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The Corning Volunteer Fire Department responded to a fire call at 3:26 p.m. on Tuesday, April 25 at 105 North Missouri Avenue, also known as Hwy 67 North. When fire fighters arrived two shops and an RV were engulfed. Fire Chief Danny Curtis reported the fire started in the RV and spread to the shops owned by the Huffman family, particularly a diesel repair shop operated by Bear Huffman. Curtis stated the blaze burned some vehicles, tires and melted the siding off of the Manatt residence next to the shops. During the fire, small explosions from inside the shops could be heard.

“Along time ago in a land far away”, this was not an unusual exchange between youngsters. Maybe even in Clay County, who knows. Here I go again, back on my favorite rant - people are not reading enough anymore. And it is beginning to show. I am not speaking out against teachers, Lord knows I don’t want their job. My wife just showed me an announcement by the Florida Department of Education. It had two words misspelled. Nope, not long hard words, just “ninth” and “twelfth.” Now, in case I am to be criticized for the many mistakes you may find in my spelling, I plead guilty, but I am also not the Florida Department of Education. I am just a hometown boy who had a 12th grade education from Corning High School with, I think, about a “B” level; by no means perfect. But back to reading, which is the basics to education. I started at about age 7, maybe earlier, with comic books my Grandpa Murley bought for me, bless his heart. He grew up in the hills of Mississippi, the son of a Confederate Veteran. He was born 20 years after that war was ended. He could write his name, and he could read and write some, but not much. My grandma would sit on Saturday nights and read him stories from a magazine of the 40’s and 50’s called “Ranch Romance,” stories of cowboys. He would have picked up the latest edition on his weekly trip of going to either Piggott or Corning for their supplies, and he would have picked me up at least two comic books. By the time I was 6 or 7 I was reading them cover to cover several times. They were a great asset to my learning to read and to my present addiction to reading. I pray they never find a 12-step program to end it! Whenever and wherever I found a Sunday newspaper I would be lost in the Sunday Funnies. These comics bred into me a desire to hear stories and to store up those stories in my mind to feed my imagination. Newspapers once filled the racks at all kinds of places including racks outside of stores, both coin operated

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An artist in northeast Arkansas with Corning ties recently demonstrated his artistic talent in the form of a tribute mural to the legendary singer-songwriter Johnny Cash in Jonesboro. Artist Braden Walls said the idea for the Johnny Cash tribute mural came about a couple months ago when Ted Herget and Chris Gamble reached out to him about doing something creative on the back of their new building called Uptown across from Kroger. Walls said, “When we met up to talk about ideas there were a few things tossed around that in some way represent Arkansas and somehow we ended up on Johnny Cash.” He had actually been asked to paint a Johnny Cash mural by a few other places over the years but the projects never crystalized. “So I was immediately on board with the idea and started sketching up some stuff. After a few weeks and a few different renditions, I finally figured it out, sent them the proof, and they approved,” he explained. He got to work a couple weeks later after some bad weather passed through the area. “I couldn’t be more happy with it and all the love I’ve received is overwhelming.” The mural project took Walls four days and around 30 hours of work to complete.

By PAM LOWE This year the Williams Baptist University’s Graduate Award recognized the work of an outstanding MAT Graduate student who shows exceptional skill and effectiveness in regard to promoting student learning and professionalism. This year’s recipient of the 2023 MAT Academic Award was Andrew Radcliff, a coach at Corning High School.