Stories from Thursday, April 14, 2016

Gaudia Cates Mitchum, 69, of South Fulton died Thursday, April 14, 2016 at Vanderbilt Medical Center. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Hillcrest Funeral Home with Richard Dugger officiating. Burial will follow at Crowell's Chapel Cemetery. Visitation will be from 4-8 p.m. Saturday.

Joanne Nowlin Prater, 58, died Wednesday, April 13, 2016, at Glen Oaks Convalescent Center in Shelbyville. Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at 10 a.m. at Gowen-Smith Chapel. Burial will follow at Willow Mount Cemetery. Visitation will be from 4-8 p.m. Friday, and 9-10 a.m. Saturday.

A panel of education accreditation evaluators is recommending the reaccreditation of Bedford County schools. "Of course we're going to recommend accreditation," said lead evaluator Cheryl Allread. She and a team of five other experts from various school districts have spent time in Bedford County studying the schools and administrators and interviewing staff, parents and students...

Bedford County School Superintendent Don Embry discussed the challenges and achievements of his three years in office during a presentation Wednesday morning at Shelbyville Rotary Club. "Our folks do a fantastic job overall," said Embry. "I'm very proud of the work that we do." Cascade Elementary and Community Elementary have been named Reward Schools, while Cascade Elementary and Thomas Magnet School have been named Blue Ribbon Schools...

Patsy Taylor was the first-place winner of the Times-Gazette's Bracket Bucks contest. She won a Sony 40-inch flat panel TV from Kincaid Service Company, which sponsored the contest with the Times-Gazette. Her name will be inscribed on the permanent contest trophy...

MURFREESBORO -- Tennessee would become the first state in the nation to make the Bible its official state book if Gov. Bill Haslam signs legislation recently passed by the General Assembly. Haslam has raised questions, as has Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery, about the constitutionality of such a law...

UNIONVILLE -- Not all wins are pretty, but they still count as wins. The Community Vikings experienced one of those kind of games Wednesday night, but lived to tell about it as a four-run rally in the bottom of the seventh inning propelled the Vikings to an 8-7 win over the MTCS Cougars in a District 9-A contest...

Brandon Bassham knows his team is close to turning the corner. For the better part of six innings, his team stood toe-to-toe with the Class AA defending state champion CPA Lions on Wednesday night. But in Game 2 of the District 12-AA series, the Lions (15-5, 6-0 12-AA) capitalized on a five-run fourth inning to claim the 6-2 win...

LAWENCEBURG -- Shelbyville Central's Golden Eagles got the two-game sweep over Lawrence County after claiming a 5-1 victory over the Wildcats on Wednesday evening. The Eagles (5-9-1, 5-3 8-AAA) won the opening game of the series 3-0 at home on Tuesday night...

LYNCHBURG -- Shelbyville Central took a tough 5-2 loss at Moore County on Tuesday evening. Moore County plated four runs in the bottom of the first inning and that proved to be more that the Eaglettes (10-8) could overcome. Freshman Taylor Sanders continued to be productive on offense for Shelbyville Central, going 3-for-3, ripping a pair of triples and scoring both Eaglette runs...

CHAPEL HILL -- The Community Viqueens suffered their first district loss of the season on Wednesday afternoon in a makeup game at district-leading Forrest. The Lady Rockets rallied around a five-run fourth inning to claim the 7-3 win over Commmunity...

The Eaglette tennis squad picked up a huge victory on Wednesday afternoon at H.V. Griffin Park and moved into the top spot of the district 8-AAA standings and currently sits with the No. 1 seed in the postseason. The 5-2 win came on another afternoon of solid singles play where the Eaglettes were able to take a handful of close matches to claim the team win...

It wasn't the prettiest of wins, but the Liberty Lady Patriots were able to knock off Westwood, 5-1, in the DRVC tournament on Wednesday evening. Liberty was able to overcome seven errors thanks to the efforts of pitcher Gracie McCullough, who kept the Westwood bats tied up with 14 punch outs...

Bedford Cancer Foundation will host its annual Walking For Cancer Horse Show Saturday, April 16 at the Champions Arena on the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration Grounds. Show starts at 5 p.m. Admission is $5 with children being admitted free. Box seats of six are available for $50. For more information or to be a sponsor, call Iris Schumann at 931-703-7257 or Pam Ingraham at 615-504-9580...

A strip containing a controlled substance and a bag of marijuana were found in a truck following a traffic stop Tuesday night, the BCSO said. Deputy Ramone Castillo said in his report he stopped Michael Joseph Bingham, 38, of Monterey because he allegedly failed to stop behind the white stop line as the traffic light changed at the Lane Parkway-North Main Street intersection, and because the light over his truck's license plate was out...

Boys & Girls Club of Bedford County had an honor roll celebration at Rafael's restaurant on April 8 to reward members for excellent grades during the third quarter of this school year. Back row, from left: A'Driana Anderson, Bryson Higgins, Dylan Marchi, Makia Woodard, Jaxon Curry, Mia Velasquez, Persaeus Curtis, Janie Lopez, Laila Redman, Eve Speirs, Treasure Johnson, Jalen Kelso and Isaiah Batts. Front row: Lauren Carr, Landen Brown, Brooklyn Kiker, Thalia Morales, Hero Curtis, Kalin Alcorta, Jacari Whitaker, Xavier Rea, Zacki Solis, Anastasia Trice and Ryann Gary. (Submitted photo)