Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, June 30, 1988

The side of Grace's Grocery store in Diagonal took on a completely new look this week when a mural was painted by Phoenix, AZ resident Lawrence KILGORE. KILGORE, who owns property north of Diagonal where he hopes to retire in a couple of years, is a professional artist and sign painter, and also painted all the signs along the highways outside the community inviting people to the celebration. A Diagonal native, KILGORE studied commercial art in Des Moines and drew a syndicate comic strip "Sandy Hill" for three and one-half years before moving to Phoenix, where he has had a sign business since 1955. KILGORE and a Creston helper painted the wall-sized mural after volunteers plastered the old brick wall in preparation for his work, one of a number of community spruce-up jobs done for the centennial celebration.

There was a nightmarish rehearsal for the D-Day invasion of Normandy during World War II that resulted in the deaths of 749 American soldiers on the night of April 27, 1944. This was four times the number of casualties their units sustained on Utah Beach six weeks later. This information went down with the ships and was considered to be a very well-kept United States government secret. Now, some 44 years later, key persons have begun to tenaciously ask questions and individuals, including Cathy WARD of Mount Ayr, are getting more answers. She is hearing about her father, Ivan J. BROWN, who went down with a ship carrying him to a simulated landing drill some 15 miles off the southern coast of England. It was called "Operation Tiger." BROWN was in 3206 Quartermaster COC-U.S. Army during WWII.

First baby born at Ringgold County Hospital after Father's Day was honored with a gift of pork products from the Ringgold County Pork Producers and Porkettes. The Father's Day baby was Wesley HAMILTON, born Thursday, June 23, to Kenneth and Lori HAMILTON of Bethany, MO. Wesley was born at 4:03 p.m. and weighed in at nine pounds, 12 1/2 ounces and was 21 1/2 inches long. The bigger the boy, the more pork given, so his parents received his weight in pork products.

Bob SMITH, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jim SMITH of rural Beaconsfield, has been accepted for the Iowa Highway Patrol Academy. He will go to Camp Dodge near Des Moines on July 5 to start 14 weeks of instruction. SMITH is a 1982 graduate of Mount Ayr Community high school and completes work toward an industrial arts and agriculture technology degree from Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville this summer.

June 23, a son to Keneth & Lori HAMILTON, Bethany MO

OBITUARIES in June 30, 1988 Mount Ayr Record-News:

Clifford Sylvester TAYLOR   Myra Ada MEIXNER OSBORN
Elvira Elizabeth MATEER MORSE    Andrew Jay WELLING

Transciption by Sharon R. Becker, July of 2013

To submit your Ringgold County items, contact the County Coordinator.
Please include the word "Ringgold" in the subject line. Thank you.

 

IOWA OLD PRESS
An Iowa GenWeb project that collects articles from old Iowa newspapers. Have a look back at the lives and times of our Iowa ancestors as reported in early newspapers. The home page for Iowa Old Press Project, complete with a searchable database, may be accessed at: http://iagenweb.org/iowaoldpress/