Yesterday In Newton: Lost boy is found

Mae Helen Clark
The Newton Record

NEWTON April 16, 2008 01:07 pm

— A boy’s best friends are his dogs, this was proven by the welfare of little Johnny Garvin three and a half years old who disappeared with his two small bulldogs at noon, Monday, Nov. 21, 1966.
Johnny was lost overnight in Newton County woodlands. The two small dogs were with him when he wandered off and were with him when he was found 24 later. He went with his rescuers only when they agreed to take his dogs and him to his mommy.
Searching men in a helicopter spotted little lost Johnny at 9 a.m. Tuesday after a 20-hour hunt. Mr. and Mrs. Tommy Graham, who were circling county roads in the search, found Johnny as he crawled from a ditch at the Charles Allen Gressett Farm on the Beulah Hubbard and Lebannon Road. This road runs parallel to the Hickory-Decatur highway that passed Johnny’s home about a mile Northeast.
Sheriff Hubert Valentine directed the search that began in the early afternoon and increased in men and intensity during the night. Bloodhounds were used, but they lost the scent. National Guard and rescue units, Civil Defense units from Meridian, Navy men from Meridian Naval Base, college boys, Citizen Band Clubs, hundreds of concerned individuals participated in the search that covered the area where Johnny was found.
Johnny was playing with his dogs in the back yard while his grandmother Mrs. Vida Campbell, who lived five miles north of Hickory, was raking leaves in the front yard. His grandmother called to Johnny and received a reply a few minutes before he wandered off with his dogs. His mother was at work in Newton.
The child was unable to relate any experiences, whether he slept or just wandered through the timber and farmland. Apparently his dogs kept him warm during the cold night, if he did sleep. Fortunately no rain fell and temperatures were in the 40’s.
Mrs. John Garvin, mother of Johnny, was residing with her mother while his father, John Garvin, was in Vietnam. John was scheduled to leave the war front on Nov. 22 and return to the States and home. The Garvin’s had a three month old daughter, Tammy.
Johnny is a grown man now and doing well. His Newton grandparents are Frances and the late Z. J. Garvin.
Reference : Newton Record, November 23, 1966.

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