Records
Editor’s note: Gainesville-area resident Joe Dolecki will celebrate his 100th birthday from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 17, at The Center in Gainesville. Everyone is invited to the party. This story about Joe’s first 100 years is based on information provided by Yolanda Dolecki, his wife of 69 years...
John and Sarah Donley of Gainesville are the parents of a baby girl, Addie LeAnn Donley, born Oct. 25, 2017, at Mercy Hospital in Springfield. She weighed 3 pounds 8 ounces and was 16.5 inches long.
Maternal grandparents are Dennis Prock of Springfield and Susan Smidt of Gainesville. Paternal...

The “Whiddleing Club” in this undated photo from Romance, shared a few years ago by Russ Robinson before his death, isn’t the club whose members complained in the 1932 item below about the “whittling material” two of the members supplied, but it might have been a group that whittled about the same time.
Ozark County News
Dec. 7, 1899
Noah Hawkins, an old citizen of this county who went to the Indian Territory about two months ago to locate, is among us again and occupies the residence east of the school building.
Noah, like many of us, has drunk of the waters of Lick Creek too often to attempt to...
Ozark County native Lena Ledbetter Hobbs, now living in Dallas, Texas, celebrated her 89th birthday Monday by enjoying gifts of chocolate, a fresh-flower bouquet and a party balloon followed by a meal with her daughter, Anita Hobbs Horton, at her favorite Mexican restaurant. The waiters “swooned...
Funeral services for Catherine Jeanette Muhm, 86, of St. Louis, formerly of Theodosia, will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017, at Alexander White Mullen Funeral Home in St. Ann. Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Burial will be at Mount Lebanon Cemetery near St. Ann. Mrs. Muhm...
Funeral services for Noble Gene Barker, 94, of Drury, were held Nov. 28, 2017, at Craig-Hurtt Funeral Home in Mountain Grove with the Rev. Roger Flint officiating. Mr. Barker died Nov. 24 at Autumn Oaks Caring Center in Mountain Grove.
He was born Oct. 19, 1923, in Mountain Grove, the son of Noble...
Funeral services for Dorothy Mae Gibson Turner, 76, of Gainesville, were held Nov. 28, 2017, at Clinkingbeard Funder Home in Gainesville with Dale Roberts officiating. Mrs. Turner died Nov. 22 at her home.
She was born July 24, 1941, in Webb City, the daughter of James I. and Viola M. Williams...
Graveside services for Dr. John Douglas Rich, 80, of Littleton, Colorado, were held Nov. 24, 2017, at Howards Ridge Cemetery. Dr. Rich died peacefully on Nov. 12 at his home in Littleton, surrounded by his family.
He was born Dec. 23, 1936, in Springfield, the son of John E. and Alma Vivian...
Funeral services for Barbara Jean Ross, 67, of Gainesville, will be held at 11 a.m. today, Nov. 29, 2017, at Ball Church of Christ in Dora with David Shipley officiating. Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to service time at the church. Ms. Ross died Nov. 24 in Mountain Home, Arkansas.
She was born...

This photo shows the Ozark County Courthouse that burned in 1934, as reported in the Times Past item below. The building, completed in 1874, was said to have been “built of wood from the county’s pineries.” After the courthouse was destroyed by fire on Nov. 28, 1934, the county court purchased the Christian Church building – a small portion of which can be seen on the left edge of the photo. The congregation was moving out of the building, which was located on the east side of the square near the present site of Park Place Realty. After that former church building also burned in 1947, county offices operated out of several rental quarters on the square until the current building was completed in 1939, costing $43,000 – paid for by a county bond issue and a 55 percent matching grant from the Federal Works Project Administration.
Ozark County Times
Dec. 2, 1910
On account of there being so many post office names so nearly like Benners in the state, and the mail so often is miss sent, the name of Benners, 4 miles northwest of Thorn-field, has been changed to Toledo.
Dimock – Taylor Luna, who has been teaching the New Hope...