Husband refuses to tell wife details of long-ago marriages

Missing Former Pro Baseball Player Found Safe

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — An 88-year-old former baseball player and Memphis teacher who was missing for a week was located and is safe, police said Tuesday. Lonnie Harris was last seen around noon Dec. 17 in the 500 block of Lodestone Way in southwest Memphis.

Police said he was headed downtown, but hadn’t been seen or heard from since. They also said Harris suffers from a mental disorder.

Harris, who was the subject of a profile story by former Times Sports Editor Collins Peeples back in June, had been contacted by Memphis Police twice back in October as friends tried to help him after he fell on hard times and was evicted from his apartment.

In the 1950s, Harris was known as “Showboat” while playing baseball with the Memphis Red Sox and other Negro league teams. He was a veteran and later became a teacher at Humes Junior High.

There ws no word on Harris’s current living situation or what the circumstances were surrounding his disappearance.

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State Police Investigating Christmas

Day Homicide

HAMBURG — Police are investigating an overnight homicide in Ashley County. Hamburg police were called shortly before 2 a.m. to the 400 block of Chicago Street where they found a vehicle had collided into the side of a home.

Authorities say 33-year-old Todd A. Martin, of Crossett, was found dead at the scene. Police say earlier that night, Martin visited his family members. He parked his car across the street and walked to their home.

After leaving their home, Martin was shot while driving away in his vehicle, according to police.

Authorities say his vehicle continued to roll across the street hitting the side of the home where he had earlier visited relatives.

Martin’s body was taken to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory.

Police say this is an ongoing investigation, and no arrests have been made.

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Woman Killed

Crossing the Street

WEST MEMPHIS — There was an empty spot at one West Memphis family’s Christmas table this year after a woman was killed just five days before the holidays.

According to a crash report from Arkansas State Police, 71-year-old Sojouring Smith was killed Dec. 20 while crossing Broadway near OK Street.

“If she didn’t get no ride, she’ll walk everywhere she wanted to go. No matter how far it was, she’ll walk there,” said Ronda Burke, Smith’s sister-in-law.

The crash report said Smith was walking southbound outside of a crosswalk in the rain when a westbound car struck her.

“I’m still flabbergasted about it, you know. I’m still in shock,” Burke.

“She always come and see me when she come on this end. She’s always here. We always argue and fighting and we always leave with a laugh.”

Many of those laughs fell on holidays, including Christmas.

But Burke had to spend this Christmas without the sisterin- law she simply calls “sister.”

“But I’m still trying to get in the holiday spirit, you know, so I’m making it, I’m making it,” she said.

A Memphis news station asked West Memphis police if the driver who hit Smith would face charges, but didn’t get a response.

Burke said the driver stopped and called police.

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Mississippi Law

Firm Accused in

Ponzi Scheme

JACKSON, Miss. — An attorney trying to recover money from a $100 million Ponzi scheme in Mississippi says a law firm should have known about the scheme.

News outlets reported a federal complaint by courtappointed receiver Alysson Mills says the law firm and others contributed to the facade that made the scheme look legitimate.

The complaint says Butler Snow and the founder and president of Butler Snow Advisories Services LLC, Matt Thornton, as well as Brent Alexander and Jon Seawright of the law firm Baker Donelson, helped Madison Timber.

Madison Timber operated a Ponzi scheme that claimed to buy timber from Mississippi landowners and resell it to Mississippi lumber mills at higher prices.

Snow and the attorney representing Alexander and Seawright dispute the accusations and say they have cooperated in the investigation.