Records

We’ve learned some new information about this previously published photo of the Gainesville High School Glee Club, which is mentioned in a 1928 item shared in this week’s Times Past. We now know that the photo was taken to advertise the club’s upcoming performance of “Love Pirates of Hawaii.” The group posed beside Gainesville’s fourth school building, which was built in 1917 on the site near today’s Gainesville post office and was later demolish after being declared unsafe. Only three glee club members’ identities are known: Hattie Clark (Sandford) is on the far right, and her brother, Wolf Clark, is standing near the center of the group in the dark sweater. The student labeled “Virgil” is Virgil Robinson, father of Carla Robinson Lane and her brother, the late Russ Robinson. The photo was recently shared with us by Matt Lyons of Springfield, grandson of Hattie Clark Sandford.
Ozark County Times
Feb. 20, 1914
Mrs. Newt Martin of Locust, who we reported last week as improving, died Thursday night of last week. Interment was made in the Pontiac Cemetery Saturday.
Feb. 22, 1918
Dora – Austin Hightower is putting a roof on the skylight blacksmith shop this week.
E. C....
Sherry Hollingsworth, 81, of Pleasant Hope, formerly of Ozark County, died Jan. 13, 2018, in a hospice facility in Buffalo of conditions related to old age. Funeral services were private.
She was born Aug. 25, 1936, in her grandparents’ home in Rogers, Arkansas, the eldest of the seven children of...
Funeral services for Imogene Belcher, 79, of West Plains, were held Jan. 31, 2018, at Crider Church of Christ in Caulfield. Mrs. Belcher died Jan. 27 at Ozarks Medical Center in West Plains.
She was born July 27, 1938, in Ozark County, the daughter of Tommy J. and Clora Edith May Collins. On Nov....
Junior Ralph Anderson, 91, of the Howards Ridge community near Gainesville, died peacefully on Feb. 4, 2018, at the Gainesville Health Care Center in Gainesville. No local services are planned at this time.
Mr. Anderson was born March 3, 1926, in Mammoth, the son of Myrtle and Elmer Anderson. In...
Graveside funeral services for Freda Marie Friend Loftis, 82, of Gainesville, were held Feb. 5, 2018, in the Loftis Cemetery with Milan Chisam officiating. Mrs. Loftis died Feb. 1 at Gainesville Health Care Center.
She was born Oct. 7, 1935, the daughter of Harrison and Iva Lawson Friend. On Aug...
Funeral services for Ozark County native Jimmy Strong, 86, of Gainesville were held Feb. 6, 2018, at the Gaines-ville Church of Christ with Halbert Smith officiating. Mr. Strong died Feb. 4 at the Good Samaritan Society home in Mountain Home, Arkansas.
He was born Jan. 27, 1932, near Luna, the son...
Graveside services for Drusilla Jean “Dru” Webster 82, of The Dalles, Oregon, were held Jan. 19, 2018, at IOOF Three-Mile Road Cemetery in The Dalles. Mrs. Webster died Jan. 11 in Oregon.
She was born Nov. 11, 1935, in Oakland, Arkansas, the daughter of Thomas Eugene and Brooxie Violet Taylor. She...
Funeral services for Delphia Carolyn Carter, 95, of Ozark, formerly of Bakersfield, were held Feb. 2, 2018, at Robertson-Drago Funeral Home in West Plains. Mrs. Carter died Jan. 29 at Mercy Hospital in Springfield.
She was born Feb. 9, 1922, at Elijah, the daughter of Ben and Edna Grisham Hardin. ...
Austin Ratliff and Kendra Johnson of Gainesville are the parents of a baby boy, Hunter James Ratliff, born Jan. 27, 2018, at Ozarks Medical Center in West Plains. He weighed 8 pounds, 2 1/2 ounces, and was 20 inches long.
His grandparents are Charles and Sondra Clark, and James and Jennifer...

Passengers chat as they cross the North Fork of the White River at Tecumseh on the Hodo Ferry in this 1930s photo from the Ozark County Historium’s collection. The late Dorothy Gardner had written on the back of the photo that the passengers included the Gradie Sanders family. The “neighborhood of Hodo Ferry” is mentioned in a Jan. 7, 1913, item in this week’s Times Past as having been hit by smallpox.
Ozark County Times
Jan. 7, 1913
County court was in session here Monday and Tuesday making settlement with the Collector and, with the county physician, acted as a County Board of Health. They formulated quarantine regulations against smallpox, and the sheriff is instructed to rigidly enforce these...