The January 2020 Vidalian

THE

Vidalian

January 2020

Dara Shirley Bringing in 2020 in STYLE!

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January The Vidalian

THE CITY OF VIDALIA Mayor’s Office

Tom Bonnette Editor-in-Chief

Mayor Buz Craft 318-336-5206 200 Vernon Stevens Blvd.

ALDERMEN AND CITY COUNCIL Robert Gardner, Jr. - Alderman 318-719-5702

Cindy Bonnette Assistant Editor

Sabrina Dore’- Alderman 601-807-9995 Jon Betts - Alderman 318-336-5976

Bill Sumrall Staff Writer

Tommy Probst- Alderman 318-336-7723 Triand McCoy - Alderman 318-336-3583 Michael Chapman Staff Photographer

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The Vidalian, January 2020 issue.

The Vidalian Magazine is published by Bonnette Media, LLC. 318-719-5603, thevidalian@gmail.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

THe VIDALIAN January 2020

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VIDALIA

In Time...

From The Tensas Gazette, January 20, 1920..

Tuesday, January 6th 1920, being the date of the Regular Monthly meeting of the Mayor and Board of Aldermen and there being no quorum present, the Hon. Philip Hough. Mayor adjourned the meeting to Tuesday, January 13th 1920.

The Mayor called the meeting to order, upon roll call the following answered to their name: Present; Philip Hough, Mayor, Charles Moritz, G.P Bullis, B.F. Crooks, and G.A. Murray. Absent: John Dale Jr. The matter of the salary of Marshall and Street Commissioner was taken up and duly seconded.

It was passed that the salary of Marshall was abolished in lieu thereof that the Marshall shall receive in cost the sum of $5 per arrest where defendant is convicted and fine and cost paid in cash or by work on the streets. The office of Street Commissioner was abolished and work on streets and alley placed in direct charge of the Committee on Streets and Alleys.

From The Concordia Sentinel, January 23, 1930...

On last Thursday afternoon, Mrs. Albert Nichols entertained with three tables of bridge at her lovely home on Taconey Plantation.

Those enjoying this delightful afternoon were Mesdames.

Laymond Cargile, Julius Aronstein, John Dixon, Lesley Dale, Mike Ohlsen, Frank D'Autremont, Clyde Falkenheiner, Ralph Shields. Richard Dale, Jr., Mrs. Eugene Fleming of Newellton and Mrs. S. P. Johnson of Ferriday.

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From the Concordia Sentinel, January 6, 1950...

One of the most recent estate and business transactions occurring in the parish is the purchase by Sam Tumminello, former operator and builder of Tumminello's Club, Ferriday, of the J. D. Cross grocery and market in Vidalia.

Mr. Tumminello has already taken over the Cross properties and is making plans to convert the store into a modern, efficient and attractive trading center.

Mr. Tumminello has been engaged in the grocery business in Ferriday for some time, and for the past few years has operated Tumminello's Night Club, near Ferriday, probably one of the most beautiful night clubs in this section of Louisiana and Mississippi.

He recently sold the club to Mr. Bob Lancaster, who has taken active charge and is now operating it as Bob’s New Night Club, closing down all of the old original Bob's Night Club with the exception of the bar.

According to a statement made to a representative of the Sentinel, Mr. Tumminello is contemplating making numerous improvements and changes in the Cross store, in Vidalia, and, when completed the store will be bright and well-filled with most attractive merchandise both in the grocery and general merchandise departments as well as in the liquor department.

According to Mr. Sam Tumminello, they expect to cater to package business, also, and will offer most attractive package service on whiskey, wines, beer, cordials, etc., to hundreds, fishermen and others

January The Vidalian

From the Concordia Sentinel, January 21, 1980...

From the Concordia Sentinel, January 12, 2000.

U.S. Sen. Russell B. Long is sponsoring an amendment to lift restrictions on the sale of power generated by the Vidalia hydro-electric plant, Mayor Sidney Murray said Friday.

The Vidalia Town Council called for bids Tuesday night for more development of Vidalia Landing, the riverfront project that is now underway.

Murray, in a talk to the Ferriday Rotary-Club, said Long included the amendment in the windfall profits tax bill now being considered by Congress.

"In order to get investors behind the project, we must have a solid, long-term contract for the sale of the power," Murray said. "But present law restricts the sale of the power," he explained.

"For example, Cajun Electric is interested in buying all the power we can produce, but the law prohibits us from selling no more than 25 percent to one purchaser covering a two-parish area." Murray said.

Long met with Vidalia representatives in Washington and Baton Rouge and has added the amendment in the bill.

"Sen. Long thinks it'll pass," he said.

At its first meeting of the new year, the council called for bids on the second phase of the project, a phase that includes an elaborate lighting system and the construction of four activity shelters. Mayor Hyram Copeland said the estimated cost of the work was $700,000, but he added, "We’ll have to see what the bids bring in."

The council also called for bids on the construction of the main entrance to Vidalia Landing from Concordia Avenue.

At present a one-lane ramp provides access to the riverfront, but a second lane will be added estimated cost is $50,000.

Copeland pointed out that the projects will be finished with capital outlay money provided by the state.

"We're seeking $2.1 million for the third phase of the development plan," the mayor said.

Murray said he doesn't see anything to prevent the plant from becoming a reality, pointing out that Vidalia was the first municipality in Louisiana to seek authority from the federal government to build a hydro-electric plant. " I think there are now eight other applicants in Louisiana," he said. The plant would be constructed at the Old River Control Structure, producing energy from the Mississippi River, at an estimated cost of $280 million.

Revenue bonds would finance the project, but the faith and credit of the City of Vidalia would not be required, meaning the city wouldn't have any-risk involved.

But Murray said because he wants the people of Vidalia to support the project, a public meeting will be held February 26th at Vidalia High School to explain the project to the public.

"We want all interested parties to attend," he said.

Murray said the project is receiving support at all levels of the federal government, including the Mississippi River Commission and the U.S. Corps of Engineers.

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January The Vidalian

Vidalian of the MONTH

Dara Shirley

Dara Shirley stands in front of The One by Dara, the Vidalia boutique she operates with her mother, Cheryl Probst. The shop specializes in wedding apparel and formal wear for any occasion.

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January The Vidalian ara Shirley makes it abundantly clear –she doesn’t like to talk about herself.

She was eventually persuaded to allow an interview after being nominated as our first Vidalian of the Month for 2020, however she prefers others to speak about how she has impacted their lives for the better.

“She’s one of a kind, for sure,” says Whestley Shirley, when contacted by phone for comment.

Whestley is Dara’s step-daughter, but she says the term “step” fell by the wayside early on as they bonded into a family unit, though Whestley and her brother Pate remain close with their natural mom.

Dara’s husband agrees. He is Whest Shirley, Concordia Parish School Board Superintendent and a long-time police juror.

She met her future husband, who was then assistant principal at the junior high school, while attending a homecoming parade in October 2004 to see her sister, Kayla, who was in the homecoming court.

At that time, Dara was employed at Concordia Bank.

They became friends before deciding to date in March 2006, then became engaged in August and married in November 2006, when he was 40 and Dara was 28.

“We have five kids, one married, one in college, and the other three are still in school,” Whest said during a phone interview.

Whestley, who last year graduated from Louisiana Tech in May and was married in September, now lives in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and works for Weems Medical Center, and his son, Pate, is in college at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, majoring in construction management. Whest’s children with Dara include daughter Molly and the twins, son Jackson and daughter Meredith.

Dara with her husband, Whest Shirley, who serves as Superintendent for the Concordia Parish School System. he said.

Her father, who is retired from the Postal Service after 40 years, is an alderman for the City of Vidalia. (continued)

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“She (Dara) probably takes better care of those kids than she does with me. She’s just a wonderful mother,” he said.

Once Whest and Dara married, their “instant family” clicked not only with each other but also with Dara’s family.

“She (Dara) instantly had two children, they (Dara’s parents Tommy and Cheryl Probst) instantly had, you know, grandchildren -- it was unbelievable how they accepted,"

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January The Vidalian Her mother was an educator, teaching at Vidalia High School, then at the Ferriday campus of the Central Louisiana Technical Community College.

Whest noted that both his children still have a good mom in his first wife too, describing her as “a good person” and adding that Whestley and Pate are very close to her as well.

He acknowledged his remarriage wasn’t a typical step-parent situation.

Dara “did a lot that she didn’t have to do; her parents and her grandparents just came in, and there never was any doubt from day one that that was their grandchildren as well,” Whest said.

In her separate phone interview, Whestley recalls she was about eight or nine years old when Dara came into her life. She agreed that Dara is the kind of person who rolls with the punches. “Whatever is thrown at her, she’s going to make work,” Whestley said.

“And I guess that was super awkward for her, too, you know, going into a situation where there’s already children – I can’t imagine. But she took us in and, honestly, I can’t imagine my life without her in it. You know, it just, kind of like, fit, and it worked,” she said.

“Having step-children is probably challenging, but it was never like that with her. She made us always feel loved and welcomed.”

Dara attended Vidalia High School, graduating in 1996.

As it happens, the 25th anniversary of the Miss Vidalia pageant is this year and Dara was the first Miss Vidalia in 1995.

All the past Miss Vidalia’s are expected for a reunion event, including Whestley, who was Miss Vidalia in 2014.

Plus, Dara’s niece is also scheduled to be in the pageant this year.

“That’s just something that I did in high school. I cheered in high school. I was loud. It’s what I did,” Dara said.

Something else she did was sing, starting with “Do Lord” in church at age seven and, when older, joining her parents and grandfather, Ken Cranford, in a Gospel group called “Quiet Understanding,” performing for area church concerts or revivals.

Dara is a member of Vidalia’s First Baptist Church, where she helps Whest, who teaches Sunday School.

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When asked, she still sings for weddings or funerals.

And Whest has been known to play the guitar to accompany her singing when they are at home on Sunday afternoons.

Also, Dara has been in the Vidalia Women’s Club since 2014, which does volunteer and charity work.

Dara attended Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, graduating in 2001 with her bachelor’s degree in fashion merchandising with a minor in interiors.

She did her internship for her major in Hammond, working for a bridal store there, then moved to Mandeville to work at a boutique there, and to Baton Rouge, where she worked at David’s Bridal, before returning to Vidalia in 2004.

Whestley was age 10 and Pate was age eight when their father remarried Dara. The week they married, Whest was named principal at the junior high school, moving up from assistant principal, “so we had to cut our honeymoon short because he had to come back to work,” Dara recalled.

“So, as soon as we got married, because he was so old – he was already 40 and I was 28 – we were, like, let’s just go ahead and have a baby,” she said, grinning. “So we did.”

Dara was still employed at the bank when she became pregnant with daughter Molly, who was born in January 2008.

“I worked all the way to the day that I had her,” Dara said.

“I worked on that Friday and I had her on that Sunday, and then I never went back to work. But I didn’t know that I was going to do that at the time, but it just worked out that I could do it and stay at home.”

She didn’t want Molly to grow up without a brother or a sister closer to her age, so they decided to have one more baby – only her next pregnancy in April 2009 turned out to be twins.

“I just wanted one but I got two,” she said. The twins, Jackson and Meredith, now both nine years old, were born in December 2010.

Currently in sixth grade, Molly is “into everything” such as ballet, cheerleading and Diamond Doll tournament team softball as well as junior high softball.

January The Vidalian

As for the twins, Jackson plays all the sports and Meredith does ballet as well as basketball. “They are just active,” Dara says.

“I couldn’t have raised them without Whestley, for real – I mean, she helped me so much,” Dara said, calculating that she was 11 when Molly was born and 13 when the twins were born. “She loves them like they’re her babies because she helped me so much. Literally, I couldn’t have done it without her.”

After Whestley graduated, Tommy Probst suggested turning the house he grew up in into a business space for Dara.

“He knew this was something that I had always wanted to do,” Dara said.

After all, Tommy’s father and Dara’s grandfather, Dr. Edwin E. Hutson, D.C., was a chiropractor who had offices in the front of the house and Dara worked for him briefly before that space became a flea market. So, the partitions that had divided the house into living spaces in the back and offices in the front were all taken out.

by Dara,”, a bridal and formal wear store owned by her parents, Tommy and Cheryl Probst, along with Dara.

“I know what’s going to look right on you and I’m going to give you my all,” Dara said, describing how she works with her customers. “I’m going to give you good customer service.”

She buys one of each dress, hence the store’s name when selection among dresses reveals "the one".

“A girl can come in here and I can, I don’t know what it is, I can just see her in a dress and I’d know what’s going to fit her the best,” Dara said.

“And sometimes I’ll get a dress on her and I’ll be like, ‘You know what, nope, that’s not it, let’s go do another one,’ cause then when I have it on her, I can see this dress is going to fit her great.”

This sounds a bit like Stacy London from the American makeover reality TV series “What Not To Wear.”

“There were 14 windows in the whole house – we took them all out,” she said.

“It’s just something about it. I can visualize, I can see the girl that’s going to be in that dress. Like, I don’t know, it’s just something about it. So, I mean, I guess that’s a talent of mine,” Dara said.

Thus, the former family home was remodeled into “The One

She and her mom work together in the store. (continued) 11

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The Vidalian

making their own choices as a learning experience.

Dara’s sister, Kayla Purvis, is a nurse living in Gilbert, and her brother, Adam Probst, works for Weeks Furniture and lives in Vidalia.

“Growing up, I was the big sister,” she said, describing herself as assertive and “not an introvert,” though not comfortable talking about herself.

“If I had known then what I know now, I would have probably been, like, a counselor of some sort … I just like to give advice and see people be better,” she said. “I’m going to shoot you straight, I’m not going to give you any sugar-coated answer, I’m going to tell you just like I’m going to tell anybody else, you know, that it’s the way that it maybe should be.”

2 J TWO-J RANCH

C R U S H E D Whest and Dara with children (in front) Molly, Jackson and Meredith (in back) Whestley Shirley Harrison and Pate Shirley.

“Watching her when she works with young girls or even mothers of the bride, her passion for helping people look their most beautiful is just awesome to watch,” Cheryl said, when contacted for comment.

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“She has a clear God-given talent for visualizing each girl; I mean, when they walk in, she almost knows what dress they need to wear, and helps them with their hair and tells them how to wear it to best emphasize their face or their dress,” her mom said in a phone interview.

In other words, Dara goes above and beyond to develop the girl’s entire presentation “and tries to make each one of them feel like they’re Cinderella, like the most beautiful girl,” Cheryl said.

“I love to do one-on-one with people,” Dara allowed during her earlier interview at the store.

“I like to have that attention and give them the attention, and during prom, it gets a little busy in here sometimes, and I just really like the one-on-one … I just want them to have that experience of being important.”

She credits her parents for guiding her and her siblings into 12

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A great crowd lined the streets of Vidalia for the annual Christmas parade on Dec. 1. This year’s parade theme was “A Hometown Christmas” and honored our hometown heroes.

The promenade started at Vidalia Upper Elementary and ended at Vidalia High School. Pictures by Bonnette Media and Wes Faulk Photography.

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January The Vidalian

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Reliable Routes to Weight Loss Success in the New Year

Losing a little weight is perhaps the most popular New Year's Resolution of them all. But all too often the end of January arrives accompanied by disappointment, disillusionment, and a discarded diet plan.

But it doesn't need to be that way. With a little organization and planning you can make a success of your New Year's diet, no matter which particular plan you decide to follow. Here are seven ways to keep your slimming journey on track throughout 2020.

1) Set a Realistic Goal A key part of slimming success is to set yourself a clear and realistic goal to aim for. Simply saying you want to lose weight doesn't give most people enough motivation, especially if results aren't as quick as you'd hoped.

Set yourself a target of dropping a certain number of pounds by a special occasion in the near future, or promise yourself that you'll fit in to a favorite outfit once again by the time spring comes around. This definite aim gives you motivation to get started, and helps you stay focused as you go along.

2) Journal Your Food Keeping a food diary is an excellent way of putting your diet on a straighter path, offering two main benefits. First, when all your meals and snacks are 16

written down in black and white, it becomes obvious exactly how much you've eaten and when you're most likely to have weak moments. You'll have a much clearer picture of how your diet is working or failing.

Secondly, when you know you'll need to record the quick snack that's calling your name, that simple thought can be enough to make you pause and resist the temptation.

Cutting back on all those unplanned, unnecessary calories is a huge factor in long-term dieting success.

3) Reform One Bad Eating Habit Although carefully formulated diet plans are great for quickly shedding the pounds, for longer-term slimming success you need to change your eating habits for the better. Trying to stick to an extreme or

restrictive diet for life is rarely successful.

Changing your habits in one huge upheaval is almost impossible, but improving your regular diet is much easier if you take it one step at a time.

Simply pick one source of unneeded calories that you can cut out, and work on getting rid of it. Maybe you can switch from sweetened drinks to diet versions, or give up your usual sugary cereal in exchange for a healthy breakfast.

But whatever you choose, once you feel you've mastered the change, move on to the next one. Within just a few months you'll find your habits have been transformed.

4) Increase Exercise Gradually In the same way, it's much easier to up your exercise levels if you do it in small amounts.

Instead of throwing yourself into a strict new gym regimen, start taking the stairs rather than the elevator whenever you can.

Park your car a little further away from the grocery store entrance so that you'll need to walk a few minutes extra.

Weave small, easy amounts of exercise into the fabric of your life, and the total calorie burn will mount up dramatically.

5) Plan Your Meals At the start of each week, plan all the meals you're going to eat, making them as healthy and as diet-friendly as you possibly can.

January The Vidalian

Then, draw up a shopping list containing only the items needed for your menu.

You'll be less tempted to buy calorie-rich snacks on impulse, and you won't feel you have to consume any extra food you've bought just to stop it from going to waste.

6) Eat More Vegetables When you're planning your menus, build them around fresh vegetables and fruit rather than carbs, sugars, and fats.

Not only do they contain fewer calories, but eating plenty of fresh foods pushes your whole system up a gear. Your metabolism will be more efficient, you'll have more energy to exercise, and you'll be in a better mood to avoid comfort or boredom eating.

7) Define the 'Why' There are going to be a lot of reasons that you will find to cheat on your diet. These will come easily. It might help by clearly defining the reason that you want to lose weight.

Don't just say "for my health," "to look better," "to feel better."

Be more specific.

Think, "I would like to be around 30 years from now when my granddaughter graduates from college."

Keep in mind, if you're not sure, or you treat this glibly, there's a high likelihood you will not achieve your weight-loss goal.

Think you already know? Make sure. Then write it down.

Fancy diet plans come and go, but if you follow these seven tips, you can make 2020 the year your weight loss success finally arrives. Good luck and Happy New Year!

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Vidalia Junior High School Holly Court took place on December 5, with Sarah Freeman being named the 2019 Holly Court Queen. Pictures are by Bonnette Media and Wes Faulk Photography.

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