Fairview has first spelling bee champ - Miss Janis Stanford, an attractive 14-year-old blonde from Fairview Attendance Center, finally, on the 32nd round, was able to wrest the County Spelling Championship from runner-up Tommy Sheffield of Dorsey in the annual bee held at the Fulton Grammar School the past Tuesday. Miss Barbara Calhoun of Houston was third place winner.

Fulton and Tremont schools have long held a monopoly on county spelling bees; however, Fulton's last entrant to remain in the event, Miss Daney Daniel, placed fourth, and Tremont's last entrant to sit down was Miss Ann Mabus, much farther down the line.

Reappraisal extension granted - Although Itawamba County was granted a year's extension to complete the court-ordered reappraisal of taxable property, taxpayers may face higher taxes this year.

The extension was granted last Thursday by Hinds County Chancery Court Judge James A. Barnett, who issued the original order mandating the state-wide reappraisal.

Itawamba officials testified to Barnett they would not be able to complete the reappraisal by the July 1, 1984, deadline. Barnett granted the extension to Itawamba and 27 other counties but refused to delay putting a new appraisal system into effect.

Schools get report card - Itawamba County schools show an "adequate" level of education according to the 1993 Mississippi Report Card released last week.

Itawamba County Schools (ICS) and Itawamba Agricultural High School (IAHS) were profiled with the 151 other school districts in the state.

The average expenditure per pupil is $3,277.91 for ICS, $2,338 for IAHS and $3,499.22 for the state.

ICS has an 82 percent graduation rate compared with 76 percent for the state. IAHS figures were not available.

Swann sentenced to life without parole - Inside the Itawamba County Circuit Court, the jury foreman handed over a folded piece of yellow legal paper with the fate of Ronnie Lee Swann scrawled on it.

The verdict came Saturday morning after over four hours of deliberation.

Judge Thomas Gardner read the guilty verdict aloud.

The father of the victim, H.G. "Son" Seal, 89, wiped away quiet tears while across the aisle Swann's mother mother "Oh God."

Saturday's capital murder conviction of Swann and his sentence to life in prison without parole by an Itawamba County jury closed the book on the longest running missing person's case in Lee County. The investigation lasted 13 years.

As the verdict was read, Swann's profile was expressionless. Swann was immediately transported to the state penitentiary where he will serve his life sentence for the capital murder of John Edward Seal.