New Year babies!

It’s a boy! And then another boy! A White Church couple welcomed the first baby born at Ozarks Healthcare in West Plains, the hospital announced. Theodore Blaze Dillinger, born to Jonathan and Alicia Dillinger on January 5 at 2:28 a.m.

 

Theodore was delivered by Dr. Tony Lam, OB/GYN at Ozarks Healthcare Women’s Health, and weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces, measuring 21 inches long at birth.

 

To celebrate this special arrival, the Dillinger family received a wagon and car seat filled with newborn care items, toys, and essentials to help welcome Theodore home. Busy Hands and Stitchers, of the West Plains Senior Center, donated a hand-crocheted swaddle, blanket, and additional goodies for the family.

 

At Texas County Memorial Hospital, a Licking couple were the first parents of a 2026 baby. Santiago Mateo Tovar arrived at 11:10 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 2. 

 

His parents are Claudio Tovar Trinidad and Bettyjo Trinidad. Amanda Lemp, DO, a family medicine physician specializing in obstetrics, delivered baby Santiago. He weighed 6 pounds, 14 ounces, and measured 20 inches long.

 

Wilda McNiell, representative of the TCMH Auxiliary, presented gifts and gift certificates to Santiago and his family. Local businesses, including West Plains Bank and Trust Company - Houston, Simmons Bank - Houston, Walmart, Forbes, the TCMH Hospital Auxiliary, Shelter Insurance (Airika Barnett-Wiseman), Bank of Houston, Be the Light by Karissa Wade, Burch Insurance, Immanuel Fellowship Baptist Church, Two Kinds of Crazy, Walker Hughes Insurance – Kyle Smith, and the TCMH Healthcare Foundation, donated gifts to celebrate the arrival of the first child born at TCMH in 2026.