A Birthday to Remember

Rebekah Sheats Contributor Shhh! It’s time to celebrate a birthday. Whose, you ask? Well, scootch on over a little closer, and I’ll tell you the story. It all started ninety-nine years ago. One dark night in the first week of October 1924, Lamar Sledge hurriedly summoned medical assistance for his wife Rena. Dr. Palmer, one of the only two doctors then practicing in Monticello (the other was Dr. Brinson), followed the man to his home a few miles north of the town limits. Doctors still made house calls in those days, even for childbirth. Arriving at the Sledge home in the middle of the night, Palmer assisted in delivering the Sledge’s third child, a boy who was given the name Jame