WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton, who has been rolling out a series of spending initiatives, will propose paying for them with a new 55-cent-a-pack cigarette tax, an administration official said Thursday.
The cigarette tax, which will surely be opposed by Republicans in Congress, would raise some $8 billion for the domestic spending initiatives, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Clinton administration also will insist that states turn over some of the money they will get from a giant settlement with tobacco companies, but not this year. Clinton's plan doesn't count on that money until 2001, meaning he does not need it for the fiscal 2000 budget he will submit to Congress next month.
In recent weeks, Clinton has touted a number of new ideas but avoided discussing how he would pay for them. Still, he has promised his budget will be balanced without reaching into the budget surplus - making it nearly impossible to pay for new spending without new taxes.
On almost a daily basis, Clinton has put forward spending proposals, including more money for after-school programs, new defense spending, tax incentives for long-term care and money to help people with disabilities go to work. The plans announced Thursday were for more money to fight crime and to aid people with mental illnesses.
But congressional Republicans have consistently warned Clinton against paying for his plans with increased taxes, including cigarette taxes.
''Raising taxes has never been the answer to our nation's problems,'' Rep. Bill Archer, R-Texas, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, wrote the president last week.
Archer's spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said Thursday Republicans are concerned that other tax increases may be in the offing: ''This (cigarette) tax hike is not enough to pay for all the president's new spending programs, not even close,'' Fleischer said.
Last year, Clinton proposed paying for new domestic spending with a massive fine on the tobacco industry, envisioned as part of sweeping tobacco legislation. But that legislation fell apart under criticism that it was too hard on the industry.
The states responded by settling lawsuits with tobacco companies on their own. Cigarette makers agreed to pay 46 states $206 billion over 25 years, raising prices by 45 cents a pack. That contributed to a 30 percent jump in cigarette prices in December, the government reported. Four other states previously had settled their suits independently.
State lawmakers and governors are already debating how to spend the money, but the federal government has long held that it has a right to much of it. Many state lawsuits had sought to recover money spent by Medicaid on sick smokers, and the federal government pays for at least half of Medicaid costs in every state.
For a while, it seemed a deal was possible. Administration officials indicated they might let states keep the money if they agreed to spend it on certain public health, anti-smoking programs. But now Clinton envisions using some of the money for the federal budget, beginning in 2001.
The White House still wants federal legislation imposing new restrictions on the tobacco industry, while also giving the federal government a financial settlement of its own. But that requires congressional action. The administration hopes states will press Congress for such legislation if their settlement money is on the line.
''It's an attempt to create an environment and pressure for a bipartisan agreement on tobacco,'' an administration official explained.
The states aren't pleased. They argue that some of the suits were based on consumer fraud claims, not Medicaid. They say the federal government should file its own lawsuit if it wants money.
Washington state Attorney General Christine Gregoire was told about the administration's plans and spread the word to other states Wednesday night.
''The federal government didn't assist us in any way,'' Gregoire said Thursday. ''Our taxpayers took the risk. We assumed all of the work.''

A 29-year old Love Shop man has been convicted of abduction, rape and sodomy of a 16-year old South Boston girl in a crime that started when the victim and two younger companions got into a stranger's car on the night of February 23, 1998.
Following a day-long trial in Halifax County Circuit Court on Friday, it took a jury less than two hours to find Jerry Eugene Coleman guilty and recommend he be given a total of 30 years in prison. Coleman, who had been free on bond, was taken from the courtroom to jail after Judge Charles L. McCormick III revoked that bond and ordered a presentence report in March.
The victim told how she and two younger companions, ages 14 and 15, had been visiting her grandmother who lives on Washington Avenue in South Boston. The three walked outside and along the same street and when Coleman drove by, they motioned to him.
Coleman went a short distance, turned around and stopped to engage in conversation with the three.
The victim said they asked Coleman, who identified himself as "Joe" rather than Jerry, his true name, for a ride to visit a friend who lived on Grove Avenue. He agreed and all three got into his car, rode to the Grove Avenue address where he waited outside in his car.
After the visit, the three got back into the car. "Take me back to my granny's," the victim said she asked Coleman.
Coleman,, however, drove them to the Scottsburg community and to the house where his cousin lived.
There, said the victim, she and her two companions were told to get out of the car and go into the house. They refused.
Coleman's cousin came out to the car and all three were persuaded to enter the house where they were offered beer. Once all three were inside, Coleman managed to persuade the victim to get into his car and then he locked all the doors from his driver's position.
He drove to a Scottsburg area ball field, stopped the car, and began fondling her.
"I was so scared," she told the jury while describing how she took a beer bottle that was in the car and smashed the passenger side window, crawled out of it and attempted to run.
She claims she fell down and that's when Coleman caught up with her, dragged her back to the car, pulled off her jeans and forced her to have sex on the hood of the vehicle.
Coleman, she said, then performed sodomy on her before they got back into the car and drove back to house where the two younger girls had been left.
But when Coleman and the victim arrived, the two other girls had fled and gone to a nearby residence and telephoned police. A tape of that conversation was presented as evidence to the jury.
Coleman and the victim then got back into the car and began to search for the two other girls. That's when Sheriff's Deputy Sheldon Jennings spotted the vehicle and made the stop.
The victim said that she was warned by Coleman not to tell of the sexual acts that had taken place. Jennings was initially told by the victim that Coleman was a friend and when asked he the two had had sex, she denied it.
It was not until the three girls were later reunited and all were crying, that the victim accused Coleman of forcing her to commit the sexual acts.
Coleman's defense counselor, Jonathan Davey of Danville, accused the victim of being a willing participant. Under cross examination, the victim admitted that she and Coleman had had sex in the back seat of the car.
Asked if that had occurred before she had broken out the window and crawled out, the victim said that she could remember.
Coleman took the witness stand and told the jury how the three girls had all agreed to the ride, to entering his cousin's house and that the victim had told him she was 23 years old.
"She was all over me," Coleman testified while giving his version of what had taken place at the ball field.
Coleman claimed that he had gotten out the car at the ball field to relieve himself and when he got back in, the victim was naked and in the back seat of his car.
Coleman said that the window of his car had actually been broken when the victim tossed out a beer bottle just before Deputy Jennings made the stop.
Coleman initially told Jennings that the window had been broken by a limb, a statement that he admitted was false later but one that he gave in order to hide the fact that alcohol was in his car prior to having been stopped.
Exhibits entered into evidence included the girl's clothing including her jacket which was found a distance away from where police say the car was parked at the ball field.
DNA samplings of the victim and Coleman verified that sex had occurred between the two.

Tobacco's future is at the top of Delegate W.W. "Ted" Bennett's list as the General Assembly opens its second week of business today.
"Secure some money for tobacco farmers to help offset severe equity loses they are suffering in the loss of poundage and allotment," said the delegate during a weekend break in Halifax.
It is the $4.2 billion tobacco companies are to pay into Virginia with no strings attached over the next 25 years that Bennett named first.
Second, the delegate said there is "supposed to have been a side agreement with global settlement with four major tobacco companies to set up $5.2 billion for farmers nationally. At the moment, that plan is on hold because R.J. Reynolds backed away from it," said Bennett.
The delegate said it "seems they would rather commit to buying a steady supply of tobacco from farmers over the next 10 years. So that has jeopardized that $5.2 billion fund for farmers nationally."
However, on January 20, Bennett said a meeting is scheduled in Raleigh between tobacco growers and tobacco companies to talk about the $5.2 billion fund.
Of the $4.2 billion, Bennett said, "We want 60 percent of that fund coming to Virginia to be set aside in a special fund outside the state general fund - too many people want to get their fingers in the pie - and then to use that to compensate the quota holders and the growers for the loss of their equity.
"They have suffered almost 35 percent loss in poundage over the last two years," said the delegate. "For those folks, equipment has less value, land and poundage are gone. That is like someone stepped in and depleted your IRA or retirement plan."
Addressing questions on other state issues:
---Repeal of the food tax - the state's 2 percent share of 4.5 percent food tax. Bennett supports repeal.
---Patients' Rights with HMO or insurance company. "I think when an HMO or insurance company says they won't pay or denies payment for the treatment the doctor recommended and something bad happens to the patient because of denial, you should be able to sue the HMO or insurance company," said the delegate.
Currently, Bennett said if the patient is denied and dies as a consequence the only remedy for the family would be to sue for treatment the patient did not get. "That could be $1,000 for your death," said Bennett. "And that's not right."
--- Virginia importing trash from other states. Virginia is the No. 2 importer in the nation. "Once a county has let them in and the landfill is there, it is very difficult to keep them out," said Bennett. He sees one avenue as limiting the number in the future, and any other restrictions that can be established that are lawful after they are already in place.
"The Governor proposed not letting them ship (trash) by barge, which they are doing," said Bennett. "The difficulty is the barges are so large, which could mean 200 or 300 more trucks on the road."
---Legislator pay increase. A proposal to raise yearly pay to $26,000 from the current $18,000 has been offered by a citizens' commission. "I am one of 25 last year who, when word got out Republicans were putting it in the budget in the senate to be effective last July 1, signed opposing it. And I still do unless effective after we run for election. I think we should face the people before (election) and see how they feel about it," said Bennett.
---Teacher pay. Bennett is helping draft a bill to give teachers a 6 percent pay increase. "But we are tying it to more rigorous standards they have to pass before they can get a continuing contract," said the delegate. All new teachers in the first year would be put through an induction program, a formal program but one with the support they have to have, explained Bennett. If they do not pass the induction program, they could not continue on for the three years it takes to get a continuing contract. "A rigorous first year with intensive support," said the delegate.
---Return lottery profits to schools for construction or simply to the school divisions. "I would prefer money initially be used for school construction. If they don't need it for that then use it to pay interest on debt or for school pieces they need, like wiring for Internet and building classrooms," said Bennett. Although overall he said he "has no objection," the delegate preferred tying it to some specific program as opposed to an open agenda. "So that is why I prefer construction first, because we know construction needs are there."
On telecommunications, Bennett said he would like to set up a telecommunications fund for rural areas, counties and small towns to be able to put in fiber optic cable in communities where they are not being served by telephone companies. He described the fund as a revolving loan fund, and grants, where the need can be justified to help them keep pace with other areas of the state where competition among telephone companies is providing the service at affordable prices.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Standing at the meat case at her local supermarket, Mary Jo Lyon felt sick. Her distress was not the meat, but the prices.
Pork chops were $2.50 a pound last week; hams were $1.50. Not surprising, unless you consider that the Fayette, Mo., pig farmer and her husband Ovid had just sold a 615-pound boar for 6 cents a pound and several 250-pound hogs for 11 cents a pound.
''Something is wrong there big time,'' Lyon said ''Somebody is making a killing but I don't know where.''
As pork producers across the country grapple with an oversupply problem that has maxed slaughterhouses and dropped prices to their lowest levels in 40 years, many are questioning why consumers haven't seen a major drop in prices.
At its lowest levels in December, hog farmers were getting $8 to $10 per hundredweight. That means a 250-pound hog that brought in about $120 a year ago was only worth around $20 to $25.
Prices last week rose to about $25 per hundredweight after the government announced millions of dollars in aid for hog farmers, but the price is still a drastic cut from the $45 to $50 levels of last year.
Farmers say they are suffering while processors and retailers reap the benefits.
''I would say in the last five years, in Colorado, a minimum of one half of hog producers have exited the business,'' said John Lang, an Eaton, Colo., producer. ''Financially, it won't work. They just aren't able to continue.''
Agriculture Department economist Annette Clausson said retail pork prices have dropped, including a 4.7 percent decrease last year. Another 3 to 4 percent decrease is expected this year, she said.
''The retail price never goes up as much as the farm price would but then it also doesn't go down as much and it takes a longer time (to be affected),'' Clausson said. ''You don't see the swings in the retail prices for a lot of your meats that you do in the farm prices.''
Clausson said that USDA figures show that a pound of center cut bone-in chops cost $3.39 in December 1997. Last month, that same pound of meat cost $3.03.
Agency figures don't take into account sales promotions at individual grocery stores, Clausson said.
For Juanita Miller, the prices are a real steal.
''I haven't seen pork chops this cheap in a while,'' Miller said as she loaded her basket at a Giant supermarket in Upper Marlboro, Md., with four packages of chops at $1.39 a pound. The regular price is $2.99 a pound. ''This is too good to be true,'' she said.
Prices were similar throughout the Washington region this week. At Giant, the pork roast ends were 79 cents a pound. At Food Lion, picnic shoulder roasts were 69 cents a pound and at Super Fresh, pork spareribs were $1.99 a pound.
Tim Hammonds, president of the Food Marketing Institute, a trade organization representing thousands of grocery stores across the country, said retailers are not taking advantage of pork farmers.
''Retailers recognize that pork producers are in real trouble,'' Hammonds said. ''They are ... aggressively moving low price pork to consumers. Our prices are reflecting our purchase cost.''
Hammonds and some economists say the oversupply problem will inevitably overwhelm retail demand.
''There are too many hogs,'' Hammonds said. ''That is not a retailer-driven problem.''
''What we like to think is if retailers would drop the price, we'd move a lot more pork,'' said Michigan State University economist Laura Martin. ''That's just not how it works.''
Clausson said retail pork prices also reflect additional costs for things like marketing, transportation, packaging - a statement even the National Pork Producers Association agrees with.
''There's not a direct correlation between prices paid to producers and prices consumers pay,'' said association Vice President Dallas Hockman.
Instead, Hockman said his organization is pushing to get grocers to offer pork specials. He said while some retailers are offering pork chops at 88 cents a pound, others are asking for $3.99 a pound.
''All we're asking is for them to recognize the situation we're under,'' Hockman said.

South Central Agriculturalists for the Environment (SAFE) will meet Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Board of Supervisors Conference Room at Mary Bethune Complex in Halifax for a panel discussion about confined feeding operations.
"We will address all of the issues that have been brought before the public," said Tucker Watkins, chairman of SAFE. "We will discuss water quality, nutrient management plans, free-range hog operations and property values," said Watkins.
Supervisors have been invited to the forum, and the public is invited to attend.

Economic development's new twist.
Shell buildings wired for high speed data transmission and vacant downtown buildings transformed to high tech business offices are very real and happening economic opportunities in rural Virginia towns.
And those who fail to secure an off ramp to the fiber optic highway for their communities will miss the in-progress technology revolution and economic boom in global telecommunication, jobs and wealth, Halifax County and regional community and business leaders learned during the first Community Technology Forum Series held in South Boston on Friday.
Winchester's early Cyberstreet project, Abingdon and Blacksburg's electronic villages were among the rural towns profiled as leading the way in this new phase of economic development.
Economic opportunities/jobs are available now as close as Northern Virginia or internationally for those linked to global communication, speakers told the crowd.
Examples included Winchester, where some residents' jobs are in businesses along the Dulles Toll Road but their daily work is executed from the Valley. Some create a mix of in-the-office days and working-at-home via the Internet days.
Globally, one small community in India decided to educate and provide work to a growing population through high speed telecommunications, noted South Boston businessman and Software Factory President Jerry Hill.
"They expect one million technical workers to be employed in that Indian city," said Hill. "I get calls from their ambassadors in the UN and in Washington selling their services."
"There are some 20,000 unfilled jobs in Northern Virginia and Maryland," noted Delegate W.W. "Ted" Bennett, one of the Forum's sponsors.
In developing network access, the Forum's keynote speaker, Dan Malone, a member of the board of George C. Marshall International Center of Technology, urged an integrated community network all can use, businesses, schools and government, as opposed to each organization developing its own.
"It will cut costs and be more efficient," said Malone. "All segments of society have to be able to participate."
To be aboard the global information network is vital.
"It is a high value product that will ride as a weightless cargo on the wide band network of the future," said the keynote speaker.
Malone said that just as towns "grew at the junction of great rivers and later of railroads, teleports and 'intelligent cities' at the major nodes of the GII are growing as the major center of the New Economy."
Malone said there are some 200 teleports in the world today. He described teleports as "facilities equipped with earth stations capable of transmitting and receiving huge masses of data to and from satellites."
"And, said Malone, "political leaders around the world are joining their communities in the ranks of Intelligent Cities to ensure their place in the New Economy."
Teleports draw jobs. "The Sunderland Teleport in the UK, created in a region whose shipbuilding and coal mining dissolved about the same time, created 3,000 jobs in its first year," noted Malone in the Virginia NewsLetter, Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, University of Virginia.
Rio de Janeiro will create 30,000, according to Malone.
The keynote speaker also noted Virginia's vision when in 1981 the state legislature encouraged the wiring of every home, school and office in the state with fiber optic cable.
"That visionary act helps explain why, in 1998, Virginia has over 650,000 miles of fiber in the ground - more than any other state- nearly all of it in the private sector," advised Malone.
"The goal is to create jobs in the private sector, said Andrew Cohill of Virginia Tech Information Systems, Rural Experience, Blacksburg Electronic Village, following Friday's meeting.
"Education is really the key to success in technology," continued Cohill. "And the will to succeed, not the size of the community" makes the difference, he advised.
With telephone companies holding the key to the "off ramp" along the fiber optic highway - and cost an inhabiting factor, Al Bradley, director of planning and zoning for the Town of Abingdon explained his town "did not wait for the telephone companies to do it for us." The Electronic Village of Abingdon continues to grow its opportunities and extend its network capabilities.
Closer to home, chairman of The Southern Piedmont Technology Council Jerry Hill would like to see buildings in South Boston wired for the information age.
"If technology companies renovate upstairs, then downstairs will flourish because it will be where people want to go," said Hill.
"My business would grow quicker if there were more companies joining me here. And I think that can happen if we decide to become a main street technology community," added Hill, a sponsor of the Friday forum.
"Internet access at affordable price for every citizen, we need this to be our community goal," said Hill.
"The message is, the economy today and for the future is information technology, high speed data transmissions, the Internet," said Delegate Bennett. "One statement was very accurate. But for the Internet and the information technology side of our economy, we might very well be in a recession," said Bennett.
What action should the area take next? Bennett suggested:
---Try to see that buildings in downtown are wired for high speed data transmission. "It would recover use and improve the value of buildings."
---The workforce. "We have got to be able to convince these high quality businesses we have people who can do computer service systems, computer systems engineers who can understand and handle software."
The Friday meeting was the first in a series of sessions which will be sponsored by The Southern Piedmont Technology Council. The Friday forum was sponsored by Bennett, The Software Factory, The Southern Piedmont Technology Council, L. Philpott Manufacturing Extention Partnership, Regional office of The Center for Innovative Technology.

Three teenagers charged with breaking and entering and grand larceny, all stemming from the July 15, theft of weapons from Welby Foster, were convicted last week in Halifax County Circuit Court.
Lester Dontrell Lawson, 19, of Virgilina, Timothy Majors, 19, of Halifax and Patrick Donnell Barksdale, will all be sentenced in the March term following a presentence report which Judge Charles L. McCormick ordered along with instructions that they be considered for boot camp, a court-supervised alternative form of punishment.
Dawn Patrice Bowman, 25, of South Boston, was convicted of assault and battery of a family member and given a 12 months suspended sentence with conditions that she be referred to and undergo mental health provider recommendations.
Macie Garner Faulkner, 44, of South Boston, entered an Alford plea of guilt to shoplifting (subsequent offense) merchandise from Wilborn Avenue Jiffy store and will be sentenced in March. She was allowed to remain free on bond.
Ronnie Calle Green, 40, of Cluster Springs Road, South Boston, was convicted of making a false statement in efforts to purchase a firearm. Green is a convicted felon and forbidden by law to possess a weapon. He will remain free on bond until sentencing in March.
Lloyd Thomas Newman, a convicted felon also, 53, of Cluster Springs, was convicted of making a false statement in an effort to purchase a firearm. Sentencing was ordered for March.
Samantha C. Wade, 29, of Clover, pleaded guilty to seven counts of forging and uttering checks amounting to over $700. She will remain free on bond until sentencing in March.
Irvin "Thomas" Norris, 46, of Danville, was found guilty of grand larceny and practicing contracting without a Virginia license. He stole cash and property belonging to Linda Zuniga on August 26, 1997, while at her residence for the purpose of performing contractual repairs.
Norris was given five years with three years and four months suspended on conditions of his good behavior for five years. He must make restitution in the amount of $2,400 to the victim and undergo substance abuse counseling.
Joshua Edward Burton, 21, of Halifax, was given one year with all but 11 months suspended for possession of a concealed weapon (second offense). Burton will be allowed to serve the time on weekends and must undergo substance abuse counseling.
Convictions of driving a motor vehicle after having been declared habitual offenders were handed down against Steven Jerome Ferrell, 27, of South Boston, Joe Nathan Terry, 29, of Clarksville and John Melvin Reed Jr. of South Boston.
Reed was fined $250 and sentenced to 309 days in jail while terry and Ferrell will be sentenced in March.

Betty Chambers Lovelace of South Boston died January 8, 1999.
Mrs. Lovelace was born in Halifax County on August 29, 1911 and was 87 years of age at the time of her death. She was the daughter of Lillie Womack and was married to Major Lovelace. She was a member of Millstone Baptist Church.
Survivors include a devoted cousin, Shirley Younger Miles of South Boston; and a number of cousins, other relatives and friends.

Memorial services were held Friday, January 15 at 6:30 p.m. at the chapel of Daniel Funeral Home in Halifax with Rev. Mr. Spruill conducting the service.. Burial was in the church cemetery.

Evelyn Conner Owen of 7244 Philpott Road, South Boston died January 17, 1999 at Duke Medical Center, Durham, NC.
She was born May 20, 1922 in Halifax County and was the daughter of Lemmie T. Conner and Elizabeth Ruby Wilborn Conner. She was the wife of J. Weldon Owen. Mrs. Owen was a member of Ephesus Baptist Church and a was retired employee of JPS Converter.
She is survived by her husband, J. Weldon Owen, of South Boston; one daughter, Brenda O. Newcomb, and son-in-law, Ray Newcomb, of Alton; three sisters, Marion Gordon, of Alton; Artie Schweihert, of Richmond; Jean Poole, of Princeton, NC; two brothers, Glenn Conner, of Richmond; and Carl Conner, of Amherst; two granddaughters, Renae N. Lee and her husband, Tommy V. Lee, of Ringgold; and Wanda N. Overby, and her husband, Ronnie L. Overby, of Turbeville.
Funeral services for Mrs. Owen will be held at Ephesus Baptist Church Tuesday, January 19, 1999 at 2:00 p.m. with the Rev. Leonard Watlington and Rev. Kenneth Williams officiating. Burial will take place in the Ephesus Baptist Church Cemetery.
The family will receive friends from 7 until 8:30 p.m. at Brooks Funeral Home and other times at the home, 7244 Philpott Road, South Boston.

LONG ISLAND - Jannie Juliet Waller, 70, of 4004 Buffalo Road, passed away Saturday, January 16, 1999 at Virginia Baptist Hospital. She was the wife of the late Herman (Shorty) Waller.
She was born in Halifax County July 1, 1928, daughter of the late General Beaurguard Waller and Derotha Jennings Waller. She was a member of Buffalo Baptist Church and a retired employee of Burlington Industries after 40 years of service.
She is survived by one son, Kenneth Dean Waller of Nathalie ; three daughters and a son-in-law, Janet and Kenneth Ford of South Boston; Ann Youngblood of Lynchburg; Marie Compton of Nathalie; six grandchildren, Tanya Powell and her husband, Floyd of Nathalie; Jody Waller and Melanie Waller of Nathalie; Angie Compton of Nathalie; Donna Ford and Kimberly Ford of South Boston. She was preceded in death by a twin brother, Jessie Waller.
Funeral services will be conducted at 2 p.m. Tuesday, January 19, at Henderson Funeral Home Chapel by the Rev. Alfred Rimmer with burial to follow at Clover Bottom Baptist Church cemetery.
The family will receive friends from 7 to 8:30 p.m. tonight at Henderson Funeral Home and will be at her home other times.
Memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society. Buffalo Baptist Church, or the American Diabetes Society.

Elma Talbott Solomon of 2132 Old Cluster Springs Road, South Boston, died January 17, 1999 at Halifax Regional Hospital, South Boston. She was born September 15, 1919 in Halifax County. She was the daughter of the late Boss Henry Talbott and Esther Richardson Talbott and was married to the late William Lonnie Solomon.
Mrs. Solomon was a member of Ash Avenue Baptist Church and a retired employee of J. P. Stevens.
She is survived by a number of nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, William Lonnie Solomon and a brother, Crafton Talbott.
Funeral services for Mrs. Solomon will be held January 19 at Brooks Funeral Home Chapel at 11:00 a.m. with the Rev. John Fariss officiating. Burial will take place in Oak Ridge Cemetery.
The family will receive friends at Brooks Funeral Home tonight from 7 until 8:30 p.m. at other times at Ruth Puryear's, 2083 Old Cluster Springs Road.
The family requests that anyone wishing to give memorials please consider the charity of your choice.