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Pick up a copy of the newspaper at your local newsstand!
UPDATED BY MARIA SIEVERDING DECEMBER 21, 2017 2:45 P.M.
Breaking news
Crash claims life of teen
An accident that occurred about 12:30 a.m. December 21 has claimed the life of a 16-year-old Bennington boy. Not much information was available at press time on the crash that took place close to the Ripley County line in Switzerland County on SR 129, south of Cross Plains. Delbert Miller, 16, was pronounced deceased at the scene and his father, Joseph Miller was taken to University Hospital in Cincinnati by air care.
PAGE UPDATED BY MARIA SIEVERDING DECEMBER 21, 2017 1 P.M.
So many babies! So many stockings and Santa hats!
Wanda English Burnett
EDITOR
Labor and delivery nurse Pam Thomas takes her job seriously. She’s a nurse by day and a “secret stitcher” at night. She goes the extra mile and makes a personalized stocking and Santa hat for every baby born in December at Margaret Mary Health , Batesville.
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Pam Thomas has made hundreds of Christmas stockings and Santa hats, but this one has to be her favorite. It was for her first grandchild - Elliott Hensley.
“I’ve been doing it for a long time,” she told The Versailles Republican. She meant it. She’s been making those stockings for 24 – nearly 25 years!
Thomas has been employed at the hospital for 26 years and said when she first started the ladies auxiliary were giving out stockings. “I wanted to make them myself and personalize them,” she noted. She soon got her chance, and babies born in December at MMH have been receiving them ever since. “Sometimes their parents will ask for a sibling to have their stocking personalized as well,” she laughed. She said the dad will go home and get the stocking and she fixes them right up.
Thomas describes her job as something she enjoys very much – so much it doesn’t feel like work. She said she takes her embroidery machine into the hospital in December and everyone knows what’s going to happen. Sometimes when the photographer for the hospital comes to take photos, they place the small little bundle of joy inside the stocking complete with Santa cap!
“I just love sewing,” Thomas noted, saying her mother, the late Lou Miller, Holton, taught her to sew. She continues the tradition, making all sorts of clothing, alterations and yes, even wedding dresses, right from her Cross Plains home.
She is married to Gary Thomas and together they have a daughter, Ashley, who is married to Tyler Hensley and lives in Greenwood. She is following in her mother’s footsteps and is a labor and delivery nurse at a hospital there. Their son, Brian Thomas, is a pharmacist at CVS in Versailles.
Holton woman enjoys every birthday; she’s celebrated 106 of them!
Zelpha Renfro Naylor turned 106 on December 11. The Holton woman still is active, baking pies, yeast rolls, and does her own cooking, according to her granddaughter, Brenda Beach.
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Zelpha Naylor enjoys fishing. The 106 year old gets up every day ready for an adventure!
“She loves God and goes to church every Sunday at the Methodist Church in Holton,” Beach noted. She also loves to go to the Goins Auction Center in Butlerville, where she was celebrated with a party given by David and Becky Goins and family. She made pies for the auction weekly and also made as many as 35 pies weekly for the local farmers market. She is known many places simply as the “pie lady”. She was a cook at the Holton school for many years and also worked at the Muscatatuck Developmental Center for nine years.
She had a two-day birthday celebration this year with family and friends coming to her home to visit her. A beautiful cake was made by Kay Franklin, who has made more than 50 birthday cakes for Zelpha over the years.
Zelpha was married to Perry Naylor for 56 years. He passed away in 1987. The couple have two children: Ruth (George) Beach, both deceased and a son, Elmer (Betty) Naylor of Holton. They have a grandson, Danny (Alice) Beach; five granddaughters: Brenda Beach; Debbie (Paul) Hughes; Deanna (Mark) Salyers; Carol (Paul) Jines, all of Holton, and Connie (Chris) Demaree of Cross Plains. Zelpha also has 17 great grandchildren and 23 great-great grandchildren.
The spunky little lady only stands about 4’5” tall and walks without a cane or walker. She says those things would just make her fall. She is in good health and takes no medicine. She says she gets up rested every morning ready to start a new day- a new year!
