Local/Area News

 There's going to be a lot of cars in downtown Henryetta June 10 as the annual Cruise Knight gets underway. 
This year the event features the return of the ever-popular burnout contest where drivers do their best to heat up their tires. That iwll be held in the O''Reiley's parking lot at 6 p.m. Saturday night.
Event organizer Christy Jeffcoat spent a few minutes outlining the activities guaranteed to delight motorheads as well as those who just like looking at some stylinh cars.

 This is the weekend for the Roy Madden Spring Roundup Rodeo to open the gates and provide a lot of entertianment for everyone.
The rodeo was named in honor of the late Henryetta CHamber of Commerce executive director Roy Madden who died in 2021. It has long been a must-go-to rodeo for a lot of area cowboys and cowgirls who want to show off their riding and roping skills.
Starting off the evenening's action will be the ever popular Mutton Bustin' that gives the youngsters an opportunity to hang onto the wool from some sheep that are determined to get away from their riders. It starts at 7 p.m. each evening. The main rodeo events start at 8 p.m. at the Living Legends rodeo arena at Nichols Park.
Getting tickets for one or both nights has been made even easier now with the addition of an online ticket sales portal. Just go to www.rodeoticket.com and spectators can get their tickets delivered to their phones.

 The road along Troy Aikman Drive is quiet now that school is out but students walking in front of the high school in August will see five new redbud trees shading their path.
Those trees were planted Tuesday morning as memorials for Brittany Brewer, Tiffany Guess, Rylee Allen, Ivy Webster and Michael Mayo.
Those students were killed by pedophile Jesse McFadden last month.
Nearly 50 volunteers were on hand Tuesday to plant the trees and place granite markers bearing the names of each victim at their base.
Brittany’s father, Nathan, said the trees were planted in a set order with Tiffany’s tree and marker in the center flanked by Ivy and Brittany because they were best friends. The trees and markers for Michael and Rylee are next to each other because of their ages.
Several times during the morning work family members and friends chocked back tears as emotions surfaced with memories of the young victims.
The two families have started an effort to bring the problems with child sex predators to light and address laws that need to change.
McFadden, a convicted sex offender, was released from prison after serving part of his sentence for a 2003 rape. He was facing trial for using a smuggled cellphone sexting with an underage girl in 2017 while still in prison.
That has led to questions about how he could have received time off of his sentence for “good behavior” after those charges were filed.
The high school students were all shot by McFadden along with his wife, Holly before he killed himself.

 Fallen comrades were honored Monday morning at the annual Memorial Day service at Westlawn Cemetery. 

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Volunteers fanned out across Westlawn cemetery Saturday morning making sure the graves of all veterans are recognized this Memorial Day weekend.
Some 2,500 flags were placed by the head stones and markers of the veterans, some of those resting places occupied by Civil War veterans. 
The flags are provided by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 539 and are also placed in cemeteries from Wilson to Hoffman, Weleetka to Sonora.