Mrs. Harriette E. Wiley Jeffries, age 90, took a quiet and peaceful departure from this life at her youngest daughter's home in Duluth, Ga. on Wednesday, July 9, 2008 following a long extended illness.

Her funeral service will be Friday, July 18 at 2 p.m. from the Tuskegee University Chapel. McKenzie’s Funeral Home, Tuskegee, is directing.

Born on July 14, 1917 in Montgomery, to the late Elizabeth and William Wiley Sr., she and her brother William Wiley Jr. joined a family unit with strong moral and religious convictions. Her brother William preceded her in death on May 19, 2008.

Samuel Younge was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on 17th November, 1944. He became active in the civil rights movement while a student of the Tuskegee Institute.

In the winter of 1966, Younge was working as a vote registration volunteer at the Macon County courthouse. On 3rd January, Younge stopped at a service station to buy some cigarettes and use the toilet. When Younge discovered that African Americans did not use the same facilities as whites, he complained to the owner, Marvin Segrest. During the argument that took place about the Jim Crow facilities, Segrest picked up his gun and shot him dead. (There is a photo available)Read more

By Gene Rector - grector@macon.com

A vital link to a celebrated past has been lost. Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Charles "Chuck" Dryden, 87, a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, the legendary black pilots of World War II, died Tuesday morning in Atlanta.

Family members could not be reached for comment Wednesday. But a close friend of Dryden's in Warner Robins, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Walter Randall, confirmed what he called a great personal loss and a significant loss to the nation.

"Chuck Dryden personified the true spirt of the airman," Randall said. "He persevered. America is much better because of people like him."

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The black airmen whose lives will be the basis of a George Lucas movie know the picture will highlight their record of successfully escorting thousands of U.S. bombers in World War II.

They also feel it should tell of the trials they encountered stateside, like seeing German prisoners of war being treated better and afforded rights that were withheld from black American citizens.

Now that "Red Tails" is in preproduction, some of the airmen say they are excited their story is coming to the big screen but torn over how much it should devote to each of their two historic fights - against Adolf Hitler abroad and Jim Crow at home.

Lt. Col. Eldridge F. Williams, 91, wants the film to recount the discrimination they had to overcome in their own country. Williams, who served in the military from August 1941 to November 1963, said a white doctor's false diagnosis of an eye condition kept him from achieving his dream of being a pilot, though he became a navigator. more

TUSKEGEE, Ala. (AP) -- The Tuskegee Airmen will be the focus of George Lucas' next film.

Lucas has talked about such a movie since 2005, but he's now hired a screenwriter and told USA Today last week that he hopes to shoot it later this year.

The name of the film will be "Red Tails." It's a nod to the candy apple color pilots painted the tails of their fighter planes.

The Tuskegee Airmen were the nation's premier black combat aviators who flew largely in North Africa and Italy during World War II.

Dr. Thelma Walker-Brown, who had more than 50 years experience as a health care professional in the community, passed away Sunday evening (June 1) at a hospital in Jacksonville, Fla., of heart complications. more