Stories from Friday, January 18, 2008

Fort Scott High's wrestlers swept Coffeyville and Parsons in a Southeast Kansas League triangular at the FSHS gymnasium Thursday night, building big leads in each dual. The Tigers (2-1 in the SEK, 5-3 overall) beat Coffeyville 45-15 and Parsons 43-24. In the middle bout, Coffeyville gained its first win of the season by beating Parsons, 30-18...

PLEASANTON -- Pleasanton's boys were the only winner among the six area basketball teams in Thursday's action at the Pleasanton Mid-Season Basketball Tornament here Thursday. Blu-Jay boys were 58-48 winners over Linn County rival Jayhawk-Linn in the consolation bracket and will play Northeast-Arma for fifth place Saturday afternoon at 4:30 in the north gym...

When Charlie Sercer first began composing musical pieces on the piano, he could not have predicted the early success it would bring to him. Sercer, a Fort Scott High School sophomore, has been chosen to perform his own original piano composition in Wichita during the February Kansas Music Educators Association State Inservice Workshop...

The search to replace outgoing Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Gary Emry recently got underway, FSACC officials said Thursday. FSACC Board Chairman Bob Marshall, who is leading the search to find Emry's successor, said that he recently has advertised the position on several Internet sites, including various chambers of commerce and business-related Web sites based in Kansas and Missouri...

Eugene Russell "Gene" Vanatter, born Aug. 17, 1932, died peacefully in his sleep Jan. 16, 2008. Gene was born in Burbank, Calif., to James Russell Vanatter and Alberta (Knox) Vanatter. His father died of cancer when Gene was in the second grade. Alberta married James Truman Barlow, and when Gene was eleven, they moved to Uniontown, Kansas. He attended Goff Country School. In 1951, Gene graduated from Uniontown High School and joined the Navy...

Jeremy Culbertson is ready to continue his career as a youth minister. Culbertson was hired as a youth and worship pastor at First Church of the Nazarene, 801 E. Third St. He's been on the job for two weeks. Culbertson, 33, moved to Fort Scott from Portland, Ore., where he lived for most of his life...

100 YEARS AGO (1908) The Fort Scott High School boys and girls' basketball teams came home from Nevada today nursing a pretty big cargo of injured pride. It was the first time the girls' team had lost this year and they felt it keenly. It was more like practice games, as the games will not affect the standing of the teams in the basketball league. ...