Stories from Friday, October 6, 2006

Gladys Ferrell, 84, Quincy, died Wednesday at her residence. Born in Dubois County, she was the daughter of John and Goldie (Comstock) Voelkel. She married Elmer Glenn Ferrell. He preceeded her in death on April 19, 1999. A homemaker, she was a 50-year member of the O.E.S. No. 369, Cloverdale...

Gina Lee Pelfrey-Smelcer, 25, and her husband, Richard Lynn Smelcer, 33, both of Greencastle, died Thursday in a car accident in Illinois. Arrangements for Gina Smelcer are pending at Bittles and Hurt Funeral Home, Greencastle. Arrangements for Richard Smelcer, formerly of Marshall, Ill., are being handled in Illinois...

Students on the DePauw University campus staged a protest Thursday against the university's food service provider, claiming among other charges, racial discrimination and unfair wages for workers. Sodexho USA, based in Gaithersburg, Md., has been contracted by DePauw since 2002 to provide food services for the university's student union, as well as restaurants on campus and other university-sponsored activities and events...

Vanderburgh County Sheriff Brad Ellsworth, Democratic candidate for the 8th District Congress-ional seat, will be the headliner at the annual Putnam County Jefferson-Jackson picnic at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Bainbridge Community Center. Ellsworth will speak to the annual gathering of local Democrats and other interested voters during the picnic...

The Greencastle League of Women Voters, WGRE Radio and the BannerGraphic are co-sponsoring a Candidates Forum at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 11 at the Watson Forum in the Pulliam Center for Contem-porary Media on the DePauw University campus. The Forum will also be broadcast live on WGRE radio...

Three school-related shootings in the span of one week caught the attention of the Putnam County Safe Schools Committee recently. On Sept. 26, a man held six students hostage at a high school in Bailey, Col., before killing himself and a 16-year-old girl...

Police in the South American country of Venezuela arrested an accused child molester from Putnam County this week after local officials said he fled the United States to avoid prosecution. Thomas Jerry Hudson, 74, Greencastle, was originally arrested and charged with molesting a child in 2004 and was scheduled to stand trial, however, officials believe he managed to flee the country in July of 2005...

A Greencastle couple died late Thursday in a two-vehicle accident on Illinois Route 1, just north of Lawrenceville, Ill. Richard Smelcer, 33, and his wife of six weeks, Gina Pelfrey Smelcer, 25, were pronounced dead at the scene of the 11:08 p.m. accident. They were in a 2005 Chevrolet Trailblazer also occupied by Smelcer's parents, Lloyd and Dorothy Smelcer, Marshall, Ill...

Local residents will have yet another opportunity next week to express concerns or ask questions about the proposed Rockies Express Pipeline set to cut across the northern part of Putnam County beginning in 2008. Pipeline officials will host a public open house from 6-9 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 10 at the Bainbridge Community Building to talk about the 1,663-mile natural gas line set to stretch from Colorado to Ohio...

When ABC-TV's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" airs one of its most heart-tugging stories ever this Sunday night, a Putnam County business will play a part in it. The home makeover segment airing at 8 p.m. Sunday (WRTV, Channel 6, Indianapolis) features the emotional story of the Amy and Jerrod Hawkins family of Hendersonville, Tenn...