Janet Taber
Sean, Cleta and Delaney Sweeney spent several days traveling last week, conducting business in Salt Lake City and then vacationing in Idaho with their daughter, Mackenzie, and husband Davey Gorham.
Delaney was on spring break from Drury University where she is a freshman. The family enjoyed skiing, and the weather cooperated perfectly; Cleta said they had 10 days of cold, snow, ice and sleet.
Mackenzie is doing graduate work at Idaho State University in Pocatella, in her chosen field of nuclear engineering. The Idaho Nuclear Laboratory, where she works, is in close contact with their industry’s counterparts in Japan, doing all they can to help solve the problems that resulted from the earthquake and tsunami.
The Sweeneys were interested to learn that before the disaster the damaged nuclear reactors were scheduled to be taken out of service, as newer, much safer models are now being built.
The Sweeneys also got to tour Premier Technology, where their son-in-law, Davey, is in the middle of a five-year internship. Davey is a chemical engineer, and his firm makes equipment that services the nuclear industry.
Happy birthday to Chrystal Ray whose special day is today, March 30, and belated wishes to Chrystal’s brother-in-law, Darren, who celebrated last week on March 25. The Ray family enjoyed a group birthday party on the 20th, with a big dinner at Mark and Delores’s home after church, in celebration of the ones who were born in March, including Mark.
Mark Ray said he is thankful, as are all the farmers in our neck of the woods, for the nice rain over the weekend. Fertilizer trucks have been running, and the rain will help the expensive additives to do their job.
The weekend’s welcome rain also helped by putting an end to worries created by last week’s many fires in the county. For a while it seemed that something was burning all the time, as the pungent smell of smoke hung heavy in the air. Now we look forward to the return of warmer days and the beautiful display of dogwoods which are ready to burst into bloom as April makes her entrance.
Belated birthday wishes to young Bradley Snyder who turned 10 on Tuesday! Bradley is the grandson of Rich and Betty Lou Montgomery, son of their daughter, Lisa and husband Mike Snyder, all of Columbia. Because it falls during his Spring Break, Bradley got to spend his birthday here in Almartha, at his grandmother’s childhood home, along with the rest of the family.
Rich and Betty Lou came down last week to spend some time relaxing and visiting relatives. One day they drove to Springfield, taking Betty Lou’s aunt and uncle, Rondo and Virginia Prock of Ava with them, to visit another aunt, Zelda Henderson. Both Zelda and Virginia were sisters of the late Homer Rennaker. Zelda, now 95, is a patient in a nursing home.
Also feeling the pull of Ozark County last week, Paul and Joyce Bonds drove down from Rogersville to spend a few days at her homeplace. Joyce is looking forward to a wedding coming up in May, when their grandson, Jason Edwards, will marry his sweetheart, Alex, in St. Louis. Both bride and groom are medical school students at UMKC. An added bonus will be that the Bonds’ two-year-old great-grandson, Luca Campagnola, from NYC will also be at the wedding, along with his parents, Jamie and Chris.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Rex Johnson as he travels this week to Houston, Tex., for medical treatment, and with Bobby Crawford of Mtn. Home who is recovering from surgery.
It is always wonderful to hear from old friends, and I had a very special opportunity to do that on Monday. Gayla Wallace Rorie, a classmate from GHS who now lives in Nixa, called to say that she had read the story in last week’s paper about her aunt, Ruby Wallace. Gayla wanted to honor her parents and other relatives by having their names placed on quilt squares on the Ozark County Historium’s friendship quilt. Gayla’s mother, the late Pauline Wallace who recently passed away, was a member of the historical society and always enjoyed reading the stories about Ozark County history and families in the Old Mill Run.
