June 16, 2011 - The modern looking pink brick house that stands on the corner of Poplar and Mulberry is in reality a home that is close to 90 years old, but has undergone several phases of improvements over the years.

Archa Dee and Pansy Adline "Dollie" Evans built the home for their large family and farmed the land around it. The house was originally a two-story frame structure with four bedrooms upstairs and three bedrooms downstairs, enough to sleep their enlarging brood of children. The downstairs also had a living room, formal sitting room, kitchen, formal dining room, a foyer with the stairs and double fireplace with one chimney and a two-car garage - but no bathrooms. French doors separated the foyer from the dining room.

June 16, 2011 - Once again, there is renewed hope for the restoration of the Delba Cemetery on County Road 5040 southwest of Leonard to return it to it's attractive, serene setting of years ago. Approximately twenty years ago, Eddie Sudderth, owner of the Summer House in Leonard, and a few like-minded friends, did a clean-up at the cemetery after the last of the old association's members had passed away. Then it remained abandoned for the next fifteen years until The Leonard Boy Scout Troop #156 and Johnny and Lea Head got involved in what became a very productive but short-lived effort. The cane, vinca, rampant poison oak and snakes were daunting challenges at best. So many trees needed to come out. So many cans of insect repellant to be sprayed...

June 9, 2011 - Friday night couldn't get here fast enough for a particular group of 83. They had worked at least 13 years to get to this point in their life - a turning point, a milestone, a huge achievement. The Leonard High School Class of 2011 marched onto the field for their graduation, and they were ready.

After an opening prayer and the playing and singing of the Star Spangled Banner by the LHS band and choir - minus the Senior members - the ceremony began.

Salutatorian Catelyn Cash started off by apologizing for the heat.

"We can't help it if we're the hottest class from Leonard," she said, prompting laughter from the audience.

June 9, 2011 - The 132nd Annual Leonard Picnic (Picnic) is fast approaching, and activities relating to the Picnic are already taking place. To help defray the cost of the Fireworks Extravaganza finale on Saturday night, the Picnic committee has organized two fundraisers that will require raffle ticket purchases, two additional fundraisers where goods and services will be sold, and Picnic t-shirt sales are currently under way also.

June 9, 2011 - Recently, a long-time Trenton business re-opened their doors under new ownership, but the faces behind the counter are anything but "fresh meat" to the area. The Buses family - Lou and his wife, Mary, and two of their four children, Hannah and Ben - purchased Jack's Wholesale Meats on April 29. The food industry is home for the Buses siblings, who have worked in all facets of the business, and have over 25 years of combined experience. That experience, combined with their parents help on the business end of things, created the perfect recipe for taking over the Trenton business.

June 2, 2011 - Leonard resident Monty Stanley was on his way home last Tuesday evening as a line of severe storms headed into Fannin County, when a cloud formation near Trenton caught his eye, and he stopped to get some photographs. Stanley took several pictures as he watched the storm - which appeared to be a tornado - between Trenton and Whitewright.

June 2, 2011 - The Leonard Preservation League (LPL) recently decided to liven up the old Abernathy-Tucker gin scale house that they acquired several years back, which sits just off of U.S. Highway 69 by Leonard Pool. Believing the building only needed a coat of paint to freshen it up, they hired Greg Grooms with Rose Marie's Painting to do just that, but soon discovered other problems that needed to be fixed as well.

May 26, 2011 - After months of sometimes heated and emotional discussion over the topic of having an animal control facility in the county, the situation came to a head at Monday morning's commissioner's court meeting where the issue was called to a vote, and subsequently voted down. In a meeting that lasted just over three hours and covered 23 line items on the agenda, at least one hour of that time was spent just on the one final line item pertaining to the facility. The final vote was met with several who expressed disgust and anger over the decision, and led to many remarks against the two commissioners - Stan Barker and Joe Strong - and County Judge Spanky Carter, who cast the dissenting votes.

May 19, 2011 - In 1995, when Lloyd and Debra Leslie bought the structure at 903 N. Cedar St. for $3,000, it wouldn't have qualified as a home by most people's standards. The house had no doors, no windows, no closets and no working bathroom. Lloyd saw what the house could become, and Debra saw an empty shell of a house that "used to be" and cringed to think they were spending money on the structure. In the next few months, the Leslies would put $33,000 of supplies into the shell, and make it a home.

By 1995 the structure had been vandalized repeatedly and was a sore sight. There were even rumors that the city was thinking about condemning the structure, so the Leslies saved the house from extinction.

May 12, 2011 - Just over $2,000 was deposited into the COTA for Madeline Burke fund after last weekend's fundraising efforts on the square. Many people visited the square Saturday morning and afternoon to contribute to the Burke family by participating in the various events. These events were planned with hopes of collecting the last money needed for the family.