Welcome to Pearl River County Library System’s Picayune Item Blog! Here, library staff highlights memorable articles and provides commentary for various Picayune Item articles throughout the years. Just use the navigation menu to the left of the webpage to cycle through blog posts by month and year.
July 2023 – December 2023
September 21, 2023
Picayune Item, October 15, 1992, Page 1,
The Fall Fest, a day of entertainment, arts and crafts and cash prizes preceded by a concert will be held on Saturday. Nov. 2nd at the Jack Read Pavilion on Goodyear Boulevard. The annual event is hosted by the local Jaycee chapter.
The community-wide event has been a small project in the past to bring together the local community. This year, thanks to national advertising conducted in conjunction with other events happening that weekend including the Rotary Club’s 10K Run and the Fall Concert, the Jaycees plan to have the biggest Fall Fest ever.
Howard Poitevint, USF&WS project leader who received the award in Atlanta for the USF&WS office in Slidell. La., which was the main sponsor, was at Pinecote Pavilion Wednesday afternoon to present award certificates to the three local sponsoring organizations for their part in the annual evening.
The three local sponsors recognized were Crosby Arboretum, the Pearl River County 4-H Clubs and the Pearl River County Extension Homemakers. Poitevint noted there were several other local groups who helped with the camp and without whom it would not have been the success it was.
Groups that helped provide the programs included the Picayune Bass Club, the Mississippi Wild life Federation, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, the Nature Conservance, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, the U.S. Forest Service, the U S. Geological Survey, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the U.S. Soil Conservation Service.
Lanett Hawthorne
Microfilm/Digital Document Coordinator
August 21, 2023
Picayune Item, Thursday, October 15, 1992, Page 1, Vol 88, No. 98. Earth Camp earn national awards.
The Earth Camp, held at Walk-iah Bluff Water Park for the past two years, has received national recognition from the Take Pride in America awards program of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
The three local sponsors recognized were Crosby Arboretum, the Pearl River County Extension Homemakers. Howard Poitevint (USF&WS Project Leader) noted there were several other local groups who helped with the camp and without whom it would not have been the success it was.
Groups that provide the programs included the Picayune Bass Club, the Mississippi Wildlife Federation, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, the Nature Conservance, the Mississippi Department of Environment Quality, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Space Administration, and the U.S. Soil Conservation Service.
Lanett Hawthorne
Microfilm/Digital Document Coordinator
July 20, 2023
Picayune Item, Tuesday, July 7, 1992, Page 1, Vol 88, No. 26. Picayune named top city in Great American Race
Picayune’s Library is $5,000 richer, as city officials learned Sunday that this city was named the winner of the Goodyear Great American City Award. Picayune was chosen most hospitable of all the stops made by participants in the Interstate Batteries Great American Race, which stopped here for lunch on June 24.
The race ended Saturday in Costa Mesa, California and Picayune won the vote for its welcome of the antique vehicles and their crews here. Competition included cites as large as Atlanta, Georgia, Phoenix, Arizona, Galveston, Texas, and San Diego, California. Judging was done by selected contestants, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. representatives, and race officials.
Phil Cole, director of communications for Greatrace Ltd. in Dallas, said that Picayune was “undoubtedly a favorite.” When it was announced by top officials from Goodyear, “Picayune got a standing ovation” from the more than 600 people attending the final ceremonies of the Greatrace on Sunday. Cole said, “What won for Picayune, above everything, was its spirit.”
City manager, Jim Young who served as chairman of the local committee organizing the welcome, was thrilled with the honor. He thinks it was the personal touch of inviting sponsors to meet and visit with the drivers and navigators while they were here. The director of the Greater Picayune Area Chamber of Commerce, Robert Thigpen was inclined to agree. “The city went all out,” he said. “We worked hard in a short period of time (about three months). The small-town American spirit came through.”
Margaret Reed Crosby Memorial Library will receive the top prize of $5,000 from Goodyear. The company presents donations of $5,000, $3,000, and $2,000 to public libraries in the three winning cities – those which present the most enthusiastic, original, and entertaining affairs to remember in welcoming the Greatrace Farmington, N.M. won second place and Brewton, Ala. was third.
Library director Josephine Megehee said she was thrilled after learning of the award from members of the chamber, “You could never pat them (the organizers) on the shoulders hard enough,” she said for their efforts. “What was done in Picayune was beyond belief – everything was beautiful.”
A one-hour Greatrace TV Special will be cablecast on ESPN at 1:30 (EDT) Sunday, August 30.
Lanett Hawthorne
Microfilm/Digital Document Coordinator