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Felipe “Phil” Ortega
Felipe “Phil” Ortega of Gainesville will celebrate his 90th birthday May 1. He was born May 1, 1928, in Peoria, Illinois, and served as a paratrooper in the Army. On March 10, 1951, in Illinois, he married Darlene Black; they enjoyed 61 years together before her death on Aug. 18, 2012.Phil worked...

Cindy Ragland, 59, hopes the Ozark County Long-Term Recovery Committee, which works to put flood survivors in touch with available government and charitable resouces, can help her find a way to rebuild her James Lane home.
Cindy Ragland, one of Peggy and Clint Donahue's James Lane neighbors, lost everything in the 2017 flood. Her entire house disappeared in the beautiful river she loved when it became a rushing, overwhelming torrent of debris. Now, a year later, she still has nothing but the foundation where her home...

Jeff Dotson, left, is pastor of Mission Square Church in Gainesville, which hosts a drug-recovery meeting each Monday evening and is part of the Ministerial Alliance sponsoring a May 5 program at the Gainesville Church of Christ focusing on the current drug epidemic. Heather and Kenny Cotter, right, are recovering addicts who attend the church services and share their story and their experiences at the Monday meetings – and also urge residents to attend the May 5 gathering, where Greene County Drug Court Commissioner Peggy Davis will speak.
Drug court commissioner to speak at May 5 event at Gainesville Church of Christ Peggy Davis, drug court commissioner for the 31st Circuit Court in Greene County, will be the speaker at a drug epidemic informational  meeting to be held at 6 p.m.  Saturday, May 5, at the Gainesville Church of Christ...

This photo was taken Monday, May 1, 2017, after the historically high North Fork River had caused Peggy Donahue and her family to flee to the roof, where they waited nine hours in the dark for rescue as the raging water swirled around them.
Editor’s note: This is one of several updates we’ll share this week and next recounting survivors’ recovery from last year’s historic flood on the weekend of April 29-30, 2017. See additional story, page 16. Carpenters and roofers were working at Clint and Peggy Donahue’s vacation house on James...

Gainesville FFA officers and their adviser, Jon Wilson, attending Sunday service at Gainesville Church of Christ so they could surprise preacher Halbert Smith with the honorary American FFA Degree, the highest degree awarded by the national FFA. From left: Madison Trivitt, Blakely Morrison, Peyton Donley, Natlie Kiger, Halbert, Wyatt Wilson, Jaima DeVries, Will Uchtman and Hunter Webb.
Gainesville Church of Christ preacher Halbert Smith wasn’t surprised to see eight students wearing FFA jackets in his congregation Sunday. His wife, Vicki, has been helping train the Gainesville High School FFA parliamentary procedure team that will soon be participating in the upcoming state...

Ashley Thomas carries her 1-year-old daughter Amanda, know as Deedle to her family, as they prepare to leave Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock with husband and dad Markus Thomas and Deedle’s grandmother, Ann Thomas.
Last week’s Friday the 13th ended with an evening of challenges that Noble residents Ashley and Markus Thomas are unlikely to forget.Friday night, they were at Baxter Cinema in Mountain Home, Arkansas, watching the movie “A Quiet Place” when “everyone’s cell phones started going off with the...

Photo by Josh Dooley/The Baxter Bulletin Sgt. Lee Sanders, right, and Eldon Cooper discuss the night Cooper was trapped in a tractor underwater at his Clarkridge home.
This article is reprinted with permission from The Baxter Bulletin, Mountain Home, Arkansas. Eldon Cooper doesn’t consider himself lucky to be alive. This despite being trapped inside the cab of a tractor upside down, submerged in a frigid pond on his Clarkridge, Arkansas, property for more than...

Photo courtesy of Eastern Douglas County VFD
Connie Danielson, 56, of Drury, and Edward Moore, 52, of Lexington, Kentucky, were taken by an Ava ambulance service to Cox South Hospital in Springfield Sunday with serious injuries sustained in a single-vehicle crash on Highway 95 near Bell Bridge southeast of Rockbridge. First responders with...
Barry Scott Brown, 54, of Caulfield is currently being held in the Ozark County Jail on a $100,000 cash only bond after allegedly holding his wife at gunpoint with a shotgun and holding her 9-year-old son at gunpoint with an "Uzi-type firearm." Brown also reportedly discharged the shotgun once...

Gainesville Lions Club members, from left, Chris Harlin, John Harlin and Bill Trivitt show some of the items to be included in Friday night’s annual Lions Club auction at Gainesville High School. The auction, now in its 31st year, supports Lions Club projects as well as the Gainesville summer ball program operated by Gainesville Schools. Among the items to be sold this year is a distinctive table lamp, displayed in the center front of the photo, made from steam ship parts and illuminated with “Edison-style” light bulbs. The lamp was one of the items donated by White River Valley Electric Cooperative. The event also includes a “sportsman’s raffle” featuring 14 guns, a gun safe, a utility trailer and other items.
Plans are underway for the Gainesville Lions Club’s 31st annual auction and sportsman raffle, to be held Friday, April 20, at Gainesville High School. This year’s “sportsman’s raffle,” held in conjunction with the auction,  includes 14 firearms, a gun safe, a kayak, a utility trailer, game feeder...

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Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
Fax: (417) 679-3423