Shelby County Today

June 12, 2024 - The University of Texas at Tyler announced the students who were named to the spring 2024 Dean's List and among those named are two Shelby County students.

Emma Frick, of Center, TX, attending the School of Health Professions and Maria Alvarado, of Tenaha, TX, attending the School of Health Professions.

To qualify for the Dean’s List, a student must have completed 12 or more credit hours of undergraduate college-level credit in the awarding semester with a grade point average of at least 3.75. Students named to the President’s Honor Roll are not named to the Dean’s List. The Dean’s List is awarded in fall and spring semesters only.

To qualify for the Ben and Maytee Fisch College of Pharmacy Dean's List, a student must have completed six or more credit hours in the awarding semester with a grade point average of at least 3.75. This recognition is made in fall and spring semesters.

With a mission to improve educational and health care outcomes for East Texas and beyond, UT Tyler offers more than 90 undergraduate and graduate programs to nearly 10,000 students. Through its alignment with UT Tyler Health Science Center and UT Health East Texas, UT Tyler has unified these entities to serve Texas with quality education, cutting-edge research and excellent patient care. Classified by Carnegie as a doctoral research institution and by U.S. News & World Report as a national university, UT Tyler has campuses in Tyler, Longview, Palestine and Houston.

Pictured are (from left): Tracy Broadway, Shannon Ramsey, Judy Ramsey, Tad Bailey, Paul Smith, Debra Smith, and Scotty Rhodes.

June 11, 2024 - Framed copies of resolutions recently passed by the Timpson City Council and the Timpson Area Genealogical and Heritage Society were presented to Timpson native Scotty Rhodes in a brief ceremony at the Garrison Nursing Home on Thursday. Mayor Debra Smith presented the city's proclamation to Rhodes and Precinct 5 Justice of the Peace Tracy Broadway presented the one from TAGHS.

Mayor Smith and Judge Broadway shared the proclamations with those in attendance with Smith saying in part “the City of Timpson does hereby recognize Scotty Rhodes as a person of great value to our city and whose contributions to the preservation of our history contribute significantly to our general welfare.” In reading the TAGHS proclamation Judge Broadway said “this certificate is presented in recognition of your outstanding and lifelong community service to the preservation of our unique town history,”

Pictured are (from left): Tracy Broadway, Scotty Rhodes, and Debra Smith. 

Born as the only child of Timpson residents Rev. Bob and Mathilde Rhodes in 1946, Scotty Rhodes attended first through twelfth grades in TISD, graduating in 1965. Rhodes possesses a truly photographic memory and can recall the last 75 years of Timpson's citizenry and history with stunning clarity. Though physical disabilities have rendered him unable to leave his bed without assistance, Rhodes has an active social medial presence and following. His daily Facebook posts featuring recollections and comments on people and events from his life are awaited by his large group of friends and followers. As the City of Timpson proclamation stated, “his encyclopedic memory of Timpson's people, places, and events constitute a priceless and irreplaceable repository of our city's history spanning three-quarters of a century.”

After the presentation, those in attendance, which in addition to Mayor Smith and Judge Broadway, included Paul Smith, Shannon and Judy Ramsey, LouNell Billingsley, Pat Crawford, and Tad Bailey, shared memories and laughter with Rhodes.

June 6, 2024 - VFW Post 8904 gathered at the Shelby County Memorial on Thursday, June 6, 2024, in remembrance of D-Day on its 80th anniversary and American and Allied troops.

Richard Lundie, Post Commander, welcomed everyone to the program and offered an opening prayer. The group then recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag.

“We are here today to honor the 80th anniversary of one of the most important dates of our history, commonly known as D-Day, codename Operation Overlord. D-Day was the turning point of World War II,” said Lundie. “June 6, 1944, saw the start of the largest air, land, and sea operation in our military history. On December 6, 1943, President Roosevelt appointed General Dwight D. Eisenhower as commander of the Cross Channel Operations. On D-Day, The Allied landed around 156,000 troops, of which 73,000 were American. 

“It is hard to conceive the epic scope of this decisive battle that foreshadowed the end of Hitler's dream of Nazi domination, Overlord was the largest air, land, and sea operation undertaken before or since June 6, 1944. The landing included over 5,000 ships, 11,000 aircrafts, and over 150,000 servicemen.” 

Lundie described the mindset of troops as they reached their objective on D-Day after years of meticulous and seemingly endless training, and planning it all came down to the boat ramp goes down, then you jump, swim, run, or crawl to the cliff.

“Many of our first young men, mostly not yet 20 years old, entered the surf carrying 80 pounds of equipment. They faced over 200 yards of beach before reaching the first natural feature for protection. Blanketed by small arm fire and blanketed by artillery, they found there self in hell,” said Lundie. 

When it was over, the Allied force had suffered over 10,000 casualties. Lundie gave statistics stating that more than 4,000 were dead, yet somehow, due to planning and preparation and due to valor and sacrifices of the Allied forces, Europe was breached. Lundie explained there is no official casualty figure for D-Day, but the total Allied casualty estimate on D-Day was over 10,000 with the U .S. forces losing over 6,600 men.

“Today we take time to reflect on that which took place on the beach of Normandy and appreciate the sacrifice made by so many. Those beaches was codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword,” said Lundie. 

Placing the memorial wreath on behalf of the VFW Post in honor of those who fought and gave their lives on June 6, 1944 and the days that followed was Maddox Gima.

As a final tribute, Taps was played as presented by Past-Post-Commander Gene Hutto.

June 4, 2024 - Thank you to those who made our fundraiser a success: Brookshire Brothers, H&S Discount Food, K&L Contractors Inc, John Holloway, all of those who gave donations, and all of those who helped prepare the burger plates. Without your support and the support of the community, our success would not be possible. Thank you.