One year ago Claude Slisher was announced as The Older Hoosier of the Year and Joan Chesak was selected as Senior Volunteer of the Year.

Also one year ago, the Executive Director of Marshall-Starke Development Center, Mike Lintner, was reporting a shocking statistic. 70% of people with disabilities are unemployed. Marshall-Starke Development Center has been working for many years to help those with disabilities to become employable.

Remember the Busy Bee Restaurant in North Judson? The Busy Bee opened on this date in 1985. Jerry Patterson then moved to the location and changed the name to Patterson’s. It is now Brantwood, which is North Judson’s former name.

The U.S. 35 widening project began in Knox on this date in 2001. Culver Road was closed for a two block stretch between U.S. 35 to Main Street. This was part of a $7 million dollar widening of U.S. 35 to four lanes. Construction extended from the Yellow River Bridge on the north to just past the Astoria Motel on the South.

In Culver on this date Mr. T’s Pharmacy became known as CVS after the sale of the pharmacy by the family of the late Ron Tusing.

Finally organized sports began in Indiana as the Summit City Baseball Club was organized in Ft. Wayne.

This is a memorable day in the history of Starke County. On this date in 1965, three people were killed and 200 buildings were damaged during the Palm Sunday tornadoes. The hardest hit area was Koontz Lake where then-Sheriff Gordon Armstrong reported 156 houses severely damaged. 33 of the homes were completely destroyed. Killed at Koontz Lake was 50-year-old Everett James. The other two victims were rural Walkerton residents.

Continue reading →

It was 11 years this week that the Starke County Sesquicentennial Kick-Off Dinner was held in North Judson at the Lutheran Education Center. Chief White Eagle and wife Bobbie Bear provided the program. Chief White Eagle had appeared in a number of movies and such television shows as “Bonanza” and “The Lone Ranger.” Also performing was the WKVI Musical Ensemble. WKVI’s Ed Hasnerl was the Master of Ceremonies.

Continue reading →

It was on this date five years ago that the Oregon-Davis Boys Basketball team won the Class A IHSAA Basketball Tournament. Quick, who did they beat? If you said Barr-Reeve, you’d win a prize. The final score was 63-52.
Three weeks before the O.D. Girls won the state tournament 54-42 beating Wood Memorial in the final game. It was the first time a boys and girls team from the same school won the tournament in the same year.

To top off the day, five years ago, Adam Pflugshaupt won the Arthur L. Trester Mental Attitude award.

Plymouth won the 3-A tournament, beating Evansville Bosse 72-61.

In 1979, 68 percent of those polled by WKVI thought the energy shortage was a hoax or a scheme by the oil companies to raise prices. Prices of gasoline had already hit $.90 per gallon of regular and it was expected that $1.00 a gallon would hit before mid-summer.

Continue reading →