DECEMBER 24
20 years ago (2005)
(Photo) When Johnna Loftis, 21, steps on a treadmill and walks, she smiles because she has energy again. Having a life-saving heart transplant runs in her family. Her dad died of heart trouble at 19. Her grandfather, Ken Wasnie, got a new heart in 1984 and lived to 2002. Her great-aunt, Sue Huff, is the state’s longest transplant survivor, in her 28th year.
30 years ago (1995)
Members of the Warrior boys’ and girls’ alpine ski teams usually have to travel four hours to attend a meet. But now they’ve just hosted their first-ever invitational at Ski Gull. Both the Brainerd teams finished in second place, with the girls led by Nicole Anderson’s second place.
40 years ago (1985)
(Photo) The Brainerd Twin Theatre, at 6th and Front Streets, is being remodeled into a roller-skating rink. The victim of competition from chain-owned theaters, the 1938 vintage theater was the last movie house in downtown Brainerd, following the closing of the Paramount last September.
60 years ago (1965)
(Adv.) Everyone’s going A-Go-Go in the musical hit at the Paramount Theatre. “When the Boys Meet the Girls,” starring Connie Francis, Harve Presnell, Liberace, Louis Armstrong, Sam-the Sham and the Pharaohs, and featuring Herman’s Hermits. Sound track album available on MGM Records.
80 years ago (1945)
A black horse found rambling the streets of the North Side last night is being housed in the police garage at city hall. Residents had reported the horse was a danger in traffic. While awaiting a search for its owner, the horse is happily munching on balsam branches trimmed from the Municipal Christmas Tree.
100 years ago (1925)
A man hunting rabbits near Woodrow, about seven miles northeast of Brainerd, made a gruesome discovery yesterday. In a car hidden in a jack pine thicket he discovered the body of a man, reclined in the back seat, that was little more than a skeleton. No foul play is suspected.