The Evergreen Courant's News Flashback for Feb. 4, 2020

15 YEARS AGO
FEB. 3, 2005

Addressing for the E911 system officially began this week by LAS Systems Mike Simmers doing the initial work. He will be joined by E911 Director Heather Walton and Elaine Sims when a temporary receptionist is hired to answer the phones at the office.

The Conecuh County Commission will discuss moving several of the offices from the old courthouse into the old Flexible Southern building that is currently being renovated by Marc McIntyre at their meeting Monday. The commission has the undaunted task of finding facilities adequate to hold all of the court offices and also several other offices for the period of time it will take to build the new courthouse over the coming years.

EMC Physical Therapy Director Chad McAmmon and Skipper General Contractor’s Project Foreman Kevin Reeves go over the plans for the new Evergreen Medical Center Wellness Center that is being constructed in the vacant building on Court Street.

On Wed., Jan. 19, Heather Walton received her Basic Level EMA certificate at the Alabama Association of Emergency Managers Conference in Huntsville, Ala. Recipients of this award must have 300 total training hours and pass all final exams.

Total rainfall for the month of January was 3.05 inches.

30 YEARS AGO

FEB. 1, 1990

Harry Ellis reports two nice showers, .60 of an inch on Jan. 24 and .85 on Jan. 25.

Roy Lee Moorer, 99, of 305 Magnolia Ave., Evergreen, died Sat., Jan. 27. A retired businessman, he was one of this city’s most senior citizens and a resident since 1895.

Moving to Evergreen at the age of five, he was educated in the local schools, graduating in 1908 from the State Secondary Agricultural School for the Second Congressional District, afterwards attending the University of Alabama in the class of 1915. At the time of his death, he was the University’s third oldest living alumnus.

A veteran of World War I, he served as a first sergeant, Co. C, 517th Engineers, 42nd ‘Rainbow’ Division, AEF, and took part in all combat operations of this division in France in 1917-1918.

For many years until his retirement in 1960, he was engaged in business, first with Claude Brantley and Claude Gantt, both now deceased, and later as sole owner of what is now known as Evergreen Grocery at the corner of East Front and Cary Streets.

Congressman Bill Dickinson will be the featured speaker at the Evergreen Chamber of Commerce’s annual Promotion-Membership Banquet on Tuesday night, Feb. 13, at seven o’clock at the Quality Inn, it has been announced.

Evergreen Mayor Lee F. Smith proclaims February ‘American History Month,’ which is sponsored nationally by the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution.

45 YEARS AGO

FEB. 6, 1975

Earl Windham reports rainfall of .7 of an inch on Feb. 2. Total rainfall for the month of January was 7.1 inches.

W.J. “Dud” Reed succeeded William W. Ward as president of the Conecuh County Cattlemen’s Association at the annual banquet. Harold Hanks is the new vice president and veteran treasurer Morgan S. Holley was re-elected.

Coy L. Harper, local businessman and former mayor, today expressed his appreciation to the Evergreen Volunteer Fire Department and credited the firemen’s prompt and efficient efforts for saving his home when it caught fire recently.

Harper said that within four minutes after the alarm had been turned in the firemen were on the scene fighting the blaze and kept it from spreading from the den to the rest of the house.

Rachel E. Ellis of Evergreen and Allison L. Nettles of Castleberry were among the 255 students named to the fall quarter Dean’s List at Troy State University.

Wholesale distributors purchased less beer tax decals the first of this month than they did for January, according to County Treasurer Wayne E. Johnston.

Mrs. Vivian Reed is the new president of the Conecuh County Cowbelles, taking the gavel from Mrs. Betty Ward. Other officers are Mrs. Margie Stacey, Mrs. Carolyn Ward and Mrs. Ethel Hanks.

60 YEARS AGO

FEB. 4, 1960

A driver attempting to prevent his grandson from falling from the front seat of the car, lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the abutment of the Murder Creek Bridge, three-fourths of a mile from Castleberry, causing himself and three passengers to be rushed to the hospital with serious injuries. The accident occurred Sunday at 2:52 p.m.

A fire, started by sparks from an open fireplace, burned a six-room house to the ground on Highway 31 South of Evergreen, near Persons Service Station.

A crowd estimated at about 400 attended the grand opening of the Owens Truck and Tractor Co. in Evergreen this past Saturday.

R.G. Bozeman Sr. Appears In History of ‘Bama Press Ass’n: Forty-nine Alabama newspapers have furnished presidents of the Alabama Press Association since it was organized in 1871.

R.G. Bozeman Sr., publisher emeritus of The Evergreen Courant, served a two-year term as president of the association.

These and other facts are found in the History of the Alabama Press Association, a copy of which will be presented to each member attending the association’s annual meeting in Montgomery, Feb. 4-6.

75 YEARS AGO

FEB. 1, 1945

Mr. and Mrs. E.F. Pierce this week received the purple heart award which was recently bestowed upon their son, Staff Sgt. Winston Pierce, who was wounded while in action last fall in France. Sgt. Pierce is now well on the road to recovery and expects to go back to the front before long.

15th AAF in Italy – 2nd Lt. William E. Stinson, 26, pilot of a 15th AAF B-24 Liberator Bomber in a heavy bombardment group based in Southern Italy, has been awarded the Air Medal for Meritorious Achievement in aerial combat.

With eight missions chalked up to his credit, he has flown attacks against oil refineries and communication centers at Vienna, Austria and railroad centers at Salzburg and Innsbruck, Southern Germany, the disruption of which limited lanes for the movement of German troops and supplies.

A 1936 graduate of Evergreen High School, Evergreen, Ala., he was employed in civil service work at Eglin Field until his enlistment as an aviation cadet in October 1942.

He is the son of Mrs. Mary E. Stinson, Evergreen, Ala.

Local Man’s Outfit Gets Croix De Guerre: With the Fifth Army, Italy – Sgt. Willie B. Johns, Evergreen, Route C, is a member of the 89th Tank Destroyer Battalion, recently awarded the Croix de Guerre avec Etoile de Vermeil in recognition of support given French troops fighting on the Italian front.

The 89th supported the French Expeditionary Corps with the Fifth Army in the capture of Poggibonsi, San Gimignano, Castelfiorentino and Siena.

The TDs are largely credited with having saved the medieval center of culture, Siena, from destruction. Rapidly outflanking the city, they forced the Germans to evacuate Siena before a shot had been fired into it.