Utica Area News

I could not send in news last week because many on our side of Huntsville internet hookups were off line. If I had enough warning, I could have put what news I had on a thumb drive and my son Tom could have sent it, but I did not have all of the obituary and other news from home downloaded before it shut down. It has been a very trying week. I hope all of you had a peaceful Happy Easter and that your younger generations got to do more than eat dinner, hide and hunt Easter eggs, and deal with having no internet, I have been without smartphone or computer internet for almost two weeks. Those smartphones get mighty dumb when you cannot get through to google or any other server. I am reporting sad news and the deaths of young men and respected citizens this week.

Fred Thomas Cessna, age 68, son of Eugene and Edna Earl Morrison Cessna, husband to Sherry Martin Cessna, father to Chad Cessna, and two grandchildren, Utica Class of 1972, passed away on April 8, 2022. He was a lifelong resident of Utica and a member of Salem Baptist Church. His services were held on April 11 at Salem, and he is interred in the Morrison family plot at Salem Cemetery. Fred was preceded in passing by his father Eugene Cessna, and is survived by his mother Edna Earl Cessna, brothers, Gary, Arthur, Bill, Gene, Roy, Gene, sister Della Cessna Leach, his wife Sherry and son Chad, both grandchildren, his uncles Wade and Neal Morrison, and numerous nieces and nephews, cousins, and other relatives and friends in our community who are all missing him greatly.

Jeffrey Todd Hall, age 49, son of John Thomas and Marie White Hall, father of McKenzie Hall, died suddenly at his home near Raymond. Jeff was a talented and gifted man, as is his daughter, and he was well known in the area contemporary art world. His services were held on April 9, 2022, at Wright and Ferguson Funeral Home at Raymond, and he was interred in the Hall family plot at the Robison Family Cemetery on West Main Street at Utica. The current generations of Halls and Stevens are descendants of the pioneer Robison and Broome and other related families interred there in the old historic cemetery. He was laid to rest beside his father John and his older brother Steve.

Jeff was disabled for a number of years and could not hold a regular job. He graduated from the University of South Alabama. Jeff is survived by his mother Marie, his daughter MacKenzie, his younger brother Ryan, sisters-in-law Nikki Hall and Melissa Hall, nieces and nephews Zoey, Brianna, Aiden, Austin, and Casey, and many other family and friends who miss his greatly.

Tommie John Cagle III, age 46, was killed in a car wreck at Yazoo City MS, on April 9, 2022. He was the son of Tommie John Cagle Jr. originally from Utica, and Billie Jo Cagle, his step-mother Mary Abney, his special friend Kandance Horton, his son Noah Cagle, step-daughter Brayden Norton, sister Vicki Cagle, brothers Anthony and William Cagle, and many relatives and friends who miss him greatly.

John was a member of Holy Savior Catholic Church, and was a self-employed carpenter and craftsman. His services were held on April 11, 2022 at Stricklin King Funeral Home in Yazoo City with burial at the Clinton City Cemetery in Clinton MS.

Dorothy Jean Hayes Little, age 84, daughter of Howard Hayes and Beatrice Foshee Hayes, widow of Hubert Maurice Little Jr., of Utica, died on March 26, 2022. She was born on November 14, 1937, at Byram MS, where she graduated from high school in 1956. Dorothy married Hubert Maurice Little Jr. In 1958, and they lived at Carpenter MS, the seat of the Little pioneer family.

Maurice was killed in a plane crash in 1968. She continued to live in Carpenter until their children were grown, then moved to Madison MS. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, her daughter Cheryl Little, and two grandsons, Blake Little and Dan Yates, her stepfather Joe Ladner, and her in-laws Hubert Sr. and Cherry Little. Dorothy is survived by her son Hubert Maurice (Trey) Little III, daughters Torey Little Yates and Teresa Little Geter, her grandchildren Christy Gregory Lovelace, Tanner Little, Nash Little, Stephen Yates, Lee Yates, Ashley Geter, Jessie Geter, and seven great grandchildren.

Dot Hambright’s daughter Dottie Willis reported that her mother is now at The Bluffs assisted living center in Vicksburg, and would love to have friends and family visit or call or write her.

Betty Gray, mother of Terry Gray Jr. and Dona Gray Hales, and grandmother and great grandmother to a large bunch of Hales and Grays, finished her last cancer treatment two weeks ago, and she got to ring the cancer-free gong at the cancer center in Jackson on her way out! She has been ill for the past year, but a lot of us either did nor know, or were asked not to tell until now. Get well, Betty! We need to see you bouncing around as your usual cheerful self! If we can help you, let Dona know and get in touch with what we can do. In the photo Dona posted you looked very cold (all hospitals freeze us to pieces), so Spring coming on would be a big help.

Lindell Walley reported her daughter Dawn is enduring cancer treatments in Texas, and could use our prayers and calls and facebook messages.

Helen Cook’s sons report that she is in the hospital in Arkansas. They gave no particulars, only that she would be there for a few days.

Dot Conerly Horn is have spinal problems again, and she said that her brother Clyde Conerly was happy to see the back of his hospital in south Mississippi. Clyde, retired Air Force, is enjoying life as much as he can, and now that his daughter is retiring from teaching at Raymond Elementary, they will have more time to do things and travel more.

Patsy Puckett Boyd is at Vicksburg Rehab on Cherry Street in Vicksburg, and if it were allowed, she would love to have company. I hope things have loosened up enough that Larry and their children and grandchildren are not still having to stand outside her window and shout through it to talk with her because they are not allowed in. If they ever lift the ban on visiting people in senior citizen and retirement and rehab places, it would greatly improve those patients’ attitudes and outlooks on their own conditions. God willing, some of them may even be able to get out of those places!

Michael Ayala, grandson of Zackie Strong, is now stationed at Camp Pendleton in southern California. He is a US Marine Corps working in Reconnaissance and Intelligence.

Utica had a boom time over the Easter week and weekend. The Utica Operation Christmas Child mission and rummage sale was going on all week in the gym at Utica Baptist Church. Twisted B and Jerry’s craft stalls were both having grand openings. The Yates and Fields took unused space and are renting it out to people with crafts and good items for sale. The pizza shop and Deneen’s catfish shop, and maybe more, were open for business. Cane Ridge Antiques is open and selling antiques and restoring furniture for folks.

I will note once again that I am looking for a safe home for a lot of Utica Advertiser newspapers, bound volumes for years, until it was closed down and became part of the Hinds County Gazette. I gave as many as they would take to the Mississippi Dept. of Archives and History. They need in a safe place from thieves and vandals, climate controlled location. I also have other old ledgers and volumes of various county history information that need to go to the same place. Call or text or write of you are interested. The town church bulletins are full of lists of sick folks, mostly about us outside of town. Frankly, all of us could use some maintenance and rehab and pampering at our ages, especially those of us over 80, but I am embarrassed to complain when I see people 15-20 years older than me carrying on and still going strong. I think they must have some help!

This past week, our Sun threw us a solar blast that could nave knocked out a lot of our satellite working, things we take for granted, like weather satellites, fast news cycles, aerial photography, and other space benefits we never give a thought to how safe they keep us. I hope all our military and intelligence satellites are Sun-proof and terrorist proof with multiple backups.

While all that was going on, Venus. Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars were aligning themselves in our night skies so that we could see them without telescopes this week and next. It would take a lot to outshine all the planets in alignment a couple of months ago that were so close and bright, I could see them with my old eyes, no glasses or telescopes needed.

I have seen far too many gripes on facebook from Utica folks about their water lines being slow or out. Those are all Reedtown Water Association, but I think they had help from some adjoining water company lines south of town causing them problems. I hope they all get fixed soon. We have all been spoiled by having good water lines, and until they get messed up, we don’t notice or complain. I am glad to have South Central Water Association, and I think they have the best water in Mississippi. My complaint is their bills keep going up, although they are far below towns in Hinds County’s water bills, and have good drinking water!

The coronavirus that hit us in November 2018 (seems like an eternity ago) is not much in the news but our bureaucrats are keeping us locked down and masked up anyway. As of this writing, Mississippi has had 796,348 cases with 12,422 deaths. That is a decrease of 17 percent in cases, and a decrease of 57 percent in deaths. Mississippi has over 86 percent of people 65 and older vaccinated, and 51 percent of those 5 and up vaccinated. It is finally coming down to those of us who are vaccinated are protecting those unvaccinated people safe from themselves!

The medical guys are recommending a second booster shot if your virus due date is close at hand. I had my first booster in November 2021, and would be eligible for a second booster in May 2022. I will certainly get one if it comes available. Travel, retail, restaurants, food, and entertainment businesses are the hardest hit by the coronavirus, but all are starting to come back. Support your local businesses. The big box stores were hit as well, but the little guys went under last year in all of this madness.

You may not care about this, but since we just got through sending in taxes that we felt were too hard and too high, I went to the trouble to look this up. In 2020, we taxpayers paid over $3.5 TRILLION dollars in taxes, and got back $736 BILLION back in refunds. None made it my way, but it is always worth looking anyway. 94 percent of all returns were done electronically, and audits were primarily done to people who filed more than simple returns, like small businesses and farmers. I dug deeper and found that since the 1791-1795 Whiskey Rebellion in which the USA government killed a bunch of citizens, many things have happened. In 2018, the IRS had 80,000 employees, who are always complaining about not having enough help.

We had no income tax until President Abraham Lincoln taxed the Yankee citizens to pay for the Civil War. Congress made it be repealed not long after the War was over. In 1913, Congress passed a new 16th Amendment to raise revenue. We had not gotten into World War I yet but the feds were spending too much money. It was ratified by enough states to become law in 1916. The income tax was 1 percent on every $3,000 you earned, and the creation of a Form 1040. In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt got a big increase in taxes to help pay for World War II and the Depression programs. It was raised again in 1944, and this time was on all of us as individuals and not just on businesses.

In 1952, President Harry Truman called for a raise to pay for WWI and Korean Conflict. In 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower called for more to build the interstate highway system that was also billed as a defense highway. In 1954, a date for collection, April 15, was set in a bill. In 1961, the first computerized income tax paperwork was initiated. President Lyndon Johnson was responsible for the Great Society in which huge increases in welfare. Medicare, and other taxes were enacted. These were in Congress when John Kennedy was killed, so they were really Kennedy increases as much as Johnson ones. We made it to 1974, when the various levels of withholding were established and were withheld from our paychecks. I think you get the picture of our woes, because Congress never got a dime it could not spend. As the Federal government was doing this, the States got into these programs, and almost every state now has an income tax. In larger states and cities, they now have county and city taxes to add to the Federal and State taxes.

Once upon a time, sales taxes were supposed to cover expenses with maybe gasoline and other type taxes helping out. We now have all of those, plus whatever else these governments can get from us. Our public education taxes now are more than all of the taxes we had put on us just 100 years ago. Added up, they come to more than 60 percent of our income every year. That is why the younger generations feel like they are taxed to pieces. They are, and so are the rest of us. I don’t even want to think about how we are going to repay all of the loans and debts we have incurred in just the past 20 years at the Federal level alone.

I got on my soap box again. Think about those taxes, and see if you can think a way out of the mess we are in from just taxes. Of course, the mess is in the spending, and Congress’ and our states spending money they did not have. Or, they obligated federal and states to spend money they did not have revenue for.

Earth Day is April 22, 2022, 52nd Anniversary. Just for this next week, do something good for the environment around your house, in town, at church, and in the community, parks, cemeteries, your creeks and rivers, every day. Earth cleanup and improvement has to start at our level. Recycle. Plant a tree. Send a check to The Nature Conservancy. There are a lot of things you can do, each and every one of you. Anyway, have a good week, and until next week, send me your news!