Memorial Day Commemoration
Published 9:30 am Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Batesville Boy Scout Troop 478 member Conner Correro presents Frances Smith with a wreath of remembrance during the Memorial Day program held at the Civic Center on Monday, May 26. The annual program, sponsored by the Exchange Club of Batesville, was moved from the Square to the Civic Center because of rain. Part of the Memorial Day commemoration each year is the laying of a wreath on the monument dedicated to the memory of Panola County’s fallen soldiers. Smith was chosen to lay the wreath this year in honor of her late husband, Jimmy Smith, and his decades long service to the community through the Exchange Club. Guest speaker was Command Chief Master Sergeant Robbie Knight of Meridian. He had a 40 plus year career with the Mississippi Air National Guard, retiring in 2017. He was an aircraft maintenance specialist, an operations flight planner, and an instructor with service in Iceland, Italy, France, Spain, Turkey, Germany, and many other sites. He received the G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery Patriot Leadership Award in 2011. (Glennie Pou)
