William "Terry" Thornton - July 26, 1939 - August 9, 2010

Remembrance Card Design by footnoteMaven

Dr. William Terrance "Terry" Thornton (1939 - 2010)

A precious one from us is gone,

A voice we loved is stilled;

A place is vacant in our midst

Which can be never filled.

God in His wisdom has called home

The one His love had given

And though the body slumbers here,

His soul is safe in Heaven.

William Terrance "Terry" Thornton was the author of The Hill Country of Monroe County Blog. Terry was also the author of a "Hill Country" column at the Monroe Journal, a Monroe County Mississippi newspaper, and a "Graveyard Rabbit" column at the digital magazine, Shades of the Departed.

This Would Never Happen in Mississippi.....or Could It??

I just received an email from Terry Thornton, who writes Hill Country of Monroe County (MS), alerting me to an unfortunate situation that threatens the destruction of an ancient Indian mound in Oxford, Alabama. Thornton read this information today on Deep Fried Kudzu, a blog written by a 7th generation Alabamian named Ginger.

I have now read Ginger's post, in which she details the story of the destruction of the ancient Indian burial place that may be as much as 1500 years old. It seems the dirt from the mound is being used as fill dirt at a construction site in Oxford, Alabama, where a new Sam's Club store allegedly is being built. Interestingly, the property on which the mound is located may be owned by the City of Oxford's Commercial Development Board.

Ginger's post about the situation in Oxford is a comprehensive one that includes photos and links for contacting Alabama officials, including Oxford's city offices and the Alabama governor's office in Montgomery.

I encourage you to read Ginger's entire post here, and if you see fit, please make the appropriate contacts that could prevent further destruction of this site and other similar historical sites.

Thank you, Ginger, for writing the post. And thank you, Terry, for advising other bloggers about the situation.......maybe we can make a positive impact on the history of Oxford, Alabama.

First, I want to publicly thank Judith Richards Schubert, who writes Genealogy Traces, Tennessee Memories, Cemeteries With Texas Ties, Cemeteries of the Covered Bridges, and Food Gratitude, for so graciously bestowing the Janice Brown Puckerbrush Blog Award for Excellence on this blogger. I would like to add here that Judy Schubert was, indeed, a worthy recipient of this award.

And in the same breath, I want to openly apologize to Judy for taking so long to write a post that acknowledges that she passed this award on to me. Thank you, Judy, for honoring me with this still very new award. And now I will inject a little blogger history - about Judy, that is. Judy and I first met as new members of the GeneaBloggers on Facebook group shortly after we each joined the group. She and I share at least one blogger similarity in that we write family history posts about a state other than the one in which we live - in Judy's case, the blog is Tennessee Memories.

The Janice Brown Puckerbrush Blogger Award for Excellence was developed a few months ago by Terry Thornton who writes Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi, when he first bestowed the award on its namesake, Janice Brown, author of Cow Hampshire. The award's name refers to a posting by Janice on August 27, 2007, explaining the word "puckerbrush."

In his post bestowing the first set of awards to ten bloggers, Terry Thornton issued a challenge to those on his list to pass the award on to ten more bloggers who had influenced their writing, all done as a "tribute to Janice."

Since I have taken so long to publicly acknowledge receiving the award from Judy (I did thank Judy personally, however, as soon as I received her note advising me of the award), I seriously doubt that I will be sending the award to many bloggers who have not already received it. If you have received this award from someone else already, please do accept it again, in keeping with the tribute to Janice Brown.

Now for my Top Ten List:

1. Terry Thornton at Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi

2. Judith Richards Schubert for all your blogs. And yes, you continue to influence me!

3. Thomas McEntee at Destination: Austin Family

4. Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings

5. FootnoteMaven and Shades of the Departed

6. Jasia at Creative Gene

7. Becky Wiseman at Kinexxions

8. Dear Myrtle

9. Mona Robinson Mills at Itawamba Connections

10. Vickie Everhart at BeNotForgot

And in closing, I would like to say a special "Thank You" to all the dedicated geneabloggers on this list for writing interesting, informative, and well-researched posts. You are truly an inspiration to bloggers everywhere.

New Year's Day Article in MCHerald

Yesterday, New Year's Day 2009, an article introducing The Graveyard Rabbit of Madison County to the Greater Jackson area appeared on the front page of the MCHerald, a section of the Clarion-Ledger devoted to news and events in Madison County, Mississippi. My special thanks go out to Lucy Weber, Staff Writer for the MCHerald, who wrote the very nice article that provided an overview of the Madison County blog as well as The Association of Graveyard Rabbits. The parent organization was founded by Terry Thornton, of Fulton, Mississippi, and his co-founder who writes under the name, footnoteMaven. A link to yesterday's article is provided below.

http://www.mcherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090101/NEWS/901010312/1001

New Graveyard Rabbit Blog for Holmes County, MS

Today I am announcing the birth of another "Graveyard Rabbit," a new addition to a now international group or "bury" of rabbits known as "The Association of Graveyard Rabbits" founded by Terry Thornton, another Mississippian, and a fellow blogger who writes "Shades of the Departed" under the name "footNote Maven." Terry also writes his own blog, "The Graveyard Rabbit of Hill Country." The Association was formed in October of this year, and already it has bloggers who write from many states in the U.S., from Canada, and from England, Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands.

On the new blogspot, "The Graveyard Rabbit of Holmes County," I will be writing about old graveyards located in Holmes County, Mississippi, Attala County's neighbor to the west. I hope that you will join me on this journey in search of my ancestors. Maybe you will find some of your ancestors, too, as we travel to cemeteries located in Lexington, Tchula, Coxburg, Ebenezer, and other communities throughout Holmes County.

Welcome to the "rabbit trail!"