Anna Jane Thaler

Anna Jane Thaler, age 77, of Corbin, Kentucky departed this life on January 7, 2024 at her home. Anna was born on October 19, 1946 in Jellico, Tennessee to John E. Hamblin and Lillie Mae (Bowman) Hamblin. Anna was preceded in death by her parents, John E. Hamblin and Lillie Mae (Bowman) Hamblin; husband, David F. Thaler; and nephew, Donald Ray Bryant.
Anna is survived by her sister, Shelby J. Bryant; niece, Carrie M. King (husband Eddy); and nephew, Charles E Bryant (wife Angie), all of Williamsburg, Kentucky; brother in law, Donnie Thaler (wife Sandy); sister in law, Frances Walker (husband Tom); and a host of nieces, nephews, great nieces, and great nephews; and several other family and friends to mourn her passing.
Visitation will be from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM on Wednesday, January 10, at the Croley Funeral Home.
Funeral service will be at 10:00 AM on Thursday, January 11, at the Croley Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Marty Bramble officiating.
She will be laid to rest in the Lot Cemetery.
Croley Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.

Jessie Lee (Creekmore) Baird

Jessie Lee (Creekmore) Baird, age 87, of Jellico, Tennessee, passed away early Tuesday morning, January 30, 2024, at Baptist Health Corbin.
She was born on September 15, 1936, to the late E.H. “Dick” Creekmore, Sr. and Elizabeth “Lib” (Wilson) Creekmore in Jellico.
Her paternal grandparents were the late Sylvester “Ves” Creekmore and Jessie (Hollingsworth) Creekmore. Her maternal grandparents were the late James Taylor Wilson and Elizabeth (Griffith) Wilson.
She was a graduate of Jellico High School – Class of 1954. She was a long-time member of the First Baptist Church of Jellico.
Jessie was a well-known public figure in the Jellico area who worked at several of the family’s businesses throughout the years.
She had a delightful demeanor and an impeccable sense of style. She was a classy lady who also had a wonderful sense of humor. She was a much beloved daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt and friend.
Creekmore & Son Supermarkets were founded by her grandfather, and subsequently owned by her parents, before being purchased by Jessie, and her late husband, Sterling.
She also was co-owner of American Home Furnishings where she was the manager for many years. Later, she managed Gregory’s Family Tree Restaurant, which was owned by her son, Greg, where she welcomed both locals and tourists into the restaurant as though it were her own home.
In addition to her parents and grandparents, she was preceded in death by her husband of 50 years, Sterling Baird; five aunts, Hazel (Creekmore) Ellis, and husband, Carl, Georgie (Creekmore) “Ms. George” Adkins, and husband, Ben, Thelma (Wilson) Llewellyn, and husband, Morgan, Christine (Wilson) Adkins, and husband, Boyd, and Lillian (Wilson) Archer, and husband, George; two uncles, T.J. Wilson, and wife Billie Jean, and George Wilson; two nieces, Stacey (Creekmore) Paulsen and Ashley (Creekmore) Oakes; three brothers-in-law, Robert D. Cox, J.C. “Budgie” Baird, and wife, Wilma, and Millard Baird, and wife, Bobbie; two sisters-in-law, Grace (Baird) Sexton, and husband, Willard, and Lola (Baird) Bridges, and husband, Virgil; first-cousins, Frannie Ellis, Frank Adkins, Sandra Hatcher, and George Archer, Jr. and father-in-law and mother-in-law, Walter Baird and Ella (Blankenship) Baird.
She is survived by her loving daughter, Terri Lee (Baird) Ward, and husband, Mike, of Jellico, and beloved son, S. Gregory Baird, of Knoxville, TN; sister, Elizabeth Lynn (Creekmore) Cox, of Knoxville, and brother, E.H. “Dick” Creekmore, Jr., and wife, Helen, of Knoxville; nieces and nephews, Teresa (Cox) Burns, and husband, Pat, of Knoxville, Dick Howard Creekmore, and wife, Kelli, of Nolensville, TN, Jerome Baird, of St. James City, Florida, Johnny Baird, and wife, Connie, of Jellico, Jewel Baird, of Andersonville, TN, Jada Walden, of Mtn. Ash, KY, Deborah (Sexton) Freeman, and husband, Roger, of Knoxville, Bobbie Sue (Bridges) Shoun, and husband, Steve, of Maryville, TN, Robert Baird, and wife, Patti, of Clinton, TN, and Margaret Ann Williams, and husband, John, of Clinton; nephews-in-law, Derek Paulsen, of Lexington, KY and Bill Oakes, of Knoxville.
She is also survived by great-nieces and great-nephews, Patton Burns, and wife, Carley, Robert Burns, and Elizabeth Burns, all of Knoxville, Brue Paulsen, of Charleston, South Carolina, and Griffith Paulsen, of Lexington, KY, and Mary Elizabeth Oakes and Hutson Oakes, both of Knoxville, Ves Creekmore and Cole Creekmore, both of Nolensville, TN, Chris Baird, of Jellico, Patrick Baird, of Nashville, Aimee Morales, of Maryville, TN, Derek Shoun, of Maryville, TN, Eric Freeman, of Cleveland, Ohio, Kristen Freeman, and Justin Freeman, both of Maryville, and Andrea Baird, of Nashville; aunt, Jenny (Culver) Wilson, of Oak Ridge, TN; first cousins, Mike Ellis, and wife, Sandra, and David Ellis, all of Longwood, Florida; Phyllis (Llewellyn) Lay and JoAnne (Llewellyn) Watts, both of Jellico, Rev. Mahan Archer, and wife, Laura, of Knoxville, Ben Adkins, and wife, Donna, of Oak Ridge, TN, Libby Sharp, and Earl Sharp, of Knoxville, Annette Ross, of Kingston, TN, Barbara Baird, of Frankfort, KY, James Austin Wilson, and wife, Donna, of Oak Ridge, TN, Tommy Wilson, of Oak Ridge, Elizabeth Ann Hobbs, of Brentwood, TN, Julia Ellison, of Memphis, TN, and Jaye (Ellison) Wolfe, of Knoxville; the management, staff and friends at Williamsburg Health and Rehabilitation Center and a host of neighbors, other friends and relatives to mourn her passing.
The funeral service was Saturday afternoon, February 3, at the First Baptist Church of Jellico with Dr. Bob Dunston officiating.
Special music was provided by Dr. Jeff Smoak.
Graveside service and interment followed in the Jellico Cemetery.
Cox & Son Funeral home of Jellico in charge of arrangements.

Those going to pay their car taxes will probably need some patience, clerk says

Guns and Roses first sang in 1989 that all you need is “just a little patience.”

Those planning to visit their local county clerk’s office in the near future to pay their motor vehicle taxes and renew their vehicle registration will probably want to heed Guns and Roses advice about patience.

Be warned, you may need more than just a little patience too.

Throughout January, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has been converting its legacy motor vehicle registration system knows as AVIS, which was implemented in the late 1970’s. The new modern system that has replaced it is knows as KAVIS, but the conversion has not gone as smoothly as hoped.

The Kentucky County Clerks Association (KCCA) is asking for its motor vehicle customers’ patience as it works with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet to resolve the issues at hand.

“We continue to see improvements with the KAVIS system each week, however, there are still times when the program is unresponsive or specific transactions are not processing. Because of these issues, we are being forced to turn away customers. It is always our priority to serve our customers, but the new system’s shortfalls are preventing us in some instances,” said Whitley County Clerk Carolyn Willis.

“While county clerks throughout the Commonwealth pride themselves on providing excellent customer service, it has been a struggle to perform at the levels we expect due to the system’s processing errors,” Willis added.

“Although we have faith in the KAVIS team and their ability to correct the issues, we must be transparent with our customers. Wait times will be longer, and there are transactions that we cannot process. We would love to specifically identify the problem transactions but that changes daily as the programmers work to fix issues.”

The Kentucky County Clerks Association asks customers to be as prepared as possible when they visit their county clerk’s office.

The following steps will make your visit to the county clerk’s office more efficient:

• Bring your driver’s license or state issued identification card.
• Bring your renewal notice and previous year’s registration.
• Bring your Kentucky proof of insurance printed or refer to your county clerk if there is an insurance email address or fax number available.
• Be prepared to wait longer than normal due to the new system having issues with processing and creating PVA issues where clerks must contact the PVA to correct issues. It takes time to work through each customer’s account and merge vehicles for each customer.
• Web renewals do have an issue with trailer fees, but the Kentucky County Clerks Association has requested that the transportation cabinet turn the web renewal portal back on even with the fee issue with trailers. If you have a trailer to renew, we recommend you wait for further communication when fees are corrected for any trailer transaction.
• For any transaction by mail, online or drop-off please include a contact phone number so the clerk’s office can reach you.

Man indicted for assaulting hospital employees

The Whitley County Grand Jury handed down two separate felony assault indictments last Thursday against a homeless man, who allegedly assaulted hospital workers, and a Rockholds man, who allegedly assaulted the sheriff among other offenses.

Triple homicide case still stalled months later due to need for psychiatric eval

Questions surrounding competency issues continue to slow the case against one of the three Indianapolis men charged in connection with a 2017 Whitley County triple homicide.

Two charged in fatal crash that killed child early Thursday morning

A Williamsburg man and Arizona woman are facing multiple charges, including murder, in connection to a fatal crash that occurred on I-75 early Thursday morning in Whitley County.

The crash occurred just after midnight in the southbound lane of I-75 near the 17-mile marker. According to a release from the Kentucky State Police, a 2017 Ford Edge operated by either Matthew Paul Croley, 34, of Williamsburg, or Jayna Ann Vorwerk, 22, of Chandler, Arizona, struck a 1996 GEO Tracker. Both vehicles were traveling southbound when the crash occurred.

The GEO Tracker sustained heavy damage during the crash, which required the driver, identified as Alexis Brianna Flores, 25, of Flat Lick, to be extricated from the vehicle. Flores was airlifted to the University of Tennessee Medical Center for treatment of sever injuries.

Flores had four juvenile passengers with her, one of which was ejected from the vehicle during the crash, receiving fatal injuries. The child was pronounced deceased at the scene by the Whitley County Coroner’s Office.

The other three children sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were transported to Baptist Health Corbin for treatment. 

A third, unnamed passenger in the Ford Edge was not injured.

According to arrest citations obtained from the Whitley Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, another driver at the scene told police that they had witnessed the collision. The witness stated they were driving northbound in the left lane attempting to pass a slower vehicle in the in the right lane when  the Ford Edge attempted to pass them and collided with the rear end of the GEO Tracker.

Vorwerk allegedly told police that she had been driving the vehicle when the crash occurred, according to the citation, and she had a strong odor of alcohol coming from her. She agreed to take a breath test at the scene, which allegedly showed a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .157. The citation claimed Vorwerk told police she had only had one mixed drink.

Vorwerk was placed under arrest at that time.

As Vorwerk was being put into a police cruiser, Croley allegedly told police that he was actually driving the vehicle and asked them not to arrest Vorwerk, according to the citations. Croley stated that he had threatened Vorwerk so that she would say she was driving at the time the crash occurred. He allegedly stated multiple times that he was intoxicated and that’s why he was trying to get Vorwerk to take the blame.

Both Croley and Vorwerk have been charged with murder, first-degree assault, first-degree wanton endangerment and operating a motor vehicle while under the influence. 

The pair was arraigned in Whitley District Court Thursday afternoon, where not-guilty pleas were entered on their behalves. Both currently remain jailed in the Whitley County Detention Center in lieu of separate $1 million cash bonds.

A preliminary hearing has been set for Monday at 9 a.m.

KSP is continuing an investigation into the crash.

Williamsburg Police Department, Williamsburg Fire Department, Corbin Police Department, Corbin Fire Department, Goldbug Volunteer Fire Department, Whitley County EMS and Air Evac assisted at the scene.

Cinema Social holds grand opening…

Cinema Social, which was formerly known as Tri-County Cineplex, held a ribbon cutting ceremony last Friday to celebrate their grand opening. In addition to movies, the facility now has virtual reality simulators, a golf simulator, a restaurant and bowling lanes. After the ribbon cutting, the Southern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce also presented a membership plaque Friday to owners Greg and Suzie Razmus.

KPA, All ‘A’ and Groundhog Day

It has been quite the week, and while I have spent much of it on the road, I wanted to weigh in here with just a few random observations… (more…)

Pleasant View teacher Debra Cox receives Above and Beyond Award

Photo by TIMOTHY WYATT

Debra Cox (right), second grade teacher at Pleasant View Elementary School, was presented with the Above and Beyond Award last Thursday during the Whitley County Board of Education’s monthly meeting. The award is given each month to employees in the school district that have gone above and beyond the call of duty in their work for the school district and its students. Those who receive the award are typically nominated by their collegues for their exceptional work.

Superintendent John Siler (left), who presented Cox with the award, said that the work Cox puts into teaching is apparent. “When you walk down her hallway, it looks different than any other hallway. The time and the care that she puts into decorating around her room and at the end of that hallway, proudly displaying all her kids’ work and their growth…you know those kids are getting everything that she has,” said Siler. 

After receiving the award, Cox, who has taught 33 years with the school district, announced that she plans to retire at the end of the school year.

Awards only won as a result of group effort

Our Publisher, Don Estep, already touched on this in his column, but I just wanted to briefly talk about the News Journal’s first place General Excellence win in the Kentucky Press Association’s Excellence in Kentucky newspaper contest.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

We compete in the large weekly division, which is has always been one of the toughest divisions in my opinion. It feels like our competition gets stiffer every year, but I am happy to say that once again managed to get the win.

I’ll be the first to admit that it is nice to get recognition from your peers. It feels good, and it doesn’t happen every day. In fact, we only compete for awards once a year. I am happy to see our staff get this well-deserved honor.

We have a really great staff here at the paper, which is one great big dysfunctional family. It takes everybody to make this paper happen week after week, and I am thankful for some of the best co-workers in the world.

Don Estep has already written about the rest of us, but he deserves some recognition here too.

The biggest priority for some bosses is to pinch pennies as tightly as they can without taking into account quality.

While Don knows the importance of keeping costs down, he also knows the importance of hiring good people. Then he helps clear the way and makes room for them do their jobs to the best of their ability.

Not every boss is this wise, and we do appreciate it.

If we need help, then Don is there. If he has suggestions on how to improve things, then he will throw those out and see what we can do with that. The special section that we did on the 100th anniversary of the Corbin High School Football Program last year is a great example of this.

Also, let me give a shout out to all of our loyal readers and subscribers, plus the advertisers that appear here in the News Journal. Thanks for all of your support. We literally couldn’t do this without all of you.

Newspapers are a business, and it is no secret that a lot of them are struggling in this day and age. I won’t say that it isn’t challenging for us too sometimes. We are fortunate, though, to have loyal readers, who pick up the product that we put out week in and week out, and who also support our advertisers.

We really do appreciate you all, even those few readers, who do the equivalent of heckling in the comments section on our Facebook page from time to time. (You know who you are…LOL).

Now let me touch on a few other topics before I conclude this column.

• Best of luck to the Corbin City Commission, which is in the process of picking a new city manager for the first time in 12 years. On Monday, they narrowed it down to four finalists. I think I can speak for the whole town when I say that I hope they pick a good one. By and large, a city is only as successful as its leadership.

• While I didn’t make it to the Corbin Arena last week for the All “A” Classic basketball tournament, it sounds like the event was very successful. Congratulations to Corbin Arena Manager Kristina Balla and Corbin Tourism Director and Downtown Manager Maggy Monhollen along with all of their staffs for helping to make this event and others like it possible. I can say without reservation that these are two of the hardest working women in Corbin.

• Speaking of hard working women, I attended the ribbon cutting for Cinema Social Friday. Corbin Mayor Suzie Razmus, who is also part owner of the facility, her husband, Greg Razmus, and the rest of the folks over there have done a fantastic job to add bowling, a restaurant, a golf simulator, and other virtual reality simulators to the facility. The sampling of food that I had Friday was good too. If you haven’t made it out there recently, then you probably want to go check it out. It looks really fun.