Two-hundred and fifty-four graduates of the Class of 2008 at Neosho High School moved their tassels and received diplomas at commencement Saturday night under the golden glow of the dusk sun and the bright lights at Bob Anderson Stadium.

Stealing a line from the popular movie, “Legally Blonde,” the golden-haired valedictorian Jessica Pettinger ended her speech to the Diamond High School Class of 2008 with, “We did it!”

Matt Moore has dreamed of becoming a state conservationist ever since he “found out there were people paid to work outside.”

Fifty years ago, LaDean Reed started at Sale Memorial Hospital in Neosho as a transcriptionist. On Friday, she was surprised by her Freeman co-workers and family at a reception in her honor.

Maxine Austin, a 90-year-old former Realtor, pauses to discuss her life as she celebrates her birthday.

Today, as one of the oldest members of the local black community, Ida Smiles likes to remind herself that she is standing on the shoulders of others.

And it’s the main reason, she said, for this year’s black history program, Sunday Feb. 17, in the old schoolhouse at the Newton County Historic Park, one block north of the Neosho Square.