Hanna Wilson of Puxico, daughter of Mark Wilson and Jeff and Schree Gunnels, was crowned the 2023 Miss Stoddard County Fair Queen Sunday afternoon at the Stoddard County Fair Grounds.

First Alternate is Lydia Hanner of Dexter. She is the daughter of Andrea and Larry Hanner.

Second Alternate Brooklyn Franklin of Dexter. She is the daughter of Jason and April Wray and Robert Franklin.

Photo by Keith Hente.

Ronnie LeGrand of Dexter, Missouri joined the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association in 1999.

Pitching horseshoes became a passion for LeGrand and he has competed in numerous competitions over the past 24 years.  He has even earned titles of state champion and world champion.

Mr. LeGrand now has a new title as he was inducted into the Missouri Horseshoe Pitchers Hall of Fame on September 2, 2023.  He was nominated by his friend, Stanton Griggs.

LeGrand won the World Title in the Senior Division in 2021. With this win he became the first person from Missouri to win the world title.

He competes locally in the SEMO Horseshoe Circuit. These are sanctioned tournaments and LeGrand said everything is tracked and used to seed the state tournament. The state tournament is a round robin tournament. LeGrand has won the the Senior division of the state tournament four straight years. That is quite the accomplishment!

LeGrand lives in Dexter with his wife Sheila. They have two daughters Mendy Bell and Ronda Jameel and five grandchildren, Carson Bell, Cameron Bell, Clayton Bell , Max Jameel and Ryn Jameel.

Sue Hawkins, Central Gardens' first employees retired after giving 29 years at the facility in Dexter, Missouri.  

She was honored with a reception.  Family, friends, co-workers and residents of the facility that she has loved and cared for were in attendance.

Hawkins won't be gone completely.  She said she will be there on weekends working part-time.

"it's been an honor and my privilege," stated Hawkins.  "Everyone here means so much to me.  People have always asked me how they can repay me and I tell them you already have with your stories and spending time with you and your families.  How much richer could I be to have so many wonderful lives come into my life.  I love you all."  

Photos of the reception can be viewed on the ShowMe Times Facebook page.

U.S. Representative Jason Smith visited Lowery Acres in Puxico, Missouri on Wednesday, August 30, 2023 as part of his annual farm tour. 

Smith along with Missouri Secretary of State, John R. Ashcroft and Josh Speakman, Stoddard County Collector/Treasurer enjoyed some time on a four generation farm.

“This farm is a prime example of so many farm families in southeast and south central Missouri: a multi-generational farm family who just wants to grow their business without the government getting in their way,” commented Smith.

Lowery Acres was started by producing bedding plants, hanging baskets, mumns, apples, berries, cut flowers, pumpkins, Christmas Trees, alfalfa and row crops.  The farm began in the late 1930s.

Smith said that is why the farm tour is so important.  Missouri agriculture is extremely important to all of us.  

“Agriculture is the number one economic driver in our entire state and definitely in our congressional district,” said Smith. “It is good to hear from farmers and agribusiness men and working families, the issues that they are having and how Washington could hopefully solve the problems they have created. It is usually what Washington has created, and make their lives better where they casn just farm and run their business and not worry about government interfering.”

“It concerns me that for the first time in decades that our agriculture imports to our nation was more than our exports,” said Smith. “That has to change so this is a way that we are trying to look at vehicles to help the products and the items that we are growing.”

Smith said he is chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. He said this committee is over all tax policy, trade, social security, healthcare and over site of the IRS. He said an economic tax bill came out of the committee in June that will help small businesses, farmers and working class Americans.

“I really enjoyed him (Smith), I enjoyed visiting with him I enjoyed hearing about what was going on up there a little bit,” said Logan Lowery. “I hope they come away with a little bit of understanding of what we are doing down here as far as speciality crops go. We are not just all corn, beans, rice and cotton. There is some other things happening here too that could be paid attention to.”

Smith said inflation has gone up 16.9 percent in the last two and a half years and they increased the standard deduction by $4,000 in this tax bill to help families cover the inflation they have seen. He said they also did things for small businesses in regards to expensing. Smith said they expanded expensing from the current $1,000,000 to $2,500,000. Smith explained that this extra money could cover the cost of one cotton picker as an example.

He also said taxing and preventing the Chinese from purchasing our farmland is included in the package. Smith said the committee also passed a U.S. Tiwain trade agreement, which he said was his piece of legislation. He said it was the most bipatrasin trade agreement. He said every Republican and Democrat in the house and senate voted for it and the president signed it into law a few weeks ago.