Lydia June (Douglas) Perkins

Lydia June (Douglas) Perkins, age 90, of Jellico, TN went to be with her Lord on Wednesday, January 24, 2024, at Tennova North Medical Center in Knoxville, TN.
Lydia was born in Jellico on August 31, 1933, to Phillip Douglas and Lydia (Petrey) Douglas.
She is preceded in death by her husband of 56 years, Jess Elmer Perkins and her youngest son, Timothy Ray Perkins.
She is survived by son, Jesse Andrew Perkins (Shawn); daughters, Janet Perkins, Lorene Perkins, and Elizabeth Kacir (John); 12 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren. Grandchildren, Beverly North (Eric), Beth Perkins, Trish Hubbard, Mary Perkins, James Perkins (Ashley), Jess Perkins, Gerianna Perkins, Jack Perkins, Matthew Perkins Coppola (Christina), Angela Stallings, Lea Mahoney, John ‘Eljay’ Kacir, Scott Kacir and Daniel Timothy Perkins; great-grandchildren, Lydia, Liliana, Andrea, Austin, Nathan, Sherrie, Jacob, Harley, Sophia, Emilio, Jessica, Andrew, Samuel, Trent, Bethany, Simeon, Joseph, Lane, Livi, Malakai; great-great-grandchildren, Raelynn, Haven, Kamari, and Kenai.
Funeral service was Saturday, January 27, at the Llewellyn Funeral Home Chapel in Jellico, TN with Dr. Robert Dunston officiating.
Interment followed at the Dulling-King Cemetery Black Oak, Kentucky.
The Llewellyn Funeral Home of Jellico in charge of arrangements.

Whitley County Public Health Inspections

As part of its duties, the Whitley County Health Department conducts routine public health inspections of various entities, including restaurants, stores, schools, mobile home parks, swimming pools, etc.

Local students make university dean’s lists

A number of college students with local ties have been named to the Dean’s List of their respective schools.

Lincoln Memorial University (LMU)

Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) has announced that 688 students were placed on the Dean’s List for the fall semester of 2023, including: Kelsey Connell and Shala Mays of Williamsburg, and Seth Kirby, Devika Patil, Haylee Stancil and Sierra Taylor of Corbin.

To be placed on the Dean’s List, the student must be a full-time undergraduate and have a 3.5 or higher grade-point average for the semester.

Lincoln Memorial University is a values-based learning community dedicated to providing educational experiences in the liberal arts and professional studies.

The main campus is located in Harrogate, Tennessee. For more information about LMU, contact the Office of Admissions at (423) 869-6280 or email at admissions@LMUnet.edu.

Campbellsville University

Dr. Donna Hedgepath, Campbellsville University’s provost and vice president for academic affairs, has announced the academic honors Dean’s List for the Fall 2023 semester, which includes two students with local ties, Logan Bargo of Corbin and Aleisha Hollin of Keavy.

Campbellsville University is a widely acclaimed Kentucky-based Christian university that offers over 100 programs including doctoral, master, bachelor, associate and certificate programs. For more information, visit the university’s website at www.campbellsville.edu.

Matlock appointed to Kentucky Board of Alcohol and Drug Counselors

Gov. Andy Beshear has appointed a Corbin woman to a state board.

Beshear’s office announced Friday that Danielle Matlock of Corbin has been appointed to the Kentucky Board of Alcohol and Drug Counselors. She is a clinical therapist at Isaiah House.

She replaces Timothy Cesario, whose term has expired, and will serve a term expiring on Jan. 15, 2028.

Save A Lot thanks shoppers for helping spread holiday cheer in Williamsburg one bag at a time

With the help and generosity of its valued customers, the Williamsburg Save A Lot store has donated more than 1,000 bags of much-needed, high-quality food to Calvary Missionary Baptist Church.

Throughout the holiday season, Save A Lot customers in Williamsburg – and across the country – showed their support for their local communities by purchasing pre-assembled bags of food that were donated to local and regional charitable organizations.

The Williamsburg Save A Lot store, which is located at 1645 S. US25W saw one of the highest donations across all stores nationwide, with valued customers purchasing and donating 1,044 bags – more than $5,220 worth of food – to support families in need.

Each bag is stocked with private label and brand name food items, including pasta, stuffing mix and other pantry staples from Save A Lot. To further amplify the contributions made by the Williamsburg community, Save A Lot is donating an additional $500, gifting a grand total of $5,720 worth of food and financial contributions to Calvary Missionary Baptist Church.

“Supporting local families through our Bags for a Brighter Holiday donation initiative is something we’re proud to do every year,” said Teddy Anders, Williamsburg Save A Lot Store Manager. “To see our customers really rally around our community and those who need help is inspiring to see. This initiative is one of my favorites because it makes such a big impact here in Williamsburg. We thank our customers for their continued support of this program.”

For more information about Save A Lot, the Bags for a Brighter Holiday program or for directions to the Williamsburg store, please visit www.savealot.com.

Founded in 1977, Save A Lot is the largest independently owned and operated discount grocery store chain in the U.S., with approximately 800 stores in 32 states.

Did you know you can cough so hard that you pass out? I do now

Here is a not so fun fact. Did you know that it is in fact possible to cough so hard that you pass out?

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

Most of the people that I have asked that question to over the past week answered no to that question. As a matter of fact, no is the answer I would have given to that question until about one and one-half weeks ago before I ended up in the emergency room.

It started out as a nagging minor cough for the first four days before morphing into the worst cough that I have ever had in my life. It knocked me for a loop and to the point where I called in sick to work for two straight days, which is pretty much unheard of for me.

The first day that I called in sick I was coughing pretty hard, but by the second day I was coughing so hard that I was starting to wonder whether I was losing consciousness for a few seconds at a time. (This was with two cough drops in my mouth at one time mind you.)

Then that evening, I started coughing badly while eating some dinner on the couch.

The next thing I knew I had dropped food on the floor (much to the delight of my cats I’m sure…LOL) and my wife was yelling at me asking if I was OK and insisting that I go to the emergency room.

So I spent about six hours on a hospital gurney in the emergency department at Baptist Health Corbin on a Friday night getting pumped with two bags worth of IV fluid for dehydration. They told me that I had a respiratory virus that they could not do much else for, which would have to run its course.

My doctor’s office told me pretty much the same thing this past Friday when I went for a follow-up visit. They at least gave me some cough syrup.

I started feeling a little better over the weekend, but this cough is still persisting.

My thanks to the staff at Baptist Health Corbin for giving me excellent care while I was there. However, I would offer one minor suggestion to the hospital administration. If you all could get a little more padding for the buttocks area on those hospital gurneys, then I am pretty sure it would be appreciated by many of us.

My emergency room stay was better than the last one I had about 40 years ago in the old Corbin hospital. It resulted in a five-day hospital stay and two months on crutches after I got shot by a guy target shooting at an outhouse, but that is/was another column for a different day.

Speaking of illness, the News Journal has pretty much been ground zero for illness for the past couple of weeks. I don’t remember there ever being so much illness in the office at one time. Trevor Sherman is the only one, who hasn’t been sick at some point over the last couple of weeks.

The weird thing is it seems like pretty much everyone has been sick with something different too.

Between illness and the weather, we did pretty good just to get last week’s paper out the door.

I can’t wait for all of these illnesses to run their courses and go away.

Also, let me make a personal appeal to all of you, who have been praying so snow. Would you please stop already (LOL)?

Strunk gets five-year prison sentence for two-state police chase

A Lexington man, who led police on a two-state vehicle pursuit in late 2022, has been sentenced to five years in prison as the result of a plea agreement.

On Nov. 14, 2023, Bennie Strunk, 46, pleaded guilty to first-degree wanton endangerment (police officer), first-degree fleeing or evading police (motor vehicle), and operating a motor vehicle while under the influences of intoxicants as part of a plea deal, according to a Williamsburg Police Department release and court officials.

As part of the plea agreement, a first-degree possession of a controlled substance (fentanyl) charge was dismissed, according to the Whitley Circuit Court Clerk’s Office.

Strunk also pleaded guilty to a persistent felony offender charge, which was issued later in 2023 and eventually merged with this case, according to the clerk’s office.

On Jan. 10, Whitley Circuit Judge Dan Ballou sentenced Strunk to a five-year prison sentence for wanton endangerment, a five-year prison sentence for fleeing or evading police, and a 30-day jail sentence on the DUI charged, but ordered all of those sentences to be served concurrently, or at the same time, for a total sentence of five years in prison, according to the release and the clerk’s office.

The persistent felony offender charge didn’t carry its own sentence, but enhanced the penalties on some of the other charges, according to the clerk’s office.

The charges all stem from a vehicle pursuit that happened about 10:28 p.m. on Dec. 4, 2022, when Williamsburg Police Officer Dorman Patrick Jr. observed a black 2004 vehicle allegedly fail to stop at a stop sign and not use a turn signal while turning off Happy Hollow Road onto KY 92W, according to an arrest citation.

When Patrick attempted to get the vehicle to stop, it continued to travel north on I-75 from Exit 11 allegedly driving from lane to lane jerking back and forth, the citation stated.

Patrick and Officer Bryson Lawson discontinued the pursuit at that point but kept observing the vehicle which turned near Exit 15 to go south of I-75 towards Jellico.

The Jellico Police Department and the Campbell County (Tennessee) Sheriff’s Department were alerted and made contact with the vehicle, which eventually turned around going back into Kentucky after fleeing from Tennessee law enforcement, Patrick wrote on a citation.

Patrick and Lawson were waiting on the vehicle as it approached Exit 11.

“The offender again was jerking his steering wheel back and forth and was driving at a high rate of speed. The offender swerved his vehicle in the direction of Deputy (David) Rowe nearly hitting him in the side at the bottom of the northbound onramp,” Patrick wrote on another arrest citation.

Police pursued the vehicle for about two miles before they got the vehicle boxed in and stopped.

“The offender had to be dragged out of the truck and forced to the ground where he tensed up and put his hands directly in front of him, would not move, and would not comply with officers commands,” Patrick wrote.

The driver allegedly admitted to using methamphetamine and other drugs, including heroin and fentanyl, and appeared to have a white substance/residue inside his mouth and on his tongue, Patrick wrote in a third arrest citation.

London man arrested after armed standoff with Corbin police

A report of shots being fired from an outbuilding in Corbin resulted in an armed standoff between a suspect and the Corbin Police Department and Kentucky State Police late Wednesday evening, according to a Corbin Police Department release.

Michael Leforce

Drug involvement is suspected, according to an arrest citation.

W’burg man ordered to pay nearly $20k in restitution in auto theft cases

A Williamsburg man will be required to pay nearly $20,000 in restitution and will have to serve one year behind bars for stealing two different automobiles on the same day last month, according to court documents.

Lending a hand with newspaper contest judging is always well worth the time

Later this week, some of us here at the News Journal will join colleagues from all over the state as the Kentucky Press Association presents its annual winter convention and awards banquet. We are hopeful to return home with at least a few first-place awards among us, but who determines which entries are winners and which aren’t? (more…)