News from June
2, 2005 issue
Chamber bestows annual awards
Marion attorney Zac Greenwell, businesswoman Emily Shelby and
Marion's Kentucky Farm Bureau office were honored last Thursday
with the Chamber of Commerce's most prestigious annual awards.
Greenwell was named the Chamber's Man of the Year. Shelby received
the Unsung Hero Award and Farm Bureau got the Community Pride
Award during the annual banquet designed to usher in new officers
and honor local businesses and individuals.
Greenwell, a father of two, is active in numerous community organizations,
including his church, the Drug-Free Coalition, the Chamber, the
recently-developed Drug Court and the Lions Club.
"He did what we wish more young people would do come
home to Crittenden County - and immediately got involved in so
many activities," said Marion Main Street Director Rose Crider.
"Everybody has something nice to say about Zac. He's a wonderful
grandson, son, friend, and a wonderful husband and father
isn't that a great measure of a man," Crider said, also quoting
Greenwell's wife Marcie.
Greenwell said he is proud to have returned to Crittenden County
following college and law school.
"I am proud to be one soldier in the militia," intent
on keeping Crittenden County a great place to live and raise families,
he said.
Mayor Mick Alexander said you have to be out early to see Emily
Shelby in action. The longtime business owner, who was named the
Chamber's Unsung Hero, is often out just after daylight
sometimes downtown in her golf cart planting or watering
flowers or checking on the nice, white trash receptacles for which
she is responsible. Shelby modeled the idea of the white trash
containers, which feature seasonal flowers on top, after some
she saw while traveling in the South. Shelby had another idea
that took off last year, refurbishing parking meters that were
removed from downtown sidewalks. She has customized many with
decals, photos and logos depicting their owners' lifestyles or
tastes.
Crittenden County Farm Bureau, which began in the 1930s with 50
members and has grown to 1,500 members, was the Chamber's recipient
of the Community Pride Award. It gives an annual scholarship to
a Crittenden County High School senior and donates to FFA, the
Soil Conservation Distrct and the local 4-H program.
District Judge Tommy Simpson was the keynote speaker, addressing
the court system's impact on local businesses. Simpson noted that
between attorney's offices and law-related offices in the courthouse,
jail and state police, the legal system provides about 40 jobs
here.
New board members were sworn during the banquet. They include
Johnny Newcom, Adria Mott, Rob Ison, Tiffany Blazina and Claudia
Eisenmann.
Additionally, outgoing Chamber president Donnetta Travis handed
the gavel over to the 2005-2006 president Ryan McDaniel.
Cruce
appears in TNT mini-series
A former Marion man may make it back into town by the airwaves
as he makes his television debut as an extra in the mini-series,
"Into the West."
Don Cruce, of Pecos, New Mexico, will appear in the fifth episode
of the six-part production.
"It's not at all like I thought it was going to be,"
he said.
Cruce said he was impressed by the amount of time is took to shoot
a segment, totaling 14 hours one day, but he was amazed at the
contrast between the 1870s western town being captured by the
cameras and the vehicles, trailers and other modern luxuries just
off of the set.
If he's not cut from the shots, Cruce said he can be seen throughout
the episode-walking his German shepherd, escorting a woman by
the arm, greeting passengers on a train, joining a mob demanding
guns of a hardware store and investigating the brand-new invention
of the typewriter.
As an extra, Cruce has no speaking roles.
But being off-camera had its perks too, Cruce said.
The food was free and the extras ate prime rib on two days of
the shooting, he said.
Cruce said that when he went to apply for a role in the mini-series,
all off the extras had already been hired.
But Cruce said that when he strolled into the extra base camp
in an authentic classic western outfit, the only kind of dress
clothing in his closet besides civil war uniforms, he was cast
immediately. He was the only extra to supply his own dress for
the shoots.
Cruce said he has always been interested in the Civil War and
the old West. He belongs to the Sons of Confederate Veterans because
his great uncle, a Confederate soldier, was killed in the Battle
of Shiloh.
"I think I should have been born in 1839 instead of 1939,"
he said. "All the modern houses, the modern music, the modern
clothes, I don't particularly care for."
New Mexico is an up-and-coming state in the film industry because
it's not as crowded as Southern California and it has less smog,
Cruce said.
The mini-series is scheduled to begin airing on Turner Network
Television (TNT) June 10 and the fifth episode is scheduled for
July 8, Cruce said.
The Steven Spielberg and Ted Turner production was filmed in and
near Galisteo, New Mexico from January until May 2005.