Feature Stories

Bedford County has a new archivist. Anna Frazier, who is originally from McMinnville and currently living in Nashville, took the reins on Feb. 26. Two years ago, Anna and her husband, Rick, were drawn to the beautiful rolling hills and endless landscape of the Bedford County area in order to find more of a simpler life outside of the ever growing city. ...

The one thing I enjoyed the most while Speaker of the House at Congress was the experiences. The ability to meet new people and make friendships is priceless. Being able to stand where the present and all the past Speakers of the House for Tennessee have stood was exciting and a whole lot of fun...

Have you ever just sat down and thought about what your government does for you, or even who the governor is? Do you know your state capital? Do you know whom the Speaker of the House or the Senate is in Tennessee? Most people reading this probably don't, I know I didn't until I attended State 4-H Congress!...

Shelbyville Central High School held its annual National Honor Society induction ceremony on March 6. Giving a presentation on the NHS emblem and The Four Pillars of NHS were: Jacob Pruitt; Jay Blackburn; Trevor Reese; Kobe Simmons; Jai Trice; and Anna Brannon...

Each month Eakin Elementary School holds a drawing in each grade of the students who had perfect attendance the month before. Students whose names were drawn for February were as follow. Front row (from left): Catarina Tomas Sebastian, Juliette Rosas Navarro and Isaac Creson. Back row (from left): Chelsea Zavaleta, Aliyah Presley and RJ Howey. (Submitted photo)

Ethan Jolley and Brennan Sanders of Community High School FFA go over the Ten Commandments of Tractor Safety with fourth grade students. (Submitted photo)

On Thursday, March 1, the Bedford County FFA Chapter of Shelbyville Central High School competed in the District X Agriculture Mechanics CDE held at the Shelbyville Central High School CTE Annex. The team placed 1st in the District. Team members were:...

On March 14th, the Youth Leadership Bedford class went to Nashville to tour the Tennessee Capitol and the State Museum while dressed in their business apparel. They also met Gov. Bill Haslam.

Three Cascade FFA members competed in the District X Ag Mechanics Skills contest on March 8 at Shelbyville Central High School. The contests are designed to recognize students with agricultural technology and mechanical systems competencies important to the modern workplace...

You might say Pat Marsh kept on trucking to find a career in Shelbyville. Marsh was born in Fayetteville, Tennessee, one of six children. He attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville where he majored in transportation and business. "Penn State and Tennessee were the only two schools with transportation majors at the time," Marsh said. "I started out in pre-dentistry but I didn't like it."...

The name Don Embry is synonymous with Bedford County education. Embry has served as superintendent since April 2013. He moved to Shelbyville in 1981 to teach general math at Shelbyville Central High School, gradually teaching Algebra One, business math and pre-algebra...

Spring is here. Easter weekend was absolutely beautiful. And with spring comes asparagus. You know how Easter always signals the wearing of white? Well for me, asparagus always signals the start of spring. My grandfather worked in the asparagus fields of Michigan as a young man and I always think of him when I have asparagus. ...

On March 20, we celebrated National Ag Day. As part of the celebration, the Tennessee State 4-H Council helped serve food for the legislative Ag day supper at the Cordell Hull building in Nashville. Bedford County 4-Her Jacob Wade was present to serve as part of the state council and promote agriculture and 4-H to the legislature...

In the movie The Graduate Dustin Hoffman's character, Benjamin Braddock, was given one word of advice from a family friend -- "plastics". Hoffman's character didn't listen. Michael Burrows had a similar situation in a discussion with a doctor. Burrows did listen. ...

If there was a DNA test to identify a gene that would lead someone to be a county extension agent, there is no doubt John Teague would possess it in large quantities. "I was a 4-Her when I was growing up," Teague said. "I took part in a lot of 4-H activities including some leadership building and other projects."...

CommUNITY Pastors' Association will present a Good Friday service, "Seven Last Words," 6:30 p.m. Friday at Bright Temple COGIC, 516 Elm Street. Speakers will include Robin Kimbrough, Jimmy West, Glenn Forsee, Abe Zimmerman, Darryle Hood, Anthony Booker, Sandra Avent and Randy Williams...

A sixth-grade student with Spina Bifida has been touching lives all his life. Logan Davis, who will be 13 in April, was born with Spina Bifida myelomeningocele, hydrocephalus, and clubbed feet. His proud mother, Andrea Miller-Davis, said she does not want his life to be defined by his condition but by his "awesome" personality and the "cool things" he has done, echoing the idiom, "Don't judge a book by its cover."...

David Brown had a calling 17 years ago: Plant a church in the growing city of Murfreesboro. After one attempt didn't work, Shelbyville Mills Baptist Church has started another church plant in Rutherford County. Brown, the associate pastor of Shelbyville Mills, is serving as pastor of the new Christ Baptist Church...

Bedford County Farm Bureau Women conducted a poster contest recently for fourth-grade students across the state. The theme was "Farm to Fork." Pictured are the first, second and third place winners. From left: Georgia Frazier; Matthew Polston; Grayson Anderson; Suzanna Crews; Seth Sharp; Henry Stone; Abby Compton; and Jordan Pugh. Stone is a student at Cascade Elementary School; with his win, he will compete in the state contest. (Submitted photo)

Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, and the Billy Boys. The first two Billy's were evangelists, Graham well known, Sunday less so. But who were the Billy Boys? They were followers, admirers, virtually worshippers of "Good King Billy," King William III whose victory over a Catholic king in 1690 kept the British Isles under a Protestant monarchy. This was particularly important to Scottish Lowlanders who had settled the north of Ireland in the 1600s but remained a minority on the island of Ireland...

Area schools recently held their annual Read Across America observances. School board members, police officers, other public officials and high school students recently visited Bedford County elementary schools to read to young students for Read Across America...

March brings such a variety of weather with cold, rainy days like we've had these past few weeks to the beautiful sunny days that make us want to rush out and plant all the flowers. But we still have some of those lion days before the lamb prances us into spring. For those days, nothing says comfort like a pot of warm, aromatic soup on the stovetop...

The Bedford County Animal Control Pet of the Week is Shelby. She is a 2 year old Terrier mix, current on all vaccinations, microchipped, spayed and Heartworm Negative. BCAC is running an adoption special for the month of March; all adoptions for dogs and cats will be $25.

Cascade High School students who competed in a recent engineering competition at the Hands-On Science Center in Tullahoma are: Zac Taylor, Whitney Sullivan, Drew McPeak, Chay Chumley, Lake Carter and Godwin Murrillo. (Submitted photo)

Middle Tennessee Spay and Neuter Clinic performed free feral, stray and outdoor community cat spays and neuters for Spay Day on Tuesday. The clinic fixed 23 cats Tuesday, said MTSNC executive director Kimberly Warren. The work with cats was made possible because of a grant from Maddie's Fund. The work was done on Spay Day, which the city and county governments had proclaimed to match the state Spay Day...

A Shelbyville native has returned home after a decades-long career on the road performing music. Thomas Allison, who goes by "Tumust" on the stage, is home to care for his ailing father, World War II veteran Clifford Allison. The younger Allison plays multiple instruments, including the saxophone, in such genres as jazz, country and the blues...

The Cascade FFA chapter chose to celebrate National FFA Week by giving back to the schools and community that has supported them this year. On Feb. 20, five members attended the Tennessee FFA Legislative Breakfast at War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville. While there they met with State Rep. Pat Marsh and listened to a speech by U.S. Sen. Bob Corker. After the breakfast the members toured the Capital building and finished the day by touring the Tennessee State Museum...

The stage at the Fly Cultural Arts Center is like a second home for Brenden Taylor. At the age of 28 he has been an actor on the Fly Community Theater stage 10 times and is directing his sixth play there. The teaching assistant at Eakin Elementary School is serving as director for the upcoming local presentation of Arsenic and Old Lace by playwright Joseph Kesselring. ...

The Shelbyville Central High School AP Senior English class, instructed by Claudia House, recently went to Middle Tennessee State University to view the Nashville Shakespeare Festival's production of "Hamlet," a play the group studied in class. From left: Bailey McCormick, Ashley Bailiff, Brian Young, Ruby Torres, Ashley Galvan, Michelle Claxton and Rahma Ige. (Submitted photo by Claudia House)

After all the school closings at the end of January, our in-school 4-H clubs are finally all caught back up with meetings. Our Junior Clubs, 4th and 5th grades, are finishing up the fifth and final meeting of the year as February ends. The projects due at this last meeting are dairy posters and homemade piggy banks. ...

Bedford's own in the majorsIt is time for baseball spring training to begin in Florida and Arizona. When local sports fans talk about Bedford County's major league baseball heritage the names of Chuck Taylor and Rex Brothers come to mind. But long before those two stepped on a mound in a major league park, there was another Shelbyville pitcher toiling in the majors -- George Neely McConnell, who played for the New York Highlanders/Yankees, the Chicago Federals (Whales) of the Federal League and the Chicago Cubs in the early 1900s. ...

For many parents of young children, Legos inevitably play a part in their daily lives. Whether its sharing in the joy of a newly built Millennium Falcon and Princess Castle or the pain of a tiny plastic brick on the sole of a barefoot at bedtime. All the same, the joys outnumber the pain in most things Lego...

I've wanted to try avgolemono, a lemony Greek soup, ever since I first heard about it, and when I saw a few recipes for making the soup in an Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker, I knew I'd eventually try one. Oh, I'm glad I did. If you don't yet have an Instant Pot, I've worked out (but not tested) stovetop directions for this dish as well, and included both of them below...

Shelbyville Garden Club recently held its annual service project. Members provided baskets of flowers for the Shelbyville-Bedford County Chamber of Commerce's membership luncheon.

At the age of 6, Rachel M. Lampley decided she wanted to be a veterinarian when she grew up. She never wavered from that decision. Today Dr. Lampley can be found in different locations as a relief veterinarian. She spends three days each week --Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday -- performing surgical procedures at the Middle Tennessee Spay and Neuter Clinic. ...

I was working on two programs this month when they converged together in one recipe. Since February is heart month, I was preparing a program for a garden club on Eating for a Healthy Heart. At the same time, I was pulling recipes for an FCE club program on Cooking with Spices. Where they converged was in Curried Pork Tenderloin with Apples from the Mayo Clinic...

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) recognized Henry Horton State Park in Chapel Hill with the 2017 Award for Excellence in Innovation. "Henry Horton is a great example of a park that offers high-quality visitor experiences in a cost-effective manner that adds great value to this middle Tennessee community," said TDEC Deputy Commissioner of Parks and Conservation Brock Hill. ...

Last weekend some of Community Middle School’s band students auditioned and performed for the annual Tri-Lakes Honor Band at Franklin County High School. Students practiced many hours for their chair auditions. They competed against other 7th-9th graders for chair placements in one of two bands. Pictured are, back row (from left), Anthony Lynch, Jacob Flannagan, Kayla Lopez, Natalia Alcala, Kathryn Reach; middle row (from left), Amy Razo, Ashly Moreno, Lindy DeOsio, Gracie Wright, Ethan Alonzo; and front row (from left), Jonnathon Adams, Everardo Alcala, Shari Locke, Aubrie O’Neal, Tierra Smotherman, Alex Reed. (Submitted photo)

Principal's List: A Honor Roll Fifth Grade Ella E. Batchelor, Elliott C. Chapa, Lane E. Comstock, Laila B. Derby, Shayli C. Derby, Hadley D. Engle, Uytona M. Fletcher, Julia R. Gonzalez-Ramirez, Elizabeth C. Houle, Macy B. Howell, Lucas D. Mccune, Kayden A. Mersing, Brooke M. Obara, Natallia M. Solano, Ella G. Thompson, Alayna E. West, Gracie E. Winsett...

Fourth-grade students at Learning Way Elementary School presented information about the U.S. Constitution last week during morning meeting. Last Monday, Emily Fortel's class discussed the Founding Fathers. A different 4th-grade class presented a different aspect of the constitution every day of the week...

The Webb School recently announced its A and B honor rolls for the second quarter of the 2017-2018 school year. The following Bedford County residents earned A Honor Roll status: Bell Buckle --Ava Foulk, Carley Byford, Jesse Joslin, Vilda Westh-Blanc, Taylor Petersen, Ella Harris, Zoe Nicholson, Hadley Foulk, Jiahua Wang, Siree McRady;...

This year, some of Eakin Elementary’s fourth and fifth graders have participated in a violence and bullying prevention program offered through Centerstone Prevention Services. In October, those students were given a chance to enter a poster contest. Recently, Tabatha Floyd (left), prevention specialist from Centerstone, announced the winners. First place winner was Regina Domingo; second place went to Rosie Gutierrez; and third place was awarded to Eulalia Francisco. All three are fifth graders. At right is Eakin counselor Carrie Brooke Simmons. (Submitted photo)

Victory Baptist Academy released its first quarter “A” Honor Roll. Front row (from left): Gage Lemmon, Kaylin Osterhaus, Lesly Soriano, Andrew Warren, Briley Forbes. Second row (from left): Lyric McGilliard, Ethan Clontz, Lilly Fletcher, Iola Byrd, Braden Oberleas, Abigail Haygood, Hazel Calender, Walter Dugger, Waid Smotherman, Miles Fletcher. Third row (from left): Fena Phengmany, Cora Butler, Christian Meda, Lana Lemmon, Jessica LaMorte, Josiah Walker, Caleb Flowers, Melodie Warren, Hunter Haygood, Phoenix Oehler-Neff, Analiese Castillo. Fourth row (from left): Juliana Aderholt, Allyson Bivvins, David Warren, Ashley Prater, Lyndsi Warren, Emme Kikuchi, Miya Lemmon, Matthew Finley. Back row (from left): David Smotherman, Michael Bush, Colton Prater, Richard Williams, Timothy Warren, Halle Metzgar, Jonah Price. (Submitted photo)

John Burton (right), a junior FFA member of the Bedford County FFA Chapter of Shelbyville Central High School, recently won the highest salesman completion for the chapter. John was the highest salesman for the meat sales which was held during October. Pictured is advisor Tommy Green presenting him $100 from the chapter. (Submitted photo)...

Picture books and crafts would not seem to provide a scientific educational moment for pre-school-age children at first glance, but Shelbyville-Bedford County Public Library's Storytime activities are based on well-documented research. The Shelbyville-Bedford County Public Library's Storytimes provide enrichment based on a national library model, said youth services librarian Lis Ann Morehart. ...

Carol Spray's cat Smokey loves to lay in boxes.