Stories from Saturday, February 18, 1995

The death of Michael Davis a year ago continues to leave scars. Davis, a student at Southeast Missouri State University, died following fraternity hazing in which he was beaten. Several of his fraternity brothers were subsequently charged with various crimes...

To the editor: I read the Feb. 14 commentary, "Christian coalition holds firm," by Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed. Many may view Reed's musings as just short of revealed truth. Not me. Reed referred to Newt Gingrich as a visionary leader. No doubt about it. But what's the vision? There are lots of legitimate concerns about Gingrichism...

To the editor: During my last visit to see a dear friend, dying from cancer, his last words still ring clear. When I arrived at his home, he was looking off into space as if he was meditating, perhaps about the life he had lived and why it was coming to an abrupt end. I sat down beside him and started to light up a cigarette as he turned toward me and said, "You know, I used to think that a cigarette was my best friend, while all along it was killing me."...

Lowell Lundstrom remembers a different Cape Girardeau when he last visited the city 34 years ago. "There was a more wholesome look when I was here in 1961," said Lundstrom, 55, an evangelist who will be here March 19 through 26 to hold nightly crusades at the Show Me Center. "But that wasn't just Cape Girardeau. It was like that in almost every city I visited."...

The brouhaha over comments made recently by the president of Rutgers University typifies the fascism on the left-wing fringe. Amazingly, those who have protested President Francis Lawrence's remarks, and demanded his resignation, also have demanded the university implement the very policies Lawrence was attempting to justify when he made his inflammatory racial remarks...

A handful of Cape Girardeau businessmen want the city council to postpone a transportation tax election until August. They say it would allow more time for the city to spell out in detail what road projects would be funded with the seven-year, half-cent sales tax...

The winter's second flurry of flu-like symptoms has been emptying desks at area schools. Linda Goodman, head nurse at Cape Girardeau Central High, thinks students and teachers are experiencing stomach and throat discomfort now because they didn't spend enough time taking care of the problem the first time it occurred in late January...

Mercantile Bancorporation Inc. plans to expand its presence in Southeast Missouri through a merger with AmeriFirst Bancorporation, headquartered in Sikeston. "This merger will give us a major presence in Sikeston," said Thomas H. Jacobsen, Mercantile's chairman and chief executive officer...

There's a price to be paid when you're 6 feet, 3 inches tall but your body thinks like a size 8. You hit your head getting out of the car. You run the edge of your shoulder into doorways. You trip a lot. Sure, I've had my share of embarrassing moments. Each time one happened, I thought: "This one takes the cake. Yep, nothing worse than that."...

In observance of the 50th anniversary of the battle of Iwo Jima, a flag pole will be dedicated Sunday at Cape Rock Park. The ceremony begins at 1:30 p.m. Ron Wilson, a Marine Corps veteran and member of the local American Legion, has coordinated the flag-raising project...

Jean-Louis Levaux will discuss the French educational system and student life in France Wednesday in the next installment of Southeast Missouri State University's "Travel Abroad At Home Lecture Series." Levaux, a 1994 graduate of Rennes University in Brittany, is working on a program that will qualify him to teach foreign civilizations. He is enrolled in literature, civilization and political science courses at Southeast, and is tutoring 25 American students in French...

Most travel agencies in Cape Girardeau will "tighten their financial belts" and keep operating as usual despite the announcement by some major airlines that they will place a cap on ticket commissions. Trans World Airlines, Inc., which handles about 70 percent of the flights out of Lambert Field in St. Louis, is the latest airline to put a cap on commissions that travel agents make on airline tickets...

ARAB -- A 27-year-old Zalma man was killed in an industrial accident at a rock quarry in Arab Friday afternoon. David Myers was killed after his clothing caught in a large drill machine, pulling him into the machine, authorities said. The accident occurred about 4:30 p.m. at Arab Stone, a rock quarry at the junction of Highways C and 51 in southwestern Bollinger County...

Son to Bud and Lynn Hellman of Houston, Texas, hospital there, 1:09 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10, 1995. Name, Dylan James. Weight, 8 pounds 7 ounces. First child. Mrs. Hellman is the former Lynn Dillow, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Dillow of Anna, Ill., and Mr. and Mrs. John Kenner of Jackson. She is employed in asset protection at Venture in Houston. Hellman is service manager with Ditto Imaging in Houston. He is the son of Pansy Hellman of Cape Girardeau and the late Herman Hellman...

SCOTT CITY -- L.H. Shipman, 77, of Scott City, died Friday, Feb. 17, 1995, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Arrangements were incomplete at Amick-Burnett Funeral Home in Scott City.

ADVANCE -- Annette Campbell of Advance died Friday, Feb. 17, 1995, at her home, following a lengthy illness. She was the daughter of Charles Levi and Alpha Ward Clary. She married Dr. J.W. Campbell. Campbell attended Southern Illinois University, where she majored in languages...

Capt. Morris R. "Dutch' Doughty, 80, of Norfolk, Va., died Friday, Jan. 27, 1995, in a hospital at Norfolk. A native of Cape Girardeau, he served 27 years in the military. He was a combat aviator and received the U.S. Navy's highest award for heroism, the Navy Cross and the distinguished Flying Cross...

MALDEN -- Funeral service for Broadus Lee Presser of Malden will be held at 10 a.m. today at Bradshaw Funeral Chapel in Malden. The Revs. Charlie Shrum and Cliff Goss will officiate, with burial in Memorial Gardens at Kennett. Presser, 89, died Thursday, Feb. 16, 1995, at Dexter Memorial Hospital in Dexter...

DEXTER -- Hester Roberts, 78, of Dexter, died Thursday, Feb. 16, 1995, at Dexter Memorial Hospital. She was born April 1, 1916, in Essex, daughter of Charles and Stella Snider Paisley. She and Marvin Roberts were married Aug. 2, 1952, in Piggott, Ark...

PARMA -- Funeral service for Ermon Luther "Jack" Medlin of Parma will be held at 2 p.m. today at Watkins and Sons Funeral Chapel in Parma, with the Rev. Don Cooper officiating. Burial will be in Malden Memorial Park Cemetery. Medlin, 78, died Thursday, Feb. 16, 1995, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston...

BELL CITY -- H.D. Uhles, 69, Bell City Route 1, died Thursday, Feb. 16, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born April 1, 1925, at Qulin, son of Ernest Dexter and Cora Elizabeth Collum Uhles. He and Ruby Lambert were married March 22, 1946, in Manila, Ark...

Funeral service for Billy Ray Maintz, 222 Hillview, has been changed to 2 p.m. today at Lorberg Memorial Funeral Chapel. The Rev. Larry Gallamore will officiate, with burial in Memorial Park. Maintz, 63, died Thursday, Feb. 16, 1995, at St. Francis Medical Center...

Edna M. Strack, 73, of 211 Mason died Friday, Feb. 17, 1995, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Arrangements were incomplete at Ford and Sons Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau.

Andrew Leonard operates the Center for Self-Improvement. His wife, Judith, is his assistant. Leonard used her to illustrate the power of hypnosis. Before their marriage, Judith Leonard went to other hypnotists for various personal problems, finding the solution each time...

The imagery is as old as hypnotism itself. An aged, bearded man swings his pocket watch before his dazed subject's eyes. "You are getting sleepier and sleepier," he says in a steady, mysterious voice. Within moments, his patient has lost all self-control and is ready to follow the hypnotist's every command...