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Features

  •
    Annual Friends Concert is Sunday

    The Lancaster County Council of the Arts and EMK Music will present a Friends Concert on Sunday afternoon.

    The classical concert will feature local and regional musicians, including flutist Erin Moon-Kelly, pianist Margaret Walsh-Monroe and soprano Michelle Evans Jarell.

    The concert will begin at 3 p.m at the Springs House, 201 W. Gay St., Lancaster.

    Admission is free, but the Arts Council will take donations for future performing arts programs.

  • Bringing Down the Curtain

     By GREGORY A. SUMMERS

  •
    Life is a constant tweak for Legacy...

    Since forming in 1999, the music ministry of Legacy Five has been paved with success.

    There have been numerous hit songs, appearances on Gaither and Friends Homecoming videos, on “In Touch” with Dr. Charles Stanley, TNN, TBN, Sky Angel, INSP, GMT and The Odyssey Network, music awards and a strong fan base.

    But that road to success has been bumpy, too, said Legacy Five’s Scott Fowler.

    The Southern gospel quartet will perform at 7 p.m. today  at Second Baptist Church as part of the 2010 GlennMark Concert Series.

  • Hampton Sherrin reboots cancer...

    Each year, the Relay For Life puts a face to cancer victims, survivors and their caregivers for everyone to see.

    For Hampton Sherrin, 21, cancer now has a face, but he doesn’t know it belongs to. And Sherrin won’t know who it belongs to until next spring.

    But it is a face he wants to see.

    The Buford High School graduate and senior at Presbyterian College has changed, and hopefully, saved someone’s life.

  •
    Know signs, symptoms of diabetes

    The numbers are staggering.

    Every 25 seconds, someone in America is diagnosed with diabetes.

    Right now, there are 23.6 million Americans living with diabetes. That’s almost 8 percent of the United States population.

    There are nearly six million more people living with diabetes who don’t know it. That includes an estimated 415,000 South Carolinians, said Lori Moseley, program manager of the Diabetes Education Clinic at the University of South Carolina at Lancaster.

  •
    Retrieved bowl stirs WWII memories...

    At times, the line between love and hate can be paper thin.

    That notion is one Billy Ray “Reb” Deese can attest to when he holds the bowl displayed on the kitchen table of his home.

    Most wouldn’t give the white glazed china dish a second glance. But that bowl – and how it ended up on Holly Dale Drive – is the story of Deese’s life. For Deese, it’s more second chance than second glance.

  •
    Fight for life comes to Fantasia...

    Jimmy Mastranunzio is pushing 40.

    He’s a typical dad who worries about his four children, Haley, Tanner, Jaxon and Kevin and his wife Cyndi.

    And he’d like to talk to them, but he can’t.

    His body has robbed him of that ability and is slowly robbing him of the things most of us take for granted, said his best friend Lauri Pistolis.

    Diagnosed with an incurable disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, in 2005, Pistolis said no one knows if Mastranunzio will see his next birthday.

  • Holy Week celebrations

    Several county churches have special Easter services planned this week.

    They include cantatas, Maundy Thursday services, the Last Supper, Good Friday, and the crucifixion of Christ and His resurrection on Easter Sunday. Here is a look so you can make plans to attend.

    Today

    – The choir of Camp Creek Baptist Church, 998 Potter Road, will present the  Easter cantata “Because He Lives” at 11 a.m. today. For details, call (803) 285-0645.

    Holy week revivals

  •
    Happy Pranksgiving

    I love a good April 1 prank. Just ask Jane Alford.

    The editor of Carolina Gateway found herself as the butt of one of my stunts several years ago.

    I called her one April Fools’ Day morning, pretending to be small business owner to report that a paper box belonging to The Lancaster News had been stolen.

    To be honest, that phone conversation lasted a lot longer that I initially thought it would.

    Evidently, I was rather convincing in a my role as the “Kwikee Mart” proprietor.

  •
    Patio time

    Signs of spring are blooming all over Lee and Lou C. “Lucy” Thomas’ yard at 926 Meadow Drive in Lancaster’s  Forest Hills neighborhood. 

    The abundance of daffodils caught the eye of Joyce Morin of The Lancaster Garden Club.  Morin selected the Thomas yard as the March Yard of the Month sponsored by the Lancaster Council of Garden Clubs.

    “The yard is absolutely awash with daffodils and neat as a pin,” Morin said.  “It’s a very pretty house and the effect is very striking.”

  •
    A shepherd's heart

    Editor’s note – The Rev. Nathan J. “N.J.” Neely died March 14 after falling when he suffered a stroke early March 12. It was our intention to publish this story on Rev. Neely today.

    It originally appeared in the March 3 edition of the Great Falls Reporter, which is published by our sister paper, The Chester News and Reporter.

  • 2010 Helen Robinson Memorial Music...

    Angela Gwinn did not choose music as a career. Music chose her, and, she’s glad it did. 

    “When God gives you a gift, you have to do with it what you can,” said the Cedar Falls, Iowa, native who now lives in Fort Mill.

    The talented opera soprano is one of nine musicians who will perform here Sunday in the annual Helen Robinson Memorial Music Recital at First United Methodist Church.

    While Gwinn has performed on stages from New York to New Zealand, she is right at home standing on a church pulpit.

  •
    Sweet talkers of soul

    In 1976, The Manhattans recorded a track that included a memorable opening rap by Winfred “Blue” Lovett, followed by the impassioned vocals of lead singer Gerald Alston.

    From the start, Lovett said this song was different. 

    Since 1965, he had composed his share of songs for the polished vocal group with some of them taking weeks to arrange. But nothing ever happened.  

    Some of those songs, Lovett said, he heard in his sleep, but he was too tired to make it to his piano.

  •
    Happy St. Patrick's Day!

    Chances are high that you’re wearing something green right now.

    It might be a shirt, blouse, scarf, hat or even a temporary tattoo.

    If you are, happy St. Patrick’s Day.

    If you aren’t wearing green, get ready to be pinched and happy St. Patrick’s Day.

    First observed in Boston 273 years ago (1737), St. Patrick’s Day continues to be one of America’s favorite holidays.

    The holiday, which is named after the patron saint of Ireland came to this country via its Irish immigrants.

  • American original

    WAXHAW – When Arthur Lightbody gets to work March 20, he knows those walking past his office door may do a double-take once they get a brief glance at his unusual attire.

    Some, he said, are already questioning why he’s been talking to himself out loud in the break room.

    But if you see Lightbody’s one-man show at Andrew Jackson State Park  at noon that day, everything will make perfect sense.

    The media relations officer and vice president of communications for JAARS is a president, too.

  •
    Slow cookers put home-cooked meals...

    A recent survey from ConAgra Foods shows that 49 percent of Americans say they are often short on time and energy when it comes to preparing meals.

    On hectic days, a cook’s best friend is a slow cooker.

    Busy cooks who want convenience and flavor can use a slow cooker to prepare family-pleasing, one-dish meals. All they require to make a hearty meal is a few simple ingredients placed together early in the morning or late at night.

    From meats and casseroles to soups, dips, pastas and, yes, even desserts, this handy appliance can do it all.

  •
    Big screen debut

    INDIAN LAND – Lauri Pistolis got more than she bargained for when she headed to Memphis, Tenn., last month to help a friend handle the horses on a movie set.

    But she’s not complaining.

    Pistolis wound up being the stunt double for female lead Leonor Varela in the upcoming movie, “A Fine Step.”

    That meant Pistolis got to ride the film’s real star, Substituto, a 5-year-old champion Paso Fino stallion in his first movie role. 

  • Blame tomato squeeze on Florida...

    You don’t have to tell Kelly Gibson the winter of 2009-10 is tied for the fourth coldest in South Carolina history.

    And it’s not just here. It’s been just cold and wet across most of the southeast, including Florida.

    Gibson knows it whenever one word – tomato – gets mentioned.

    Those three syllables can make the owner of the South 200 Drive-In Restaurant grimace, stare at the floor and shake her head.

  •
    Governor's School choir...

    The cantus chamber choir and brass quintet from the S.C. Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities won’t have much trouble finding First Presbyterian Church next Tuesday.

    One of its members knows exactly where the church is.

    Former Andrew Jackson High School student Sara Parker is now a senior at the Governor’s School in Greenville.

    “This is a big trip for us,” said Dr. David Rhyne, who is the choral instructor there.

  • No classroom for error

    Good food is more than a smidgen of this and a pinch of that.

    Good food is about doing things the right way in a clean kitchen, washing your hands and not taking unhealthy shortcuts.

    Not only have 26 Lancaster High students been learning how to cook from scratch this year in the culinary arts class, they’ve also been learning why you don’t scratch while you cook through a 12-hour nationally accredited ServSafe Food Safety certification course.