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Columns

  • The 1951 plane crash recalled

    On the morning of Aug. 27, 1951, folks in Vandalia were shaken up when sounds of a small airplane in distress filled the morning sky.
    Witnesses told The Vandalia Leader that the airplane was observed making three or more spirals through the clouds, and next they observed its rapid angular descent with throttle wide open, virtually skimming treetops.
    The four-passenger Bonanza Beechcraft airplane made a nose-dive into Carl Boggs’s car parked along South Sixth Street near Old Capitol Monument Works, where Boggs was employed at the time.

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  • Vandalia Memories
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  • The Way We Were

    20 Years Ago

    1997 – Carey Oldfield of Vandalia, the 1996 Miss Fayette County Fair queen, was in Springfield to compete in the Illinois Miss County Fair pageant.
    Fayette County was hit with several bursts of snow and freezing rain.
    The Vandalia wrestling team held on to the No. 1 spot in Class A in the state.

    25 Years Ago

    1992 – St. Louis-based Laclede Steel selected Vandalia for its new pipe finishing and warehouse facility. It was to employ 54 workers.

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  • Banks of the Okaw

    There is no photo this week.
    There was no photo last week.
    This week’s Scrambler: ebospmrl etrace ueotpirosntip.
    Can you unscramble it? If so, call The Leader-Union, 283-3374, by 5 p.m. next Monday.
    Last week’s Scrambler: Opportunity's favorite disguise is trouble.
    Unscrambling it were: Larry Cable, Ruth Ann Garrison, Juanita Workman, Sandy Guffey, Cy and Lorene Locke, Harold and Loretta Tidwell, Wayne and Bonnie Purtilar, and Andrew Crosswait.

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  • The Way We Were

    20 Years Ago

    1997 – The Vandalia Board of Education voted to have the Mt. Vernon architectural firm of Wilson, Hodge & Groh conduct a study regarding the district’s shortage of space.
    Mothers Against Drunk Driving of Fayette County held a candlelight vigil at First Baptist Church in Vandalia in memory of those killed or injured in accidents caused by drunk drivers.
    Howard and Lucille Wells celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

    25 Years Ago

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  • Vandalia Memories
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  • A murder that was never solved

    The case began with a telephone call to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office in early December 1962.
    Lyle McDonald, the newly elected sheriff, took the call and was asked whether a loss claim for a wallet found in a schoolyard near Herrick had been made. The wallet contained $500 and belonged to a man named Tony O’Dell.
    The caller said he did not want to get involved, but the sheriff should check some schoolhouse wells in the Herrick area for a body.

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  • Hale taught others during WWII

    “Oh, but I wasn’t in the fighting” was the response Aviation Chief Radio Technician Wayne Hale gave me when I told him he was the subject of my Veterans Day column.

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  • Vandalia Memories
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  • The Way We Were

    20 Years Ago

    1996 – The Vandalia City Council voted to pay $260,000 for 26.08 acres of land east of Owens-Brockway and south of John Crane, with plans to give part of that land to Signature Label to retain the local industry.
    The Vandalia Community High School band and band instructor Sean Reed-Bippen, went to the Vandalia Moose Lodge to record their halftime show for a compact disc. VCHS was one of seven schools chosen for the CD.

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