55 years ago

july 7, 1966

Peabody’s annual July 4th celebration again was a very successful one, drawing large crowds for all of the several events planned during the two-day celebration. The largest, of course, was the evening fireworks display when thousands thronged the spacious Peabody Park for the showy event.

No wonder the Red Cross swimming program is so popular at the Marion Municipal Pool. Pictured on the front page are pretty instructors Tammy Case, Helen Jackson, Judy Pankratz, Jackie Thomas, Barbara Hunt, Kay Applegate, Linda Bauman, Bev Elling, Susan Yeagley, Roma Roebke, and Mary Konarik. Two not present for the picture are Linda Oldham and Janice Jantz.

From all indications this week it appears that LaVonda Hett, Marion High graduate of this spring, is being groomed and prepared for a place among the top fashion models in the nation’s fashion center, New York.

LaVonda, who has been given the modeling name of “Marni Pearce,” is employed by Plaza Five Agency in mid-town Manhattan.

Rose Marie Loveless, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry F. Loveless of Marion, is shown being sworn into the Navy’s Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island.

About a dozen men made up a threshing crew on the Virgil Litke farm, west and south of Aulne. Mr. Litke is a collector of antique farm equipment which was used to thresh about 35 acres of oats he had previously cut and shocked.

The thresher used was a pre-World War I galvanized Case separator and the tractor was a 1916 Huber, made in Marion, Ohio, rated at 35 hp on the drawbar and 70 hp on the pulley.

The men who were pitching bundles to the separator in 100 degree heat said the novelty was fun for a little while, but they’d not trade it for the modern conveniences of today.