Olene Skelton Dallas
Ms. Olene Skelton Dallas died from complications of Alzheimer's disease on June 29, 2018 at Vickers Personal Care Home in Mathiston, Mississippi. She was born on May 26, 1920, the second of eight children born to Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Skelton in the family home on the Sturgis-Maben Road. She attended the one-room McMinn Chapel School for several years and later graduated from Sturgis High School.
After graduation, she moved to Jackson where she met and married Webb Dallas. Their first child was born just six weeks before Pearl Harbor. After the war was over they made their home in Jackson. After her husband's death in 1969, Ms. Dallas and her four younger children moved to a new home on the Sturgis-Maben Road not far from the site of her birth.
Ms. Dallas was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, two brothers, two sisters and a grandchild. She is survived by her seven children, twelve grandchildren, numerous great-grandchildren, and two younger sisters.
Visitation will be from 12:00 to 1:00 at Big Creek Methodist Church with services following at 1:00 p.m. July 2, 2018. Interment will be in the Church cemetery. Welch Funeral Service is in charge of arrangements. In accordance with Ms. Dallas's wishes the family requests that in lieu of flower contributions be made to Big Creek United Methodist Church of Sturgis.
You can go online and sign guest register www. welchfuneralhomes.com
The Mississippi State University Concrete Canoe Team has returned from a national competition in California after the best performance in the team's history.
The team was among the top 15, and received accolades for its engineering paper, placing in the top 10 in both coed and men's races. The team consists of 21 MSU civil engineering students, 10 of which travelled to the international competition at San Diego State University from June 23-25. At the competition, MSU was up against teams from across the country, as well as Canada, China and India. It was the team's fifth year to qualify for national, after competitions in 2007, 2015 and 2017. Teams are challenged to build a floating 20-foot canoe from concrete, and sail it in several different events. The team is also judged on its design and paper. Dubbed the “Maroon Pearl,” after the “Black Pearl” in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, this year's MSU canoe the lightest in team history at 198 pounds.
“We came in top five in the co-ed sprint, which is two men and two women racing in the concrete canoe,” said Team Captain Eric Blackmon. “Placing top five at the national competition is good enough to get you onstage at the awards banquet, so we're actually bringing home a trophy this year. It's a wooden paddle with our finishing place on there, so that's just an honor.”
Blackmon said he felt like the team had something to prove after last year's competition, where the team scored zero points.
“I didn't want to go back and just be glad to be there and participate,” said Blackmon, who graduated cum laude in civil engineering in May. “I wanted to actually be able to compete and bring home some kind of trophy.”
He said the MSU concrete canoe team had never before placed in any event at the national competition.
“This was my swan song as a Mississippi State student, this competition in San Diego,” Blackmon said. “This was the last thing I was going to be able to do as a Mississippi State student before coming up here and working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Alaska.”
The MSU team placed 14th overall, with a score of 5.8 points. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo was named the overall champion.
The National Concrete Canoe Competition is held annually by the American Society of Civil Engineers.