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T NUws Vol. 99, No. 79 m Photo/Submitted Victoria Gibson, right, of Forsyth County and Ruth Collins are Wild Floney. Musicians hope they can ‘duet’ Local woman part of pair that’s still playing on CMT By Ben Holcombe Associate Editor Nashville is a place where demo discs and dreams bloom like flowers and fall like leaves. Victoria Gibson and Ruth Collins knew that when they left their homes, hoping, praying, play ing for a shot at making it on Music Row. They met while waiting tables at a Cheesecake Factory restaurant by day, writing and playing songs by night. Right off, Gibson, from Cumming, and Collins, from Fredonia, N.Y., could tell that though their addresses and accents were different, together they just might have the right sound. Almost a year later, that sound is Wild Honey, the Collins-Gibson duo competing on CMT’s “Can You Duet?” for a recording con¬ tract with Sony BMG Nashville. The pair has turned several comers so far, advancing to the show's final eight duet competitors. “Keep watchin’,” Gibson said in a telephone interview Friday. “We’re still kind of in disbelief watching it,” Collins said in the same interview. “I think that when we were living it, we couldn’t real¬ ly believe it was happening and we said, ‘Oh, when we see it on TV, then we’ll really believe it.' But now we see it on TV, and it’s almost like it’s not really you up there.” The show is produced by the creators of “American Idol” and was the country music television network’s highest rated premier ever. All 11 episodes were record¬ ed earlier this year, but the out¬ come is a closely guarded secret. At age 20, Gibson is the show’s youngest musician, but she’s no stranger to televised country music competition shows. In 2007, when she was a contestant on the USA Network’s “Nashville Star,” the Forsyth County native and her par¬ ents moved to the Music City area. After growing up on a grape farm in upstate New York, Collins, 24, moved to Nashville in 2006 with her sister Leah, 27, a librarian who also works in a record store. Though Gibson and Collins are limited in what they can say at this point in the show’s progression, they can talk about the work they put in to keep making the cuts. “Ruth and I practiced basically every second that we could up until See 'DUET, Page 2A Missed paper policy: For a replacement paper, call 8:30 a.m. -1:00 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday ( 770 ) 887 - 3126 . Copyright © 2007 Forsyth County News 0 7 Your "Hometown Paper" Since SUNDAY May 18, 2008 CSI: Forsyth - i Aletlia Ellis with finger¬ printing dust 11 pm and duster 1 Ai used at * crimes IeS scenes by the Forsyth X County CSI. ■ Photos/Emity 1 Saunders ' $ Y ’ j ■'t Crime scene unit honored for in Emerson case By Julie Arrington Staff Writer Digging through a Dumpster in the search for clues is all in a day’s work for Aletha Ellis and Katrina Murdock. Ellis is a specialist in the Forsyth. County Sheriff’s Office crime scene unit and Murdock is the supervisor. The two were honored recently by the Atlanta Metropol Board for their work in the investigation of the disap¬ pearance of Buford hiker Meredith Emerson. According to a letter from the board to Forsyth County Sheriff Ted Paxton, their actions “definitely con¬ tributed to the arrest and conviction of a murder suspect because of their ini¬ tiative and willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty.” Murdock is also the recipient of the 2008 Forsyth-Cumming Law Enforcement Optimist Award. She See CSI, Page 4A Three Medal of Honor recipients visit schools Vietnam vets recount times service By Lara Moore Staff Writer At first, the third-graders seemed puzzled when Vietnam veteran John \ igwi w ’* V Medal of Humor ,4” “ if 13' V . “k 1 “j' 1’”? i‘_‘fg .. ‘3? - g INDEX Abby ,6B Births............ 4B Classifieds. :2C Deaths......... 2A Forsyth Life ...IB Horoscope 6B Opinion ...... 14A Sports.......... 1C a / think it puts us in a position to be role models for other women and young girls that want to work in afield like this. Y> - Forsyth sheriff’s CSI supervisor Katrina Murdock ■ m. mi ivSfiJr ii f m OH ' Katrina Murdock receives a hug and a handshake f rom Forsyth County Sheriff Ted Paxton after he announces her as the 2008 recipient of the Forsyth Cumming Law Enforcement Optimist Award at the recent Law Day luncheon. Baker proclaimed that the Medal of Honor wasn’t actually his. “This medal on my neck, it’s not mine,” Baker told Sawnee Elementary School students. “It belongs to every recipient, and the men and the women that fight for the U.S.” he said. “This medal is theirs. This is one of the big reasons the recipients wear the medal — it’s not ours.” Baker, an Army vet, rs one of only 105 living recipients of the Medal of Honor, and one of three who visited area schools Thursday. Recipients David McNerney spoke at South Forsyth Middle and Richard Pittman at Little Mill Middle. “We try not to tell war stories,” said Pittman, adding that part of the purpose for his visiting was to pro- Local Blind storyteller brings message, morals to elementary school. Page7A m Photos/Jim Dean Many Medal of Fionor recipients prefer to wear a duplicate medal, leav¬ ing the original safely locked away, but Richard Pittman says he prefers to wear the real thing, above. Left, Pittman and other medal recipients, tour the country giving copies of this book to school libraries. mote a book that called “Medal of Honor. The book has detailed stories and accounts of Medal of Honor recipi ents. He, Baker and McNerney all presented the book to the respective Forsyth Life Rotarians meet vital needs when disasters strike worldwide. Page IB Jl i \ SPORTS, 1C Region’s player of the year Board tinkers with zones Students shuffled as redistricting process nears end By Lara Moore Staff Writer Some residents whose children attend Coal Mountain Elementary School may have a different com¬ mute for the 2009-10 school year. To relieve overcrowding at Coal Mountain, and as part of the systemwide redistricting process, the Board of Education voted Thursday to move children living east of Ga. 400 to Chestatee Elementary. At this point in the process, the move to Chestatee is just a recommendation. Final lines will not be approved until the school board’s next meeting, which is set for 6 p.m. May 29. Feedback can be submitted online at the school system’s Web site from through May 25 and a public forum, the final opportuni¬ ty to appeal before the board, is scheduled for May 29. The new attendance zones will shift several thousand students to different schools. The move is needed to accommodate the five new schools — three elementary, one middle and one high the fast-growing system plans to open in the 2009-10 school year. It also appears some high school students will get to stay put, as the board voted Thursday to allow underclassmen in the central and southern parts of the county to remain ^t the campus they attend for the 2008-09 school year. Board member Mike Dudgeon expressed at multiple meetings See ZONES, Page 4A schools they visited. We’re trying to put them in every middle school in the United States,” Pittman said. His other hope See HONOR, Page 2A Possible Storms LAKE LANIER LEVELS Date Level May 12 1057.64 ft lihiill May 13 1057.65 ft May 14 1057.68 ft May 15 1057.75 ft Full 1071.00 ft High in the mid-70s. Low in the mid-50s.