLaughlin, St. Joseph Catholic Church, gave the benediction. Special guests were J.W. “Gamey” Wilson, Shelby County’s surviving veteran of the Spanish-American War, and Raymond Compton, vice-chairman of the Veterans of World War I.
1965: Superior Court Judge Robert Ellison was named the Optimist Club’s Outstanding Citizen of the Year. Merle Platt, a charter member of the local club, was named Optimist of the Year. (Editor’s note: Judge Ellison's support of local youth expands well beyond his service to the Optimist Club. The Ellison family was one of the very first families to create a community fund at Blue River Community Foundation. Phyllis Ellison created the Robert D. and Phyllis Ann Ellison Fund in memory of her late husband. Judge Ellison served in Shelby County from 1959 to 1982. It was a boyhood dream of Judge Ellison to spend his life in Shelby County and become the Judge of the Shelby Circuit Court. His dream was met by the kindness, goodness and support within Shelby County. Mrs. Ellison wanted to recognize and acknowledge this kindness and support by creating an unrestricted fund that would benefit Shelby County forever. Her initial gift of $10,000 has grown to nearly $350,000, and the fund has provided over $120,000 in community grants. Some of the programs and grantees supported by the Robert D. and Phyllis Ann Ellison Fund include the startup and promotion of Healthy Shelby County, the Julia and Nicholas Runnebohm Early Learning Facility, Shelby County Reads, Girls Inc., Shelby County Public Library, and grants to local elementary schools and scout troops.)
1955: Shelbyville school safety patrol boys went on their annual outing to Riverside amusement park in Indianapolis. The group of nearly 100 traveled on two school buses. Each patrol boy received 20 tickets for rides.
1945: The local American Legion post announced that Johnny Woods, known as the “human fly,” would scale the Methodist Building in a fundraiser for a new local Legion headquarters. He was to scale the building three times, the third with a blindfold on. He would also climb the plag pole on top of the building and balance himself on the head at the edge of the building’s roof, Legion officials said.
1935: George Ropp Jr., Flat Rock, discovered copies of the first two editions of the Indianapolis Gazette, from 1822, in his books at home. He said much of the reporting was on the need for new roads.
1925: Baccalaureate exercises for the SHS senior class were held at First Methodist Episcopal Church. The high school orchestra and Glee Club performed.
1915: Local Boy Scouts hiked to Knighthood Grove to camp, in preparation for an upcoming weeklong camp in Brown County. Scout officials said the boys would be up at 5 a.m. to run in order to prepare for the day’s activities.
ADDISON TIMES MAJOR SPONSOR: Freeman Family Funeral Homes & Crematory
OBITUARIES
Charlotte Thurston, 85, of Shelbyville passed away Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at home following a lengthy illness. Born July 28, 1939, in New Castle, she was the daughter of Manson Morris and Inez Irene (Robbins Hilbert) Newby. She married Carroll E. Thurston of Shelbyville on Christmas evening, 1965, and he survives. Also surviving are daughters Ann Houseworth (Brent) of Fairland and Amy Thurston (Keith Stinebaugh) of Golden, Colo.; sister Lorna Kay Stoddard of Alexandria, Vaa; sister-in-law Jenny Thomas (Glenn) of Grayson, Ky.; nieces Debra Jo Newby Duvendeck of New Castle and Melissa Stoddard Swisher (Chip) of Alexandria, Va.; grand-nephew Colin Swisher of Alexandria, Va.; grand-niece Cara Swisher of Alexandria, Va.; and close friend and neighbor Arlene Dile. She was preceded in death by her parents; brother Jerry Dean Newby and sister-in-law Linda; brother-in-law Everett Stoddard; sisters-in-law Marjorie Thurston and Margaret Thurston; and grandnephew John Dean Newby.
Charlotte graduated from New Castle High School in 1957, where she very active in marching band, orchestra, and pep band. She received an AB in Education from Franklin College in 1961, where she later did graduate work in computer programming in the early 1980s. She also received an MA in Mathematics from Butler University in 1965. She taught math for six years at Shelbyville Junior High and High Schools, then joined her husband as a small business owner, owning and operating C and C Rentals, Thurston Realty, and Thurston Rental Referrals. She was a Graduate, Realtors Institute (GRI), and member of the Shelbyville Board of Realtors, which she served as Secretary. She was also a member of Fairland Order of Eastern Star Lodge No. 359.
The family would like to extend a special thank you to the following medical professionals who cared so much for Charlotte during her long illness: Dr. Anthony Bashall; Dr. Kristin Willfond and Theresa Hunt; Janice Huntsman of MHP Palliative Care; Dr. Loren Schubert; the staffs of Ashford Place and St Croix Hospice.
Charlotte loved all things beautiful, from the splendor of nature to the elegance of music, art, and architecture. She could see the spontaneous beauty in animals and children, and the symmetrical beauty in math and puzzles. She encouraged her family, friends, and students to understand and appreciate the beauty around them. We will remember her in the birds’ songs, in the flowers’ blossoms, and in the sun’s brilliant rays.
A celebration of life with an Eastern Star service will be held at a later time. Friends may honor Charlotte's love of reading with memorial contributions to the Shelbyville-Shelby County Library. Funeral Directors Greg Parks, Sheila Parks and Stuart Parks are honored to serve Charlotte’s family. Online condolences may be shared at www.murphyparks.com.