Look Back ... to an accomplished Oxford sports family, 1999

July 25, 1949, in The Star: Highway patrolmen today issued a strong warning to motorists who drive with their arms resting on the door window of autos, after an Oxford man was injured last night by a passing car. Lonnie B. Crosson, 32, of 325 Hale Street, Oxford, sustained lacerations on his arm when was reportedly struck in those circumstances. Highway patrolmen was in recent years four people have sustained the loss of their left arms in accidents which occurred by resting their arms on the window-door. [ We’re going to figure those people had to have their arms sticking way out the window, because an elbow on the windowsill would not be exposed to much of anything .] Also this date: Repairs on the Old Tyler Home, on the grounds of Anniston Memorial Hospital, were begun recently. The structure was seriously damaged in the hail storm of April 1946 and was occupied by the Calhoun County chapter of the American Red Cross at the time. It was turned over to the hospital last year and is currently occupied by hospital administrator Murphy Cole and his family. Additionally: No sales address is given, but an Anniston real estate listing touts a home’s location near the planned junior high school [at 8th and Leighton] and says it’s “the only house on east side that’s priced below $6,000.”

July 25, 1999, in The Star: When a family produces as many star athletes as the family of Oxford High School basketball star Sherita Andrews has, there can be no doubt that athleticism is a familial, not just individual, trait. Andrews, a forward on the Oxford basketball team, became the sixth member of her family to win All-County honors this past spring, as a sophomore. Three of her uncles — Rony, Tony and Wendell Kelley — were All-County Oxford football players in 1985 and a fourth, Aaron, was All-County for Oxford basketball in 1991-92. The very first member of the family to be an All-County player was Andrews’ aunt Sherilyn Kelly Reid, who earned that honor in the early 1980s. Reid had followed her sister, Tunja Kelley Andrews — Sherita’s mother — onto the team. Girls basketball coach Darrell Cline calls Sherita “probably the hardest-working girl” he’s ever coached. Also this date: Thanks to a recent $5,000 grant presented by the Alabama Civil Justice Foundation, volunteers in Next Start, an Anniston education initiative, will receive more training and direction than they did in 1998, which was the first year of the program. The grant is designated to pay a supplement to up to eight retired teachers if they help coordinate volunteers. Those volunteers tutor students and serve as teachers’ aides.