Local News
Gainesville resident Mike Ellison, pictured here with his son, Tyler, was chosen as one of five Missouri residents who are able to participate in this year’s Missouri elk hunting season. This photo was taken last year in Colorado when Tyler harvested this bull elk while hunting with his dad. Mike, an avid hunter and outdoorsman, says he hasn’t killed an elk before and is excited for the chance this fall during Missouri’s second ever organized elk-hunting season.
Ozark County resident Mike Ellison was drawn as one of five Missourians chosen for the state’s 2021 elk hunting season this fall and winter.
Mike lives in Gainesville with his wife, Emmy, and son, Tyler. The couple also has an adult daughter, Lori, who graduated from Gainesville High School last...
Left: Ozarts Impressions Studio owner Carey Jordan, left, pictured with daughter Carissa, holds two paintings that were completed during a painting session last month. Carey is hosting painting sessions every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday this month.
Editor’s note: The Times shares news about any new business that is established inside Ozark County. Email jessi@ozarkcountytimes.com to submit information about a new business to be featured in an upcoming edition.
Zanoni resident Carey Jordan and husband David have officially opened Jordan’s...
Times file photo / Sue Ann Jones Among the 300 graduates and family members who attended the Gainesville High School all-school reunion in 2015 were, from left, Ralph Young (class of 1956), Ray Strong (1960), Golden Beard Strong (1963), Arlene Smith Eccardt (1960) and Evalee Smith Young (1956).
Organizers with the Gainesville High School all-school reunion have been busy mailing out invitations for this year’s Sept. 4 event, which will be held at GHS.
Event organizer Paula Rose and a dedicated committee of 20 to 25 other community members have spent months on the phone, on social media...
Ozark County Historium volunteers, from left, Barbara Luna, Nancy Thomas and Sandra Stone are eager to welcome visitors back to the facility after a forced 18-month closure due to the pandemic. Everyone involved with the historical society is happy that their “home” will once again be a gathering place for anyone interested in Ozark County, genealogy, culture and history, say OCGHS president Jean Allen.
After a hiatus of one and a half years, the Ozark County Historium is once again open. The board of directors, headed by Ozark County Genealogical and Historical Society president Jean Allen, recently made the decision to resume regular hours of operation and events beginning in July. And after...
The current Caulfield Volunteer Fire Department firehouse, shown here, will be removed in the coming months to make space for a new, larger firehouse that will be built as part of a $500,000 grant-funded project.
The Caulfield Volunteer Fire Department has been notified that it’s the recipient of a $500,000 grant to be used to build a new, bigger and more usable firehouse.
“We’re excited and hope the community will be too,” Caulfield fire chief Shannon Sisney said. “Thank you for all the support we...
During his decades-long career in ministry, Dale Roberts baptized Parker Smith in a stock tank at the camp in 2019.
Piland Youth Camp, near Thornfield, is small in area, 5 acres or so, but since its beginning in the mid-1950s it’s had a big impact on the hundreds, maybe thousands, of children, teens and adults who have spent time there.
Some former Piland campers have gone on to become full- or part-time...
Douglas County Reserve Sheriff’s Deputy Greg Martin, left, and Ozark County Sheriff Cass Martin, right, were two of about 25 officers in the Ozark/Douglas County Multi-jurisdictional Task Force who helped find and apprehend Laird following a five-day manhunt. Douglas County Sheriff’s Department officers Sam Evans, second from right, and James Nelson are also pictured behind Laird. DCSD officer Alan Daffron was there as well but not pictured.
Ozark County Sheriff Cass Martin says he is thankful for the interagency support and hardworking, dedicated officers from the region who worked tirelessly last week to apprehend Missouri Department of Corrections escapee Jason Laird.
Laird, 44, who is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence...
P/PP VFD hosts brunch Saturday, July 3
Pontiac / Price Place Volunteer Fire Department will host an Independence Day Weekend brunch from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, July 3, at fire station #1 next to the post office on W Highway in Pontiac. The menu will include biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs,...
Among JoAnn Willhoit Livingston’s family heirlooms is this friendship quilt made by the families of students who attended Barefoot School. Using state class roster and teacher contract records, JoAnn’s friend Sally Lyons McAlear has determined that the quilt blocks are embroidered with the names of students who attended the school in 1922. The name of teacher Elsie Rhodes Taber, who signed an eight-month contract to teach at Barefoot on July 31, 1922, is on the quilt. One of the names on the quilt is Sally’s cousin Weldon Burnett, who would have been 6 at the time. The 20 names on the quilt, left to right, top to bottom, are Gladys Jones, Jessie Derrick, Flossie Derrick, Earnest Blankenship, Dallas Robirds, Weldon Burnett, Murriel Jones, Opal Robirds, Paul Jones, Elsie Taber (teacher), Barefoot School, Tilford Jones, Opal Willhoit, Beulah Willhoit, Willard Willhoit, Murrill Robirds, Conley Willhoit, Glessie Derrick, Willow Blankenship and Leah Derrick. The four Willhoit students named were JoAnn’s older siblings
Like the rest of us, Ozark County native JoAnn Willhoit Livingston, now 88 and living in Springfield, isn’t getting any younger. In fact, she already died once, three years ago, when emergency responders “used the paddles” on her after a heart attack and shocked her back to life, she said. Now,...
Gainesville city maintenance supervisor Mike Davis, left, and Outdoor Warning Consulting owner Bryce Koerber stand with one of the city’s three new storm sirens. The 9-foot-long, 500-pound sirens include nine 360-degree speakers capable of reaching people over a mile in each direction. The new sirens were installed on 60-foot telephone poles, a 20-foot rise from the city’s old sirens. One of the old sirens can be seen lying in the grass below the new siren. The old system had one speaker that rotated along a track to project sound. The new sirens are mounted on telephone poles wrapped in metal hardware cloth to minimize destruction by woodpeckers, which wreaked havoc on the old sirens’ poles.
Last week’s installation of three new storm sirens in Gainesville will help residents be better alerted to impending severe weather.
“It’s a big upgrade,” Gainesville Mayor Gail Reich told the Times. “I’m so happy to get them all installed. It costs some money, but you can’t put money ahead of...