Stories from Sunday, January 20, 2013

CONCORD -- Edna Cronan, 81, died Jan. 18, 2013, at Ramsey Creek Village in Scott City. Arrangements are incomplete at the DeLisle Funeral Home in Portageville.

WEST ALTON -- Joyce Bard Pointer, 69, died at 11:50 p.m. Jan. 17, 2013, in the Christian Northeast Hospital in St. Louis. Born Feb. 28, 1943, in the Sugartree community in New Madrid County, she was the daughter of the late William Carl and Mary Nell Tyner Bard. After leaving East Prairie. she moved to the St. Louis area where she was employed as a seamstress for a Sporting Goods Co...

DUDLEY -- Mack Mullins, 66, died Jan. 17, 2013, at his home. Born March 11, 1946, in Grundy, Va., son of Madie Stiltner Mullins of Dudley and the late Vince Mullins, he had lived in Chicago and moved to Dudley in 1975. He was a board member of the People's Full Gospel Church and was a Mason member in Bloomfield. He worked as the police chief for the Department of Veteran Affairs and had worked for the city of Dudley for nearly 37 years. He was a veteran of the U.S. Army...

BERTRAND -- Paul Richard Miller, 79, died Jan. 18, 2013, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Arrangements are incomplete at McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston.

CONRAN -- Helen Floy Froman died Jan. 18, 2013, at the Golden Living Center in New Madrid. Born Nov. 23, in Conran, daughter of the late Pearl Cannon Harp and John Froman, she was a longtime employee of L and S Hardware in Portageville. Survivors include: two cousins and their spouses, Shirlee and Mike Estes and Donald and Barbara Babb of Lilbourn...

DYERSBURG, Tenn. -- Roy Edward Dial, 59, died Jan. 16, 2013, at Dyersburg Regional Medical Center. Born Oct. 19, 1953, in Florence, Ala., he was the son of the late Jean Mullins and Charles Edward Dial. On March 5, 2011, in Jackson, he married Victoria "Vicki" Clark, who survives of the home...

BELL CITY -- Georgia Lee Hankins, 95, died Jan. 17, 2013, at her home. Born Sept. 6, 1917, in Sweatman, Miss., daughter of the late Aaron and Francis Johnson Ratliff, she was employed at the Bell City Public Schools until her retirement and was a member of New Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church in Haywood City where she served on the Mother's Board...

Just a few short weeks ago, I was bemoaning the lack of progress on removing the massive amount of condemned houses from our community. The Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority (LCRA) - of which I am a member - had been stalled by limited funding and new federal environmental regulations...