The remains of two Kentucky men who died 80 years ago during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor were returned to the commonwealth and buried thanks to DNA testing from relatives.
A nation slowly emerging from restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic honored generations of U.S. veterans killed in the line of duty on a Memorial Day observed without the severe pandemic restrictions that affected the day of tribute just a year ago. Memorial Day parades and events were held in localities large and small across […]
The remains of two Kentucky men who died 80 years ago during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor were returned to the commonwealth this week for burial.
SMITHLAND, Iowa. Gaylyn Beckner never knew her uncle Wesley Brown, never was told much about him. What he was like as a young man, his personality, those details weren t discussed very often. Buckner s mother, Ida Bainbridge, said little about her older brother in their Smithland home. I really didn t know anything. My mother didn t really talk about it. It hurt her too much, said Beckner, born in 1945, well after U.S. Navy Fireman 1st Class Wesley J. Brown, of Oto, age 25, was killed on board the battleship USS Oklahoma during the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, members of another branch of Brown s family tree also felt his loss. Like Beckner, Marilyn Cugnet didn t hear her mother, Fern Knibbs, speak much of her brother s death, which was multiplied later in World War II when a second brother, Max, a Canadian soldier, was killed in Germany.
COVID-19 dominates year
The Shawnee News-Star
Reminiscing on the past 12 months, the most significant of events glaring back is clearly COVID-19 and how it has upended life as we know it.
Whether it s been health scares, shutdowns or mask mandates, the pandemic has forced everyone to reimagine how to function safely from a distance.
The year began as usual, with news of new business coming and a church marked its centennial.
January (Pre-COVID-19)
• A formal sentencing hearing took place for defendant Byron James Shepard, 38, of Okemah, convicted in the 2017 murder of Tecumseh Police Officer Justin Terney. On the felony count of murder in the first degree, the death sentence was issued to Shepard.