100 YEARS AGO — 1920

 

This newspaper has made arrangements with both of the banks in Perryville to receive subscriptions toward the Confederate monument fund for improvement of the cemetery in the battlefield. When the necessary amount of money is collected, the grounds in and around the monument will be cleared of all bushes and weeds. It is also hoped that enough money will be donated to have a road built to the monument and gates built where necessary.

 

Eight thousand paid admissions marked the closing day of the Mercer County Fair yesterday. The feature event of the day was the aeroplane exhibition by the Cincinnati Aero Club. Hundreds of Boyle county people were in the crowd.

 

The Danville Library will open at its new home on the corner of Third and Broadway on August 2, from 4 to 6 o’clock.

 

Golf will soon begin on the new links that are being prepared at the end of North Third Street. Many people who have united with the Danville Country Club are getting ready for opening day, which will be announced soon.

 

You can now buy a lot south of the First Presbyterian Church on Fifth Street at a reasonable price. These lots are in convenient reach of churches, schools and business houses.

 

The Chamber of Commerce believes that at least one-third of Danville families were overlooked when the census was taken some time ago. Out of 14 members of the chamber who were present at last night’s meeting, only half of them reported that they had been counted.

 

75 YEARS AGO — 1945

 

Private Hubert J. Ellis has been awarded the Expert Infantryman badge after completing a rigorous course in the Infantry Replacement Training center at Camp Blanding, Florida. This means he will be given a raise from base pay, and that he’s an expert in the use of several weapons and has done a more than satisfactory job of learning the other military skills required of a doughboy in this war. He is a graduate of Forkland High School and was a farmer before entering the service earlier this year.

 

Captain Justus D. Foster, son of Mr. and Mrs. M.D. Foster of Alta Avenue in Danville, has reported to Strother Field in Kansas to become a flying instructor for post graduate fighter pilots at this 72nd Fighter Wing base of the Second Air Force.he wears the Distinguished Flying Cross with one Oak Leaf cluster ad the Air Medal with three clusters, awarded for combat missions flown and other aerial achievements.

 

Staff Sergeant Lucian “Nick” Gordon, son of Mr. and Mrs. J.B. Gordon of Danville, and champion golfer, played earlier this month on the Sarasota Army Air Field golf squad, dropped a four-foot put for a birdie, which enabled the team to win the Third Fighter Command Enlisted Men’s Link’s championship.

 

50 YEARS AGO — 1970

 

During the past year the membership of the Danville Library tripled, going from 500 to 1,600. Circulation also tripled going from 1,000 books per month to 3,000. As a service to its members, the library hours have been increased to 36 hours per week, Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon and 2 to 6 p.m.

 

Among several suggestions being made for improvements of feeder roads, considerable interest has been shown in Gose Pike from its intersection with Ky. 150 to the new bypass now under construction between Hustonville and Stanford roads.

 

Big Sam, the world’ largest bull will be in Danville tomorrow in the parking lot of the Danville Manor Shopping Plaza. His coming here is being sponsored by the Danville Lions Club on behalf of New Eyes for the Needy Inc., a volunteer social service that collects discarded eyeglasses for the needy. Sam is 8 feet tall and 16 feet long from tip to tail. He stays in his own custom built trailer, which includes air conditioning, hot and cold running water, septic tanks, sewer control and plush carpeting. He weighs 3,891 pounds.

 

 Adams shoes is now open for business in the Danville Manor Shopping Plaza off of Hustonville Road. The Adams Shoes business has been in the family for about 40 years. In Danville, the new store is located between the Hallmark Shoppe and Britts and will employ five people.

 

25 YEARS AGO — 1995

 

Former Boyle County Judge-Executive Mary Pendygraft has come out of political retirement to take over command of the local Democratic Party. Pendygraft, who was party chairman for several years in the 1970s, served as judge-executive from 1977 to 1993. She retired as judge-executive shortly before her term was up, allowing Tony Wilder to take over and run as an incumbent. He was then elected judge-executive in 1993. Wilder, who was party chairman for the past several years, said he was stepping down from the post because he felt he was not devoting the time and attention to it that it deserved.

 

Movies playing at the Danville Cinema 4 are: Batman Forever, starring Val Kilmer and Tommy Lee Jones; Casper; The Bridges of Madison County, starring Clint Eastwood; Operation Dumbo Drop, starring Dany Glover; Clueless; and The Indian in the Cupboard.

 

America’s Black communities are losing too many of their young people but they are not yet a lost generation. That’s the view of a Danville native who has devoted his career to working with young people as a teacher and coach at several Black colleges in the South. Gene A. Bright, a 1957 graduate of the old Bate High School who is now a professor and athletics director at Morris Brown College of Atlanta spoke to more than 200 alumni attending a reunion. “We are losing thousands of young Blacks every year. There are more African-American males, ages 17-24 in prison than are in college today,” Bright said. He cited that drugs are a major reason for the problem, as well as the relaxation of traditional values that used to keep the Black community strong in the face of an oppressive society.