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Times photo/Regina Mozingo Walt Schley, president of the Patrick K. Harrold Chapter 75 Vietnam Veterans of America in Leavenworth, Kansas, recently presented an official plaque designating Ozark County as a “Purple Heart County.” The Ozark County Commissioners voted in July to become a “Purple Heart County,” a designation made by the Military Order of the Purple Heart to signify that a county honors Purple Heart medal recipients and the sacrifices they’ve made to earn the decoration, which is awarded to members of the armed forces who were wounded or killed while serving. Accepting the plaque Monday morning were, from left: Ozark County Clerk Brian Wise, Circuit Clerk and Recorder Jackie Smith, Schley, State Representative Travis Smith, Eastern County Commissioner Gary Collins, Western County Commissioner Layne Nance, Presiding Commissioner Terry Newton, State Senator Karla Eslinger and County Assessor Jayma Berry.
Ozark County Commissioners Terry Newton, Layne Nance and Gary Collins approved family burial grounds procedures during their regular meeting Monday morning. The newly adopted procedures lay out five steps to be taken in order to establish a family burial cemetery.
The new procedures were adopted...

The Ozark County Times took home eight awards in the 2023 Missouri Press Better Newspaper contest, a statewide competition held each year. Times staffers, pictured from left, are: Owner Norene Prososki, Graphic Designer/Office Manager Regina Mozingo, Feature Writer and Times Past contributor Sue Ann Jones, Editor Jessi Dreckman and Publisher/Advertising Manager Jenny Yarger.
The Ozark County Times has been honored with eight awards in the Missouri Press Association’s 2023 Better Newspaper Contest, which judges work that was written, designed and published in 2022.
Participating newspapers were notified of the winners in June; however MPA asked that the awards not be...
The 62nd Hootin an Hollarin festival, held Sept. 21-23, was one for the books. Ushered in by warm temperatures with highs in the 80s and mostly sunny skies, the weather was not a problem for this year’s event, and attendance proved it.
Large crowds turned out throughout the festival, especially on...
Editor’s note: The Gainesville City Council meets at 6 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month at City Hall on the Gainesville square. The meetings are open to the public. The next city council meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 10. The public is invited to attend.
In the ongoing...
Wasola-area business, The Concrete Works LLC, has expanded to a second location in partnership with Noble Concrete & Precast LLC of Lamar.
The expansion increases the production of the current plant almost 10-fold with additional trucks, employees, state-of-the-art batch plant, ready-mix...
Each year during Hootin an Hollarin, festival organizers take a little time out of the hustle and bustle of activity to give some well-deserved recognition to a few stand-out community members. At this year’s festival, the following people will be recognized on the main stage (read more about each...
Welcome to the 62nd celebration of Hootin an Hollarin, one of the longest-running festivals in Missouri.
For the next three days, the Gainesville square will be transformed from its normal quiet, week-day business tempo into a vibrant mixture of music, talented crafters, old-time demonstrators and...
A Tecumseh man was killed Saturday when his 2011 Harley Davidson motorcycle crossed the centerline of U.S. Highway 160 about 3 miles east of Gainesville and struck a pickup truck.
Todd D. Huddleston, 57, of Tecumseh was killed in the 3:10 p.m. crash that closed Highway 160 for nearly three hours...

A big crowd at Springfield-Branson National Airport welcomed Gaines-ville resident Norman Hartman and other veterans when they returned from an Aug. 23 Honor Flight of the Ozarks trip to Washington, D.C. Norman's wife, Gerry (pictured above left, with Norman), and other relatives were in the crowd. Gerry said the welcome was "the most exciting thing I've ever seen."
Wednesday, Aug. 23, wasn't just a red-letter day for Gainesville resident Norman Hartman. It was a red-white-and-blue-letter day when he soared to Washington, D.C., on an Honor Flight of the Ozarks in recognition of his military service in the 1950s and 60s.
Norman, 86, said his grandson Dylan...
Ozark County Presiding Commissioner Terry Newton said Monday that about half of the 30 or so letters the county sent out to residents in a mostly off-grid community notifying them of address changes have been returned by the post office.
“About 14 were sent back to us saying they didn’t have...