Winn Parish Sheriff’s Office Arrest Report

Date: 5-30-23
Name: Chloe Drew Bayett
Address: Winnfield, LA
Race: White 
Sex: Female
Age: 25
Charge: Possession of Schedule 2, Introduction of Contraband 

Date: 5-30-23
Name: Amber Carnes 
Address: Winnfield, LA
Race: White 
Sex: Female 
Age: 31
Charge: Possession of Schedule 2, Drug Paraphernalia 

 

This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation or arrested and charged with a crie, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.


Winnfield Police Department Arrest Report

Date: 5-29-23
Name: Leonard C Rhodes 
Address: Winnfield, LA
Race: Black 
Sex: Male 
Age: 54
Charge: Driver Must Be Licensed, Expired Registration 

Date: 6-2-23
Name: Taylor Hanson 
Address: Winnfield, LA
Race: White 
Sex: Female 
Age: 24
Charge: Possession of Schedule 2, Prohibited Acts 

Date: 6-5-23
Name: Edward Powell 
Address: Homeless 
Race: N/A
Sex: Black 
Age: Male 
Charge: Warrant (not specified)

Date: 6-5-23
Name: Stacey Buchan 
Address: Homeless 
Race: White 
Sex: Male 
Age: 41
Charge: Theft 

Date: 6-8-23
Name: Demonyea Foster 
Address: Winnfield, LA
Race: Black 
Sex: Female 
Age: 23
Charge: Prohibited Acts, Drug Paraphernalia

 

This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation or arrested and charged with a crime have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.


World War II Veteran Interview With Buddy Taylor

Buddy Taylor Experiences Battle of the Bulge, German Prison Camp

Bob Holeman conducted this series of interviews with local World War II veterans in 2011-12.  Most of these 34 American heroes have passed away in the decade since).

 

Drive down Hwy 34 to Sardis Baptist Church.  Turn east and wind down the road until you reach the point, as Shel Silverstein might have said, where the asphalt ends.  That’s the Buddy Taylor Road.

That’s also where you’ll find another of Winn’s veterans.  Dennis “Buddy” Taylor, 86, will tell you he served only two years in World War II but those two years will catch your attention.  His only battle was the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium.  There he became a prisoner of war.  Although he was not wounded in the battle, the Purple Heart in a shadow box on his living room wall bears testimony to his suffering under four months of German captivity.

Taylor was born Aug. 2, 1925, second youngest of three sons and seven daughters of R.C. and Nettie Taylor (who coincidentally shared the same birthday).  Apart from the farming and logging activities of virtually all families of the time, his father also drove a school bus for Atlanta High for 30 years.  

He attended school at Atlanta.  Although he was a physical young man, he said he “didn’t have much of a chance at sports in school.  “If Daddy needed any help in farming or hauling logs, I did it.  If he needed a mule driver, I was the one.  In the summertime, he’d take the bed off his bus and haul logs.  I went to school until the ninth grade and that was it.”

The war effort lost no time in reaching out to this rural American.  “When I turned 18, they called me into the Army.  On Oct. 27, 1943, I went to Fort Humbug in Shreveport.  In November, I went to Camp Beauregard for two or three weeks of basic training.  Then we went to Camp Fannin in Texas.  That was the coldest place in the world.  You could have icicles hanging on your body and dust blowing in your face.  That was basic training, too.”

In fact, Taylor said by this stage in the war, he didn’t see much of any specialized training, just the basics of fighting and handling a rifle.  “We went to Camp Chaffey in Arkansas.  They didn’t teach you much of nothing.  I fell out on a 25-mile hike one night.  I made the 25 miles but I was laid up for two weeks.  When I did get up, I couldn’t hardly put my feet on the floor.

Following a furlough to say goodbye to his family, Taylor headed to another Army camp in Indiana where once more he went through more basics of Army life:  physical training and rifle practice.  “Then they sent us to Boston where we boarded the Queen Elizabeth.  We headed over there (England).  But on the way, three German submarines approached.  Our captain out-maneuvered them, turning the ship from side to side.  We’d slide from one wall to the other and nearly capsized.  But we made the crossing in only three days, leaving those subs behind.”

When the new troops arrived, there would be no more training, just waiting.  “We stayed in England 30 days.  Yeah, we went around in town a little but I wouldn’t call it sight-seeing.  I wasn’t much for sight-seeing.  I was assigned to the 23rd Battalion, 106th Division.  We crossed the English Channel on LSTs and landed in France.  We crossed through Germany to Belgium.  That’s where I was in my first and only battle, the Battle of the Bulge.”

In the closing days of the war in Europe, Hitler was making a last-ditch effort to split the American and British forces in Belgium.  The American advance through the thinly-spread and poorly-trained German defense had been so fast that supplies and manpower were unable to keep pace.

“We were all riflemen,” explained Taylor.  “I had a bazooka on my shoulder, with four or five rounds.  And I was carrying an M-1 with lots of ammunition. I was pretty well loaded down so I couldn’t do very much fighting.  Sleeping?  We didn’t have tents.  We didn’t have time for tents.  We dug foxholes in the ground and got into them.  My rifle is still in the foxhole I dug.

“We got there on Dec. 14, 1944.  We didn’t last three days.  On the 19th we were captured.  Our unit was exchanged for 10 of theirs.  I didn’t shoot my bazooka or fire my rifle the whole time.  I broke apart my rifle and threw it into the foxhole so the Germans wouldn’t get it.  Some sergeant took my bazooka and I don’t know what happened to it.

“The Germans marched us for three days and nights.  The third night, they loaded us into a railroad boxcar.  The next day, the Americans bombed the railroad…they didn’t know we were there.  From there, the Germans carried us to Halley, Germany, near the Czechoslovakian border where they put us to work in a factory making supplies for the German army.  We made little strips of iron.”

Although the former prisoner of war said treatment of the Americans was not abusive, living conditions were Spartan, work was demanding and food was barely enough to keep the laborers alive.  “They treated us OK.  They only hit me once.  But we slept in a little old place, about 20 of us.  What little food we got was all right.  A little potato, potato juice, Limburger cheese and bread that was so hard you could knock a hole in this lumber with it.  You had to soak it to eat it.  We got water to drink.”

At one point, Taylor said he “took a fever, 106.7 degrees.  They brought in an English doctor.  He later told me that for two weeks, all I would say was ‘uh-uh and nuh-uh.’  The doctor gave me some penicillin.  There was another boy who was sick like me but he didn’t make it.  I remember when they carried him out.  There were 15 or 20 of us in that room and we couldn’t do nothing.  When I finally came out of it, my right side was paralyzed.  The English doctor told me, ‘We’re going to make you walk’ and he got under one shoulder while another soldier pushed my leg out to make it move.  I can walk OK now but it took me a long time.”

In early April 1945, the Germans moved us to another place.  That night, the Americans bombed Halley and tore it all up.  I never will forget the morning of April 15, 1945.  We were all shut in a building about three times the size of this house.  This American boy kicks open the door and jumps in and says, ‘Is anybody here from Detroit?’  None of us was.”

Taylor had remained in captivity just four days short of four months.  Conditions were so harsh that the 20-year-old who went in at 185 pounds came out at just 125 pounds.  Oddly, he cannot recall the first meal he enjoyed back with the American troops.  In fact, his stomach was so stressed from months of starvation that it could not initially handle standard foods.  That would take some time.

The freed prisoner was flown to England where he stayed in a hospital until May.  He then “crossed the water” on a B-52 passenger plane to Boston.  Then to Memphis.  Because of his circumstances, Taylor earned a 30-day leave to visit home.  He boarded a train on the Rock Island Railroad and headed to Winn Parish, unannounced.

“When I got to town, nobody from my family was there.  They didn’t know I was coming.  But a neighbor, Bro. T.T. Edwards, had a feeling I’d be on that train and waited.  He brought me home.”  Taylor returned to Memphis and on Sept. 15, 1945, received an honorable discharge, with 100% disability due to the war.

“I was 20 when I got out.  I had my birthday while I was up in Memphis.  The doctor told me to go home and prop my feet up on the front porch.  I didn’t have enough strength to pick up a horse’s saddle with my right arm.  But I didn’t go to sitting on the porch.

“I began drawing $112 per month pension.  I bought this 120 acres of land (near where he’d been born).  I bought me a few cows.  Daddy had the woods full of hogs.  And I built this house, all at the same time.  I got a contractor to build it in 11 days, far enough along that I could move in.  Then I finished it myself over time.”

Taylor says that for a long time after the war, he didn’t do much of anything as he worked to regain strength in his right side.  This he apparently accomplished through the therapy of work itself.  Like his father, he did some farming and he began to haul pulpwood.  “I hauled pulpwood for I don’t know how many years.  I’d haul seven loads a day, with seven cords to the load.  Then I’d come home and work on the house until midnight.”  He finally retired in 1979 after his mother died.  “It got to be where I couldn’t keep any good help.”

Not long after Taylor returned home and began to establish himself there, he met Annie Bell Ray.  “She lived about five miles across the woods.  We dated for two years.”  On his birthday in 1949, they got married.  They will have been together for 63 years this August 2.

The Taylors have three children, James Robert (Jimmy), Wanda Kay and Terry.  They have six grandchildren and eight great grandchildren, with two more on the way.


Notice: Bills Signed by Gov. Edwards

Gov. John Bel Edwards announced on June 5 that he has signed the following bills from the 2023 Regular Legislative Session into law:

ACT 31-SB15 Provides relative to per diem received by commissioners of the Vinton Harbor and Terminal District.

ACT 32-SB17 Provides for the composition, terms, powers, and duties of the Shreveport police and firefighters’ pension boards of trustees.

ACT 33-SB20 Provides relative to hospital service districts and scholarships for certain healthcare professionals.

ACT 34-SB24 Provides relative to the Louisiana Board for Hearing Aid Dealers.

ACT 35-SB29 Provides relative to the use of a surgical smoke plume evacuation system.

ACT 36-SB36 Provides for funding of certain insurance costs for retirees of the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office.

ACT 37-SB53 Provides for the powers and authority of the commission of the Cane River Waterway District.

ACT 38-SB55 Provides for procuration or mandate by a succession representative.

ACT 39-SB59 Authorizes the sale of certain school property by the Natchitoches Parish School Board and the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

ACT 40-SB64 Creates Ezekiel’s Law and provides relative to protecting children from abuse.

ACT 41-SB68 Provides for the lease of property located within Jefferson Parish.

ACT 42-SB98 Provides for adding interest in bone marrow donorship to the list of options offered during application for renewal of a state-issued driver’s license.

ACT 43-SB100 Provides for advanced recycling facilities.

ACT 44-SB101 Provides for the distribution of funds from the Lafayette Parish Visitor Enterprise Fund.

ACT 45-SB113 Provides for certain insurance premium discounts.

ACT 46-SB115 Provides relative to educational benefits for children, spouses, and surviving spouses of certain veterans.

ACT 47-SB143 Provides for former officers or insolvent insurers.


Weather word to the wise

Two years ago, there was a now-forgotten late-season hurricane. It mustered up weak winds that couldn’t even knock a sick alley cat over and petered out before the eastern seaboard could offer much interest.
 
Its name was Teddy.
 
Soft. Mashed potatoes version of a “storm.”
 
But experience suggests that things ain’t always that away.
 
For everything—including hurricanes—there is a season.
 
But good news: the six-month 2023 hurricane season began June 1 and if the names are any indication, there won’t be much trouble. Lots of Teddy-like names in the crowd. Arlene, for instance, the first named storm of 2023, has come and gone with a whimper.
 
Then you have Bret and Cindy and Tammy and, well, you get the picture. No Brutus or Atilla. But let a professional explain, a man I would trust with anything, including my 7-iron or even my baseball glove …
 
He’s an old friend who’s found his way into the emergency business, including weather watching. Worked on The Tech Talk with him and then for almost 20 years at The Times in Shreveport. He’s a good golfer, a great dad, an intrepid reporter, and now works for some lucky people as their Director of Communications in a hurricane-endangered place. I can’t tell you where or his name because that would be indiscreet. (Don. Don Walker. In Brevard County, Florida, like Cocoa Beach and Port Canaveral and all that.)
 
So, this hurricane season, we have boots on the ground, and here is Don’s official early-season report:
 
“This year’s list of hurricane names includes ‘Don.’ Nice to get some name recognition, but I predict this will be a somewhat calm hurricane season due to the likes of others who made the list – like Hurricanes Gert, Nigel, and Vince. From an emergency communications standpoint, which is how I make a living, it’s going to be hard to convince people to evacuate when we show up in the ‘Cone of Uncertainty’ for a Hurricane Gert. No offense to any Gerts out there, but I see ‘Gert’ as something the doctor might say when what you’ve got is more of an upset stomach kind of thing, not so much a full-fledged stomach bug – but then I’m not a doctor, I’m just a man and a potential hurricane.
 
“Thank you for checking on us,” Don’s report concludes. “We’re already five days in and, so far, only one disturbance in the Gulf that didn’t faze us. We’re 1-0, but if and when the time comes, you can find me in the dugout – well, we call it a bunker – handling communications for Brevard County Emergency Management. It’s something I’m pretty good at. Well, that, and golf. But not during a hurricane.”
 
It’s around this hurricane-wary time of year that I thumb through Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson, a book I’ve read three times. It starts like this:
 
“Throughout the night of Friday, September 7, 1900, Isaac Monroe Cline found himself waking to a persistent sense of something gone wrong.”
 
Isaac didn’t know half of it.
 
In the late summer of 1900, Galveston was home to 38,000 and the third-richest city in America, a boom town. As Larson explains in his book that reads more like a suspense novel than non-fiction, Isaac Cline was its young resident U.S. Weather Bureau meteorologist who “failed to grasp the true meaning of the strange deep-sea swells and peculiar winds that greeted the city that (Saturday, September 8) morning. Mere hours later, Galveston found itself submerged by a monster hurricane that completely destroyed the town and killed over 6,000 people in what remains the greatest natural disaster in American history …”
 
What Isaac and the gang wouldn’t have given for The Weather Channel. Or Larson’s book. While he didn’t get to read it, you might want to. Spoiler alert: as mentioned, I’ve read it three times; Storm is 3-0 so far.
 
A final note from Larson’s book:
 
“Galveston was too pretty, too progressive, too prosperous—entirely too hopeful—to be true. Travelers arriving by ship saw the city as a silver fairy kingdom that might just as suddenly disappear from sight, a very different portrait from that which would present itself in the last few weeks of September 1900, when inbound passengers smelled the pyres of burning corpses a hundred miles out to sea.”
 
It’s a story about “what can happen when human arrogance meets the uncontrollable force of nature.” It’s why I don’t gripe at rain and lightning delays anymore.
 

Have a great summer, but let’s be careful out there.

Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu or Twitter @MamaLuvsManning

Adult & Teen Challenge Gala Draws 400 to Civic Center

The second annual “Gala Night” for Adult & Teen Challenge of Louisiana filled the Winnfield Civic Center on May 25 with nearly 400 people for a night of food, fellowship and testimony of escape from addiction.

This program is described as a “faith-based treatment facility providing effective, residential care to men and women struggling with addiction and other life-controlling issues.  We strive to put hope within reach of every addict through our comprehensive approach to recovery so that they may become successful individuals at home, the workplace, and within the community.”

In a revival-like atmosphere, local guests plus visitors from across the state heard testimonies from residents of the separate men’s and women’s facilities here in Winn.  People sat around tables that had been sponsored by individuals, churches and businesses in this fund-raising effort for the program.

“I never felt so free in my life.  They showed me how to believe,” declared one testimony.  “I knew about the wrath of God but not the love of God,” said another.  “They told me Adult & Teen Challenge was kinda like a Bible boot camp.  Instead, it is the vessel God used to save my life.”

The messages all came from different directions but came to the same conclusion through Jesus.  One said he’d come from a family of drug dealers and addicts in New Orleans.  Another countered that he didn’t set out to be a drug addict.  “I just wanted to fit in.”  An oft-raised issue:  “I thought I was a good parent.  How did addiction come into our family?  How did I get here?”

Adult & Teen Challenge is funded through donations and sponsorships as well as local student-driven projects like the Dodson Roadside Café, Mt. Grace Thrift Store, plants & flowers from the Mt. Grace Greenhouse, crafted coffee and candles and a blueberry operation.  The gala event gave an opportunity to highlight their student sponsorship program.

Their brochure shows that the faith-based approach of Adult & Teen Challenge has an 86% success (cure) rate, while traditional detoxification or therapeutic programs claim rates of only 1% to 10%.  “Teen Challenge has given me my life back and rippled over to others.  Whole families are affected by addiction.

 

Students in the Adult & Teen Challenge program stand before the audience at the Civic Center Gala to give testimony of their success against addiction through faith.

Goldonna Elementary Junior High School Honor Roll 22-23

Goldonna Elementary Junior High School Principal, Cori Beth Manuel, would like to congratulate the following Honor Roll recipients for the 22-23 school year.

Elementary
Principal’s List

Penelope Mann
Lani Todd
Saydee Flack
Piper Killingsworth
Bryson Carter
Case Sampey

A Honor Roll

Breanna Bates
Hunter Quinn
Ozyria Reliford
Jasiah Grayson
Kayden Bedgood
Alaynna Day
Jaclyn Dillon
Makenzie Dodge
Brookelyn Garner
Carlee Martin
Journey Nealy
Posey Riddle
Riley Thompson

B Honor Roll

Cassi Caldwell
Amy Lee
Jace Lee-Johnson
Addyson Martinez
Johnny Stewart
Genesis Williams
Nathan Black
Cortney Cheatwood
Ella Chism
Janiah Grayson
Jazper Choate
Caylee Cotton
Serenity Williams

Junior High
Principal’s List

Haiden Black
Grace Day
Zalien Paul
anthony Giannone
Brody Guin
Joseph Ivy
Daygen Johnson
Carlie Spears

A Honor Roll

Silas Collinsworth
Gavin Spears
Victoria Stewart
Heidi Winn
Daylon Michael-Chris
Chaylie Cox
Ayden Desadier
Bronson Mclendon
Autumn Womack
Zaine Choate
Alex Mccoy
Kara Slaughter

B Honor Roll

Brennan Alexander
Dallas Bates
Gabrielle Bedgood
Remy Dillon
Brett Keith
Tyler Lebrun
Maggie Johnson
Landon James Dakota
Slade Nielsen
Aubrey Oliver
Addison Weaver


A SHOT IN THE ARM FOR LAKE CLAIBORNE

By Glynn Harris 

She’s old, gotten fairly long in the tooth and like most of us, we tend to slow down once this happens to us. There is hope, however, for one of this area’s favorite lakes, Lake Claiborne.

I was fortunate to live in Homer when the lake was constructed and watched water begin trickling over the spillway half a century ago, indicating that at long last the lake was now what it was designed to be, a brand new 6400 acre body of water that would provide recreational opportunities not only for the folks living in Claiborne Parish but around north Louisiana as well.

I found a lot on the Beaver Creek branch of the lake, put my money down and purchased the lot so I could enjoy what this new lake had to offer, and boy, did it offer some good stuff. 

After purchasing the lot, clearing it off, I did something then I couldn’t think of doing now. With the help of friends, I built a pier and boat house where I kept my ski boat and fishing boat and there weren’t many afternoons after work that I was not out there taking my kids skiing and searching for some of the best fishing holes.

One particular hot spot for bass was a row of green willows that grew in the middle of Beaver Creek just a long cast from my pier. This was one of the hottest spots on the lake to ease up early morning before the sun began to peak over the distant trees to the row of willows, cast out a Tiny Torpedo next to the greenery. I’ve had successful fishing trips since but nothing to me was more fun than being close enough to be able to glance over my shoulder at my boat house, cast the lure and watch a bass explode on it. Man, that was some genuine fun.

I eventually moved from Homer, sold my lot and my trips back to the lake became fewer and further between and it was just as well because the red hot fishing Claiborne had offered was starting to wane. The lake began acting like most lakes with some age on them as vegetation died away and things just weren’t the same any longer.

Something has happened to this half a century old lake over the past few years. First off, the Lake Commission arranged to purchase and release in the lake a species of bass that would hopefully add a shot in the arm to the lake, Tiger bass. Genetically, they’re a special combination of native largemouth and those of the Florida strain that while not having the potential of growing as large as pure Florida’s, tend to be more aggressive and more likely to strike a lure.

I recently visited with Fisheries Manager for Northwest Louisiana for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Jeff Sibley, who is responsible for the management of Lake Claiborne.

“In addition to the Tiger bass that have been released in the lake over the past five years or so, our department is also releasing pure Florida bass which may not be as easy to catch but have the potential of growing quite big,” Sibley said.

Another shot in the arm for Claiborne took place a few weeks ago when the Major League Fishing circuit was in Louisiana fishing on Caney Lake and Bussey Brake. This group has a habitat project they fund on lakes in the states where their tournaments are held.

“They choose a lake not on the tournament circuit and this year they chose Claiborne and contributed some $25,000 to improve the fishing habitat. Special fish attracting structures were put together and placed in the lake in several locations, mainly around the State Park with coordinates available so anglers could locate the structures that should attract fish,” he said.

Time will tell if these “shots in the arm” will return Lake Claiborne to one anglers will be hitting more frequently with the real possibility of bringing in bragging sized fish.   


Briarwood Nature Preserve: A Forest Gem Just 33 Miles Away!

A forest gem by the name of Briarwood lies just north of Readhimer, a short 33-mile drive from downtown Winnfield. Curator Bayli Quick told Rotarians on May 24 when she talked about the Caroline Dorman Nature Preserve.

Caroline Dorman was a world-renowned naturalist whose grandparents settled in the area before the Civil War.  The preserve currently encompasses 212 acres of fields and woodlands that have remained protected and untouched for some 200 years.  It boasts a diverse collection of rare and native plants.  This includes the oldest collection of Louisiana irises in the world, which put on an impressive display of colors for a brief period each spring.

Quick explained that that a rose garden was an early plan for Briarwood.  But all of the bushes died so the irises became the preserve’s hallmark.  In the only “manicured” garden on the property are some 150 different iris hybrids.  Most were collected since 1972, some taken from other parts of the preserve from the early 1930s.  The bog garden is fed by a natural spring.  Another preserve resident is the Louisiana Bluestar.  A rare wildflower elsewhere, it shows off in a “sea of blue” in season at Briarwood.

One of the stipulations of serving as curator is living on the preserve, as do Quick, her husband and infant Clovis.  They are assisted by another worker.  She is working to fill the shoes of Briarwood’s venerable predecessor, Richard Johnson and his wife Jessie.  The site has been open to the public as a nature preserve since 1972.

The speaker told Rotarians that nature takes its course when no chemicals are used, and caretakers plus volunteers work hard to remove invasive species.  Trails are maintained from fallen timber and such for hiking and golf carts.  The property is mowed only once annually, just after the first frost.

Quick said the preserve receives several thousand visitors a year and is fortunate to have a host of volunteers to assist.  The Friends of Caroline Dorman program, a 501(c)3 established in 1970, is the main source of funding for Briarwood.

To get to Briarwood from Winnfield, simply drive north of Hwy 167 to Dodson, turn west on Hwy 126 to Readhimer, then north on Hwy 9 for about a half mile.  The preserve is open to the public Friday through Sunday from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. in March through May and again in October and November.  Quick said a phone call (318-576-3379) ahead of time is helpful for planning purposes.  Guided tours are conducted by the curator only.  Off-season tours are available by appointment only.

 

Rotarian Joe Evens and daughter Sophee stand with Briarwood curator Bayli Quick who holds little Clovis who remained contentedly quiet throughout the Rotary program.

American Flag Project Reached 25-Year Milestone for Lions Club

American Flags, more than 100 of them in all, flew proudly along the five-lane overpass
by the Post Office and throughout the downtown area on Memorial Day, a tribute to the
men and women who through the years, have given their lives in defense of our nation’s
freedoms.

The Lions Club here in Winnfield takes on this task on various patriotic days throughout
the year and in 2023, reached the milestone of putting on this service project for a
quarter century.

“The Lions do this out of love and respect for our country,” said member Mike Kennedy.
“But we want to stress that it would not be possible without that same love and respect
by the many sponsors, both businesses and individuals, whose giving allows us not only
to continue this display but also to grow it a little each year.”

The Red, White & Blue display is put out seven times each year. Those days are Patriot
Day, Veterans Day, Presidents’ Day, Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day and
Independence Day. In case the weather is bad on any of those planned days, make-up
days include D-Day, Labor Day and Pearl Harbor Day.

This local effort is called the “Dobber Brazzell American Flag Project” in honor of
a longtime member of the Lions Club who supported the club and the community.


Rapides Foundation Announces Mini-Grant Funding Opportunity

ALEXANDRIA, LA – The Rapides Foundation has released a new Healthy Behaviors Mini-Grant funding opportunity for community programs encouraging individuals to make healthy choices.

Consistent with the Foundation’s mission to improve the health status of Central Louisiana, the grants of up to $25,000 will be used to fund new or expanded community programs that increase physical activity, increase healthy eating, prevent tobacco use or promote tobacco cessation, or prevent substance and alcohol abuse. Community programs funded by the grant can include workshops, classes and events that impact residents within the Foundation’s nine-parish service area of Allen, Avoyelles, Catahoula, Grant, LaSalle, Natchitoches, Rapides, Vernon and Winn parishes.

Proposals must be submitted by 4 p.m. on Monday, August 14.

Interested applicants are invited to an informational webinar at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, June 14, to learn about the new grant, including the online proposal submission process. Registration is required for the webinar. Follow the link to register.

Full details about the funding opportunity, including the types of projects to be funded, are available on the Foundation’s website at www.rapidesfoundation.org under the Grants tab.

Prospective applicants are encouraged to schedule a call or a meeting with the Healthy Behaviors Initiative Program Officer to discuss the alignment and feasibility of their proposal before submission. Contact Dallas Russell at dallas@rapidesfoundation.org or (318) 767-3005 to request a meeting.

 


Notice of Death – June 6, 2023

Maudie Irene Fabian
December 25, 1935 — May 22, 2023
Service: Saturday, June 10 at 9 am at the Bolton Cemetery in Gorum
 
William (Billy) Rodgers
May 14, 1937-June 1, 2023
Service: Thursday, June 8 at 10 am at  Oak Grove Cemetery in the Oak Grove community in Natchitoches
 
George Holland
August 28, 1950 — June 4, 2023
Service: Saturday, June 10 at 2 pm at Christian Harmony Baptist Church in the Trichel Community 

End of The Cereal Sagas

Two of the past three weeks, we’ve traded love notes about one of the Major Food Groups.
 
Been a good run, our time with cereal.
 
And it doesn’t have to end — not in real life. Not as long as the amber waves of grain are a thing.
 
But it does have to end here. Time to move on to other Foods, other Friends, other Things.
 
As an exclamation point, we’ll do something I used to do semi-regularly but we haven’t done yet in the SBJ. Today, a few of you take the wheel and share some Very Personal Stories. Had to leave out so many, including a favorite from a friend who loves cereal so much, he uses many of his favorites in his various passwords. Thank you to all who took the time to bear their Cereal Souls.
 
From Donnie Golfgame: There was a time in my life I was torn between Quisp, which I’m proud you mentioned, and Quake – which was like a sister cereal to Quisp, although instead of a sister there was a picture on the box of a miner with a light on his hardhat. As George Herbert Walker Bush would say, Quisp was a “kinder, gentler” form of Cap’n Crunch, which we all know is like having a mouthful of thumbtacks in your mouth. Quake, however, was Cap’n Crunch’s evil uncle as far as texture. Eat a bowl of Quake and you weren’t eating — couldn’t eat — anything else that day. Gum carnage.
 
I noticed when my kids were little that Sugar Crisp had suddenly become Honey Crisp and then later on it was just Crisp on the box. Same thing with Sugar Pops, which became Corn Pops and I think today it might just be Pops. Sugar has gotten a bad rap.
 
My Top 10, starting at the top:
 
1. Cap’n Crunch
2. Raisin Bran
3. 40 Percent Bran Flakes, (which now are just Bran Flakes; I always wondered why they didn’t call themselves 60-Percent-Of-Whatever-Else-Was-In-The-Box Flakes).
4. Rice Krispies; (are they just Krispies now? Is rice wrong?)
5. Fruit Loops
6. Corn Flakes, (or is it just Flakes?)
7. Sugar Pops
8. Honey Comb
9. Cap’n Crunch with Crunch Berries
10. Quaker Oats Oatmeal; (when I was a kid, there was a glass dish inside the oats).
 
From Duke of Don: There’s nothing more numerous than different people’s sense of humorous, right? I sent your Cereal Piece to a nephew in England. He responded, “Sadly nearly every cereal mentioned is not known to me; here we have our own which are the same as yours only under a different name. My breakfasts are not usually cereal-based but are instead …
 
1: Muesli (our own make barley flakes, rolled oats, porridge oats, oat bran, every kind of nut crushed up, mixed seeds, and raw cacao pieces plus milk); keeps you going through the day.
2: Croissants with lashings of extra butter, (Sundays only).
3: Porridge
4: Bacon Sandwich
5: Cold meats and cheese when in Europe
6: Crumpets
7: Toast
8: Lashings of coffee
9: Weetabix with warm milk but not very often
10: Corn flakes but only with a gun pointed at my head
 
From JayVee, Team Captain: First, a resounding NO to Trix, or any cereal with colors, and also to Grape Nuts (who in the world thinks this is really human food?! And why ruin the good name “Grape” by associating it with this product?)
 
1. Raisin Bran Crunch
2. Frosted Mini Wheats
3 and 4. Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios (tie game)
5. Frosted Flakes
6. Sugar Crisp (as in — add music — “Can’t get enough of them Sugar Crisp.” It’s a different name now — heaven forbid we actually put “sugar” in a name anymore. Gotta eat ’em fast; if soggy it’s a different ballgame.
7. Sugar pops, (ditto previous comment).
8. Raisin Bran
 
From The Skynman: My go-to is Honey Nut Cheerios. I have ditched the rest. I can do both ways. With milk or without. A handful of HNC for a quick snack is a pick-me-up. And on long trips there is a box in the seat next to me to munch on while I drive and listen to my book on tape.
 
From Train: If a team of cereal played ball, here’s my batting order:
 
1. Fruity Pebbles
2. Frosted Flakes
3. Honey Nut Cheerios
4. Lucky Charms
5. Cinnamon Toast Crunch
6. Cocoa Puffs
7. Cap’n Crunch
8. Raisin Bran
9. Count Chocula
 
Naturally, a bowl would coach first, a spoon third, and milk would be the manager.
 
Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu

Winn Parish Sheriff’s Office Arrest Report

Date: 5-22-23
Name: Michael C Elliot 
Address: Sikes, LA
Race: White 
Sex: Male 
Age: 36
Charge: Disturbing the Peace 

Date: 5-22-23
Name: Adam Seth gray 
Address: Dodson, LA
Race: White 
Sex: Male 
Age: 34
Charge: Criminal Trespassing 


Date: 5-25-23
Name: Craig Nick 
Address: Dry Prong, LA
Race: White 
Sex: Male 
Age: 40 
Charge: Failure to appear 

Date: 5-25-23
Name: Eric R Kirtley 
Address: Sikes, LA
Race: White 
Sex: Male 
Age: 40 
Charge: Domestic Abuse Battery 

Date: 5-27-23
Name: Ethan Wayne Hanson 
Address: Dodson, LA
Race: White 
Sex: Male 
Age: 21
Charge: Domestic Abuse Battery 


Date: 5-27-23
Name: Devante Devion Moffett
Address: Chattam, LA
Race: Black 
Sex: Male 
Age: 23
Charge: Speeding, Reckless Driving, Open container 

Date: 5-27-23
Name: Jean Paul Stroud
Address: Montgomery, LA
Race: White 
Sex: Male 
Age: 54
Charge: Domestic Battery (x2), Cruelity to the infirmed

Date: 5-28-23
Name: Ronnie J David
Address: Jonesboro, LA 
Race: White 
Sex: Male 
Age: N/A
Charge: Failure to appear 


Date: 5-29-23
Name: Dewanna Rials 
Address: Atlanta, LA 
Race: White 
Sex: Female 
Age: 47
Charge: No seatbelt, Failure to register vehicle, Driver must be licensed

 

Date: 5-29-23
Name: Donovan Blake Stoner 
Address: Atlanta, LA
Race: White 
Sex: Male 
Age: 32
Charge: Fugitive (Grant Parish) 

Date: 5-29-23
Name: Destinee Wise 
Address: Dodson, LA
Race: White 
Sex: Female 
Age: 24
Charge: Failure to appear 


Date: 5-30-23
Name: Kason Hurst Lashley
Address: Atlanta, LA
Race: White 
Sex: Male 
Age: 22
Charge: Second Degree Battery 


This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation or arrested and charged with a crie, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.