Junes past, 25 years ago.

From the LaGrange Daily News, 1991.

Front Page News

150 ‘Town Square Folks’ To Be ‘Grass Roots’ Extras — One came in fluffy hair, pink pedal pushers and high heels. Another sported gold chains, peroxided locks and a shirt opened rakishly down to his midsection. But most of the estimated 500 people who answered a casting call for extras for the television movie “Grass Roots” were what casting director P.J. Shinall called “Town Square People,” regular LaGrange and area folks with regular faces and a curiosity about filmmaking.

Mrs. Shinall began eyeballing and interviewing would-be extras at the LaGrange office of the Georgia Labor Department on Friday. She was looking for people to appear in a film based on the novel by Meriwether County native Stuart Woods.

Set in a west Georgia fictional community, the JBS Productions film will star LA Law’s Corbin Bernsen and Raymond Burr of Perry Mason fame. Over 150 people will be used as extras in the film.

LHS Adding New ‘Technology Lab’ — The vocational program at LaGrange High School will take on a brand new look and will head in a brand new direction when classes resume next fall, according to Vocational Supervisor Frank Gurley. That’s when the Technology Education Laboratory opens to the entire student body.

“The shift started from industrial arts to technology education several years ago,” Gurley said, explaining that the move from a traditional shop setting to a focus on technology students exposing them to a variety of subjects ranging from computers to laser technology to robotics had already begun here.

“LaGrange High School will be one of the three high schools in the state to start the program this fall with full facilities and programs,” Gurley added. A total of $119,000 in state and federal funds — amounting to 70 to 80 percent of the cost — will pay for construction of the lab and instructional equipment and local funds will be used to maintain the lab. Setting up the new lab will begin in July.

Homecoming Gordon Street Style — New York’s Wall Street had more ticker tape, but no more enthusiasm than LaGrange’s Gordon Street residents showed when they turned out Monday to welcome home a local veteran of Operation Desert Storm.

Marine Cpl. Larry Freeman Jr. returned to his hometown for the first time Monday since his honeymoon was interrupted by the Gulf conflict last August. Freeman and his bride, the former Shannon Burdette, had been married just a few hours when his Hawaii-based unit was put on Gulf alert.

Monday the reunited newlyweds wheeled out Gordon Street in LaGrange, expecting a quiet reunion with family members, but found a surprise turn-out of flag-waving friends, relatives and neighbors. They arrived in time to see Larry’s brother Kevin graduate from LaGrange High School tonight.

Troup Schools to ‘Tutor’ Via Computers — Troup County schools will expand the use of computer labs in remedial education programs this fall. Board members Thursday approved spending $169,838 in federal funds for the purchase of computer work stations and software for Chapter I students at Mountville, Rosemont and West Point elementary schools.

A six-station computer lab was used on a trial basis at West Point this year and it proved very effective in tutoring students in math and English.

Service Award Honors ‘Happy Tooth’ Creator — Margaret Ross, familiar to LaGrange schoolchildren for her educational “Happy Tooth” presentations, has cause to beam her own irrepressible smile. Mrs. Ross was recently elected a 1991 Thelma J. Neff Distinguished Service Award winner.

The award, named after the first president of the Auxiliary to the American Dental Association, recognizes members of AADA who have shown outstanding leadership and involvement in the dental community and the community at large. A dental hygienist and wife of Dr. Richard Ross, Mrs. Ross served as the first LaGrange president of the Western District of the AADA and was the president of the Auxiliary to the Georgia Dental Association in 1985.

Locally she is well known for the in-school program presenting good dental care which she has presented for many years to area children.

Major Leagues Draft Two Local Players — Friday will be Troup County night with the Atlanta Braves, but Monday was Troup and LaGrange Day with major league baseball.

Two local high school stars, Jimmy Haynes of Troup High and Mike Cameron of LaGrange High, were taken in the Major League draft. Haynes, a pitcher, was taken by the Baltimore Orioles, while Cameron, a center fielder, went to the Chicago White Sox.

This is believed to be the first time ever that two local baseball players have been drafted on the same day.

Graffiti: Insanity runs in the family. People get it from their kids.