News Stories

Sunday, August 29, 2010 Edition

Dove nominees

The Marksmen Quartet will bring their unique style of gospel music to a long list of talent featured at the 34th annual Bluegrass Festival, Sept. 2-5 at Salmon Lake Park in Grapeland.

The Marksmen will appear Saturday and Sunday at the four-day event. Tickets for Saturday are $15 and Sunday tickets are $10. For more information, contact Floyd and Fannie Salmon, at (936) 687-2594 or salmonlakepark.com. Also appearing are Appointed, The Coleman Brothers, The Gillette Brothers, Goldwing Express, Bill Grant, Louisiana Grass, Nothin' Fancy, Salt Grass, Shady Grove Ramblers, Triple L Band and Welch Mountain Bluegrass.

The Marksmen Quartet was nominated for its second Dove Award for “Blue Ridge Mountain Memories,” a CD from Rural Rhythm. The Four-time Contemporary Bluegrass Gospel Group of the Year and four-time Country Gospel Quartet of the Year winners from the Country Gospel Music Guild will perform many of their hit songs including “He Is I Am,” “Meet Me In Heaven,” “Potter’s Wheel,” “Preach the Cross” and “Grandpa Was a Farmer.” They will also share material from both of their Dove- nominated CDs “God’s Masterpiece” and “Blue Ridge Mountain Memories.”

They were recently nominated as Gospel Group of the Year by the Society for Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America with the awards coming up in Nashville. “It is such an honor to be included with these great artists,” said Earle Wheeler, quartet leader. “While awards and nomina-tions help to cheer our spirits and encourage us, the focus and purpose of what we do each week is to share God’s message in song and word wherever He allows us to go.”

After more than 40 albums, winning four times as Gospel Bluegrass Band of the Year from SPBGMA, the group continues its legendary musical legacy with Earle Wheeler, Mark Wheeler, Darrin Chambers, Davey Waller and Mark Autry.

The Marksmen Quartet is an inductee of the Lone Star State Country Music Association Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame. For more information about the group, visit www.marksmenquartet.com.

DETCOG board endorses Hunt for TARC vice presidency

The Deep East Texas Council of Governments (DETCOG) approved a resolution at its regular meeting Thursday, Aug. 26, in support of Houston County Judge Lonnie Hunt in his candidacy for vice president of the Texas Association of Regional Councils. Hunt currently serves as DETCOG’s first vice president, standing in when President Donnie Henson is unavailable. Next month at its Sept. 17 meeting, the TARC will select its new officers.

Hunt explained there are 24 councils of government (COGs) around the state that belong to TARC. Hunt, who has served on the TARC board for about a year, said the association provides a lot of training, support and networking, and assistance with various governmental agencies. TARC meets quarterly, he said. “It's just an opportunity to be involved at a little bit higher level at the table when decisions are made that affect local government,” Hunt said.

He expressed the philosophy that the more local officials are involved in such organizations, the better it is for the local community. “The more involved you are the more you learn and the more contacts you make,” he said. “I do believe in regionalism,” Hunt said, “There's so much Houston County couldn't do without partnering with our neighbors.”

Also at the Aug. 26 DETCOG meeting, State Representative Jim McReyn-olds told members that he had read DETCOG’s proposed Partial Method of Distribution (MOD) for the second phase of Hurricane Ike Recovery funds and he would be voting for it. Noting the state’s new emphasis on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, McReynolds said DETCOG was far ahead of the other councils of government receiving Hurricane Recovery funds.

Looking around the room, he commended the organization for the diversity of its board and its representation of the people of Deep East Texas. Acting on the recom-mendation of its Hurricane Ike Disaster Recovery Committee, the board later unanimously approved the Partial MOD for submission to the Texas Department of Rural Affairs.

The board also approved a resolution proclaiming August as a month affirmatively furthering fair housing. A proposed plan for Affirmatively Marketing Housing Programs has recently been developed for DETCOG and posted on its web site. In other business, the board heard a report from a representative of Senator John Cornyn’s office on several issues of regional interest.

Senator Cornyn is sponsoring a measure to continue the funding of the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Act (SRSCA). Money provided by SRSCA compensates school districts and counties for the lost ad valorem taxes on U.S. Forest land in their jurisdictions. He has bi-partisan support for the act with a number of Republican and Democratic Senators sponsoring it. Cornyn is also working to extend the deadline for the expenditure of Federal Social Services Block Grant funds designated for disaster recovery.

The money was appropriated for a series of natural disasters that struck the nation in 2008, including Hurricane Ike, but red tape has slowed its disburse-ment.

The next DETCOG Board meeting is scheduled to be held on Thursday, Sept. 23. That meeting will be held in Tyler County.

Communities help make surgery possible - Revolutionary device enables child to walk independently

Good-hearted Houston County residents donated 30 pints of blood on Wednesday, Aug. 25 at the Elasto-tec Southwest on behalf of nine-year-old Morgan LaRue of Lovelady. Blood Center officials said they are “very excited” about the turn-out, and thank all those who made a donation in the replenishment blood drive.

At the donor coach, Fran Black, aphoesis technician, said the blood center will harvest red blood cells and plasma from the blood donations to replace the blood LaRue, a cancer patient, has received. This is not the first time Houston County residents have stepped up to help LaRue since she was diagnosed late last year with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer.

A spaghetti supper in early spring at the Old Lovelady Gym raised much of the $40,000 needed for surgery LaRue needed, and there were several other fundraisers throughout Houston County which helped. LaRue's mother, Ashley LaRue, said, “We are so appreciative of the community support we've received. There just aren't enough words to express how grateful we are.”

She said the support from both Houston and Trinity counties has been incredible. The community's financial contributions helped LaRue benefit from a revolutionary surgical technique that has enabled her to walk again on her own two feet, without the use of crutches or a walker.

LaRue's father, Jeremy LaRue, said, “She was walking unaided two months after her surgery on March 29.” Additional excitement for the young LaRue is the recent gift of a handmade wig. A Houston wigmaker saw LaRue's story on ABC's Nightline in June and thought she was “deserving”. LaRue's dad said, “Oh, she loves her wig and thinks that it is a miracle in its own right.” Advances in surgical techniques made the limb sparing surgery possible. The tumor was in her left leg at the base of the femur, the long bone connecting hip and knee. LaRue was prescribed a one year regimen of cancer-killing drugs or chemotherapy before surgical options were discussed: amputation, shortening the limb, or implants that would require multiple surgeries until the little girl stopped growing. In January, orthopedic sur-geon, Rex Marco, M.D., University of Texas Medical School at Houston, UT Health, met with LaRue and her parents to tell them about an intriguing, but unapproved medical device called the Stanmore Implants Extendible Distal Femoral Replacement. The more recent model of the “growing prosthesis” is specially designed for growing children like LaRue. It can be lengthened during a simple office visit without surgery using a magnet outside the body and it saves her from ongoing invasive procedures. Overall, about 200 devices have been implanted worldwide, but only about 15 of those were in the U.S. with FDA, United States Food and Drug Administration, “compassionate use” approval.

The LaRues sought and received an exception for their daughter, and on March 29, Marco replaced the cancerous bone in LaRue's leg with the custom-made metal implant. The prosthesis was designed and manufactured precisely according to the exact bone dimension from LaRue’s own computer tomography data.

LaRue's implant, which her dad said “is a miracle, and the miraculous part is she will have no more surgery,” is the most advanced expandable prosthesis, and it allows noninvasive lengthening without surgical operation. When the limb with the implanted prosthesis is placed at the center of a rotating electromagnetic field, a powerful magnet mounted inside the implant is captured to rotate and cause the implant to expand.

The magnet causes a screw within the prosthesis to turn, which in turn causes the prosthesis to grow. This procedure will be used whenever necessary for LaRue's affected leg to keep pace with the other one. If necessary, the device also allows for shortening, by turning the magnet’s switch in the opposite direction. It is the first such implan-tation done in Texas, and LaRue has already undergone her first lengthening procedure by placing her leg inside a magnetic tube called a donut. During her first extending procedure on April 13, LaRue reported no discomfort at all. In fact, as the lengthening session progressed, she played a video game.

LaRue's mother explained her daughter undergoes the chemotherapy treatments the first two weeks of every month. The young LaRue was in the hospital 15 days in June due to a virus and her white blood count was zero last week, but her recent blood work did not indicate the presence of any cancer cells and she is currently at home and fever-free, LaRue's mom reported. Her mom also reported her daughter plans to return to school after Christmas when her chemotherapy treatments are completed. In the meantime, a homebound teacher comes to the house to help LaRue with her lessons. Asked if LaRue has basketball fever, as many of the students attending Lovelady schools seem to have, her dad said, “ Oh, yeah, she’s determined that she will play!”

LaRue tells of her future plans: “First walk, second run, third jump, fourth play basketball” Thanks to a “medical miracle, and a blessing,” said her dad, she’s already accomplished the first step.

Giant Grasshoppers?

Where are the Men in Black when you need them?

Houston County residents have complained about the heavy grasshopper population this summer, and a local man captured this guy with his camera as he was driving up to his house last week.

His wife said, “You think you have a problem with grasshoppers, you should see the ones at my house!”