Today's Features

Matthew Armstrong and Toni Benskin of St. Charles, Mo.,announce the birth of their first child, a son, on April 12, 2013, at St. Joseph Health Care in St. Charles Mo. Lucas Matthew Armstrongwas born at 9:47 p.m., weighing 9 pounds and three ounces, and was 21.5 inches long.

Grandparents are Greg and Christina Benskin of St Charles, Mo., Todd and Christal Armstrong of Shelbyville.

Great-grandparents are Donnie Armstrong of Louisville, the late Norris Armstrong and the late Mary Lamb.

The cover of Tracy Coffee Gayle’s second novel gives clues to its content. It’s a collage of pictures and mementos from the lives of her characters as they travel through life and down memory lane, unearthing family stories.

Valerie, Jean & Me tells the story of three sisters, their mother, stepfather and baby brother. But these are not just characters on a page or merely stories in a book. These characters come to life in the text, as they do in Gayle’s creative imagination.

Art to meet death in mortuary seminar

Shelby Artists on Main will be hosting a presentation regarding art in the mortuary service field, featuring Angie Walters, an artist who is studying the mortuary.

He presentation will be 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at The Gallery at 617 Main St. in Shelbyville.

Dr. Mark and Nancy Hewlett of Shelbyville announce the engagement of their daughter, Allison Bailey Hewlett, to Peter Andrews Stifel Jr. He is the son of Peter and Nan Stifel of Bethesda, Md.

She earned a bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University in 2008 and a master’s degree from Baylor University in 2011. She works for Society for Science and the Public in Washington, D.C., where she is the program manager of Broadcom MASTERS, a national middle school science competition.