What your neighbors are writing for Profile

By By Suzanne Monk / managing editor
Jan. 5, 2003
Here in the newsroom, we're receiving submissions to "Profile 2003: A Sense of Place," the third in an award-winning series of reader-written special editions published each year in February. I thought you might like to hear about a few of the stories people are writing.
Three-time Profile writers Bobby Rushing, McRae Limerick and Susan Stuart have already sent in new pieces for this year's edition.
One of Bobby's stories is about how being a kid has changed since he was, well … a kid. McRae wrote about listening to his grandfather tell stories. Susan's submissions are always poems this year, she wrote one about a friend who bought a house.
Ida Lancaster wrote about how World War II soldiers returning home to Meridian made the transition back to civilian life. From 1947-52, she was the manager of Key Field Veterans Housing, which was nothing more than barracks divided into apartments. It was a hard time, she says, and the walls were paper-thin, but it was a place of refuge for the families who lived there.
Frank Kilgore wrote about the renovation of his home in Enterprise, which he calls "The House of Alices" because three ladies of that name have lived in it over the last century. The last Miss Alice was his wife.
Susan McKenzie, a teacher at Patrician Academy, asked her sixth-grade class to write about the school's strong points and the weak points. Their essays include comments about uniforms, lunch and school prayer as well as one young man's observation that he would like school much better if Britney Spears were principal.
Photo pages published in mid-December have prompted several stories so far. Two Meridian ladies have written about field trips to Hardin's Bakery and memories of neighborhood schools that no longer exist.
These are just a few of the stories that have already been written. I hope you will write one as well. Give me a call at 693-1551 if you want to write but can't think of a topic. I have lots of topics.
And remember, the deadlines for the six sections are:
Homes, Jan. 6
Education and Religion, Jan. 6
Sports and Recreation, Jan. 13
Community, Jan. 22
Health and Medical, Jan. 29
Industry and Commerce, Feb. 5
Quick takes
Unsolved homicides: Last week, I wrote about Nanci Scheber, a young woman whose body was found at a landfill on New Year's Day 1998. The Scheber case is one of five unsolved murders in Lauderdale County over the last five years one in the county and four in the city. The other four are:
1. Charley Ross, August 1998. Ross was a master chief in the U.S. Navy. His body was found in his car at Club Infinity on Highway 80 West. He died of multiple gunshot wounds to the abdomen.
2. Jeanette Young, May 2000. A motorist found Young in the 49th Avenue area of Interstate 20. She had been doused with gasoline and set on fire. She suffered third-degree burns to 98 percent of her body.
3. Thomas Robinson, March 2001. A family member found Robinson's body in his DeVille Manor apartment. He died of a gunshot wound to the head.
4. Michael Drake, August 2002. Drake was shot in the neck and chest during an altercation at a 29th Avenue home. He died on the way to University Medical Center in Jackson.
Fiddle Inc.: The Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday denied an appeal by Fiddle Inc. owners Bill and Anita Jo Ross. They claimed they had been overcharged, during a 1997 delinquent tax auction, for a property that carried a $9,500 special assessment for demolition of a building. The case went to trial in Lauderdale County Circuit Court in October 2001, and the jury ruled that Fiddle Inc. was not entitled to a refund. The high court agreed.