Area News

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      Stonewall Jackson, a country music legend and Tabor City native who just a few years ago gave his blessings to welcome signs erected in his honor, died Saturday. He was 89.      His death, following a long battle with vascular dementia, was reported Saturday by Nashville’s Taste of Country at tasteofcountry.com.      Born…

By DEUCE NIVEN & JENN CAUSEY      Council conversation concerning a quit claim deed Mayor Todd Harrelson signed to a Loris merchant early this year grew increasingly contentious during Monday’s City Council meeting.      That conversation could be moving to a courtroom early in the new year, council member Carroll Padgett said during the meeting, and again…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      Broadcasting herself “preparing marijuana to be smoked” Thursday morning landed an area woman in jail, the Columbus County Sheriff’s Office reports.      , 33, of Sellers Town Road, Whiteville, “did not deny” what deputies had seen on the Facebook Live, which has since been deleted, Chief Deputy Aaron Herring said in…

     A Boston Butt sale to benefit a Gapway area family who lost their home and belongings to a recent fire has been launched by the Columbus County Fire & Rescue Association.      Annette Soles and her extended family, including her boyfriend and Lake Waccamaw firefighter David Vela, escaped the fire, though five of the six in…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com UPDATE      A problem with an electric space heater caused the fire that burned the Annette Soles home west of Tabor City early Monday, Columbus County Fire Marshal Shannon Blackman said later Monday morning.      “It was the space heater in the two girls’ bedroom,” Blackman said.      The older of the two girls…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      Officer Clay Hagood of the Tabor City Police Department suffered relatively minor injuries after his patrol cruiser overturned as he swerved to avoid a deer on the way to work Saturday, Chief Donald Dowless said.      Hagood, 42, was on Soles Road near New Britton Hwy south of Brunswick when he encountered…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      A correctional officer at Tabor Correctional Institution is under investigation following the overdose death of an inmate there, the Tabor City Police Department reports.      That investigation includes support from the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), Maj. Russell Conway of the TCPD said Monday.      Dustin D. Goodson, 31, suffered an apparent overdose…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      A correctional officer was in handcuffs Friday afternoon, charged with trafficking synthetic cannabinoids inside Tabor Correctional Institution.      Wesley Thompson, 24, of Twin Pines Road, Whiteville, was charged after another correctional officer discovered contraband hidden in a podium in the close custody (maximum security) section at the state prison west of Tabor…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      In more than seven decades as a barber, Stewart Watts seldom, if ever, had an audience like the one he enjoyed Saturday.      Family, and just a few friends watched the end of an era, Watts’ hands perhaps more steady than his legs as ended his career with one last haircut, a…

Some three dozen people gathered at the Veterans Memorial Park of America, between Tabor City and Whiteville, for a Veterans Day observance last week. District Court Judge C. Ashley Gore (center, above) was among the speakers, and was watched by (from left) Bill Thompson who sang The National Anthem, park board members Rob Williams and…