Emery Claire Edwards, a fifth-grade student from Claiborne Parish, was recognized as a nominee in the Louisiana Department of Education’s 2026 Students of the Year program, honoring students who demonstrate excellence both in and beyond the classroom.

The Louisiana Department of Education, in partnership with the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), announced nominees for the 2026 Students of the Year program on Jan. 6, which highlights outstanding fifth, eighth, and twelfth grade students across the state. The program recognizes students for leadership, academic performance, achievements, citizenship, and service to their schools and communities.

Nominees are selected through a review process involving public, charter, and nonpublic schools within each BESE region. From the pool of regional nominees and honorees, select students will advance to the finalist stage later in the school year. Finalists will be announced and celebrated at a statewide awards ceremony, where one overall honoree per grade level will be named.

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The LA Department of Transportation & Development advises motorists that beginning on Tuesday, January 13, the LA 518 bridge over Bayou D’Arbonne in Claiborne Parish will be closed. This closure is anticipated to last until Saturday, Jan 17, and is necessary to allow DOTD crews to perform repairs to the bridge piling.

This bridge is located approximately 2.6 miles north of the intersection with LA 146 near Lake Claiborne.
Restrictions/Permits: Total road closure at the specified location. All vehicles will need to utilize an alternate route.

Alternate Route: Detour signage will be in place.

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By Wesley Harris

The Top Ten books checked out of the Claiborne Parish Library in 2025 cover a wide range of genres ranging from romance and suspense to Amish, historical, and paranormal.

The Library purchases hundreds of books each year based on the reading preferences expressed by our patrons. That means most new books are romance and suspense in large print, but we try to satisfy all common reading tastes. We acquire nonfiction books carefully, opting for works related to Louisiana, American history, biography, and current events.

The top ten books checked out from the Claiborne Parish Library for 2025 were all novels. They are:

1. Battle Mountain by C. J. Box

2. Hidden Nature by Nora Roberts

3. Pro Bono by Thomas Perry

4. Never Say Never by Danielle Streel

5. Strangers in Time by David Baldacci

6. Shattering Dawn by Jayne Ann Krentz

7. A is for Amish by Shelley Shepard Gray

8. Beginning of Forever by Catherine Bybee

9. Bonded in Death by J. D. Robb

10. One in a Million by Janet Dailey

Authors with more than one book in our top 50 for 2025 are Nora Roberts, Danielle Steel, David Baldacci, and Janet Dailey.

C. J. Box is the author of thirty suspense thrillers and is best known for his Joe Pickett series. Pickett is a Wyoming game warden who always finds himself in a dangerous predicament but manages to slip out of it and save the day. “Joe Pickett,” a crime drama television series, ran on cable for two seasons before ending in 2023.

Thomas Perry wrote nearly three dozen mystery and suspense novels before his death a few months ago. One final book is in production for release in 2026.

Roberts and Steel are prolific novelists, each publishing over 200 books during their lifetimes, penning multiple books most years. Roberts and J. D. Robb are both pseudonyms for Eleanor

Marie Robertson, so she has two books in our Top Ten. Although Dailey died in 2013, her family continues to release books under her name written by an associate with use of Dailey’s notes and ideas.

Most of Shelley Shepard Gray’s books are set in Amish Country while Catherine Bybee writes contemporary romance. Both have appeared on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. Baldacci has written mostly suspense novels and legal thrillers. Some of his books have been turned into major motion pictures and Hallmark Channel movies.

Jayne Ann Krentz’s book in our Top Ten is a paranormal romantic suspense novel.

While the library has a nice collection of nonfiction books, none made the top 50 of our 2025 circulation.

One children’s book made the list at #26. “Don’t Stay Up Late” by R. L. Stine. An author of mild horror novels for children, Stine is best known for his Goosebumps series.

Other books in 2025’s Top 50 include crime dramas, westerns, and “chick lit.”

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Claiborne Parish residents can expect mild temperatures and increasing rain chances through the end of the workweek, followed by a noticeably cooler and sunnier weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

Wednesday will be mostly sunny with afternoon highs near 73 degrees. Winds will be light early, becoming southeast around 5 mph. Skies will turn mostly cloudy Wednesday night, with overnight lows around 56.

On Thursday, a chance of showers will develop, with thunderstorms possible after noon. The day will remain mostly cloudy with highs reaching near 75 degrees. The chance of rain is estimated at 40 percent. Thursday night will continue with a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, and lows will dip to around 62.

Rain chances increase slightly on Friday, with a 50 percent chance of showers under mostly cloudy skies. High temperatures will top out near 72. Showers may linger into Friday night, mainly before midnight, with rain chances decreasing to 30 percent and cooler lows around 41.

The weekend will bring cooler and drier conditions. Saturday is expected to be mostly sunny with a high near 57. Saturday night will be mostly cloudy and chilly, with lows around 33.

Sunday will be sunny and cooler, with daytime highs near 52 degrees, providing a bright but brisk end to the weekend in Claiborne Parish.

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A burn ban may stop brush fires, but it doesn’t slow fear, outrage, or misinformation. Some fires don’t require permits.

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Ever dreamed of becoming a Master Gardener? Now is your chance. The
LSU AgCenter is accepting applications for the next Piney Hills Louisiana Master
Gardeners class, scheduled for June through September. Membership is open to all adults
in Northwest Louisiana. Master Gardeners are the volunteer arm of the LSU
AgCenter. They are trained in horticulture in exchange for 40 hours of volunteer service,
sharing what they have learned with other gardeners.

Volunteer opportunities include organizing and staffing the annual garden tour,
annual seminar, along with the spring Plant Sale, teaching children about gardening,
creating, and maintaining demonstration gardens and assisting in local parish extension
offices.

So, what will you learn? Topics include insects, plant health, vegetables, fruits,
turf, ornamentals and more. Classes, both lecture and hands-on, are taught by Louisiana
Cooperative Extension specialists, university professors and other horticulture experts.

Classes will be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. every Tuesday for 11 weeks, starting
June 16, 2026. Attendance at all classes is required for certification. There is a $165
registration fee, which covers the cost of training manuals, publications and supplies for
the class. If you enroll before April 20, you will receive a $25 discount. The registration
deadline is May 22, 2026.

Call 318-927-3110 or 318-371-1371, to request an application, or download one
at http://www.phlmg.com (Programs and follow the links.) or jmonzingo@agcenter.lsu.edu

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I have a preacher friend who delivered a baby. Yes—delivered a baby. Some ministers get called to preach revivals. Some get called to chair committees. Rev. Kathy Howell? She gets called to the maternity ward parking lot in Jennings, Louisiana.

Kathy was visiting her mom in the hospital and had been waiting with her all morning. Since her mom couldn’t eat before her test, Kathy said, “Mama, I’m going to walk across the street to Wendy’s and get a burger. I’ll be right back.” That’s already a holy act—leaving a hungry mama to go get a single, solitary burger.

So off she goes, walking across the parking lot in her clerical garb. Yes, even we Methodist ministers have the shirt with the backwards collar. We don’t get many perks in ministry, but we do get one fashion statement that says, “I am available for baptisms, blessings, and—apparently—obstetrics.”

She was wearing her Roman collar when a man jumped out of his car with the look of someone who had just realized babies don’t wait for paperwork. He yelled, “How do I get to the emergency room entrance—my wife is having a baby!”

Kathy walked over, looked in the car, and sure enough, that baby was clocking out of the womb early.
Now, I like to think of myself as available to offer care and comfort to those in extremis. But let me be clear: no call of God would have me climbing into the front seat with a woman about to pop out a baby. I’m more of a “boil some water and rip some sheets” kind of helper. You know—19thcentury frontier medicine. Very safe. Very sanitary.

Imagine the poor woman in the passenger seat. She looked at Kathy—this unexpected, collarwearing, Wendy’sseeking angel—and said, “My husband and I prayed the whole way here that God would take care of us… but I was not expecting His answer to be you.”
And she did not say it with confidence. It was more like, “Lord, is this… is this really what we’re doing today?”

Kathy patted her hand and said, “You’re going to be okay. God’s got you.” And apparently God said, “Yes, and I’ve also got a Methodist minister with a nursing degree and a halfeaten burger waiting across the street.”

By the time the husband came back with the wheelchair and the nurse, he was a father. Right there in the front seat of a car in the hospital parking lot in Jennings, Louisiana, Reverend Kathy Howell delivered a baby. That is a great day’s work for a minister. Most of us are thrilled if we can find the right page in the hymnal.

Now, how dare God answer a heartfelt prayer for medical attention with a Methodist minister. Honestly. God should do a better job of answering prayers. Don’t we all feel that way sometimes? We pray for help, and God sends… well… us. Or someone who looks suspiciously like they were on their way to Wendy’s.
The hospital even let her sign the birth certificate because she delivered the baby. And she signed it:
“Reverend Katherine Howell, R.N.”

Turns out, before she was a Methodist minister, Kathy Howell ran the emergency room at East Jefferson Hospital in Metairie. So, I suppose God answered that prayer exactly the way it needed to be answered.
Which is just like God—always sending help, always showing up, and occasionally doing it in a Roman collar with a Frosty waiting across the street.

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Louisiana anglers can expect a splash of color and excitement later this month as Rainbow Trout are set to be stocked in all 17 Get Out and Fish! community ponds across the state, according to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF).

The annual trout stockings will begin Tuesday, January 14, 2025, and continue through January 21, bringing the cold-water species to select parks and ponds in communities statewide. The program is part of LDWF’s Get Out and Fish! Community Fishing Program, which is designed to provide easy access to fishing opportunities for families, beginners, and local anglers.

Stocking locations include parks in Pineville, Vidalia, West Monroe, Ruston, Grambling, Minden, Houma, Youngsville, Lafayette, Jennings, Ragley, Natchitoches, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Walker, Hammond, and Franklinton. Dates vary by location, with stockings scheduled on January 14, January 16, and January 21.

LDWF encourages anglers of all experience levels to take advantage of this seasonal opportunity. Rainbow trout are considered a novelty fish in Louisiana and provide a unique fishing experience during the winter months.

Those interested in learning more can find tips on catching rainbow trout, stocking schedules, and pond locations by visiting the LDWF Get Out and Fish! webpage. In addition, LDWF is offering Beginner Rainbow Trout Fishing Courses, with registration available through Louisiana Outdoors.

With cooler temperatures creating ideal conditions, LDWF officials say now is the perfect time to grab a rod, gather the family, and enjoy one of Louisiana’s most accessible winter fishing traditions.

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Over the past three years, tournament participation has fallen off dramatically mainly due to forward-facing sonar (FFS). Organizations have made rule changes with the hope of bringing tournament anglers back. Some have eliminated FFS all together, while the Major League Fishing trails like the BFL’s and the Toyota Series have put a time limit (three hours) on how long FFS can be used on tournament day.

While there’s no pleasing all the anglers, some tournament trails are hoping that the changes they have made will encourage anglers to come back and fish. They’ve made compromises for both sides, those who are in favor of FFS and those who want it eliminated from the sport all together.

Some anglers feel this new technology has no place in pro tournament fishing. It’s a great tool for the weekend warrior and an awesome tool for scouting. But for tournament use, others feel it is damaging the integrity of the sport. It’s made touring pros out of average to below average anglers.

Where organizations believe they have lost co-anglers, it turns out the boater/pros are also walking away. Early registration for the upcoming BFL (Cowboy Division) on Sam Rayburn indicates that they have more co-anglers signed up than boater/pros. This is a big problem for the parent company, Major League Fishing.

So many factors are at play when it comes to getting anglers back. Economy, price of boats and too many tournament trails are creating problems, not to mention the FFS issues.

To use a political hot word for 2026, “affordability” is a big concern for a lot of anglers. One tournament director of a major fishing organization made the comment that anglers are not having “fun” anymore. This is very much a true statement!

I agree with this comment. The fun days of showing up at a particular body of water and competing with guys you respect and have good relationships with are gone.

We, as anglers, never really thought about anyone cheating. But with so many issues last year with rules violations and failed polygraph tests, it’s now the first thing that pops into our heads when we back our boats down the ramp.

COVID, I believe, has also played a hand in the drop-off of angler participation. Back during the pandemic, the structure of tournaments changed. Anglers who fished during this period know that tournament directors focused on making sure we kept our distance from each other due to COVID restrictions.

The rules for a weigh-in changed as you had to stay in your boat and bring your fish to the scales one at a time. No more gathering of anglers at the weigh tanks.

Once you weighed in, you were expected to leave immediately, and winning checks were often mailed. This took all the fun out of tournament fishing and eliminated the connection anglers had developed over the years.

But during this difficult time, it was truly a lifesaver and a boost to anglers’ morale because they were excited just to have bass tournaments. Anglers appreciated the efforts organizations and directors put forth just so anglers could compete. Connections and comradery are very important to bass anglers. That’s what makes it fun!

Hopefully 2026 will bring a new beginning and a resurgence of anglers coming back to fishing tournaments. My hat is off to all tournament organizations as they try and navigate the new technology with FFS while trying to please as many anglers as possible.

I’ve always said the worst job in the world would be trying to make bass fishermen happy.

Best wishes and tight lines to all anglers for the upcoming tournament season!

Contact Steve at sgraf26@yahoo.com

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When Joe was born in July of 1915, his grandfather announced, “This child is the future president of the nation.” At the time, Joe’s grandfather was the mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, and Joe’s father was the president of the Columbia Trust Bank in Boston. From a young age, Joe’s father groomed him for a career in politics with the presidency as his ultimate goal for his son. Joe’s eight siblings were all held to high standards, but Joe was the favorite child. If Joe had his own goals in life, he never acted on them.

In 1933, Joe graduated from the prestigious Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut, and won the Harvard trophy, one of the most coveted of athletic prizes which was awarded annually to the member of the football team who best combined scholarship and sportsmanship. Although Joe was not the first person to win the trophy, his was the first name engraved upon it. Rather than going straight into college, Joe was one of 20 youths selected from over 900 applicants “for a year’s trip around the world on a four-masted schooner.” Joe and his group visited every continent and almost every European country on their tour. While in Germany, Joe praised Adolph Hitler and his forced sterilization program in a letter to his father. He said Hitler’s program was doing “away with many of the disgusting specimens of men which inhabit this earth.”

In the fall of 1934, Joe entered Harvard College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree four years later. Joe then enrolled at Harvard Law School, the next logical step on his way to the presidency. With World War II looming on the horizon for Americans, Joe was among a group of Harvard students who formed the Harvard Committee Against Military Intervention in Europe and proclaimed, “Since, contrary to the assertions of the Committee for Militant Aid to Britain, there is every reason to believe that America is not now at war, it is incumbent upon us to consider the possibility of remaining at peace.”

War often brings opportunity. Despite his initial opposition to the war, Joe put his law studies on hold and enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve in June of 1944. Becoming a war hero would certainly help his political ambitions. The United States officially entered the war on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. As a pilot, Joe flew more than enough combat missions to allow him to return home. Fellow pilot Louis Papas said, “There was never an occasion for a mission that meant extra hazard that Joe did not volunteer. He had everybody’s unlimited admiration and respect for his courage, zeal, and willingness to undertake the most dangerous missions.” In August 1944, Joe volunteered to take part in Operation Aphrodite in which war-weary bombers were converted into radio-controlled missiles. The plan was that Joe and his co-pilot Wilford Willy would fly the “drone” bomber with over 21,000 pounds of explosives to an altitude of 2,000 feet at which point another airplane would gain complete radio control. Joe and Wilford would then arm the explosives and parachute out of the airplane over England. The crew in the second airplane would fly the radio-controlled bomber to its target. At 6:18 p.m. on August 12, Joe radioed, “Spade Flush,” the code phrase for the second airplane to take radio control of the drone. At 6:20, while Joe and Wilford awaited the signal to bail out, the bombs detonated prematurely.

Joe’s father’s dreams of his son becoming president ended with Joe’s death. Well, only for a short time. You see, had Joe not been killed during World War II, it is unlikely that his brother would have become president of the United States. Joe, Joseph Kennedy Jr., was the older brother of John F. Kennedy.

 

Sources:

Meriden Record, May 30, 1933, p.8.
Meriden Record, June 23, 1933, p.8.
The Boston Globe, July 20, 1934, p.3.
The Atlanta Constitution, December 18, 1940, p.28.
The Kansas City Times, August 15, 1944, p.3.
Meilan Solly, “The Top-Secret World War II Mission That Killed Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., the Heir Apparent to the Political Dynasty,” Smithsonian Magazine, August 12, 2024, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-top-secret-world-war-ii-mission-that-killed-joseph-pkennedy-heir-apparent-political-dynasty-180984857/#:~:text=Joe%20Jr.’s%20time%20in,Kennedy%2C%20who%20had%20intellectual%20disabilities.

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On January 7, 1610, an Italian mathematician named Galileo Galilei pointed his handmade telescope toward Jupiter and made an observation that would alter humanity’s understanding of the cosmos. What he saw that night—a trio of small, bright points near the planet—seemed innocuous at first. Yet those glowing dots would soon become evidence that Earth was not the center of the universe.

Galileo had been refining his telescope for months, improving its magnification from the early Dutch models. His January observations of Jupiter revealed something surprising: the points of light did not behave like distant stars. Over the next several nights, he watched them shift positions, sometimes appearing in different arrangements but always aligned closely with the planet.

By January 13, he identified a fourth object. He realized that the bodies orbited Jupiter itself. These were the four largest of Jupiter’s moons—Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto—now known as the Galilean satellites.

This observation posed a significant challenge to the prevailing geocentric model, which held that all celestial bodies revolved around Earth. If moons orbited Jupiter, then Earth was clearly not the universal center. Galileo recorded the event in detailed sketches, noting the inconsistent positions of the moons to demonstrate their orbital motion.

What makes the moment historically striking is not simply the astronomical discovery, but the immediate tension it created across academic and religious communities. Galileo’s findings reached scholars quickly, prompting intense debate. His telescopic observations disrupted centuries of established thought and contributed to the broader scientific movement that shifted Europe from medieval cosmology to modern astronomy.

Although the conflict often overshadows the science, the January 7 discovery represented a profound expansion of human perspective. For the first time, observers had direct evidence that celestial bodies could orbit something other than Earth, providing powerful support for the emerging heliocentric model.

Scientific institutions today continue to mark January 7 as one of the pivotal dates in astronomy. Galileo’s sketches remain preserved in archives, offering a glimpse into the night an early telescope revealed worlds orbiting another planet—one of history’s most remarkable moments of discovery.

Gary Bert Caskey
November 24, 1945 — August 26, 2025
Pending

Jerie Campbell Hutchinson
October 16, 1952 — December 18, 2025
None available

Claiborne Parish Journal publishes paid obituaries – unlimited words and a photo, as well as unlimited access – $95. Contact your funeral provider or billvance.erg@gmail.com. (Notice of Deaths shown above are FREE of charge. You may email them to billvance.erg@gmail.com

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