Across Georgia

House fires kill two children, one adult

Two young children and an 89-year-old woman were killed in house fires in Georgia during the weekend, the Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner's office said Sunday.

The two children died as a result of a fire Saturday that destroyed their grandmother's frame house in Tift County.

Glenn Allen, a spokesman for the fire commissioner's office, identified the children as Anthony Dermario Mathis, 3, and his sister, Shadasia Johnson, 6. He said Shadasia died shortly after midnight at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta.

The children's grandmother, Joanne Ford, was outside when the house caught fire, Mr. Allen said. The fire is still under investigation, he said.

On Sunday, Cutie Mae Gardner, 89, was killed when fire destroyed her frame house in Bainbridge. Mr. Allen said she was the only one in the house and that the fire might have been electrical.

Search of airport finds civil rights leader

ATLANTA --- An elderly civil rights leader is safe after disappearing suddenly from her downtown Atlanta hotel.

Unita Blackwell, Mississippi's first black female mayor, was in town for Martin Luther King Jr. Day ceremonies. She was found at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Saturday after hours of searching by police and volunteers.

Officials say the 74-year-old is in the early stages of dementia. She was mayor of Mayersville, Miss., for two decades.

Memorial service held for UGA grad student

ATHENS --- About 100 of Cayle Bywater's friends and relatives from across the country braved snow, rain and freezing weather to attend a memorial service for the University of Georgia graduate student Saturday.

The service was held at a Memorial Park pavilion, less than a mile from the 29-year-old's home and just feet from where her remains were pulled from a small lake.

She was reported missing Dec. 30, and police and volunteers spent two weeks searching for her. A Hall County Sheriff's Department dive team pulled her from the lake Jan. 11.

She drowned and was not a victim of foul play, police say, but investigators still aren't sure how she ended up in the lake.