Stories from Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Ostell Carl "Stogie" Peoples, 67, of Shelbyville died Wednesday, March 14, 2012 at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville after a short illness. Funeral services will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday at Doak-Howell Funeral Home with Todd Peoples officiating. Burial will follow at Hillcrest Memorial Gardens. Visitation will be held from 5-8 p.m. Friday.

Helen Arnold Hise, 73, of Shelbyville died Wednesday, March 14, 2012, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at Hillcrest Funeral Home with Frank Butler and Keith Camp officiating. Burial will follow at Hillcrest Memorial Gardens. Visitation will be held from 4-8 p.m. Friday.

Steven Ellis Sager, 59, of Lascassas, died Tuesday, March 13, 2012, after a short illness. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Woodfin Funeral Chapel in Murfreesboro with Reggie Smith officiating. Burial will follow at Hazel Cemetery in Bell Buckle. Visitation will begin at 9 a.m.

Bell Buckle is going green -- and yellow -- for Daffodil Day, which will be held on St. Patrick's Day this year, Saturday, March 17. Nothing says spring is here quite like brilliant daffodils bursting into bloom. Thousands of daffodil bulbs have now turned into thousands of happy yellow faces casting a golden glow throughout the town...

The moderator of a Facebook page containing posts about allegedly-malnourished horses at a farm west of Shelbyville was ordered Tuesday to remove some comments and calm posters or face possible arrest. But negative posts poured onto several other Internet message boards while Robin Swindle, owner of the horses, claimed the Tennessee Walking Horse industry holds a vendetta against her and said authorities have cleared her of any alleged wrongdoing...

Bedford County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday night to give $1,500 to the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration for promoting an upcoming quarter horse show, even though a letter from the Celebration to the City of Shelbyville indicates that the money is no longer needed...

H&H Piggly Wiggly in Unionville startled local residents by closing over the weekend, with no fanfare or announcement. The 18,000-square-foot store, located at the corner of Unionville-Deason Road and U.S. 41A, was opened by Andy and Susan Haynes and Eric Habel in 2007. It had a popular full-service meat department, and its owners had recently added a mobile meat case, which set up at different locations in Shelbyville...

A Bedford County school bus was shot three times near Haley over the weekend, according to a Shelbyville police report. The driver said she parked the bus at her Haley Lane home Friday afternoon, when it was running normally, and it began overheating Monday morning as she was picking up students...

WARTRACE-- With starting pitcher Ryan Rippy at the mound, Cascade (1-1) led a strong defensive effort against the visiting Ezell-Harding Eagles (1-1) in Tuesday's 3-1 home-opener victory. "He threw great. He followed up Jared's good outing last night. He really did a good job of keeping them off balance," said Cascade boss Brandon Bassham...

A few missed opportunities proved to be the difference for Shelbyville Central in a 4-1 loss to visiting Smyrna on Tuesday evening. Smyrna scored once in the first and second innings and added two more in the sixth. Shelbyville (0-1) lone run came in the bottom of the seventh of a David Pearson solo home run...

UNIONVILLE--It was a gorgeous day for baseball in Unionville and the fans gathered to watch the Community Vikings and Page were treated to a well played game that ended in disappointment for the home team, yet revealed glimpses of a squad that is starting to hit their stride...

LaVERGNE -- Get a couple of key hits, throw in a few nice plays on defense and add a quality pitching performance and you have the recipe for a nice win. Such was the case for Shelbyville Central's Golden Eaglettes in a 6-0 shutout win over host La Vergne in the season-opener on Tuesday evening...

The Community Viqueens split a double header with cross-county rival Webb on Tuesday night behind a strong pitching performance by freshman Nikki Davis in the first game. Community (1-2) jumped out to an early lead and cruised to a 11-5 win before Webb turned the tables with a six run explosion in the 1st inning to win 14-4...

The Shelbyville Central tennis teams fell in the first official match of the season on Tuesday afternoon. Following Monday's postponement, the Eagles and Eaglettes were finally able to hit the courts and host visiting Columbia. But in a slim decision, the Eagles were edged after splitting the first six matches with the visitors...

Shelbyville Central's Golden Eagle soccer team opened the season with state powerhouse Siegel at home on Tuesday night and the teams played to a 2-2- tie. Siegel scored first but Shelbyville's Kyle Cunningham found the back of the net to even the score at 1-all at halftime...

If Cascade can take one thing away from Tuesday's 5-0 loss on the soccer field to visiting Summit, it's this: A strong defensive effort can keep a bad situation from exploding into a disaster. The Champion defense held its ground against a talented Summit squad, and according to coach Monica Lewis, kept the game from getting any more out of hand than it did...

In Tuesday's home match against visiting Richland, the Community Vikings had little trouble finding the back of the visitors net. The Vikes piled up eight goals, while only allowing one in the winning effort. By the end of the first half, Community had established a 3-0 lead--a lead which only grew in the second half...

The Webb varsity and JV soccer teams officially began the season on Tuesday, but both dropped decisions to visiting Coffee County. The varsity squad was edged 2-0, while the JV lost 7-0. Webb hosts Community at 4 p.m. Friday.

Two of my co-workers have new tech toys to play with. Tracy Simmons has a new LiveScribe ( www.livescribe.com ) pen, which seems like an incredibly useful tool for reporting and note-taking and which we might all be looking at eventually. The pen has a digital audio recorder built into it. ...

Sports are always a big part of high school. Whether it is football, basketball, soccer, or baseball, sports are a tremendous part of the high school experience. At Community High School, sports teams have done exceptionally well, attracting the attention of many students...

Angie Gambill, a CHS graduate herself, has been doing wonderful work for her alma mater's Smokestack Theatre Group for years. This one promotes this weekend's THE MIRACLE WORKER (Fri-Sat. March 16th and 17th--7:00 p.m.).