Free Republic

Smith impressed many with her skills By Mike Bockoven michael.bockoven@theindependent.com For the people who knew and worked with Virginia Smith, there were three common themes -- they all met her in person, they all admired her work as Third District Representative, and they all found her fantastic. "She was one lady you never forgot," Margaret Landis, a former Hall County Supervisor who worked with Smith on getting water out to the Capital Heights area, said. "We've had some good people follow her, but I guarantee they weren't her. She was a dynamic lady." Smith died Monday at the age of...

YPSILANTI, Mich. (AP) — Dean L. Rockwell, an honored Navy veteran of the allied landing at Normandy in 1944 and who coached the U.S. Greco-Roman wrestling team at the 1964 Olympics, has died. He was 93. Rockwell died Monday at a hospice in Ann Arbor after a short illness, Eastern Michigan University announced. Rockwell was born on a farm in Cass County in southwestern Michigan and graduated from Three Rivers High School. He competed in football, track and wrestling at what is now Eastern Michigan, graduating in 1935. He taught high school in Detroit, East Detroit and Flint before enlisting...