Ginger McNair Kilby
It is with great sadness to report the passing of Ginger McNair Kilby on March 19, 2026. Ginger was a beloved mother, grandmother, and friend and leaves behind a legacy of love, strength, and kindness that will be...
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Mississippi's Greatest Bookman: Fred Cecil Smith (1953-2026) of Jackson's Choctaw Books Remembered
Fred Cecil Smith, 72, of Starkville, Mississippi, a nationally respected antiquarian bookseller and archivist, passed away after a long battle with cancer on February 28, 2026 at his home surrounded by his family. The...
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Recent stories from the local archive
Fred Cecil Smith (1953-2026), Mississippi's Greatest Bookman Has Passed
Fred Cecil Smith, 72, of Starkville, Mississippi, a nationally respected antiquarian bookseller and archivist, passed away after a long battle with cancer on February 28, 2026, at his home surrounded by his family. The...
Raymond News
R by Kara Culp Spring has arrived in Raymond! The azaleas are showing off with their magnificent pink and white flowers, the roses that were cut back in February are already starting to bloom bigger and better and, my...
Felder's Native Myth
Native may be the new buzzword for choosing landscape plants, but it often gets in the way of good gardening. Not knocking native plants; after all, this past president of the Mississippi Native Plant Society grows and...
Evil Meat
Do you eat steak? You're killing the planet! So say climate activists. Is it true? Probably not. Vox warns that beef is the "worst thing we eat when it comes to global warming." The World Economic Forum,...
Consequences Breed Fires
Last week Iran launched two intermediate-range ballistic missiles toward Diego Garcia, a key U.S.-U.K. base in the Indian Ocean 2,500 miles away. Even though neither missile reached its target, the range of these...
Mississippi's Greatest Bookman: Fred Cecil Smith (1953-2026) of Jackson's Choctaw Books Remembered
Fred Cecil Smith, 72, of Starkville, Mississippi, a nationally respected antiquarian bookseller and archivist, passed away after a long battle with cancer on February 28, 2026 at his home surrounded by his family. The...
Archie Stewart
We were all saddened to hear of the death of Archie Stewart, who passed away on March 5, 2026. He and his wife Pat moved to Terry over fifty years ago and built a lovely home in the Wynndale Community. His funeral was...
Raymond News
R by Kara Culp In the summer of 1992, a little 6-year-old Kara was playing at her Auntie Joyce’s house in Lake Zurich, Illinois. It was one of my favorite places in the entire world. Their big red 1920’s home sat on...
Data Centers Gold Rush: Mississippi's Readiness
Whether Mississippi, Georgia or Northern Virginia is the national pacesetter in obtaining development promises from data center companies, as all three states claim, each is glowing, if not with electricity, certainly...
Felder's Woodland Wonders
Even in this super-colorful Spring time, let's slow down to appreciate a handful of peculiar, often underappreciated oddities that adorn other landscape plants. One is the velvety mat of emerald-green moss, which...
The Reading Wars
"My child can't read!" That's become a common complaint from parents. Why? It might be because kids are distracted by social media and video games. But I think it's also because reading...