MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1996
As husband and wife, Dennis Zanone and Cindy Pace had shared some of the duties of his photography business, and, even after their divorce, she continued to help out. Most of the details were worked out ahead of time so that Cindy, a project coordinator in information and marketing services at International Paper Co., was able to act as her own attorney. The only sticking point came as Cindy was ready to leave at the end of the four-year marriage. “Dennis asked me, ‘Are you taking Katie?’ When I said yes, he said, ‘Well, who am I going to talk to all week?’” Under the law, the 141⁄ 2- year-old ShihTzu was little more than ”personality,” like a stove or dishwasher. Just one more family asset. But the dog’s fate in the divorce and the family’s concerns have become more and more important in modern America, says veterinarian and animal behavior counselor Tammy Wright. While judges seldom decide pet custody cases, they have been forced to mediate bitter disputes, such as a Pulaski, Tenn., case in which the judge imposed joint custody for a dog that had grown up attending a wife’s Bible study classes and riding a husband’s Suzuki motorcycle. Pace says her former husband jokes that he wanted Katie, the Shih-tzu,
because he really needed “a bossy female around.” Their solution was joint custody.
50 years ago — 1971
PARIS – Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, queen of the French high fashion industry, died here Sunday night. She was 87. Miss Chanel, whose classic tailored suits were a by-word with welldressed women throughout the world for decades, died in the suite she had occupied in the exclusive Ritz Hotel in central Paris for many years. The cause of death was not reported immediately, but friends said she died peacefully.
75 years ago — 1946
JACKSON, Miss. – Bishop John Lloyd Decell, resident bishop of the Jackson area of the Southeast Jurisdiction of the Methodist Church, died suddenly at his home here Thursday from a heart attack. The bishop had in his area the Memphis, North Mississippi and Mississippi Conferences. At the last general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South at Birmingham in 1938, he was elected bishop. At that time he was assigned Alabama, North Alabama and Memphis Conferences.
100 years ago — 1921
WASHINGTON – Valuable records dating back to 1700 when the first enumeration of the United States census was taken, were destroyed today in a fire of undetermined origin at the Department of Commerce. The records included figures from every census up to the present one, and officials said that it would be days before even an estimate of the damage could be given. The blaze originated in the basement of the commerce building, and five alarms quickly brought every piece of apparatus in downtown Washington to the scene. More than 20 lines of hoses completed the damage done to the records by pouring tons of water through windows into vaults where the records were kept.