CHARLIE SMITH | The Greenwood Commonwealth

Freddie White-Johnson, left, and Towanda Williams, both of the Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation, pose with a $25,000 grant award from the Avon Foundation Wednesday at the Leflore County Health Department. The grant will pay for breast cancer screenings for needy women in Leflore, Sunflower and Humphreys counties.

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Grant to fund free breast cancer exams
By CHARLIE SMITH - News Editor

Thu,01/26/12-1:00PM , 156 Reads

Needy women in Leflore County now have

a new option for getting free breast cancer screenings.

The Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation

received a $25,000 grant this month from the New York-based Avon

Foundation for Women.

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Van Burrough smiles in this picture provided by his sister, Sarah Burrough. The mentally handicapped man is awaiting transfer from the Leflore County Jail to the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield after a judge found him incompetent to stand trial on a sexual battery charge.

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Mentally disabled man sits in jail
By CHARLIE SMITH - News Editor

Thu,01/26/12-1:00PM , 361 Reads
The wheels of justice have turned slowly for a mentally handicapped man accused of a sex crime against a child.

Van Burrough, 47, has spent more than two years inside the Leflore County Jail on a sexual battery charge as he’s waited for a mental evaluation and then an open bed at the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield.
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Walgreens employees read the new weddings edition of Leflore Illustrated magazine this morning. Front row, from left, are Faith Jones, Mary Beth Hardy and Jodi Farmer; back row is Jennifer Moore. Hardy is featured on the cover dancing with her husband at her June wedding.

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Wedding belles
By CHARLIE SMITH - News Editor

Thu,01/26/12-1:00PM , 180 Reads
The annual weddings edition of Leflore Illustrated magazine is available beginning today.

The cover features Mary Beth Hardy and her husband, Creighton Rodgers Hardy, dancing following their June 25, 2011, wedding.
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A “Dateline NBC” cameraman prepares to record a group of Greenwood civic leaders Tuesday at Giardina’s during a roundtable discussion about race relations for the NBC news magazine. Clockwise, from left, are Allan Hammons, owner of Hammons and Associates advertising agency; Angela Curry, executive director of the Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll Economic Development Foundation; Mayor Carolyn McAdams; State Sen. David Jordan; Tim Kalich, editor and publisher of The Greenwood Commonwealth; and Kelvin Scott, president-elect of the Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce.

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‘Dateline’: Greenwood
By CHARLIE SMITH - News Editor

Wed,01/25/12-1:00PM , 233 Reads
Put your best face forward this week, Greenwood: “Dateline NBC” is in town filming a show about race relations.

Producer Tim Beacham is leading a crew that is updating a 1966 documentary the network made called, “Mississippi: A Self-Portrait.”
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