Stories from Thursday, April 16, 2020

With the Governor’s announcement of school closure for the remainder of the school year, all remaining TSSAA events for 2019-20, including all spring sports and the postponed state basketball tournaments, are cancelled. This is an unprecedented time across our state and country, and we do not make this decision lightly. ...

My first year was a trip, time whirled by in 2006 and before I knew it, the prep sports faucet of live games had turned off. Things were still happening though as a prior May tour by college football coaches coming to Lewisburg to scout Marshall County’s Dont’a Hightower grew to fever pitch when Tennessee Vols coach Phillip Fulmer came and was followed by representatives from Auburn, and finally the big one when Alabama’s Nick Saban touched down in a private jet at Ellington Airport.

I recently spoke on Facebook to a good friend of mine, someone I have much respect for and have shared some huge moments on the athletic fields from the time she was in seventh grade. Jasmine Runk is a 2018 Forrest graduate and sophomore at Columbia State Community College where she was just getting started competing in her second sport of the season as a Lady Charger softball player before embarking to Glenville State College in West Virginia in August to continue her academic career and the difficult endeavor of being a two-support athlete in soccer and softball.

NASHVILLE – Tennessee State Parks Tuesday announced it will extend the closure of all 56 state parks as officials at the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation continue to monitor health and safety guidance related to COVID-19. The announcement extends Tennessee State Parks’ current closure beyond the previously announced April 14. Officials are closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation and will notify the public when parks reopen...

Mrs. Dorothy Pinkston Hursh, 97, resident of Lewisburg, died peacefully on Tuesday, April 14, 2020, at Village Manor Assisted Living. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in accordance with Governor Bill Lee’s Executive Order No. 23, a private family service will be held at the Sunset Park Mausoleum...

Brooks M. Leftwich, Marshall County High School’s Class of 2015 Valedictorian, has been selected for a Fulbright Scholarship to Taiwan for the 2020-21 academic year. He will spend the year as an English Teaching Assistant to supplement local English language instruction and to provide a native speaker presence in the classroom...

On Wednesday, Gov. Bill Lee announced an expanded COVID-19 testing initiative, which will be available, at no cost, to all state residents, whether they show symptoms of the virus or not. “Testing has been a real challenge in this country,” Lee said during his press conference Wednesday. “We’ve had to be resourceful.”...

The Marshall County School System will follow Gov. Bill Lee’s recommendation and not return to finish out this school year. Director of Schools Jacob Sorrells confirmed the end of the county’s school year in an email on Thursday morning. He added that details of how the schools would wrap up the year would be forthcoming in the next week or two...