One of the highlights of the Poplarville area is the annual selection of the Poplarville Area Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year at the organization’s annual banquet.

This year will be the 60th year for selection of a Citizen of the Year but there will be a change from the way the event has been staged in the past. The Chamber has broken with tradition by scheduling a buffet luncheon event instead of an evening banquet.

The location will be at the Pearl River Community College’s Olivia Bender Cafeteria Thursday, Oct. 29, at 12 noon in the back dining room. Cost of the meal is $6, paid when guests arrive for the event. No tickets will be sold as in prior years.

The Chamber is requesting who plan to attend let the organization know by Friday.

The Chamber’s selection of its Citizen of the Year is one of the area’s longest running recognition awards. The list reads like a Who’s Who of some of the Poplarville area’s leading citizens.

The first Citizen of the Year was W. C. Stafford in 1949, according to records of The Weekly Democrat. There have been 37 men and 23 women honorees; one father and son, Homer C. Moody., Sr. (1965) and Homer Moody, Jr. (2001); and two husband and wife reciepients, J. S. Moody (1962) and Kathryn Moody (1990) and Dr. and Mrs. W. E. (Anne) Stringer (1983), the only dual award.

A complete list of past Citizen of the Year recipients is:

W. C. Stafford*, W. L. Walton*, Thomas A. Rawls, Bessie Scarborough*, Frankie Durham*, I. H. Sells*, Russell Sinquefield, Sr.*, D. Wade Smith*, J. E. Harvey*, J. C. Hardin*, Murphy Weir*, Lee W. White*, G. E. Mentre*, J. S. Moody*, Mrs. J. E. Garrison*, J. M. Sinclair*, Homer C. Moody, Sr.*, Mike V. Trasok*, Garvin H. Johnston*, Lampton O. Williams, Charles Schrock*, J. Riley Rankin*, Paul Watts*, Betty Krayosky*, Roy O. Fowler*, Dwight L. Wesley, Sr.*, Dr. Joe H. Powell*, Alberta Stuart Pigford*, J. Ernest Etheridge*, James E. Malley, Douglas B. Daniels*, Ancel Ray Patten*, Hazel Wiliams*, Mary Hough*, Dr. W. E.* and Anne Stringer, Jack Mobley*, Marvin R. White, Renee Kirkland, Lavonia Burge*, Willis Lott, Anne Dandridge*, Kathryn Moody*, Ken Rhodes, Pete Jones*, Mary Strahan, Arthur Moore Gandy*, Shirley Wiltshire, Mary Nell Magee, Bettye Applewhite, Helen McGill, Debbie Wells, D. R. Davis*, Homer Moody*, Mark Bridgers, Helen Gaspard, Anne dauenhauer*, Dot Bilbo, Ruth Wason, Louise Smith, and Lonnie O’Quin. Those with asterick following their names are deceased.