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By Rich Flowers [email protected] Jan 31, 2021 1 of 2 Athens lost two men this month, eight days apart, who grew up in different directions from the city but became Athens community leaders for decades and forces in their chosen professions. Friends and colleagues remember Melvin Bateman and Harold Smitson for their extraordinary gifts which they used for the betterment of the home they each adopted in the early 1970s. Bateman Melvin Gray Bateman, Jr. was born in Texarkana, Texas on May 14, 1946 and died on Jan. 13 at age 74. He graduated from Texas High School in Texarkana in 1964 then headed west to Texas Tech University where he majored in political science. ....