Years ago a small city hospital called a Henryetta businessman. They asked him if he could come and donate a pint of blood. A baby girl had been born that day and due to complications at birth she was about to die. A blood transfusion might save her.

The man stood from his desk, grabbed a jacket and hurried to the hospital. It didn’t matter that he had already given six pints of blood in the last few months. A little girl needed him he would do it. He knew firsthand what it was like to have a baby daughter at the threshold of death. It was a fear he could share with the baby’s parents. If he could help them he would.

Some 20 years later that same man was walking down the city’s Main Street when he noticed a woman looking at him strangely.

She called him by name. “Yes,” he answered. “I am he.” “Well, sir, my daughter is alive today because you gave your blood.” He looked at her strangely, uncertain of what she was saying.

She continued, “When my daughter was born, we nearly lost her. We would have if you hadn’t come to the hospital and given her your blood. I just wanted to thank you for saving her life.” With that she walked on down the street.

The man stared after her. He later admitted that her words gave him “the strangest feeling.”

Unlike the businessman, most of us never see the results of giving our blood. Many times it becomes an obligation that we do “because we have to.” Yet, with every pint of blood we give, we touch a life. If we could just learn to look at the results of our giving, instead of the obligation, how many more babies could we save?

Think about it. By the way, the story above is true. The blood donor is my father, Lenard Stubbs.

Senior Janet Rutland has been chosen as the Student of the Month for September at Dewar High School.

Currently holding the position of class president, she has also served as president of her junior and freshman classes as well as sophomore class reporter. She has been a member of FHA for four years, serving as reporter, secretary, East Sub-District 111 president, and currently holds the office of president of her local chapter.

A cheerleader, she played basketball for two years and is a four-year member of the National and Oklahoma Honor Societies; maintains a 4.0 grade point average; and is listed in “Who’s Who Among American High School Students” and is an academic All-American.

Rutland was football homecoming attendant her sophomore year and, as a senior, is a candidate for queen. She was editor of the school newspaper her junior year and is currently editor of the yearbook.

50 YEARS AGO – 1972

Have you ever begun a question with the familiar phrase, “Why don’t they?” Especially in reference to the “powers that be” in our Nation’s Capital?

Within the next few weeks many candidates for a place in that select group will be working hard to convince the voters in their area that they are the best qualified to do the job that you, the voter, wants done. During this time we, the people, will have the opportunity to listen to the candidates’ opinions on the problems that confront us. By the time election day arrives, we will then be better educated for casting on ballots.

When our elected representatives begin their job in Washington we will still all have a better knowledge, then of why they vote the way they do.

Take time from now till election day to study the candidates and then vote according to your convictions.

Our priceless heritage embodied in the flag of the United States is as alive today as it was when written for the ages in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

It stands for all the world to see and for all Americans to cherish. And in the tradition of Washington, Jefferson and Hamilton, we, too, have a privilege, a right and a duty.

While we may disagree as to the methods, we should not disagree as to the goal of preserving the greatest democratic society the world has ever known.

Our flag is a symbol, not a sentiment, but of history, the history of men and women willing to live and die for it. Surely this willingness is with us still, because daily we experience more of the blessings that are ours - ours because we are Americans.

A display of the Henryetta Free-Lance trophy, ribbons and certificates won in this year’s state competition is on display in the window of Public Service Company, 415 West Main.

The Free-Lance Friday was awarded the prize for being the best small city daily in Oklahoma for the last year. The contest sponsored by the Oklahoma State Fair and the Oklahoma Press Association is judged by out of state professional newsmen.

The Free-Lance won first place in four of the six events, second in one and third in one and chalked up more points than the next two papers combined to win the sweepstakes trophy.

Mrs. Roma Jones, 82-year-old resident of a local nursing home, is the author of a book, called “Experiences in Christian Life and Answers to Prayer.”

Mrs. Jones was born in Jefferson County, Missouri, and moved to the Henryetta area over 60 years ago. In 1920, she was married to W.T. Jones in Okmulgee.

In 1936, Jones died; and his wife was left alone to raise eight children, the oldest of which was 14. The book relates her experiences during the difficult years of the Depression.

Mrs. Jones summed up her own attitude in this situation, “I believed the Lord would help anyone who helped themselves. My difficulties at that time brought me to stronger faith in the Lord.”

Mrs. Jones' book will be published October 10 by Gulf Coast Bible College Printing Press of Houston. She wrote the book during the past year, where she has been living at Fountain View Manor. The purpose of the manuscript is to “warm your heart and increase your faith.”

Mrs. Jones has eight children, 12 grandchildren and nine great grandchildren. She has written a second book entitled “Love That Conquered.”

100 YEARS AGO – 1922

Chief of Police Stormont recovered a stolen car yesterday evening and alleged to have stolen it. The car is a new Ford Coupe and was stolen from Todd Nelson, 818 West Thirteen Street, in Oklahoma City a week ago last night.

The chief discovered the car in a garage yesterday evening and later examined it and found the numbers were the same as the ones reported being on the stolen car.

Then after tying up the car, he went to find the man who had left it in the garage. He found Jimmie Williams who said he had purchased the car and he finally admitted that the man from whom he purchased it was named Drake and that he had just left the hotel.

The chief had seen a man leaving as he went to find Williams and remembered him.

Passing out onto the street, he soon met the man and called him Drake. The man halted and turned around when the chief told him he wanted him.

“What for?” asked Drake. Selling whisky, said the chief. I never sold whiskey in my life, said Drake. I cannot even get enough to drink.

On nearing the station the chief informed Drake that he was wanted for the theft of the car in Oklahoma City. The man was locked in jail and the authorities at Oklahoma City notified.

An officer from there will arrive today to take the man back to Oklahoma City.

Jimmy Williams declares he is out $150 on the purchase.

This afternoon the chief was preparing to “mug” Drake and take his fingerprints.

The annual session of the convention of the Episcopal Church of Oklahoma convened in the church of the Redeemer Tuesday with the Rev. Theodore Payne Thurston, Bishop of Oklahoma, presiding.

Following the celebration of the Holy Communion the following committee on credentials was appointed by the bishop: Rev. William J. Lloyd of Muskogee; Rev. William C. Garrett, Tulsa, and Rev. John C. Delana, El Reno.

In the making a plea for the observance of the spirt as well as the letter of the prohibition law, Bishop Thurston in his annual address said: “It is quite within the strict letter of the law for those who stored liquor in their homes prior to the Law going into effect, to drink that liquor in their own homes and to offer it to their friends in their own homes. But I maintain that it is not in accordance with the spirit of the law to do this. To do so engenders class spirit and tends toward a lax moral standard. I think the intent of the law was that drinking intoxicants should stop in this country. I believe I am right in that interpretation.

“If some who could financially do so, did lay up a store of it and if they obeying the intent, the spirit of the law? I agree they are obeying the letter of it, but quite confidently do I maintain they are not keeping its spirit. And, furthermore, by continuing to use it, they are undoubtedly doing much to raise a class feeling among men, and they are doing violence to that spirit of self-sacrifice and service which should be the dominating influence among all Christian folk.”

The annual meeting of the stockholders of Henryetta Building & Loan Association was held last evening at the office of the secretary in Perry building. This meeting had been advertised for some time, and was in accordance with every requirement.

On motion of R. B. F. Hummer, George Riley Hall was chairman, and called the meeting to order. The purpose was to elect a new board of directors, seven in number. One to serve one year, three for two years and three for three years.

There was a total of sixty one thousand dollars’ worth of stock represented, either in person or by proxies and the election proceeded. The result of the balloting was to elect the following gentlemen on the board; Frank Dashiel, to serve one year. Walter R. Wilson, E.T. Morgan and P. G. Santee to serve two years; I. H. Cunningham, George W. Burrous and R. B. F. Hummer to serve three years.

The new board of directors will meet and elect a chairman, secretary and treasurer, and the affairs of the company will be put in readiness for the New Year’s business. Prospects are very encouraging and this home concern may become an important factor in the great work of building up the town.

Testifying that he believed, in his best judgment, that the man he saw with a gun in his hand, descend the stairs of the building in which John Gray was killed, was Dan O’Hara, who is being tried on a charge of murder Frank Thompson of Mena, Ark., yesterday established the connecting link upon which the state bases its hope for conviction.

O’Hara is charged with the murder of Gray in a holdup of a poker game at Henryetta.

Thompson testified that he had been in Henryetta, but a very short time when the shooting occurred, and that he had never seen O’Hara before. He said that the man who ran down the steps of the building was dressed in a slicker and crushed hat, which it was shown, were later found in an alley nearby, together with a gun.

Jim Stormont, chief of police at Henryetta, testified that the gun found with the slicker and hat had not been fired.

Later in the day, O’Hara taking the stand in his defense, recounted in detail his actions of the night of the murder last June 5, and said that the only part he played in the whole affair was that played by many other curious persons he sought to find out what it was all about, and mingled with the crowd trying to learn the details of the affair.

He said that he had started home from down town in company with the woman at whose place he boarded, when he heard the shot fired, and that then he turned his car around and went back to see what had happened. He left the woman in the car, he said, and started up the street, when he met three men running toward the corner in the opposite direction. He turned and went back to the direction they were going, he said, and one of the men told him what had happened. This, he said, was the first he knew of who was shot.

Several other witnesses took the stand to hear out portions of his story. He remained unshaken in his account of his activities that night, through a half hour’s cross-examination.

The defense probably will rest its case sometime today and the case is expected to be placed in the jury’s hands before night.