Thursday, August 22, 2024
Larger Than Life Local Hero Gets Larger Than Life Mural
Pamela Bliss works on a mural commemorating Bill Garrett at Cagney’s Pizza King, 33 E. Broadway, Shelbyville. | photo above by JOHN WALKER
photo below by ANNA TUNGATE
Fifty years after William “Bill” Garrett’s untimely death from a heart attack and subsequent naming of the Shelbyville High School gymnasium in his honor, the former Golden Bear and Indiana University basketball star’s legacy continues to be a source of local pride.
A mural going up on the west exterior wall of Cagney’s Pizza King, 33 East Broadway, is the latest homage to the man who led the 1947 SHS state basketball championship team and later broke the Big Ten’s color barrier, becoming an All-American at IU. Pamela Bliss, a full-time mural artist from Indianapolis, has been commissioned for the task.
“If you can paint a portrait, you can paint about anything,” Bliss said Tuesday evening during a brief break.
She should know. She’s painted over 100 murals over the last 30 years, including a 60-foot-tall Reggie Miller, a 53-foot-tall Eva Kor and a 38-foot-tall Kurt Vonnegut in Indianapolis, among others. (Vonnegut is depicted giving a Marian McFadden Memorial Lecture, another local connection. McFadden, a Shelbyville native who is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, was director of the Indianapolis Public Library and later the state library system.)
The Garrett mural, which will be 25 feet tall, is part of the Blue River Community Foundation’s (BRCF) “Pride in Place” program, and funding has been provided by BRCF, with support from Lilly Endowment Inc., Duke Energy and Mainstreet. The mural is slated to be completed “by early fall,” according to a media release, but the exact timeline is difficult to pin down.
“I don’t know; the faces always surprise me,” Bliss said of her works. “Some faces are easier than others.”
Until then, progress can be tracked by passing the building. The artist has been working onsite in the evenings this week.
NOTEBOOK:
NATIONAL NEWS: The average person in the United States is subjected to almost 50 push notifications a day, which is an increase of 284 percent compared to 2015. App makers do it because it works — engagement boosts within apps is up 88 percent when notifications are deployed — but it’s also a pretty direct seizure of attention on behalf of an application that would otherwise serve a passive role in one’s life. Indeed, the Great Pushback is already accelerating, with the youngest mobile users developing a reputation for being more of a Do Not Disturb generation. (Nexus/Numlock)
The Addison Times publishes essential news and historical content to build our Shelby County community, and is free thanks to the generosity of supporters. Those who donate a minimum of $5 a month (or $45 one-time) receive the three remaining quarterly Addison Times magazines for 2024 as an appreciation gift.
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!
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
Bartering in the 1940s and ‘50s
Dad and Mom were well-known for their abilities to clean old and install new wallpaper. Among their clients were several medical professionals around the area, including Dr. Paul Tindall, Dr. Bill Tindall, Dr. Price, one of the Inlows, and several others. This chapter concerns Dr. Paul Tindall and his wife, Willie, and their bartering with my parents.
Dr. Paul Tindall had been the family physician to Grandma Wiley, and I guess it was natural that Mom and Dad went to him. Dr. Paul's office was large with a huge waiting room at 173 E. Franklin Street. The waiting room was able to seat 25 to 30 people at a time. You came in, signed the book, took a seat, and waited to see the doctor. If you called ahead and had a cough or cold, normally the nurse, Pauline, would give you a bottle of cough syrup with your name on it, and you would not need to see the doctor. I would bet that most times, the doctor didn't even know that you had even called in, and Pauline just took care of it. If Pauline determined that you needed to see Dr. Paul, you were taken care of. Pauline was a true professional and showed, once again, why nurses are the backbone of the medical field.
You may be sitting in that waiting room for a long time with people that have fevers and coughs, young mothers with children, pregnant ladies, and any other thing that you can imagine. Ailments were diagnosed quickly and usually right. If you had some sort of infection, you were given a shot of penicillin, and within a day or two, you were all better.
Dr. Paul and Willie, in addition to the office building, also had a large Victorian home on the corner of Mechanic and West Streets that boasted nine spacious rooms with a basement and a large country home on the Little Blue River at Little Marion. At some point, Dad and Dr. Paul made an agreement that each would keep records of what was done to help each other during the year and would get together shortly after the end of the year to see who owed whom what.
A lot of the time, the total that was owed was just left to extend into the next year. Not only would Dad and Mom, and later, us boys, take care of all of the Tindall's wallpaper needs at all of their properties, but Dad was also an excellent window washer, and he did that on a regular basis for them. Dr. Paul would, in return, see to all of our family’s medical needs.
When Dad would take us boys fishing down on Clifty Creek, we all waded and carried our fish bags, and caught red-eyes and bluegills and other fish. We always made sure that Dr. Paul and Willie got a mess of fresh caught and cleaned fish that they loved. Dr. Paul insisted on pan frying the fish and cleaned the bones of the fish until there was no meat left on them.
When our little brother, Delbert, got sick and was ultimately diagnosed with Glumeral Nephritis and passed away from this disease at age 13, Dr. Paul never charged for any house calls or office visits for Delbert and only wanted reimbursed for his cost of the medicine in the shots that he gave him. After Delbert passed away in February of 1959, Dr. Paul retired soon after that and the bartering ended.
SHS Courier Archive Highlights:
January 13, 1967
The Mask and Dagger group sent its 81 members to Clowes Hall to see “Porgy and Bess.” Mrs. Virginia Cedarholm was the group sponsor.
Squib staff photographer Steve King led yearbook sales with a grand total of 150. The squib was $3.50
A Bell telephone employee, Bernie Leffler, gave a demonstration to chemistry and physics students. He demonstrated advances made in the fields of telephone wires and vacuum tubes, and showed off the new push button phone.
“Happiness Is…” was a brief column written by Christi Chafee. Her entries for “Happiness Is…” were: “for Brenda Hobbs: a step ladder to reach her locker; for Mr. Phillips: an intelligent junior literature class; for Millie Mohr: rotating seats in first hour study hall; for seniors: getting their term paper finished; for Jeff Shuppert: skipping school; and for Mike Asher: a draft card for a 3-2 score in Ohio.”
The Spanish Club meeting featured a two-act comedy representing the wars of independence in South America. The cast included Bob Ewing (as San Martin), Bill Baker (Spanish General), Ann Clay (Matilda Martin), Dale Walton (Simon Bolivar), Gingi Branson (Martin’s mother-in-law) and Karen Conover (maid). Margaret Price was narrator.
Mr. Sam Roberts, a 1963 graduate of SHS, was student-teaching under Mr. Barnett. Roberts was a member of the Air Force ROTC.
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: Planning for the next phase of the Fairland Road/Red Mills Bridge project was completed. Situated above Sugar Creek, Red Mills Bridge, a cement arch-bridge built in 1930, had already undergone upgrades, including tearing down the cement sides and replacing them with metal guardrails to facilitate wider farming equipment and multiple vehicles.
2004: Local resident Billy Boswell was selected to test his bass drum skills in the upcoming “Fastest Feet” contest at Ozzfest 2004, hosted at Verizon Wireless Music Center. Boswell could get nearly 400 beats in 30 seconds. To prepare for the contest, he had been wearing 15-pound ankle weights and doing other leg exercises.
1994: Ronald Scott Alexander, Fairland, filed a police report regarding a motorcycle that had been stolen from his property a year prior. He didn’t report it at the time because the motorcycle didn’t work. Nearly a year later, Alexander received a call from an Indianapolis man saying he needed the title to the motorcycle. The man said he had purchased the motorcycle, got it to run and needed the title to put license plates on it.
1984: Ralph VanNatta, 54, former mayor of Shelbyville, was doing well after suffering a mild heart attack and undergoing bypass surgery, his wife, Nora, reported.
A newspaper photo showed the Bears of Blue River Festival Board of Directors: Evan Tingle, Molly Robbins, Betsy Stephen, Joe Collins, Lee Sherley, James Garrett Jr., Jim Lisher and Rosemary Matchett.
1974: Dr. William Green, 67, announced he was running for re-election as Shelby County Coroner. Dr. Green has been appointed by county commissioners after Dr. James Lorber resigned.
The first woman in Shelby County history to be ordered by a court to pay her ex-husband money in the form of regular support payments for their children became the first woman to be arrested and jailed here on a charge of failing to pay support money. The 22-year-old woman had been ordered to pay $20 a week to her ex-husband, who was given custody of the children.
1964: A truck overturned at Progress Road and E. Michigan Road while carrying 45,000 pounds of flour. A wrecker and a bulldozer spent several hours attempting to upright the truck, but had been unsuccessful as of press time for The Shelbyville News.
1954: After fighting fire for more than two hours, firemen extinguished the blaze at 723 Colescott St., home of Mr. and Mrs. Don Kennedy. The home suffered heavy fire damage to the second floor and water damage to the first floor.
1944: A group in Morristown met in Dodds Hall to form a new Boy Scouts of America troop. Those in attendance were Ed Koch, Don Wickizer, Judge Harold Barger, Gwynn Howland, Floyd Cook, Rev. M.F. Harmon Jr., Robert Jones, H.G. Johnson, Don Boles and Lyall Wortman.
1934: Following more than 50 traffic arrests over a two-week period, local police said they would moderate enforcement tactics. Cards had been printed listing major traffic violations, such as improper headlights or taillights and broken mufflers, and violators would be given a card with the offense marked and have 24 hours to correct the matter before an arrest was made.
1924: School Superintendent A.C. Kibby and members of the school board visited Walkerville school building (No. 6) to consider whether more than one teacher was needed at the building. Area residents had also requested a fence around the building be repaired, a sidewalk constructed, the building wired for electricity, the school grounds properly drained and the interior woodwork refinished.
1914: Myrtle Pearson, who had been part of a 22-person delegation from Indiana University to Europe, returned home to Shelbyville. She had been there for the start of the war. Despite some financial exchange and travel accommodation challenges, Pearson said the group remained safe.
OBITUARIES
John P. Walters, 60, of Charlottesville, passed away Sunday, August 18, 2024, at his home. He was born October 25, 1963, in Beech Grove, the son of Paul Donald and Patricia Jayne (Naylor) Walters. John is survived by his mother of Shelbyville; son, Jason Walters of West Lafayette; brothers, Donald Walters of Franklin, and Phillip Daniel Walters and wife, Cacinda, of Indianapolis; sister, Pamela Sue West and husband, Robert, of Franklin; granddaughter, Allena Walters; nieces, Krystal Barngrover of Fairland, Tabitha Walters of Greenwood, Morgan Walters of Indianapolis, and Amber Walters of Whiteland; nephew, Jacob Walters of Alton, Illinois; and several great- nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his father; and son, Curtis Walters.
In 1981, he graduated from Whiteland High School. John had formerly been employed at Knauf Insulation. For over the past 20 years, John had been employed in the maintenance department at Crossroad Farms Dairy. He loved to buy, sell and work on his vehicles. John enjoyed antiquing, fishing, boating and working on his home.
A Gathering of Friends will be from 4 to 6 pm, Friday, August 23, 2024, at Freeman Family Funeral Homes and Crematory, Frazier Chapel, 124 E. North St. in Morristown. A Celebration of John’s Life will follow at 6 pm, Friday, at the funeral home. Inurnment at Asbury Cemetery in Morristown, will be at a later date. Memorial contributions may be made to the donor’s choice of charity. Online condolences may be shared with John’s family at www.freemanfamilyfuneralhomes.com.
Susan Mary Morton, 69, of Shelbyville, passed away Wednesday August 21, 2024, at MHP Medical Center. She was born December 5, 1954, in Dearborn, Mich., to Edward Ferguson and Arlene (Schults) Ferguson.
Sue graduated from Triton Central High School with the Class of 1972. She married the love of her life, William Joseph Morton, in 1972, as well. She was in the restaurant industry and managed multiple restaurants through the years. Colleting frogs was a passion of hers. She enjoyed cooking, kayaking and fishing. Most of all, she enjoyed the time she spent with her family and grandchildren.
Sue is survived by her husband, William Morton; her sons, William Joseph Morton, Jr. and Timothy Paul Morton; three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren; three brothers, Dennis Ferguson, David Ferguson and Dean Ferguson. She was preceded in death by her daughter, Debrah M. Morton, and sister, JoAnne Louise East.
Burial will be in London Cemetery at a later date. Funeral Directors Greg Parks, Sheila Parks and Stuart Parks are honored to serve Sue’s family. Online condolences may be shared at www.murphyparks.com.