Dexter, Missouri - Tom Love recently spoke to the Dexter Rotary Club and they were enthusiastic about his passion to help Disabled Veterans.

The Rotarians were so moved by his dedication to help those who have served to fight for our freedom that they donated $500 to the Disabled Veterans Wildlife Facility.

Post Commander Darryl W. LaPierre of the American Legion/Kenady Hanks in Dexter and Tom Love, founder of the Disabled Veterans Wildlife Facility met at the Gobbler's Ridge Farm along with Morris Gregg, Dexter Rotarian, who presented them with the check.  It was a beautiful day and the three of them sat on the porch of the cabin and chatted for a bit about the Wildlife Facility.

For many veterans who are confined to a wheelchair or whose mobility has been restricted as a result of serving their country or due to age, etc accessibility to their once favorite pastime is restricted, but not any more.  With the Disabled Veterans Wildlife Facility, they can enjoy hunting, fishing, photography, or just getting out of the house and into the woods for a daytime adventure!

For more information please or to make a donation, please contact, Tom Love 573-820-0802 or Jim Adams 573-421-3660.

To mail in donations:  D.V. Outdoor Fund

American Legion Post 59, P.O. Box 446, Dexter, Missouri 63841

They also have a Facebook page with lots of photographs of the facility, blinds, veterans who have used the facility and just God's creatures living on the land. 

Go to the page:  https://www.facebook.com/DisabledVeteransWildlifeFacility?ref=stream

The Dexter Rotary would like to thank Tom Love and his guests for joining them for their breakfast meeting and they look forward to visiting the Disabled Veterans Wildlife Facility at Gobbler Ridge Farms in the near future.

The Dexter Rotary Club meets weekly for breakfast or lunch and is currently looking for new members.  If you are interested in becoming a member contact Mr. Jack Rodgers at 573-624-5762 or jrod63841@yahoo.com.  Their motto is Service Above Self!

Also check out their new Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dexter-Rotary-Club/495427427182546

Submitted by

Beth Farrah, SMT Writer

Jonesboro, Arkansas— Rosanne Cash hosted last year’s second annual Johnny Cash Music Festival, but this year, that honor goes to Tommy Cash, the baby of the seven-sibling Cash family, and with Joanne Cash Yates—the sixth of the seven—the two survivors.

The third annual Johnny Cash Music Festival is set for Aug. 17, again at Arkansas State University’s Convocation Center in Jonesboro. Vince Gill is headlining a bill that also stars Yates, Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers and the Statler Brothers’ Jimmy Fortune.

Proceeds from the event will continue the restoration of the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home in Dyess, Arkansas, as well as support an ASU scholarship fund established in Cash’s name. Four students currently attend ASU due to money raised at the previous festivals.

“I’m grateful they asked me to host the show and sing a song or two,” says Cash, who has had a substantial country music career in his own right, his signature song being the 1969 hit “Six White Horses,” a sort-of country version of "Abraham, Martin And John" that likewise evoked John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Joanne will do a song or two, and then we’ll sing a song together,” continues Cash, who marvels at both the progress in restoring his family’s home in Dyess—to open in spring, 2014—and the eagerness to visit it among Cash fans from all over the world.

Johnny Cash moved to Dyess with his family when he was three, and lived there until he graduated high school in 1950.

The house was part of a community established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s as a Depression-era agricultural resettlement colony. Part of the New Deal program, it provided an opportunity for destitute farmers, who were advanced 20 or 40 acres of farmland, a mule, a small home and money to buy food and plant crops—with the understanding that if they were successful they'd pay back the government.

"The interior is completely done,” Tommy Cash reports. “The only thing odd about it is that when I was a kid, it looked so big, and now I realize how small it was—two bedrooms, one bathroom, living room, dining room and kitchen. But it’s beautiful what they’re doing: Joanne and I are the only two siblings left, but we have a lot of nieces and nephews and close friends who are coming to see it, and the amazing thing is that we’re getting inquiries from groups around the world who want to come and see the house where Johnny Cash lived and grew up.”

Of course back then, he wasn’t Johnny Cash.

“He was J.R. to all of us,” says Cash. “That was his real name—J.R. Cash. He was just Big Brother to me. He let me ride on his cotton sack when I was four and five-years-old, and made chocolate fudge on Wednesday nights. It wasn’t until 1955 when Sam Phillips at Sun Records said, ‘You got to have a name other than 'J.R.’ and used the name ‘Johnny’ on his first record that he became 'Johnny Cash'—and the rest is history.”

Cash says that their mother already knew that his brother was “different and unique” when he was five-years-old, and Yates recalls that “for as long as I can remember, even as a little bitty girl, he was writing songs, on any kind of piece of paper. I asked him one time if he was writing poems, and he said, ‘No. I’m writing songs. I’m going to be a singer.’”

Then, when Johnny Cash “first became a superstar and [early Sun hits] ‘Cry! Cry! Cry!’ and ‘Hey, Porter’ were playing on the radio, he brought me to his show in Jonesboro and said that a young man was going to come out and 'front' the show. I asked him what that meant and he said he would come out and get the crowd excited and then they’d bring the star out. And I said, ‘Who’s the star?’ and he said ‘I am!’ And I said, ‘You can’t be the star—you’re my brother!’”

Of course, it turned out that the young man who was fronting Cash’s show was none other than his fellow Sun recording artist Elvis Presley.

“All the girls were going crazy, and when Elvis walked off stage and John went on, I went backstage and talked to him. John said, I brought you all the way over to see me sing and you went back to talk to Elvis!’ I said, ‘I can talk to you any time and hear you sing!’ He said, 'I just won’t bring you to another show,’ and I said, ‘Yes you will!’”

But Johnny Cash remained “my big, protective brother through my life—until the day he left us,” adds Yates, recalling a day when he miraculously produced an umbrella (“way back then not everybody had one”) and held it over her, Tommy and sister Reba Cash during a downpour on the quarter-mile walk home from the school bus stop, “taking the rain” himself.

“There are hundreds of stories like that,” she says, and further likens the Cash family to that of The Waltons.

“Our house was not as big, but as far as the way our family was, we always had that love for each other and we were helping each other,” says Yates. “We had the perfect life, with the exception that my daddy worked as hard as any human being I’ve ever known. But he said one time that working and taking care of your family is a gift from God.”

And now, with the house well on its way to complete restoration, Yates, who is finishing her 30th gospel album, thinks, “Johnny would be absolutely in awe of what’s happening.”

“Not just our house,” she says, “but the other buildings.”

Indeed, the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home restoration project also includes the town’s administration building and theater—the latter facility, which had only its front façade standing, to be rebuilt for use as a visitors center.

The Cash Home will serve as a museum honoring Johnny Cash's legacy.

Dexter, Missouri – The ShowMe Times is extremely proud of our Dexter community and all that it has to offer.  We have been diligently taking photos of as many sporting events, concerts, school activities, people, churches, businesses and community organizations in Stoddard County. 

We are truly shining the light on you!

We have organized all of our photos on our website, www.showmetimes.com under the PHOTOS tab at the top of the page, which links you to the ShowMe Times Photo Gallery. 

Once you are there, you may choose to look at all of the photos or select just those that are featured or the most recent ones uploaded.  Then the excitement of creating a wonderful treasure begins. 

Now choose your favorite photo out of the numerous albums available.  There is an endless assortment of creations you can make from calendars and memory mates including softball and other sports. 

Small, medium and large prints are available as well as statuettes, wall cling, bookmarks, keychains, magnets, mousepads, aprons, sweatshirts, T-shirts and much, much, more to choose from.

And what student wouldn’t want his or her own Baseball Trading Card!

One of the more interesting features is that you can create a custom magazine cover by inserting an image into one of the available templates, including baseball, basketball and cheerleading.

There is quite a large assortment of products in our catalog and thousands of pictures to choose from.  Want to make a memorable Postage Stamp; this is the place to go!  What about a t-shirt, yep, you guessed it, right here too!

The ShowMe Times hopes you have enjoyed viewing all of our photos and will continue to do so for many years to come.  We count on your business to help sustain our FREE online publication.

We also have a Facebook page with plenty of photo albums you can share with your friends.  See a picture there you like, switch over to www.showmetimes.com and make a memory that will last a lifetime.

Without you and this wonderful community we live in, we could not be able provide such great articles and photos to share with family and friends.

Thank you for your continued support! 

And we’ll see you at the next event!

Submitted by

Beth Farrah, SMT Writer

Dexter, Missouri – When he was 19 years old, Sgt. 1st Class Doyle Wicker wanted to be a part of history, be an active force in the ever-changing world around him and beyond. 

He joined the military and found what he was looking for.

“I really wanted to be a part of history instead of just reading about it,” said Wicker. “I wanted to serve my country.”

In 1987 he ended his military service, but the call to serve and the camaraderie stayed with him, and in 1998 he joined the Missouri National Guard.

Unlike the Active Army, where he has been stationed in multiple locations over three years, he wanted to stay closer to home and Family.

“I missed the brotherhood the military offers but I wanted to serve my own community,” said Wicker. “This way I could serve my nation but be home.”

The Guard allowed him to still serve communities across the world and one of his most rewarding moments in his career was during a deployment with the 1140th Engineer Battalion in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2004 – 2005.

“It was my first time going to war,” said Wicker.

As a squad leader, the deployment was also the first time he led troops into a combat zone and the experience and responsibility was gratifying.

“I defended our nation, but I really was a part of history and had a role in shaping it not only for myself but for the men I led,” he said.

In 2005 he became a recruiter - coupled with his deployment experiences and his inspiration to join the Guard – Wicker brings his enthusiasm and experience to anyone who walks into his office.

“It’s enjoyable to tell people about what I feel are best kept secrets in the military,” said Wicker. “We’re hometown Soldiers, a part of the oldest branch in the military, you serve your nation but you serve your community.”

The Guard has allowed him to help people, change their lives but reach his own personal rewarding goals, and he hopes to share that with others.

Most importantly when people think about the military, he wants people to think about him - a small hometown guy from Southeast Missouri that has changed and shaped his own and other people lives, been a lot of places, but always back home where he wants to be.

“I want to help people change their own lives and reach their goals,” said Wicker. “There are so many things you can do with the Guard and I’m the guy you’re going to get the truth about it from.”

Wicker is supported in his military career by his wife, Angie, and their children Gabby, 13, and Katie, 8. Wicker is a recruiter for the Missouri National Guard in Stoddard and northern Dunklin counties.

 

For more information about the Missouri National Guard, you can contact Sgt. 1st Class Doyle Wicker at 573-380-0255, or please visit www.moguard.com and our social media sites.

Dexter, Missouri - Despite the cold, foggy morning hundreds of children and adults bundled up and headed out to the West City Park for the Annual Easter Egg Hunt sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Dexter.

The Easter Bunny even took some time out of his busy schedule to stop by for photo opportunities with the youngsters.  Even the Boy Scouts had their photo taken with the Bunny!  Some of the littlest ones were quite frightened of this huge bunny, but he waived and patted their heads and made them feel much better.  Some even began to smile and laugh. 

As the clock neared the starting time, children were starting to bend as if ready for a race.  Precisely at 1 p.m. the horn sounded and the children ran to collect hundreds of eggs in just mere minutes.  Everyone was smiling and reaching for a plastic colorful egg with a prize inside and in a flash it was all over.

There were three special eggs and if found that child received a wonderful Easter Basket full of goodies!  There sure were plenty of eggs on the ground, in the bushes, and in the trees.  Everyone was looking up and down and all around trying to find those colorful eggs.

It seemed everyone had a great time and enjoyed their candy and prizes! 

There are plenty of pictures on ShowMe Times Facebook page and under photos on www.showmetimes.com.  Hope everyone has a very special Easter!