Local News


Nichole Sherry stands in front of her shop, Ozark Local, located in a shopping center at 5566 Highway 160 suite A in Theodosia. The shop offers t-shirts, home decor, artwork and other items.
Ozark Local is a new shop in Theodosia offering up a variety of items, many focused on Ozark County. Shop owner Nichole Sherry says it is the hills and hollers of this beautiful place she calls home that inspired her business - and its name.  “Being here in Ozark County sort of gets into your blood...
The Gainesville School District has announced that it has hired Dr. Richard Wylie as the 7th - 12th grade principal for next school year, 2023-24.  Wylie is essentially trading positions with current Gainesville principal Clint Hall, who has accepted the position of Mansfield School superintendent...

Becki Strong retired from the Circuit Clerk and Recorder’s position Dec. 31, 2022. She had worked in the office for 43 years, 28 of which she served as Circuit Clerk and Recorder.
After more than four decades of work in the Ozark County Circuit Clerk and Recorder’s office, Gainesville resident Becki Strong has retired.  “I have loved working with the people and being able to help. I’ve had people come in and say, ‘I don’t know what to ask for.’ And you wouldn’t know what to...

Historium volunteer Janet Taber, left, and retired Ozark County Times editor Sue Ann Jones show the recently acquired archival-quality boxes that will store hard, unbound copies of the Ozark County Times, some of them more than a century old. A Brownlee Local History Grant from the State Historical Society of Missouri provided $500 for the purchase.
Physical copies of the Ozark County Times from the late 1890s and early 1900s are now being stored in archival-quality boxes that will help preserve the fragile newspapers, thanks to recent funding made available through a State Historical Society of Missouri Richard S. Brownlee Missouri Local...

Ozark County Sheriff’s Deputy Josh Sherman and K9 Rye completed training certification at F.M. K9 in Michigan last fall and are currently actively serving within the department. Rye is used in narcotic detection, article searches and missing person searches.
Ozark County Sheriff’s K9 Rye and her handler, Deputy Josh Sherman, are quite the duo within the sheriff’s department, aiding in searches for drugs, missing people, paraphernalia and other potential evidence that proves beneficial to investigations.  The pair also serve as approachable ambassadors...

Stormy Sigman is shown here after a surgery to remove a tumor from her throat earlier this month.
A benefit event in support of Stormy Jean Sigman, a 10-month old child diagnosed with cancer, is being held from 4 p.m. Feb. 4, to 2 a.m. Feb. 5, at Take 5, located on Highway 5, south of Gainesville, near the Arkansas state line.  A fried chicken dinner will be served for $10 for adults and $5 for...

Gainesville resident Ruby Winslow shows the basket of items she received for being the first ever customer at the newly opened Whataburger in Ozark. Winslow also received a certificate for free meals for a year.
Gainesville resident Ruby Winslow says she has recently obtained an accolade that she’s dreamed of nearly all her life. She is now one of the few people who can say they’ve purchased the first Whataburger sold at a location of the popular chain restaurant.  “It’s the ultimate achievement of any...

Ozark County Sheriff Cass Martin, left, and former Prosecuting Attorney Matt Weatherman, center, are shown speaking with area residents last September during one of the sheriff department’s many town hall meetings held across the county to discuss the additional half-cent law enforcement sales tax that the department was proposing. The measure passed by a large margin in the November General Election, but officials here were notified in early January that a state statute is keeping the county from being able to collect the tax. Officials are now working together to find the next steps needed to put the measure back on the ballot.
Ozark County leaders were shocked recently to learn that a half-cent sales tax approved by voters in the November general election could not be collected by the Missouri Department of Revenue. The news about the sales tax technicality broke last week as the Ozark County Times was going to press....

Ozark County officials were sworn in Dec. 30 at the Ozark County Courthouse by Clerk Brian Wise, second from right. Elected officials pictured from left are: Prosecuting Attorney Lee Pipkins, Presiding Commissioner Terry Newton, Circuit Clerk and Recorder of Deeds Jackie Smith, Collector Darla Sullivan, Treasurer Christy Thompson and, far right, Clerk Brian Wise. Wise was sworn in by Associate Judge Raymond Gross.
Ozark County’s officials were sworn into their new terms by Associate Judge Raymond Gross and Clerk Brian Wise on Friday, Dec. 30, in the upstairs courtroom at the Ozark County Courthouse in Gainesville.  Among those being sworn in are three new officials: Prosecuting Attorney Lee Pipkins,...

Photography in its early stages relied on very still subjects, as the camera’s shutter remained open for several seconds. Any movement could cause blurriness. The students at the Locust School in Ozark County must have remained very still while posing for this 1913 photo. At the time, it was common for some children to wear shoes to school and others to go to class barefoot.
Have you ever wondered why your ancestors look so grim in those old, brown photographs taken at the turn of the 20th century? It’s not because of bad dentistry, nor because they’re unhappy or prudish. It’s because they’re trying to be still. Camera shutter speeds were slow and had to remain open at...

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Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
Fax: (417) 679-3423