Dot’s Storytelling Day

May 3, 2021
By: Bill Conger

The 16th Annual Dot’s Storytelling Day featured tales—some funny, some intriguing, and some truth stretching. Professional storyteller Roy Haney of Liberty was the featured guest. Most days he’s farming and running the Haney Family Sawmill, but on Saturday (May 1) he shared a few stories from his life including one about his 96-year-old mentor Snake Williams who taught him to hunt, fish and trap.

“He named a dog Mandy after my great, great, great, great grandmother. All his life he has coon hunted. Snake is one of the premiere coon hunters in the United States.

Mandy is one of the best coon hounds in the country, and Snake had been offered more than $5,000 for Mandy, and he won’t take it. Mandy was his partner. He’ll go out on the old home place. In Jackson County we’ve got hollers—pastures up on top of the hills, hollers down. I’ve been there a thousand times with him. He’ll let Mandy go down the holler. All of a sudden Mandy yelps. This is noon. Coons ain’t out at noon, but all of a sudden Mandy goes, “Yip! Yip!” That means Mandy is on a trail. Snake got over there to the edge of the holler and looked down. Mandy weighed about 35 pounds. Snake looked at a coon that weighed more than Mandy. Mandy doesn’t have a pack of dogs to back Mandy up. Mandy is by herself, and this old he coon has backed up against a log, he wrote in this letter, looks at this little dog and says, “I’ve got lunch.”

That old he coon knew exactly what Mandy was going to do. Trouble is Mandy had never read the manual. Mandy never braced, hit that coon head over tea kettle, and they both went over the log, and Snake says he’ll get out of there now. And he did. He ran right over to a beech tree. He turned around against that beech tree and said, “I’ll never make this mistake again. Snake wrote that Mandy went after that coon again and hit that coon head on. Coon says that’s mistake number two today, and the coon started up that beech tree. The only problem is Mandy grabbed her by the hind leg and won’t let it go up the tree. Problem with that the coon’s bigger than Mandy, and Mandy gets pulled off the ground. When Mandy got pulled off the ground, you’re not hearing a growl, you’re hearing (cries for help). The coon got up the first limb and went inside the tree. There was a hole there. Mandy flipped right upside down in that hole. Snake has got down to the bottom of this tree, and he hears the most awful barking, scratching there ever was. He ran up to the house and got a little chainsaw. He got that tree cut down. When it fell, it busted open, and he found a little blood and a little guts. That coon and that dog had got so mad that they had ate each other up. And that’s called a tall tale.”

Ms Senior White County Sherry Hickey, Helga Thompson, Jerry Parker, Walteen Parker, Guylene Atnip, Susan and Jerry Hinton and Bill Conger shared stories from their lives. The 16th Annual Dot’s Storytelling Day was started in 2005 by the late Dot Tittsworth, who loved the art of storytelling. This year’s event at the DeKalb County Complex featured the theme “Tales, Tidbits, and Tornadoes” and raised $1,020 for the DeKalb Imagination Library.

May 3, 2021
By: Bill Conger

Fans, footwear and free oil changes were provided at Smithville First Baptist Church’s 3rd Annual Community Day.

“We’ve been able to minister to many families,” Smithville FBC Pastor Chad Ramsey said. “We’ve been able to give them boxed fans and some summer shoes for the kids.”

The church also partnered with Jamie Turner and NAPA Auto Parts May 1 to give free oil changes to senior citizens and single moms.

Since the start of the pandemic ministry activities here and across the world have been limited. Church members were grateful to start serving the needs of others.

“People are still getting back into the habit of getting back out,” Ramsey said. “We hope as the year keeps going by, we can get back and out do more within the community. This is just a step in the right direction. It’s been a long year and a half. It’s nice just to give back a little bit normal.”

“We really have enjoyed sharing the love of Jesus Christ, share the love that God has for people. As we say here at our church, “Love God, love others.” We’re excited about what God’s doing here at Smithville FBC and what He’s going to continue to do as well. “

May 2, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

Three people, including a Smithville man, have died after being involved in a Rutherford County crash last Thursday.

22 year old Zachary Tyler Parsley passed away Friday at Vanderbilt Hospital.

According to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Parsley was a passenger of a 2012 Ford Escape driven by 19 year old Sebastien Tarin of Manchester who was traveling east on Interstate 24.

The THP reports that Tarin’s vehicle drove off the interstate and into the median before traveling through the grassy divide and into the Westbound lane of traffic around 11 a.m. near the 95 mile marker west of the Shelbyville/Beech Grove exit. Once in the oncoming lane, the small SUV driven by Tarin collided head-on with a 2015 Nissan Frontier pickup truck driven by 65 year old Stanley Peterson of Beechgrove. All three persons were wearing their seatbelts but trapped and extricated by Rutherford fire

Both Tarin and Peterson were killed in the crash.

The accident remains under investigation.

Zachary Tyler Parsley, age 22, of Smithville passed away on Friday, April 30, 2021 at Vanderbilt Hospital.

Zachary was born on March 18, 1999 in Murfreesboro, TN to his parents, Jeremy and Sonya Linder Parsley. Preceding him in death is his grandfather, Maxie Parsley and one uncle, Joey Parsley. He was a senior at Tennessee Tech University and a member of Temple Baptist Church.

Funeral services and visitation will be announced later.

Survivors include his parents, Jeremy and Sonya Parsley of Smithville; 1 sister, Maddison Parsley of Smithville and 1 brother, Nicholas Parsley of Smithville; maternal grandparents, Bobby and Peggy Linder of Smithville; paternal grandmother, Ruby Parsley of Smithville; several aunts, uncles, and cousins. Love-Cantrell Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.