My, how time flies, especially when you’re having fun. It seems like the other day I was running up and down the road in my faithful Toyota to Plains and back to gather and report the latest news to readers. What fun it was and still is because Plains is a bustling community and has much to offer residents and visitors from near and far.
Among the upcoming events is a festive evening to honor first lady Rosalynn Carter on her 90th birthday. She enjoys life to its fullest and is active in many areas, including the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving headquartered at Georgia Southwestern University. She and President Jimmy Carter are to be admired and applauded for the generosity of their time, their talents and their funds for the many worthy causes they have been involved in since he left the White House as 39th U.S. president.
Rosalynn Carter will be serenaded by the award-winning St. Genevieve High School jazz band of Los Angeles at the former Plains High School auditorium and honored at a festive cocktail buffet at the Mill Simmons building on Main Street. The reception begins at 6 p.m. and the jazz concert at 7:15 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19. The benefit event is sponsored by Friends of the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site and Plains Better Hometown.  Tickets for both the concert and reception are $50 for two; $25 single. Concert tickets are $10 each. For information call Kim Fuller at 229-928-4825.
I hope you’ll join me to wish Rosalynn Carter a happy birthday, help her blow out the candles on her cake and enjoy listening to these talented jazz musicians in concert. They are truly outstanding and very professional — their music is truly outstanding.
The Carters have had a long association with St. Genevieve High School. The school’s exceptional young musicians have been here many times performing at tributes honoring the Carters in Plains and at the historic Rylander Theatre in Americus, the most recent being two years ago.
A heart-felt community-wide welcome was extended to the three newly-appointed pastors in Plains along with Plains Police Department’s new Police Chief Davis Johnson, Sgt. John Handy and Officer Bradley Pritchard and to personally welcome the Rev. R.T. Beverly of Plains United Methodist, the Rev. Buck Kenney of Plains Baptist Church and the Rev. Brandon Patterson of Maranatha Baptist Church.
Elsewhere, Debbie Smith says she’s had a fun summer of traveling, going places and seeing people, especially Jan Ellis Carnes of Florence, Alabama. Debbie and Jan have been close friends since they were ninth-grade students at Southland Academy. Debbie joined Jan and her husband, Greg Carnes, dean of the school of business at the University of North Alabama, at Amelia Island resort Omni Island Hotel. While Greg attended conference meetings during the day, Debbie and Jan enjoyed sunning and relaxing poolside. On another summer jaunt Debbie, along with her son and wife, Jimmy and Morgan Whaley, vacationed at the beautiful Don Cesar Hotel, the classic beach-front hotel in St. Petersburg, Florida. And she has recently returned from Highlands, North Carolina, where she and Joyce Parrott of Americus were guests of Jane Sullivan at her lovely home on the mountain.
Elsewhere, Taylor Austin and Ashley Jones, October and groom-  and bride-elect, were “showered” with gifts at a pre-nuptial party and barbecue supper at the Lee Council House last Saturday hosted by Haley and Brad Ward, Mackenzie and Mack Greene, Morgan and Jimmy Whaley, Dr. Angie and Jesse Miller, Ashley and Hollis Rish, Dr. Alex Riccardi, Wes Turner, Hannah Ricketts and Nick Pitts.
Taylor’s parents, Greg and Karen Austin, have recently returned from an 11-day cruise in Alaska. With them were Bobbie and Jule Windham of Montezuma and Randy and Dianne Gregg of Madison; Mark and Crystal Waddell, her mother, Elaine Borders, and children Gage and Mary Margaret Waddell have returned from a vacation at Longboat Key, Florida; Nancy Hayes, regent of Council of Safety Chapter, DAR, and Nancy Gaston, a former regent, attended the DAR regional workshop in Columbus Friday; Harold Austin celebrated his birthday earlier this month, and Candy Riccardi celebrated her birthday Thursday while Sparky and Allene Reeves observed their 46th wedding anniversary Wednesday.

Leila Sisson Case lives in Americus.