n Sports n Obituaries n InsideCenter and Joaquin each lose in Week 10. but are still in playoffs. Tigers, Bears win big. Dragons come close, unable to beat Yellowjackets. See SportsDay page 1B.

Lorene Sanders AdamsDoris Alford

Julienne HughesRobert Drew Warr, Jr.

Community ...............................................3AEditorial .................................................. 4AObituaries ............................................... 6AClassified ...........................................3B, 4BSports ............................................... 1B, 2B

+ +

The Light and ChampionVolume 136, No. 135 Celebrating 136 years of service to Shelby County, Texas Monday, November 11, 2013 16 Pages 75 Cents

Your Local WeatherTue

11/12

56/25Windy with afew cloudsfrom time totime. High56F.

Wed11/13

53/28Sunny. Highsin the low50s and lowsin the upper20s.

Thu11/14

60/46Mostlycloudy.Highs in thelow 60s andlows in themid 40s.

Fri11/15

66/55Few showers.Highs in themid 60s andlows in themid 50s.

Sat11/16

71/60Cloudy withshowers andthunder-storms..

©2009 American Profile Hometown Content Service

www.lightandchampion.com

Turkey Scramble Winner

Veterans Day 2013 – The Price of FreedomBy Katie MillerStaff Writer

kmiller@lightandchampion.com

In light of Veteran’s Day, Monday, Nov. 11, American citizens are encouraged to reflect on the price that has been paid by many soldiers over the years in order to obtain the freedom that, for decades, has been a trademark of our great nation, the United State of America. Vet-eran’s Day was first known in 1918 as Ar-mistice Day, recogniz-ing the date in which an armistice between the Allied Nations and Germany went into ef-fect, ceasing fighting, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Becoming what it is known as today, the holiday was estab-lished officially as a National Holiday, Vet-eran’s Day, in 1954, following World War

II, to honor all service men and women and their patriotism, will-ingness for sacrifice and selfless acts com-mitted to benefit the greater good of the na-tion. One such veteran calls Shelby County his home.

Mr. Charles Hen-ry Hinton became a United States Marine on May 11, 1944 at the tender age of 17 in the midst of one of the most unforgettable wars in the history of America, World War II.

“I had my eigh-teenth birthday over-seas,” said Hinton.

When he joined the Marines there was a grocery store in Shelbyville near Hin-ton’s home.

“I rode up there (to the store) on horse-back and told [the people who ran the store], I said, ‘Well, I’ll see y’all.’ I said, ‘I’ve joined the Marines,’ and I rode the horse

through the front of the store,” said Hinton. “They laughed. I was a pretty good boy, I guess.”

After he enlisted, Hinton was stationed at Paris Island in South Carolina and then at Camp LeJeune, N.C.

He was eventually sent to California, where he boarded a ship des-tined for Pavuvu Is-land. There the battle was in full force.

“It took a little while before, I guess, they were going to send me down there. I called them and told them the damn war would be over before I got there,” said Hinton.

On Pavuvu Island, Hinton heard that a friend of his from back home was stationed there as well, so he sought and found Bob-by Crump.

“[Crump] was in at sixteen years old. He got wounded three times and got killed,” said Hinton. “We went to school together in Shelbyville.”

After Crump’s par-ents had given con-sent for him to join the Marines at the age of 16, Crump had been in combat at Peleliu Island, prior to Hin-

ton’s arrival at Pavuvu Island, and had been wounded on Sept. 17, 1944.

Both Hinton and Crump were trans-ferred from Pavuvu Is-land to Okinawa.

Hinton recalls things that he saw while in combat that left him appalled.

“The [Japanese] would commit suicide, kamikaze, and they’d have little kids (fly-ing planes for suicide missions). The ships were real close to-gether and when that plane would fly down through them, [Ameri-cans] would shoot at the plane and it would fly into the ship. They would suicide into the ship, commit suicide. If they flew down in front of the ship, they’d make Americans shoot each other, and [the Americans] finally woke up. I was laying

Cheryl Gilcrease / The Light and Champion

Dorothy Bain was The Light and Champion Week 1 Holiday Turkey Scramble win-ner. Bain unscrambled the Thanksgiving words and won a free Turkey from H&S Grocery in Center. The Week 1 game words were dressing, leftovers, family, pecan pie, football, pilgrim, cranberry sauce, honey baked ham, rolls, pumpkin pie, overeating, and giblet gravy. Pictured with Bain holding the winning Turkey is Jimmy Hagler, one of the owners of H&S Grocery.

Comptroller Combs distributes $655 million in sales tax revenue to local governmentsSubmitted by the Texas

Comptroller of Public Accounts

Texas Comptrol-ler Susan Combs an-nounced today that state sales tax revenue in October was $2.14 billion, up 5.4 percent compared to October 2012.

“Growth in sales tax revenues was led by collections from the telecommunications sector,” Combs said. “The construction sec-tor also showed signifi-cant gains. State sales tax revenue has in-creased for 43 consecu-tive months.”

Combs will send cit-ies, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts their November local sales tax allocations to-taling $654.6 million, up 7 percent compared to November 2012.

The City of Cen-ter has received a net

payment this year of $259,983.85 with a comparable pay-ment in the previous year of $302,511.16. This is a difference of -14.05%. 2013 payments to date received by the City of Center are $2,772,710.10 with 2012 payments to date of

$3,108,266.95. This is a change of -10.79%.

Huxley has received a net payment this year of $743 with a comparable payment in the previous year of $925.07. This is a -19.68% difference. 2013 payments received to date are $9,590.82 with

2012 payments to date of $5,986.31. This is a change of 60.21%.

The City of Joaquin has received a net pay-ment of $26,721.03 with a comparable previ-ous year payment of $26,717.67. This is a dif-

Katie Miller / The Light and Champion

This painting of Charles Hinton in his Marine uniform was purchased by his mother many years ago.

I See FREEDOM Page 2A

I See REVENUE Page 8A

Southern Seasons: offering a unique shopping experienceBy Scott FlowersEditor

sflowers@lightandchampion.com

As fall sets in and shoppers begin preparing for the holidays they will search far and wide for the items that they wish to share with their friends and loved ones this holiday season.

In Shelbyville is one place where shoppers can find a large variety of items that are hand picked to provide shoppers with something unique all through-out the year, and that is South-ern Seasons.

Mindy and Randy Smother-man are the owners of Southern Seasons and the store is located on State Highway 87 South, which is the main thoroughfare of Shelbyville.

“My dad actually owned this lovely piece of property, so I bought it from him and was go-

ing to tear it down and just clean up the lot. Then I thought, ‘Well maybe I can remodel the old

building for something,’ and then

I See SEASONS Page 7A

Scott Flowers / The Light and Champion

Southern Seasons in Shelbyville is providing a variety of items for the holiday season and all throughout the year. The store is located in Shelbyville and is open Monday - Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

2A I Monday, November 11, 2013 The Light and ChampionNewsDay

+ +

SVFD fundraiser

EMERGENCYservice, at the highest level.A Life Air Rescue membership provides prepaid protection against any out-of-pocket flight cost for our services during an emergency. Life Air Rescue is a member of the AirMedCare Network, the largest Air Ambulance Membership Network in the US. An AirMedCare Network membership automatically enrolls you in all provider membership programs, giving you membership coverage in over 200 locations across 28 states.

For more information, call:Josh PilkintonLocal Membership Sales Manager870-200-2348

MEMBERSHIP FEES

1 Year Membership $65

3 Year Membership* $165

5 Year Membership* $300

10 Year Membership* $575

Platinum25 Year Membership $1125*Multi-year memberships are not available in Indiana

Monthly $6 household*Monthly Membership is only available with monthly recurring payment option

Learn more at www.AirMedCareNetwork.com or call 800.793.0010.

Community Thanksgiving Pumpkin & Pecan Pie Challenge

As part of this year’s Community Thanksgiving Service, we thought it would be fun to challenge the “Chefs of Shelby County” to enter their BEST Pumpkin & Pecan pies for tasting.

As this is one of few opportunities that the community churches get to come together and fellowship, we would love to see MANY entries from all over the County!

The judges will be some of our very own Community Pastors. This will serve as a two-fold blessing as it will also provide the

desserts for the Thanksgiving Service.

This year’s Community Thanksgiving Service will be held:Sunday, November 24th

6:00 p.m.Piney Woods Family Outreach

The winners of the Pie Challenge will be rewarded as follows: 1st Place KichenAid Mixer (value @ $ 200.00) 2nd Place $ 50.00 Wal-Mart Gift Card 3rd Place $ 25.00 Wal-Mart Gift Card

Judging will take place on Saturday, Nov. 23, at 4:00 p.m.at Piney Woods Outreach.

Winners will be announced at the Community Thanksgiving Service.

Be sure to pick-up your copy of the Challenge GuidelinesTODAY at the following locations:

The Light and ChampionNew Life Church and

or check out the Facebook Page of New Life Church!

Let’s HAVE FUN and LET the BAKING begin!_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Please detach here and submit to your Church, Light and Champion, or New Life Church.

Name:__________________________________________________Address:________________________________________________Phone:__________________________________________________

Please check all that apply––– I would like enter a Pecan Pie___ I would like to enter a Pumpkin Pie

718 Hurst Street, Center, Texas 75935(Across from Walmart) (936) 598-3286

Submitted photo.

The Shelbyville Volunteer Fire Department extended appreciation to everyone who supported them during their recent fundraising effort. Chief Chris Koltonski and Assistant-Chief Luke Matthews congratulate the winners. Winners are: Shirel & Renea Sanders won the 2013 Honda 4-wheeler and trailer. Reneta Jones Swift won a CZ 12 gauge shotgun. Pam Furlow was the winner of the 46” Flat Screen TV, and Carlos Taylor, Robert Sears, and Pam Furlow each won $100 cash. Accepting for Carlos Taylor was Donna Taylor.

up there with the hall door open and one of them came through just idling and [there] wasn’t anybody shoot-ing at him, they had done woke up. There was one [soldier] that lost his leg right there with a 50 caliber bullet from Americans shoot-ing at one another and [the Americans] finally woke up. That poor old boy.

“You wouldn’t be-lieve. They would come in there about six or eight feet above the wa-ter and fly right square into a ship, commit sui-cide. Those little boys (Japanese) were four-teen or sixteen years old. All [the Japanese] wanted them to do was get in there and fly into a ship. [The kamikaze planes] wasn’t going home. That was their last trip.”

While at Okinawa, Crump suffered a sec-ond wound. Two days later, Hinton became wounded as well.

“I got wounded on the seventh (of May) and I stayed in the hos-pital nearly about six months getting my leg fixed back up. Then later on down the line, 33 years from then, I had a piece of shrapnel in my leg and I had to go get it cut out,” said Hinton. “I had about six operations on this leg (his right leg). I’ve got a pocket knife. (When he was hit with the shrapnel) [the pocket knife] went down below

the bone, went up over the bone, and came out down below the bone and didn’t touch the bone,” Hinton said, as he motioned to his right leg. “I got a little nick in this one (his left leg) but it didn’t amount to nothing.”

Hinton explained that without that knife, the outcome of his wound would have likely been very different.

“If I hadn’t have had that knife, I’d be prob-ably one legged or crip-pled up bad,” Hinton explained. “My daddy gave me that (the knife) when I was about 15 years old. It had three blades in it and I never did know where the blades went.”

Only 25 days after his second wound, Crump was wounded a third time which resulted in his death. Hinton was still recovering in a hospital.

“When I got to where I could get in my wheel-chair, there was a [sol-dier] across the hall in another wing, and he didn’t speak very good English, and he had the same [wound] I had ex-cept it took a chunk out of his [bone] like that (showing a measure of three to four inches with his hand) and I’d go around and visit with him. When I went out of the hospital he was still there. He was going to have to let that bone grow together. There ain’t no telling how long he stayed there in the

hospital. I wonder about that little old [soldier] a whole lot. He might have halfway retired in that hospital.”

Hinton still has a copy of the letter that was sent to his mother when he was wounded informing her of his condition. The letter reads:

“Dear Mrs. Hinton: I wish to inform you that your son, who suffered a shrapnel wound of both legs on May 7, 1945, is making good progress. His present condition is good. Please be assured that he is receiving the best possible medical care at this hospital. We will keep you informed of his progress at ap-proximately two week intervals. Very truly yours, A.J. Clough, Lieut. (HC) USN.”

“[My family] thought I was on Hiroshima but I was on Okinawa,” said Hinton. “They was all bad.”

Hinton says that he was instructed before he went into combat, be-ing told mainly to keep from getting wounded.

“You just don’t get shot, bombs and mortar shells and artillery and what have you. I didn’t see half of what every-body else did because I wasn’t in there long enough. I didn’t last too long. I guess I was lucky,” said Hinton as he choked back tears.

After he was wound-ed so severely, Hinton was put on a ship head-ed back to California,

where he was later hon-orably discharged due to his wounds.

“They hauled me out of there and I came to the States,” said Hinton. “I had to get back to Shelby County.”

Even though Hinton was wounded and faced many things that most cannot imagine, he says that joining the Marines and the two years he spent enlisted, was the best decision of his life.

“That’s the best thing that ever happened [to me], is the Marine Corps. [It will] make a better man out of you,” said Hinton. “It just made a better man out of me altogether. You couldn’t beat it. Ain’t no telling what I would have been into.”

Years after his return to the United States, a man reached out to Hinton. That man was Crump’s half-brother. He told Hinton that he wanted to know all about his half-brother, so Hinton shared all the memories he had of Bobby Crump.

The Light and Cham-pion encourages every civilian citizen to reach out to a veteran or mili-tary service man or woman with apprecia-tion, not just on Veter-an’s Day, but everyday. These are the men and women who have paid the price, with pride in their country, so that the rest of us don’t have to. Freedom doesn’t come for free.

Freedom I From Page 1A