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 By  Staff Reports Published 
10:25 am Thursday, November 22, 2001

Local residents honored

By Staff
Nov. 21, 2001
Joe E. Yarrell, a driver for Roadway Express, has logged 3 million miles the equivalent of circling the earth's equator 120 times without a preventable accident. It would take the average motorist 150 years to travel this distance, but Yarrell covered it in 23 years.
Yarrell, 64, is a resident of Toomsuba. He is a longhaul driver for the company's Meridian facility. A member of Local 891 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, he has worked for Roadway since 1976.
In recognition of his achievement, Yarrell will receive a new road tractor, emblazoned with his name and honors on the doors, to drive for as long as he is employed by Roadway Express.
Yarrell joins three other Meridian drivers who have reached the 3 million-mile mark: E.T. "Slim" Pickens, J.T. Phillips and Royce Robinson.
Three Aldersgate residents have been chosen as "senior philosophers" by the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging.
The honor goes to Elise Leach, Virginia Hall and J.W. Bradshaw, whose "philosophy of life" quotes were featured this month at the AAHSA's 40th Annual Meeting &Exposition in San Diego, Calif. The quotes were among 250 chosen from more than 2,000 submitted nationwide.
Pfc. Jeffery L. Weaver of the Army National Guard has graduated from the unit supply specialist advanced individual training course at Fort Lee in Petersburg, Va.
Weaver was trained to receive, inspect, segregate, store, inventory, issue and deliver organizational and installation supplies and equipment; maintain automated supply systems for accountability with use of unit computers; issue and keep track of of small arms; and secure and control weapons and ammunition supplies.
Weaver is the son of Kathy Weaver of Meridian and Jeffery C. Weaver of Newton, and a 2000 graduate of Meridian High School.
Beginning in January, veterans and family members interested in finding out more about benefits and health care issues can meet in Meridian with a representative from the Jackson Veterans Center.
The representative will be at VFW Post #79 on Old Highway 80 West. Appointments are available from 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. on the first Wednesday of the month, and 1 p.m.-3 p.m. on the third Wednesday. Additional time will be added on the fourth Wednesday, if needed.
For information, call James Slayton in Meridian at 485-4042 or Glen Curtis, Veterans Center representative in Jackson, at (601) 965-5727.

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