On this day in 1981, The Oak Ridge Boys’ “Elvira” was Certified Gold by the RIAA. The song is off of the band’s album Fancy Free. The title of the song was inspired not by the name of a woman, but by the name of a street in East Nashville, Tennessee.
“Elvira” quickly climbed to #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, and peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making it their biggest pop hit.
“Elvira” has since been Certified Platinum.
Lady Antebellum and Brad Paisley are among the acts slated to perform at NBC’s annual “Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular” in New York City. The celebration will include the country’s largest firework display in over a decade, with more than 60,000 shells launched from five barges in midtown Manhattan. Actress and singer Hailee Steinfeld will also perform at the event, with more acts set to be announced soon.
· The fireworks will be accompanied by the West Point Band and Glee Club’s musical tribute, “ANTHEM,” featuring, Craig Campbell, Heather Headley, Jamie Barton & the USO Troupe of Metropolitan New York.
After 17 years and more than 1,000 games played in the NHL, Carrie Underwood’s husband Mike Fisher may be considering retirement. With his two-year contract with the Nashville Predators set to expire on June 30, Fisher is weighing his options and, according to The Tennessean, is considering hanging up his skates. Mike still hasn’t announced his decision, but he does have a lot of non-hockey factors to consider, including his wife Carrie and their son Isaiah. Fisher tells The Tennessean, “For me, it’s faith, family and then hockey, really. We’ll see where that fits in. I love being part of this group. I had a blast.”
· Fisher and the Predators made a historic bid for the Stanley Cup recently, but ultimately fell short to Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 6 of the Finals.
LITTLETON, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a woman’s body has been recovered from the Wapsipinicon River in eastern Iowa’s Buchanan County.
The body was spotted around 7:40 p.m. Thursday and recovered later about 2 miles (3 kilometers) northwest of Littleton. An autopsy has been ordered to help confirm the woman’s identity.
Authorities have been looking for a woman missing since May 28 near the river near Dunkerton. A motorcycle belonging to Waterloo resident Rhonda Apfel was found parked at the Bruggeman Wildlife Area.
In softball scores from Thursday:
Albia 7, Centerville 1
Colfax-Mingo 11, Pleasantville 1
Lone Tree 9, Cardinal, Eldon 5
Twin Cedars 11, Orient-Macksburg 1
In baseball scores from Thursday:
Knoxville 10, Fairfield 5
Knoxville 3, Fairfield 0 (Lightning Top of 4th Inning)
Martensdale-St. Marys 13, Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont 3 (5 Innings)
North Mahaska, New Sharon 8, English Valleys, North English 0 (suspended in the 4th)
Ottumwa 10, Waukee 0
Waukee 7, Ottumwa 3
Twin Cedars, Bussey 12, Orient-Macksburg 2
Winterset 1, Pleasantville 0 (suspended bottom of 3rd lightning )
The latest softball rankings from the Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union were released Thursday night and several area teams continue to be in the mix.
In Class 1A, Lynnville-Sully remains in the top 15 during their bounce-back season. The Hawks are 12th, falling three spots from last week. Conference-mate Sigourney is right behind them in 13th, holding steady from their ranking one week ago. Colfax-Mingo in 11th and Belle Plaine at #14 also represent the South Iowa Cedar League.
Kee is #1, followed by Akron-Westfield and Martensdale-St. Marys.
In Class 2A, Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont continues their string of sitting in the top three, staying put at #3 this week. The Rockets sit behind North Union and Interstate 35 this week, the exact same three as last week. Pella Christian moves up one spot to #8 this week fresh off a conference win against Oskaloosa on Wednesday.
Class 3A has been tough for area schools to break through, but Albia has worked their way back into the rankings after falling out last week. The Lady Dees are 14th. PCM fell out of the rankings from their post at #11 last week. The top three teams in Class 3A are Davenport Assumption, Humboldt, and Sioux Center.
Oskaloosa continues to pace the area in Class 4A, as they fall three spots to #6. The defending Class 4A State Champions are behind a who’s who of perennial powers in the rankings. Benton, who won the Class 3A state title last year, is #1. Fairfield is down one spot to #2. Ballard, Winterset, and Bishop Heelan round out the top five.
In Class 5A, Ottumwa fell out of the rankings for the first time this season. They were positioned at #14 last week. Little Hawkeye Conference team Indianola holds steady at #9. The top three in 5A are Waukee, West Des Moines Valley, and Urbandale.
The Class 1A and 2A pairings have been released for baseball and several conference opponents will be facing off to make their way deep into the playoffs.
In Class 1A District 8, the eight-team bracket features five area teams from the South Iowa Cedar League: BGM, English Valleys, Keota, Sigourney, and Tri-County. Iowa Valley and HLV are also out of the SICL. Iowa Mennonite School rounds out the list. This bracket will be wide open with HLV the slight favorites at this point. The winner of this district will likely be an underdog in a substate game.
District 10 in Class 1A is entirely comprised of teams from the Southeast Iowa Superconference. Cardinal and Pekin are among the teams involved, but it seems that Highland of Riverside and Notre Dame of Burlington are on a collision course to battle for the district crown.
A split of Bluegrass Conference and South Iowa Cedar League teams are found in Class 1A District 11. Of the eight teams, six are within our listening area: Lynnville-Sully, Melcher-Dallas, Montezuma, Moravia, North Mahaska, and Twin Cedars. Colfax-Mingo and Moulton-Udell finish off the teams in the district. This bracket should be intriguing, as Colfax-Mingo, Lynnville-Sully, Moravia, and Twin Cedars could all enter as the top seed.
In Class 2A, District 11 finds four South Central Conference teams involved. Albia, Centerville, Davis County, and Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont will attempt to fight through each other. Pella Christian of the Little Hawkeye Conference and Pleasantville from the Pride of Iowa Conference also are in the bracket. Again, this district seems to be wide open, as Centerville, EBF, and Pleasantville will battle for the byes and the top seed, while Pella Christian has played the toughest competition of the year.
District 14 in Class 2A features PCM out of the Heart of Iowa Conference. They’ll match up with two other Heart of Iowa teams in CMB and Roland-Story. Ogden, Van Meter, and Woodward Academy are also in the bracket. Van Meter should be the odds-on favorite at this point with PCM and Roland-Story battling for the second bye.
The Class 3A and 4A pairings should be out within the next week and the full brackets for all four classes will follow in early July as the summer sports season starts sprinting to the finish line.
You can always check scores and updates on kboeradio.com .
On this day in 1985, Ricky Skaggs reached the summit, when it hit #1 on the Billboard US Hot Country Songs chart with “Country Boy”.
The song was released as the single and was the title track for his album Country Boy. This would be Skaggs’ ninth number-one hit.
Shania Twain has announced the release of her forthcoming studio album, Shania Now, out September 29. In addition to sharing her new album’s title and release date, Shania has also revealed the project’s cover art, which features a black-and-white photo of her wearing a pair of long, leopard-print gloves.
AMES, Iowa (AP) — A jury has convicted an Ames woman of voluntary manslaughter for killing her husband.
The Story County jury returned the verdict Wednesday against 36-year-old Candace Cummings in the second day of deliberations. Cummings was charged with first-degree murder for killing 36-year-old Harland “Jesse” Cummings. Prosecutors say she shot him as he slept.
Her sentencing is scheduled for July 17.
Candace Cummings told investigators she killed her husband because of stress in their marriage and the years of abuse she’d suffered at his hands.
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