2A • Daily Corinthian
Local/Region
Friday, June 7, 2013
Henson retires as Michie principal BHS announces second semester honor students BY JEFF YORK
For the Daily Corinthian
The end of a 34-year career in education came to a successful conclusion last week for Michie Principal Suzanne Henson. A highlight of her tenure at the school was Michie School being named a Reward School by the state education department. There was an immediate bond between Henson and the community when she came to the school as the new principal last year. She spent two years as principal at Michie and grew close to the people in the community. The elementary school is the pride of the town and brings everyone together. Henson finished her second year at Michie as she began last year with the hope that she had helped it become the best school in McNairy County. “It was kind of sad when the school buses pulled out on the last day of school,” said Henson.
“I knew that would be the last time for me and it was emotional. It is hard to leave something you have been doing for 34-years.” “I had always heard good things about the people in Michie and I found it to be true,” Henson commented. “They accepted me and I felt a part of Michie from the beginning of school. I have a great faculty and that was a positive.” Henson, who got the job as principal only two weeks before the start of the last school year, still managed to build a great rapport with her faculty and worked hard in learning about the community. “It made me feel good to see how the teachers respected me and bought into what I was trying to do as their principal,” said Henson. “I was proud that we accomplished enough to be named a Reward School.” Tina Parsons, parent of MES students Marli and McKenzie, praised Hen-
son for the friendly environment that was clear inside the school. “Suzanne made it seem like one big happy family,” said Parsons. “She is always so friendly and made you feel so welcome at school.” The principal wanted her school to be an outreach to the community. She has actively taken part in the JC’s Shopping Spree, helped raise money for Terri Tacker’s cancer benefit and took part as a dancer in McNairy County’s Dancing with the Stars to raise money for the Carl Perkins Child Abuse Center last year. Henson worked with a group last summer to raise money for the late Larron King’s family. She will continue to work at the school until the end of June. She will help incoming principal Wayne Henry with the transition to his taking over as the leader of the school. “I’m going to miss all of
it (school),” commented Henson. “I enjoy working with people and will really miss being with the students.” Henson began her career as a teacher in her native Hardin County where she taught for 13 years and came to McNairy County to teach at Selmer Middle School. She later served as assistant principal at SMS and at Adamsville Jr./Sr. High School. Her father, Morris Beckham, was a longtime principal at Hardin County High and a superintendent of schools in Hardin County. “I wanted to make my daddy proud because education meant so much to him,” said Henson. “I know it meant a great deal to him when I became principal at Michie.” There is little doubt that Henson has impacted thousands of students during her career as an educator and that countless families benefitted from her leadership.
and help her children understand what happened. “Every second of every day has been changed. I find myself still picking up the phone just wanting to talk or send a text. He was my best friend,” she said. She described her husband as a dedicated father who was determined to spend as much time as possible with their children. She said the children continue to ask questions about what happened and she recalled the night their son, Zachary, asked her to take him to the spot where his father died. As they sat at the gas station near the site of the crash he talked about what happened.
“All he said was, maybe if the person who caused this could go to jail he wouldn’t be able to do this to anyone else,” she said. Bowen said he talked with McKinney’s father who chose not to speak at the hearing but told him he believed his son would want to see King get his life back on track. The assistant district attorney told the court no one in the family wants to see anyone’s life ruined. However, he said the law requires punishment both to demonstrate to King there are consequences to irresponsible actions and to deter others from violating the law in the future.
Defense attorney Bain told the court his client has never been previously charged with any felony and while he acknowledged past treatment for substance abuse he said in the past five years King has turned his life around. He asked the court to show as much mercy as possible. Roberts said he had been asked by the defense to consider a sentence of only probation and by the state to impose jail time. He said sentencing is one of the most difficult jobs judges must face and it is never more difficult than in cases involving a death. “Death is always more serious than we wish to imagine,” he said.
9,000 to 10,000 acres were planted at this time last year. A lot of corn acreage is being used to grow soybeans this year. “Prior to the latest rain, farmers were getting into the fields to plant soybeans and this will continue for the next several weeks to get as many soybeans planted as possible,” Poindexter said. “Some cotton was also planted in the county this year, but farmers were trying to get that planted at the same time as corn. As with the corn, the weather was really playing havoc on planting these crops.” Soybeans are the main row crop being planted
now. Growers are still behind on soybeans but within the planting window. Though flooding hasn’t been as much as an issue, when local creeks get out of their normal bounds this adds additional time in dealing with that. Poindexter said several farmers in the county have been working with local soil and conservation and NRCS to install drainage systems and pipes not just along row crops but in hay fields as well to get water off these fields a lot quicker. Another thing farmers are concerned with is keeping ditch banks clean to keep water flowing during immense
rains. The county agent noted this has been an unusually wet and cool spring. “A month ago, even when we had warm weather, the nights were cool where the ground temperature cooled down quite a bit,” he said. “We are now getting in the time period where the night temperatures are stabilizing and the ground is warming up,” he added. “Crops that are planted are growing, so things are looking good now. We just need a break in the weather so growers can get out in their fields and finish up.”
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scene of the crash and he strongly objected to McKinney’s widow being allowed to speak in relation to the sentencing because he said the charge his client pleaded to did not actually relate directly to McKinney’s death. Roberts overruled the objection noting the death was a direct result of the crash and that King’s failure to stop and render aid was directly related to the outcome of the crash. Dawn McKinney said her life and the lives of their three children have been forever changed and she continues to struggle each day to deal with her loss
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time there was an opportunity to get in the field, we would catch a big rain. This delayed application of the herbicide and planting. Our corn acreage in the county this year is very significantly lower then it was last year. There is very little corn planted in the county this year.” While other parts of the state had already planted 90 percent of their corn crop early on, growers in Alcorn County were still sitting at zero. According to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, so far this year 6,500 acres of corn have been planted while
Biggersville High School Second Semester Honor Roll 7th Grade: All A’s — Ty Lancaster, Elly Nash, Emy Settlemires; A’s and B’s — Whitten Hall, Paytlin Hite, Peyton Jackson, Emilee Little, Katie McQueen, Peyton Nelms, Devonte Spears, Lexie Stovall 8th Grade: All A’s — Brooklyn Godwin, Jerrod Hamlin, Landon Porterfield; A’s and B’s — Savannah Baggett, Brylee Donald, Maddie Grace Essary, Kylie Gifford, Brianna Huguley, Baileigh Johnson, Kane Lambert, Sabrina Lambert, Matthew Loveless, Nasia Luster, Logan Mitchell, Bianca Neal, Cameron Pace, Jacquira Sorrell, Jordan Strickland, Devyn Walker, Destiny Whitley 9th Grade: All A’s — Nathan Carroll, Colby Crenshaw, Caleb Kitchens, Blaklie Mitchell, Kaylin Parvin, Katie Strickland, Angel Watson; A’s and B’s — Jonathan Bishop, Austin Brawner, Tiffany Cooksey, Rebecca Crum, Taylor Durham, Callie Estes, Cameron Gray, Josh Gray, Colin Parvin, Jada Tubbs, Matthew Turner, Shyanne Wilbanks 10th Grade: All A’s — Lucy Lawson, Taylor Beth Nash, Emily Nichols; A’s
and B’s — Shannon Arnold, Adrianna Barnes, Vanessa Bollig, Ansley Burns, William Chisler, Angel Crum, Savannah Davis, Tyran Davis, Jordan Fogerty, Tanner Holloway, Hunter Lawson, Lindsey Maricle, Amber McCary, Anna Michael, Kimberly Michael, Lawren Rider, Baileigh Shapiro, Denise Smotherman, Clint Young 11th Grade: All A’s — Audrey Crump, Chris Fowler, Kimberly Fowler, Zack Fowler, Katie Beth Morton, LeeAnn Sorrell, Malaika Stovall, Kadi West; A’s and B’s — Abagail Albanese, Katie Benjamin, B. J. Chisler, Nick Fowler, Alec Friar, Lupe Guevara, Slater Huggins, Wesley Shadburn, Daniel Simmons, Mercedes Thompson, Nicholas Trudeau, Diamond Warren, Marquis Watson 12th Grade: All A’s — Brooks Bishop, Avery Crump, Matthew Hamlin, Emery Hatcher, Danica Huggins, Jacob Jolly, Cynthia Kerr, Brittany Michael, Blake Stacy; A’s and B’s — Kevin Bollig, Darius Carroll, Jordan Davis, Mark Hamlin, Amber Judd, Victor Kuykendall, Rebecca Lee, Savannah McLemore, Megan Mitchell, Brittany Pruitt, Lelisha Swicegood, Austin Tucker, Hunter Warren, Whitney Welch
Ricin suspect waives hearing, pleads not guilty Associated Press
OXFORD — The Tupelo man accused in a scheme to send poisoned letters to public officials pleaded not guilty through court documents. This way, J. Everett Dutschke avoided a scheduled federal court appearance in Oxford today to enter this plea before Magistrate Judge S. Allan Alexander. Dutschke, 41, stands in-
dicted on five counts that he made the poison, ricin and used the mail to send it as a weapon to threaten President Barack Obama, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker of Tupelo and Lee County Justice Court Judge Sadie Holland. When he signed the hearing waiver, he drew a smiley face beside his signature as he s done on numerous other court documents.
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said Willis. The agents also carried out a search warrant at Robert Sharp’s house, said the investigator. The arrests followed a state ABC undercover operation into the illegal activity of making moonshine and building moonshine stills, said
Willis, as the local narcotics unit assisted the ABC in carrying out the warrants. Willis said Roger Sharp was selling the stills on eBay. The state ABC is asking local residents to contact their office if they know of anyone engaged in making illegal whiskey in their home.
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snake. He has been making public presentations on
50th WEDDING AANNIVERSARY NNIVERSARY Bobby and Jo Ann Warren will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on Saturday, June 8th at Calvary Baptist Church Fellowship Hall, 501 Norman Road, from 4:00-6:00 p.m. Married on June 8th, 1963, the couple has a daughter and son-in-law, Kim and Donald Cox, and twin grandsons, Ethan and Evan Cox. Jo Ann taught in the Corinth School System for 33 years before her retirement. Bobby, an electrician, retired from Intex after 35 years. Friends and family are invited. The couple requests casual attire and no gifts, please.
snakes for more than 30 years and is considered an authority on the snakes of Mississippi. Currently a herpetology field associate with the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, he regularly lectures at professional symposia across the U.S. and abroad. The search for rare reptiles has taken him to exotic locales such as the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest, where he has led expeditions. He has also advised Hollywood productions and television nature documentaries. The 45-minute program is for ages six and up; younger children are welcome but should sit with an adult. The library will also host a performance by Mr. Richard,who entertains with a musical program for children, on June 24 at 11 a.m.