Stories from Friday, November 8, 1991

ADVANCE -- Orville Bagbey, 80, of Advance, died Wednesday, Nov. 6, 1991, at St. Francis Medical Center. He was born June 26, 1911, at Dongola, son of Gid and Mary Sitze Bagbey. Bagbey was a carpenter. Survivors include three sons, Jerry Bagbey of Boston, Mass., Richard Noyes of Rockford, Ill., James Bagbey of Troy; two daughters, Betty Cox of Troy, Fran Solovic of St. Louis; a sister, Lena Zander of Warren, Mich.; 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren...

More than 1,000 Shawnee District Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, and Explorer Scouts will fan out across the area Saturday to participate in one of the nation's largest volunteer collection of food. The boys are among the more than 4,000 Scouts in the Southeast Missouri Boy Scout Council that will be "Scouting for Food." The canned goods collected will be used to feed the hungry in Southeast Missouri...

WARE, Ill. -- The goose season opens in the four-county Alexander, Union, Jackson and Williamson Quota Zone area Saturday, and will run through Jan. 31, 1992, or until a harvest of 72,400 birds is reached. "We saw four new flocks of geese come in Thursday," said a spokesman of Union County Wildlife Refuge near Ware. "With the colder weather more geese could be arriving daily."...

Two separate Cape Girardeau County accidents Thursday caused moderate injuries to an Advance woman and a Dittmer woman. The Dittmer woman sustained her injuries when the vehicle she was driving skidded on an ice-covered bridge and struck a parked wrecker, reported the Missouri Highway Patrol at Poplar Bluff. The wrecker was towing a vehicle wrecked in a previous accident...

An elderly Stoddard County woman died Thursday after being run over by the car she had been driving. The woman had left the car to check her mailbox, and apparently left the 1972 Mercury in gear, said authorities. It rolled forward, pinning the woman beneath the vehicle...

Residents of a twostory, brick apartment building at 134 S. Lorimier were forced to flee into subfreezing temperatures Thursday morning, after a smoky fire broke out in a basement apartment of the building. The outside temperature was 27 degrees when the fire was reported at 9:27 a.m...

For lunch, I occasionally eat one of those packaged microwave dinners. As products, they live up to their limited ambitions as "frozen entrees": they are cheap, convenient, low in calories and sometimes even appetizing. I usually scrape the contents from their containers (which are, in the magic word of the times, "microwavable") onto a plate to trick myself into thinking some care has gone into the meal's preparation...

Ralph E. Flori Sr. is the owner of a local Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Service and installation firm, and has been in the business for over 30 years. He is also a Certificate Member of the Refrigeration Service Engineers Society, which has been active in certification of qualified service people...

The news Wednesday was welcome. With prodding from the Bush administration, the Federal Reserve dropped its key interest rate to the lowest level in two decades. The move was made to counter an economic downturn that won't seem to go away; a lowering of interest rates could be a stimulus needed for business expansion and more jobs. Another step under consideration should be implemented: an easing of the tax burden on Americans...

To the Editor: Since the American Family Association (Mrs. Kuntz in an Oct. 27 Be Our Guest column) is enthu~si~astic about seizing every opportunity to use the brutal arsenal of the state to teach the lowly natives a thing or two about morality and constitutional law, it is appropriate that a dissenting voice be raised. On this, the 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights, those who wish to usurp even more of our precious liberty must be put on notice be prepared for a fight...

JACKSON -- Annice Smith, 85, of Jackson, died Wednesday, Nov. 6, 1991, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. She was born Nov. 3, 1906, near Burfordville, daughter of F.W. "Fritz" and Anna Goza Overbeck. She married Joseph F. Smith June 17, 1932. He died Dec. 14, 1983...

Loren Wood "Woody" Mecham, 76, 31 S. Lorimier, died Wednesday, Nov. 6, 1991, at his home. He was born June 3, 1915, in Cairo, Ill., son of Loren and Jeno Wood Mecham. He and the former Mary Wilson were married Dec. 31, 1945, in Cape Girardeau. Mecham moved here in 1966 from Malden, and owned Woody's Store at 18 N. ...

TRAVISTwin daughters to Mr. and Mrs. Jim Travis of Sandy, Utah, Monday, Oct. 28, 1991. Margaret Alexandra was born at 3:06 p.m. and weighed 4 pounds 15 ounces. Katherine Genevieve was born at 3:07 p.m. and weighed 5 pounds 1 ounce. First children. Mrs. Travis is the former Mary Ann Williams, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bill H. Williams of Cape Girardeau, and is an elementary teacher. Travis is a chemist, and is the son of Martha Travis of Sandy and the late James Travis...

Two companies have been named to conduct a feasibility study for Interstate 66, a transcontinental highway which would stretch 3,000 miles from Virginia to California. Howard Needles Tammen & Bergendoff Inc. of Kansas City, and Wilbur Smith Associates of Columbia, S.C. will head up the $1 million study, which will get under way in the near future, said Joseph W. Guyton, deputy project director for the study...

Local officials of the state court system believe requiring prison inmates to complete a high school equivalency degree before they are paroled may be a good idea, but point out implementing such a plan would not be easy. "In theory it is a terrific idea and one that deserves some serious study," said Circuit Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. "It would be a wonderful improvement toward the concept of rehabilitation. I do, however, have some reservations, but they can probably be overcome."...

One year after Cape Girardeau voters killed a tax hike to fund a sports complex at Shawnee Park, the project could be resurrected through private donations and use of the city's tourism fund. The sports complex, which would include construction of five soccer fields, including a lighted stadium, and a five-field softball complex, is expected to cost about $2 million...

A drop in key interest rates will do little to stimulate the nation's sagging economy until consumers begin to spend more, local bank officials said Thursday. "There's just a lot of money around and nobody seems to want to borrow it," said Charles Daniel, president of Capital Bank of Cape Girardeau...

Button up! The "Yukon Express" has arrived in Southeast Missouri. The National Weather Service said the unseasonably, bitter cold air was likely to produce alltime record, or near record low temperatures through the entire state this morning. With much of the northern half of the state under a blanket of snow, lows today were expected to drop to minus five degrees in the northwest part of the state, and to the low 20s in Southeast Missouri...

Eighteen years after the Vietnam War ended, American POWs are still being held in Southeast Asia, maintains a veteran of the conflict who received the Purple Heart. Former Air Force Staff Sgt. Kenneth Scheer was a crew chief/mechanic on a helicopter, assigned to Detachment 9 of the Western Air Rescue Center at Portland, Ore., International Airport, when he was ordered to Southeast Asia for six months in 1964...

JACKSON -- Riverside Regional Library will host story sessions by local author and storyteller Linda Culbreth Tuesday as part of National Children's Book Week. Culbreth will hold two sessions, one at 10 a.m. for children ages 5-8, and one at 11 a.m. for children ages 9-11...

CHAFFEE -- A program of tips to make household chores fun for 3- and 4-year-old children will be presented Thursday by the Parents as Teachers program, which serves Chaffee, Delta, Kelly, Kelso and Scott City school districts. Cheri Klipfel, a preschool teacher, will talk about children helping around the house and the expectations parents should have...