Entries by Walter Geiger

By Laura Geiger

It’s every parent’s nightmare. Our daughter Livia had just called to tell me she was leaving Athens for Christmas break after a grueling week of final exams at the University of Georgia. “Be careful, the weather is terrible,” I said.

Thirty minutes later I got another phone call from her. She was crying. “Mama, I’m okay but I’ve been in a wreck – it wasn’t my fault – but my car is really messed up.”

“I’m on the way. Where are you?” She was outside Madison. It was Friday, Dec. 13 and it had been raining for days, saturating the roads and obscuring driving conditions.
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Two people with Lamar County connections were killed in recent days as a result of traffic accidents in Monroe County.

David Holmes, 36, of 126 Red Oak Drive died at the Macon Medical Center three days after a Dec. 31 crash on I-75.

Mikayla Shay Singletary, 22, died Jan. 8 after her Kia ran off Hwy. 42 and hit a tree.

Full coverage of both crashes is published in the 1.14.20 print edition of The Herald Gazette.

After a highly successful fund drive to open the doors, the Boys & Girls Club of Barnesville will officially open on Jan. 23. The first student registration period will be held Thursday, Jan. 16 from 5-6:45 p.m. at the LCMS gym.

Initially, a limited number memberships will be offered to students in grades 3-7 on a first come, first served basis. Parents will be required to provide proof of income, a medical insurance card and a money order for the $65 membership fee at the time of the registration.

For more information, contact Sandra Watts at 678-572-3156.

Katherine Tice Craig, also known as Kathy Tice, of Zebulon, was recently arraigned on federal charges of mail fraud. The defendant allegedly embezzled more than $2 million dollars from a company she was managing. According to the U.S. Attorney's office, she was indicted by a federal grand jury on Jan. 7. [Full Story »] 

By Mike Ruffin

I was sitting in a classroom at Gordon Grammar School in the late 1960s, reading an article in my Weekly Reader about the future of space travel.

My fellow students and I were living through the era of pretty regular space missions. Our teacher would sometimes turn on the classroom’s big black-and-white television that sat atop the big stand that always looked to me as if it were ready to tip over from top heaviness so we could watch a rocket launch.

If I’m remembering the context correctly—it was a long time ago in a Barnesville far, far away, after all—I was reading the article at about the time of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon.

But this article was about what might come next, and what it suggested might come next was a program that would involve spacecraft that could go into space, come back to Earth, and then do it again. In fact, the article said, these vessels would be used over and over. Plans to develop such a craft, one main purpose of which would be to transport personnel to and from a planned permanent space station, were underway.
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Citizens are asked to place a green light on their porches or by their front doors Jan. 13 to show support for the LC literacy effort.

Convicted killer Jennifer Clark has filed a motion for a new trial and a hearing on the matter is set for Jan. 13 in Lamar superior court. Clark is serving life plus 60 years for the murder of her husband, Donald Clark. [Full Story »] 

Asher Wade Byrd became Lamar County’s first baby of 2020 when he was born at 3:25 p.m. Jan. 1 at Upson Regional Medical Center. He weighed nine pounds, nine ounces and measured 21 inches. He is pictured with (l-r) brother Izak Tucker, mother Dana Tucker and father Benny Byrd.
Maternal grandparents are Cecil and Wanda Williams. Paternal grandparents are the late Thomas and Shirley Tumlin.