Local News
Virgil Duren was arrested on suspicion of a double murder by the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department on Nov. 10, 1964, nearly three months after Oscar and Ruby Kempe’s bodies were found at their Theodosia property. The Times announced the arrest in its Jan. 10, 1965 edition.
Editor’s note: This is the conclusion of a two-part series written by Springfield-area freelance writer and retired Texas State University professor Kathryn “Kitty” Ledbetter detailing the Aug. 17, 1964 brutal double murder of Oscar and Ruby Kempe in Theodosia. Ledbetter and her grandparents become...
Kathryn Ledbetter, who has written this article, remembers frequently visiting the Kempe home with her grandparents Opal and Rayford Ledbetter, pictured above, who lived at the bottom of the mountain from the Kempes on P Highway.
As residents await decision in Leckie murder trial, many are reminded of another brutal Ozark County murder
Editor’s note: Springfield-area freelance writer and retired Texas State University professor Kathryn “Kitty” Ledbetter wrote this two-part piece detailing the Aug. 17, 1964 brutal double...
Declining fuel prices and a little rain over the weekend are both welcome sights for area volunteer fire departments.
A summer drought and soaring fuel prices have hit many volunteer fire departments where it hurts. The Ozark County Times reported last week on the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department...
Heather Hoffman of Rock Hill Flower Farm in Pottersville will be the main speaker during the Aug. 4 Ozark County Historium annual summertime tea. Hoffman raises a variety of flowers for market.
Tickets are now on sale for the Ozark County Historium's annual summertime tea, to be held 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 4.
With a theme of “fresh cut flowers," Heather Hoffman of Rock Hill Flower Farm in Pottersville will be the ideal guest speaker. Hoffman, who sells fresh flowers that she raises...
The following three candidates are running for the only contested Ozark County position in the Aug. 2 Primary Election, that of presiding commissioner.
The Times reached out to each candidate and asked for a photo and a 300-word profile to run in the newspaper prior to the election. These profiles...
Ozark County Sheriff Cass Martin, still facing funding issues after announcing recently that his department would be reducing patrols, appeared again before the Ozark County Commission Monday morning looking for answers.
Martin asked commissioners if money the county received from the American...
Latin American Motorcycle Club rumbles through Ozark County with a stop in Gainesville for lunch with 500 bikes
About 500 members of the Latin American Motorcycle Association arrived in Gainesville last Thursday, June 30, and visited The Antler Package and Pizza as part of a road trip to...
Times photo/Jessi Dreckman Drought conditions have set in through parts of Ozark County due to the very hot and dry weather, which has hit the county earlier than usual this year. Many landowners are finding that area fields are dry and grasses dead, including this Gainesville-area field that was planted in arrow-leaf clover and wheat. Some farmers say they plan to begin feeding hay soon.
After experiencing one of the coolest and wettest springs on record and the 16th wettest May ever, parts of the Ozarks are now under stage 1 moderate drought conditions.
According to the National Integrated Drought Information System, the eastern portion of Ozark County and all of Howell County has...
Savannah Leckie with biological mother Rebecca Ruud
The trial for Theodosia resident Rebecca Ruud, charged with murdering her 16-year-old biological daughter Savannah Leckie and burning the girl’s body on her farm in July 2017, was held June 27-30 at the Greene County Courthouse in Springfield. It was a bench trial, before Circuit Judge Calvin...
The Center is in great need of monthly donations, as board members explain that the organization’s regular donations have slowed considerably since receiving ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funding from the Ozark County Commissioners late last year.
Organizers note that the ARPA funds could only...