Stories from Thursday, June 4, 2009

Fire Friday destroys Rector home (06/04/09)
Fire destroyed the home of a Rector family during a weekend blaze. According to a Rector Fire Department report, a call was received around 8:15 p.m. Friday reporting a fire at the Veronica Spears residence at 614 South Park Street. ...

Palmer retires after 33 years of teaching (06/04/09)
Dereta Palmer has been in the third grade for 33 years. This is not due to any difficulty she faced with the class work; rather it comes from her knowledge of the subject matter, as she has spent all of her years as a public school educator instructing third grade students...

Wagster celebrates 25 years with new heart
Transplant in 1984 far outlives doctors' expectations (06/04/09)
Few people define the phrase "new lease on life" quite as well as Tom Wagster of Rector. Next week, Wagster will mark the 25th anniversary of a life-saving heart transplant, and he and his family are inviting the whole town to join in the celebration...

Foundation scholarship allows Hester to focus on studies (06/04/09)
Daniel Hester is making the most of his opportunities. The 2008 Rector High School graduate recently completed his first year of classes at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, making a successful start to his journey into adulthood...

Historic Rector structure named to National Register (06/04/09)
The Rector Waterworks Building on South Main Street (Highway 90), also known to many as the old jailhouse, has been listed on the National Register of Historic PLaces, the country's official list of historically significant properties...

McIntosh trial date is June 16 (06/04/09)
The trial of former Marmaduke superintendent Jerry Don McIntosh now is scheduled to begin Tuesday, June 16, at the U.S. District Court in Little Rock. McIntosh, along with brothers Ray Mike Graham and James Mark Graham, were indicted in May 2008 by U.S. Attorney Jane Duke for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in an attempt to defraud the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System (ATRS)...