2010 Top Stories

Published 12:00 am Friday, December 31, 2010

Tiger’s top rank leads long list of notable stories 

Staff report

News that South Panola’s football team is ranked first in the nation, dominating three national polls, came late in 2010.

But it still came early enough for the news to become the leading story of the year in The Panolian.

Email newsletter signup

Sign up for our daily email newsletter

Get the latest news sent to your inbox

“South Panola football — it’s not just about sports,” said Panolian publisher John Howell Sr.

“It’s about a cross-section of people coming together, season after season, with a common purpose,” said Howell.

“Such a success story, when it ranks first in the nation, belongs at the top of our story list,” Howell added.   

Winning and winning often are not big news for South Panola’s football team. Winning has become such a tradition that fans are somewhat despondent unless it’s a close game. Even state championships have become routine for the local teams.

This season the biggest challenge for the South Panola Tigers came the two weekends after their season had ended.

South Panola wrapped up its undefeated 15-0 season on Dec. 3 with an overpowering 28-7 victory over Meridian High in the Mississippi Class 6A state final.

As South Panola is no stranger to championships within its own state borders– its teams have won a state title in eight of the past 10 seasons.

And it has been on the national scene for a while, finishing No. 28 in 2008 before improving to No. 11 last season.

The South Panola team took over the top spot nationally on Aug. 30 with Rivals.com, and was never really challenged on the field, outscoring opponents 687-117.

Trinity out of Euless, Texas, the team ranked No. 1 in the nation by three of the other national polls, won their quarterfinal playoff game 41-40 on the last play of the game on the day after South Panola earned the Mississippi state championship.

Trinity went on to win their semifinal round but were defeated in the Texas state championship game on December 18 handing South Panola top spot in the nation’s leading ranking polls including USA Today.

It;s the first Mississippi football team ever ranked number one in the country.

Other memorable stories from 2010, recalled as the year rolled by, include:

Como mayor passes

Como Mayor Judy Sumner died Saturday, January 9 at age 58. Sumner first took office as the town’s mayor in June, 2008 after a State Supreme Court ruling declared her winner of the 2005 municipal election

She embarked on a crusade of reconciliation and fiscal recovery that brought her easy re-election in the 2009 municipal election.

Sumner’s death triggered a special election for her replacement. Everette Hill narrowly defeated Mark Lipscomb to become Como’s mayor for the remainder of Sumner’s unexpired term.

Nash and newborn

The gut-wrenching story of a newborn, stabbed by his panicking teenage mother, peppered the front page of The Panolian for most of 2010.

It began January 30, when the Nash family rushed the newborn to Tri-Lakes Medical Center, a panicked trip that was too late to save the infant.   

Not until September, when seventeen-year-old Linda Nash pleaded guilty to manslaughter, did details trickle out:

Nash gave birth, alone, in a bathroom at her home.

She used scissors.

The child’s father was her 14-year-old brother.  

 “I was scared. Kind of freaked out,” Nash told her attorney, Tom Womble, at her sentencing in October.

A clinical psychologist, who interviewed Nash, testified that she was “very overprotected” by her religious family.

“In a split second she had to come to terms with an unwanted pregnancy,” the psychologist said.

Circuit Judge Andrew C. Baker sentenced Nash to two years in prison.

The sentence allows Nash to “start life over,” Baker said, “but a child who is brought into this world should be given a chance to live.”

Smoking ban passes

In February, Batesville became a non-smoking city as aldermen voted 4-1 to ban smoking in businesses and on city-owned property.

The vote was followed by a brief outcry in letters to the editor and online comments at panolian.com and followed another controversial decision five months earlier. In September, 2009, aldermen had voted to undo blue laws banning the sale of beer and liquor on Sundays.

Ambushed officer kills assailant

Memphis media dubbed it a “torture table,” rope and plastic ties wound around a coffee table at Joyce Betts’ home south of Crenshaw.

Lawrence Richardson, a drifter and convicted felon from Virginia, had built the table and waited in the dark for ex-girlfriend Betts to return home.

She suspected trouble when the lights were turned off and on February 7, Richardson met his maker, not his victim.

Crenshaw police officer Sean Shelton, ambushed in the home on Polan Road, shot Richardson “10 to 12 times,” authorities said.

The patrolman had foiled a rape, and probably a homicide, but he was struck by rounds from a .22 caliber pistol fired by Richardson.  

Shelton recovered from his wounds and had returned to the Crenshaw Police Department by summer.

He is still on the job as the new year begins.

Mobile home regs approved

Panola County government, after two years of debate and discussion, created tougher regulations for new mobile homes in the county.

A visual aid helped. A junky single-wide trailer was moved to a lot in Courtland in March, creating an uproar among neighbors and a fine example of what a no-rules county looks like.

The mobile home sported rotten wood, broken windows, faded paint, and bent and twisted metal. It looked like it had rolled down a mountain and landed on Wells Street Extended.

Proper setup of mobile homes, and licensed transport on public roads, were among the new rules  recommended by the Panola County Land Development Commission.

A 20-year limit on new mobile homes was among the more controversial rules. But the time limit withstood debate and scrutiny among the land commission and county supervisors.

The mobile home in Courtland?

It was eventually dragged away.

Batesville native was war casualty

Batesville native Sgt. David A. Holmes Jr., 34, was killed in Afghanistan on June 26. Holmes, the son of Betty and David Holmes Sr., was serving with the Georgia National Guard. He and wife and children lived in Sandersonville, Ga.

A 1995 graduate of South Panola High School, he was a former employee of Pizza Hut and was known as a talented artist.

Holmes served with the 810th Engineer Company Company of Swainsboro, Ga., and had been promoted to the rank of sergeant ten days before his death.

Sgt. Holmes was buried in the Georgia Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Milledgeville on July 9. A memorial service in Batesville honored Holmes on July 18 at the Batesville Junior High School auditorium. A military honor guard presented a 21-gun salute following the service, which was attended by several hundred people.

Holmes is the fourth Panola Countian to be killed in action in the wars of the 21st Century. In 2003 Pfc. Damian L. Heidelberg, 21, died in Iraq. He had been a student at the Batesville Job Corps Center before he enlisted. In 2005 Panola Countians Cpl. Daron Lunsford, 29, and Cpl. Brandon Presley, 21, were killed in Iraq.

Panola Farmers Market

Batesville’s first-ever farmers market opened on June 30, beginning a Wednesday afternoon tradition that carried on until October 27.

Volunteers Bobbie Jean Pounders and Glenda Bailey, representing Batesville’s Main Street program, organized the market.

Fresh seasonal produce included tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, beans, peas, watermelons and pumpkins.

From 20 to 40 vendors were on hand each week, coming from several nearby counties.

Plans are under way to continue the farmers market in 2011.

Griffin wins special election for sheriff

Panola’s interim sheriff, Otis Griffin, won a special election for sheriff this year to finish the term of late Sheriff Hugh “Shot” Bright.

Griffin, 54, had served as chief deputy under Bright. The Panola County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 for Griffin to serve as interim sheriff until an election could be held.

Griffin moved to a Nov. 23 runoff in a crowded field of candidates, defeating retired state trooper Dennis Darby in a narrow finish.

Griffin’s election marked a milestone in Panola County. He became its first black candidate in a county race to win a county-wide race for public office.

Darby, also 54, made his own news in 2010. He concluded his career with the Miss. Highway Patrol to seek the sheriff’s office, his first run for public office.