Crayne getting new quick-stop grocery
It has been years since Crayne residents could walk across the street for a bag of sugar or a loaf of bread. By year’s end, Gus and Catherine Mills will offer that convenience once again.
The couple, which moved to Crayne from northern Indiana about two years ago, is renovating a block building near the post office. They plan to turn it into the Crayne General Store. A soda pop machine was recently installed in front of the future store.
“We have had to do some reconstruction on the inside of the building and right now we are working on the ceiling and painting and waiting on licensing, but our goal is to be open before the end of the year,” Catherine Mills said.
Mills said the store won’t be real fancy; instead, she and her husband are just trying to make life a little more convenient for people living in the Crayne area.
“Instead of running to town, they can come here for bread, milk, butter, cheese, or pop,” Mills said. “We’re not trying to compete with the groceries in Marion, just offer a lot of the basics like dry goods and canned vegetables.”
The Mills moved to Marion to take care of her father who became ill after retiring to the area.
“After several trips, we decided this wasn’t such a bad little town,” said Mills, whose husband Gus is a truck driver.
They purchased the white block building from Franklin Hazard, and this summer had dirt work done to level the grounds for parking.
While the couple is making new Crayne history, the site of the general store has plenty of its own. Not only was there a grocery there for many years, the property is also on the front of the lot where the old train depot stood.
The building where the store will be located was built in 1960 by Mr. and Mrs. Allie Myers, who operated a small grocery there. The couple sold it to Mr. and Mrs. Locket Nunn who closed the store in 1964. Through the 1980s, the building has housed several antique shops.

Witness says death was an accident;
Dycusburg man faces murder charge
A Crittenden County man was arrested Friday on a murder charge two days after an Eddyville man died from injuries suffered in an alleged assault last week outside the Riverside Cafe in Dycusburg.
According to the Kentucky State Police, Princeton authorities called them Sunday after Carter Peek, 49, of Eddyville came to the Caldwell County Hospital emergency room. State police Detective Steve Silfies determined Peek’s wounds stemmed from an assault that happened the previous Friday in Dycusburg during an altercation.
On Sunday, Peek was taken from Princeton to St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville, Tenn., where he died Wednesday.
State police arrested Mark A. Riddle, 36, of Dycusburg on Friday and charged him with murder. Riddle had just finished a bush-hogging job at Paddy’s Bluff where he is employed when state police met him near his home and took him into custody. They had questioned Riddle a couple of days earlier regarding the incident at Dycusburg.
Riddle remains in the Crittenden County Jail. His arraignment was expected to be held Wednesday or today.
Rick Holsapple, whose daughter Star Mahns owns the Riverside Cafe, told The Press that he intervened in the incident at Dycusburg Friday night.
Holsapple said that Peek became confrontational with people outside the restaurant.
“Carter had showed up there very intoxicated,” Holsapple said. “I told him he had to leave, and I walked him to his car, and somebody gave him a push and he fell.”
Although he did not name Riddle as the person who pushed Peek, it appears that Riddle had somehow become involved in the confrontation based on the charge against him. Holsapple said it was just an accident.
Holsapple said he tried to revive Peek, who appeared unconscious after falling.
“I tried bringing him around,” Holsapple said.
Holsapple then asked a woman with Peek whether she wanted him to call an ambulance. He said she told him no. Holsapple then helped load Peek into a vehicle. He said he told the woman she needed to take Peek to the emergency room.
“It was a horrible accident, it wasn’t like it was a malicious attack,” Holsapple said.
“This was a horrible thing, I consider Carter a friend. I haven’t slept much in over a week.
“Anytime somebody dies in a tragedy it’s hard, it’s hard for the family.”
Kentucky State Police have not released any further information regarding the case.
Holsapple said the incident comes on the heels of a revitalization of sorts in Dycusburg. The tiny town had begun to outgrow its rowdy reputation, and various beautification projects were underway. Business at the Riverside Cafe has been booming since it began serving catfish on Friday nights the first of this year.
Crittenden County Sheriff Wayne Agent said Kentucky State Police are handling the murder case. He said that Holsapple had called his office in the past to report public drunkeness in Dycusburg. Agent said that another report received by one of his deputies never identified any of the people involved in last week’s incident.
“It was a juvenile who he had called about before,” Agent said.
Agent said he had personally been to the restaurant in Dycusburg and had not witnessed anything out of line.
Holsapple hopes the tragedy won’t spoil the positives that were brightening Dycusburg’s reputation.
“We have a nice, safe town, and we want people to come – the crowds have been great, and the people have a good time,” Holsapple said. “People have tried to do good things down here.
“They’ve built a pavilion on the river, Magistrate Greg West helped with that, and Mike Sutton fixed a road to the flat rocks and the baseball diamond. Judge-Executive Fred Brown (got the county workers to) cut the brush around the river and now there’s a spectacular view.”
Holsapple said a Sept. 9 festival is planned to give residents a chance to get out and visit with their neighbors, and he hopes the good things that have happened in the past year will not be forgotten.