Stories from Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Merry Christmas to everyone out there.

Looking back 70 years, GCDW's Jo Chiparo writes about the Battle of the Bulge and our military men and women who serve away from home over the holidays.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- A county in southeastern Indiana reached an agreement Friday with a group suing to force the removal of a Nativity scene on the courthouse lawn that will allow the decades-old display to remain in place through Christmas. Attorneys for Franklin County and the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana came to the agreement following a Friday hearing before a federal judge on the ACLU's request for a preliminary injunction seeking the display's removal...

SANTA CLAUS -- The letters were piling up. Christmas, just days away. Nine volunteers -- they call themselves elves -- sat around a table, red-ink pens in hand, writing personal notes in response to letters from around the world. Signing, at the end, "Santa Claus."...

Raymond Lee Emery, 79, of Middletown, Indiana passed away Tuesday December 23, 2014 at Clarebridge Assisted Living in Carmel, Indiana. Born July 14, 1935 in Greene County, Indiana the son of Albert R. and Martha Agnes (Cole) Emery. Raymond graduated from Scotland High School in 1954, he was a U.S. Army veteran, he married Ingrid on August 3, 1960 in Berlin, Germany. Raymond retired from General Motors/Delphi, and he loved farming...

Tiffany Bryant has made many choices in her life. And what she gave up might shock some people. More than once she's made choices that have put her far from her home in Texas. Her family is what she refers to as "old school money." She came from a ranching family and the means to being able to do pretty much what she wanted in life. ...

Dear Santa, My name is Kayden A. and I am ten years old. I live in Linton, Indiana. Thank you for the new bike, and I love it because it has Kyle Bushes 18 sticker on it. I didn't get a dirtbike last year. I was good this year. I hit my brother one time, and I promise that I will not hit him again. I want a dirtbike and Nascar stuff because I really like that stuff. I want my dad to have a big tool kit. I want my mom to have some perfume. I hope you have a safe trip home. Love, Kayden A...

Dear Saint Nick, What I want for Christmas is for the children at Riley Hospital to have a wonderful Christmas and for them to have toys, to see Santa, see their family, and to get well. Please! I would love that and so will the kids at Riley Hospital...

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials. It became a Christmas tradition in Greene County where the Bloomfield Evening World reprinted the letter and the editorial every year...

Becky Bailey Peacock age 67, of Holland, died Tuesday, December 23, 2014 at her home. Becky was born in Connersville, Indiana on January 12, 1947, the daughter of Howard and Jane Bailey. She earned her bachelor's degree from Indiana University and taught High School Spanish and Phycology in Peoria Heights, Illinois before moving to Holland...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana Department of Transportation maintenance supervisors across the state are closely monitoring local weather forecasts and pavement sensors to deploy salt trucks before Christmas Eve rains transition to snow and wintry mix on state highways. Because this storm is leading off with rain, pre-treating roads and bridges must be done just before pavement temperatures fall below freezing and snow and ice begin to accumulate...

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) -- Driving for Christmas travelers could become treacherous across much of Indiana as rain is expected to change to snow. The National Weather Service has issued winter weather advisories for Wednesday afternoon and night covering the Indiana counties roughly north and west of a line between Terre Haute and South Bend...

From everyone at the Greene County Daily World to all of our readers and advertisers, we wish you a Merry Christmas. The Greene County Daily World will be delivered as usual this week with a Christmas Eve paper published on Wednesday and Friday and Saturday papers published on schedule.....

Terry L. Medlock, 64, of Linton, Ind., passed away on Tuesday, December 23, 2014, at the Greene County General Hospital. He was born in Linton, Ind., on November 19, 1950, to Kenneth M. and Altha Laverne (Wright) Medlock. Terry married Carla L. Bargar on August 19, 1972...