Mississippi News

Funeral service for Lusia “Lucy” Harris set for Feb. 5

Published

2 years ago

February 1, 2022

Funeral service for Lusia “Lucy” Harris set for Feb. 5

by Molly Minta, Mississippi Today
February 1, 2022

Delta State University has announced funeral arrangements for Lusia “Lucy” Harris Stewart, the basketball legend who led the university to three consecutive national championships and became the first Black woman inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

A funeral service will be held on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 11 a.m. in the Walter Sillers Coliseum at Delta State University. Visitation will be held the day prior from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Bethesda Five Points Center in Greenwood.

Harris, a native of Minter City, Miss., was the only Black woman on Delta State's Lady Statesmen when she led the team to its first national title in 1975. A year later, the 6-foot-3 center scored the first basket in Olympic womens' basketball history at the Montreal Games.

“Now that's a record that'll never be broken,” Harris said in “The Queen of Basketball,” a 2021 documentary about her life.

There was no WNBA league when Harris graduated from Delta State in 1977, so she married her high school sweetheart, George Stewart. She turned down an offer to play with the New Orleans Jazz and took a job coaching basketball at Amanda Elzy High School in Greenwood, where she had learned to play the game.

“Lucy was truly the first superstar of the women's game,” Langston Rogers, the Delta State sports information director in the 1970s, told Mississippi Today's Rick Cleveland. “She just dominated. Nobody could dominate a game like Lucy could.”

Harris passed away at age 66 on Wednesday, Jan. 18, in a therapy facility in Mound Bayou.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi News

Flowood man sentenced for possessing thousands of images of child porn

Published

1 hour ago

April 30, 2024

Staff Editor

www.wjtv.com – Sethanie Smith – 2024-04-30 12:21:08

SUMMARY: Flowood man Timothy Daniel Steele, also known as Timothy Daniel Gantenbein, was sentenced to over eight years in federal prison for possessing abusive child pornography materials. He was also sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release. Steele, 26, had thousands of images and videos depicting adult men engaging in sex with minor children. He pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and was ordered to pay restitution of $324,876.39 to his victims. Steele will also be required to register as a sex offender. The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Flowood Police Department.

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Mississippi News

Witnesses testify in Beth Ann White retrial

Published

1 hour ago

April 30, 2024

Staff Editor

www.wjtv.com – Tia McKenzie – 2024-04-30 12:10:53

SUMMARY: Beth Ann White is on trial in Hinds County for causing a crash that killed a mother and her six-month-old son, and left two other children with severe injuries. The state argues her blood alcohol content was three times the legal limit, while the defense disputes this. White was indicted on four counts of aggravated DUI and one count of DUI fourth. After a mistrial in 2023, she is being retried. Witnesses testified that she was driving erratically before the crash. If convicted, White could face felony charges for her fourth DUI offense.

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Mississippi News

Bill to legalize online sports betting in Mississippi dies

Published

2 hours ago

April 30, 2024

Staff Editor

www.wjtv.com – Kaitlin Howell – 2024-04-30 11:37:36

SUMMARY: A bill to legalize mobile sports betting in Mississippi, known as House Bill 774, has died in conference. Sports wagering has been legal in the state for years, but online betting has not been allowed due to concerns about its impact on casinos. Mobile sports betting is already legal in 29 states and Washington, D.C. Geolocation data shows many Mississippi residents accessing legal betting sites in other states. Tennessee and Louisiana have legalized online sports betting in recent years. The bill's failure means Mississippi residents will have to continue traveling to other states to legally place bets on sports.

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