History
Trooper Nathan Massie retained the distinction of being the first and only Missouri State Highway Patrolman in Howell County for a little less than a year. In October 1932, Trooper Ed C. Brown, a graduate of the second Patrol class, was assigned to help Nathan Massie in Willow Springs. Though...
Last April this column featured former Birch Tree and Liberty teacher Bob Shepherd in an article titled "Montier's Favorite Actor." And by now you probably recognize Bob as the "Hearing Aid Guy" from the TV commercial, but I recently learned that a movie he co-produced and stars in, Past Shadows...
This week marks the ninetieth anniversary of the creation of an organization I worked for over a third of its existence. Before I retired, on the occasion of the organization's sixtieth birthday, I wrote a history of the Missouri State Highway Patrol's Troop G, telling of its impact locally. This...
Much of the previous article about Fred Thomas, the longtime teacher and principal in Willow Springs, focused on his good humor and evenhanded disposition. In that light, classmate John McGlynn recalls an incident when Mr. Thomas monitored study hall.
In the 1960s, the study hall occupied the...
We are continuing our story of West Plains' "old town spring," later known as Spring Park, sold to the Federal Government in 1914 to build a new post office but abandoned. The lot soon lay fallow, and lack of maintenance led to the spring escaping its tile confinement, forming a water pool, or as...
If you attended school in Willow Springs in the 1950s and 1960s, chances are you experienced Fred Thomas in some fashion. In my mind’s eye, I still see him as the WSHS principal, a sixty-something man with mostly gray hair, never perfectly combed unless he was sporting a flattop, wearing a...
The development of communities has always interested me. Towns in this area grew due to their location along vital roadways, or perhaps from selection as a county seat. Jobs were a significant attraction; trade areas served by businesses and the railroad's arrival were factors. Towns provided...
With the Masters golf tournament just around the corner, and my last article about the transition of women’s high school sports still in the back of my mind, I thought of golf professional Jo D. Duncan Armstrong. You haven’t heard of her? Just keep reading.
In the 1960s, WSHS had a boy’s...
My first inclination was to privately record all this and file away my memories of a co-worker who was a lifelong friend and had the most significant influence on my thirty-three-year career in the Missouri State Highway Patrol. However, I decided this is a story that needs to be shared.
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In several previous articles, I focused on men’s sports, mostly football and basketball, but a few recent events, including a federal executive order, shifted my thoughts to the progress that has been made in women’s sports.
The Willow Springs school song has the words “. . . playing...