The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

The way we were




Clips from Mountain Eagle front pages over the past 50 years

October 26, 1961 Bee Day of Whitesburg landed a 27-inch blue catfish at Spring Branch Lake on Rockhouse. The fish weighed about 11 pounds.

. Walker and Bill Pigman bought Service Cleaners of Neon and took over operation of the firm. For the past six years they had operated a dry-cleaning plant at Clintwood, Va. The former owners of Service Cleaners, Mr. and Mrs. John Beatty, plan to retire to Florida.

. Members of the Whitesburg Water Board told city offi cials that a system using the Kentucky River is the only long-range answer to Whitesburg’s water-supply problems. Dr. Clayton Bennett, chairman of the water board, said the city needs a system like the one recently build in Hazard and estimated the cost at about $350,000.

. The Federal Housing Administration has authorized $10,000 planning loan to help the Whitesburg Housing Authority complete planning for a 50-unit public housing project.

October 28, 1971 Roving picket activity remains sporadic in Letcher County as the nationwide strike by the United Mine Workers against the soft coal industry ground into its fourth week. No immediate settlement is in sight.

. So far this year, twice as many coal miners have died in the Hazard District of the Kentucky Department of Mines and Minerals than in the comparable periods of the last few years. Thirty-nine miners have died in the state this year, five of them on strip- or auger-mining jobs.

. Legislation boosting black-lung benefits has been detoured in the U.S. House of Representatives, but supporters are confident it will be enacted intact.

. Eddie Conley of Burdine is co-captain of the varsity basketball team at Morehead State University.

October 29, 1981 At least 20 percent of precinct officers who served during the May primary election have since resigned, and more resignations are expected before the election next week, said Letcher County Sheriff Vernon Hall. The resignations came after a special grand jury report criticized the manner in which the county Board of Elections and 124 precinct offi cers handled the May primary election in Letcher County.

. Democrat Ruben Watts, Republican Cecil Holbrook and write-in candidate Hubert Howard are the candidates for Letcher County judge/executive in the Nov. 3 general election.

. Cold rain and 44-degree air did not hinder homecoming parade festivities in Whitesburg. Dottie Fields was crowned homecoming queen at half-time in the football game between Whitesburg High School and Knott County Central High School. The Yellowjackets defeated Knott Central 33-6.

October 30, 1991 Parents from at least one Letcher County school are planning to fight a state plan that calls for the school to be closed. Dr. Artie Ann Bates of Carcassonne says parents at Campbell’s Branch School, which her son attends, will be at a facilities hearing in Whitesburg Monday to protest the state’s recommendation for closing Campbell’s Branch, Beckham Bates and Hemphill elementary schools.

. Local police are asking state highway officials to put up warning signals on the west end of the Whitesburg By-pass after a truck plowed into a cliff there, injuring a passenger.

. Southern utilities are eyeing a switch to Western coal.

. Eastern Kentucky residents and officials are looking for ways to attract more tourists to the mountains.

October 31, 2001 Worries of more terrorist attacks have led Letcher County schools to curtail their senior trip plans to New York City and Washington, D.C.

. A 20-year-old Whitesburg woman, Geria Shavon Brock, died Oct. 25 when the Jeep in which she was riding flipped over on KY 15 on Whitco Hill.

. The Letcher County School District closed down West Whitesburg Elementary and Whitesburg Middle School on Friday after an anthrax threat that school officials and police call a prank.

. The Fleming-Neon Pirates closed out one of their most successful gridiron campaigns every Thursday night by beating Jenkins 48-13 in Neon to finish the regular season 9-1.

. Prina Biggerstaff celebrated her 93rd birthday this weekend at her home on Cowan.



Leave a Reply