Stories from Thursday, October 1, 1998

To the editor: I was in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 26 when tens of thousands of Americans converged on the Mall in a March to Conquer Cancer. When it comes to cancer issues, I take things very personally, because I can genuinely say of the cancer experience: "Been there! Done that!"Of course, I know that I am not alone. ...

SIKESTON -- A groundbreaking ceremony will be held Oct. 14 for a new Sikeston Area Higher Education Center. It will be held at 2 p.m. in the Sikeston Industrial Park. A reception will follow. Gov. Mel Carnahan will present remarks. Others scheduled to participate include Southeast president Dr. ...

Two Cape Girardeau teen-agers representing Southeast Missouri recently returned from a statewide meeting aimed at reducing youth-related traffic accidents. Dawn Conner and Tahisha McBride attended the Youth Advisory Council meeting in Jefferson City. The council is sponsored by the Missouri Division of Highway Safety...

Claire McCaskill, the Democratic candidate for state auditor, will be featured speaker Saturday night at the Cape Girardeau County Democratic Central Committee's Fall Festival. The dinner and auction fund raiser will be held in the Mississippi Room of the Drury Lodge. It will begin with a social hour at 5 p.m., followed by dinner at 6:30...

Southeast Missouri State University will hold Computer Science Day Oct. 7. The university's career services office and the Computer Science Club are sponsoring the event. It will include a jobs fair in the lobby of Dempster Hall beginning at 9 a.m. For more information, contact Jody Hestand at 651-CLUE or visit the Computer Science Club web site. The address is www2.semo.edu/csclub...

Southeast Missouri State University will dedicate its renovated social science building, A.S.J. Carnahan Hall, on Oct. 14. Gov. Mel Carnahan will present the address at the building dedication ceremony. The restored building has been named after his father...

Easter Seals will hold an open house Sunday at its renovated center at 1912 Broadway. The open house will run from 1-4 p.m. It will include activities for children, tours, refreshments and door prizes. One of the prizes is a free week of child care...

VIP Industries, a not-for-profit company which assembles, packages and mails a number of products at four facilities, will host an open house Sunday to kick off its 30th anniversary. VIP, which employs about 300 people in Southeast Missouri -- Cape Girardeau, Fruitland, Perryville and Marble Hill -- will host the special event Sunday at VIP Industries, 1330 Southern Expressway, in Cape Girardeau, from 1 to 4 p.m...

Motorists crossing the Mississippi River Bridge in Cape Girardeau can expect delays as one lane of traffic is closed while repairs are completed on the structure. Driving delays of 10 to 15 minutes can be expected, according to the Missouri Department of Transportation. The repair work may take until Monday to complete...

The Area Wide United Way, three weeks into its annual fund-raising campaign, has raised 15 percent of its $625,000 goal. So far, $95,442 has been raised. Over $70,000 of that came from corporations and employee groups including NationsBank, Lee Rowan, Mercantile Bank, Famous Barr, Eddie Bauer and Union Planters Bank...

Vision 2000, the city of Cape Girardeau and Southeast Missouri State University will hold a town meeting tonight on the Historic Seminary Redevelopment Project. The meeting will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on the seminary grounds off Morgan Oak Street...

The Cape Girardeau Lions Club has endorsed the River Campus tax measure on the November ballot. Club members voted 27 to 2 to support the ballot issue, said acting secretary Mike Shivelbine said. The vote was taken during the club's luncheon meeting Wednesday at the Holiday Inn...

St. Louis native Martin Goldsmith, host of National Public Radio's "Performance Today," will emcee a showcase of the area's finest young classical musicians Saturday. The free one-hour concert of classical works will be presented at 3 p.m. at Academic Auditorium. The "Young Musicians' Classical Showcase" will feature six high-school-age musicians. They include:...

I'M CURRENTLY in my senior year of college pursuing a degree in vocal performance at Southeast Missouri State University. As would be expected after the controversy this summer, much has been spoken about the mythical River Campus in many of my classes and some of my extracurricular activities dealing with liberal arts. ...

City officials in Cape Girardeau and Jackson say they are disappointed that some highway priorities have been left off or placed well down on the Missouri Department of Transportation's project list announced last week. However, city officials say, they will continue to push for key projects...

Results of a recent poll, published in the New England Journal of medicine, show that most Americans support gun design standards that could help prevent accidental shootings and make weapons generally safer. For example, poll respondents indicates support for designing guns so they can't be fired by a child's hands, equipping guns with devices that won't allow anyone but the owner to fire them and making sure guns can't be fired after the ammunition clip is removed...

To the editor: I am writing in response to a Sept. 29 letter in the Missourian in which Diana Steele-Bryant requests detailed information about plans for the historic seminary redevelopment project. Ms. Steele-Bryant asks a number of questions about the university's plans for specific features of the former St. ...

The area's apple harvest is earlier this year than last, but local growers expect a bumper crop with good coloring and great taste. "We're about two weeks early this year," said David Diebold of Diebold Orchards at Benton. "We'll probably finish up by mid-to-late October. Last year we were still picking apples through the first week of November."...

For the first time, Jackson School District enrollment exceeds that of the Cape Girardeau School District. All Missouri schools are required to submit enrollment figures to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on the last Wednesday in September and in January. The figures are used to calculate funding received from a number of state programs...

Missouri Republican Party leaders Wednesday accused Democrats of using smear tactics in two Bootheel legislative races. Democratic leaders denied the allegation and accused Republicans of playing political games with the truth. GOP spokesman Daryl Duwe said Republican Party leaders in Southeast Missouri have received complaints that "push polling" was being used against Republican candidates Lanie Black of Charleston and Judy Wallace of Malden in their state House races...

Newspaper columnist and television talk-show host Cal Thomas will speak in Cape Girardeau Nov. 3 during an anti-abortion benefit dinner. Thomas is a 35-year veteran of broadcast and print journalism. His syndicated newspaper column appears in the Southeast Missourian. On Saturday and Sunday, he hosts a national prime-time television talk show on CNBC...

Cape Girardeau's Project Impact grant application will be submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency by the end of November. But first the city must decide what projects should take priority in making the city disaster-resistant and how much those projects will cost...

Oct. 1, 1998 Dear Leslie, The line of people inside the immense old train station that housed the Musee d'Orsay extended past the Rodin pieces and beyond Maillol's famous sculpture of the four female forms holding up the world, doubled back to circle the arresting Monet nude DC decided not to bring home in a poster because it would make her jealous, past the American Mary Cassatt's "La Jeune Fille en Printemps" and finally stopped at an entryway that announced the Millet/Van Gogh exhibit...

Changes will be subtle today as Falcon Cable TV completes acquisition of TCI Cablevision of Missouri and assumes day-to-day management of the company. Telephone receptionists at the local office will answer calls "Falcon TV." October payments must be payable to Falcon instead of TCI. But channel lineups and cable service for TCI customers in Cape Girardeau and Jackson will remain the same, and personnel won't change...

It's still extremely early in the Ohio Valley Conference football season, but the three teams picked as the prime contenders for the league title own the top three spots in the standings. Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Illinois and Murray State -- selected to finish one-two-three in the OVC preseason poll -- are all off to 1-0 league starts...

Watch for the special 16-page publication inside the Sunday, Oct. 4 edition of the Southeast Missourian. You may reserve extra copies of this keepsake edition by falling 334-7115 or 1-800-444-4812 before Sat., Oct. 3 at noon. Extra copies are $1.50 each if you pick them up at our 301 Broadway office or $4 if you prefer them mailed...

Kathy Michel School: Cape Central Sport: Softball Coach: Don Lang This season: Michel, a right-hander, is 14-4 with a 1.23 earned run average. She has faced 493 batters in 119.67 innings pitched, allowing 82 hits, 32 walks and 38 runs (21 earned). She has struck out 53, recorded three shutouts, and among her 18 starts, she has 14 complete games. Michel also has two saves...

Todd Wessel School: Jackson Sport: Football Coach: Carl Gross This season: Wessel, a 5-foot-11, 185-pound senior running back, has rushed for over 180 yards in three of Jackson's four games. In a 17-14 loss to Sikeston, he gained 181 yards on 24 carries and in a 38-26 loss to Sumner, he went for 191 yards on 34 carries. He has a total of 754 yards rushing on 102 carries, and has scored six touchdowns...

Former Southeast star Angel Rubio was released by his third NFL team this season Wednesday as the Cincinnati Bengals became the latest team to waive last year's OVC Defensive Player of the Year. Rubio, a nose tackle, was originally drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers this year but was cut just prior to the season. ...

JACKSON -- Jessica Sander lined a two-out, seventh-inning single into the left-center field gap, scoring Lindsey Meyr and giving Jackson a dramatic 6-5 victory over Cape Central Wednesday afternoon at Jackson City Park in high school softball action...

Son to Jason and Tamara Sondgeroth of St. Louis, St. John's Mercy Medical Center, 2:52 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2, 1998. Name, Nathan Bradley. Weight, 6 pounds 10 ounces. First child. Mrs. Sondgeroth is the daughter of M.G. and Derenda Holland of Cape Girardeau. Sondgeroth is the son of Dale and Karen Sondgeroth of Ballwin...

CHARLESTON -- Jesse Farmer, 77, of Charleston died Tuesday, Sept. 29, 1998, at Clearview Nursing Center in Sikeston. He was born July 22, 1921, in Charleston, son of Jesse N. and Dora Baker Farmer. He and wife Catherine Jane were married Dec. 28, 1946. She died March 28, 1998...

COBDEN, Ill. -- Funeral for Barbara Childers of Cobden will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Lutz and Rendleman Funeral Home in Cobden. The Rev. Becky Lembke will officiate, with burial in Cobden Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home after 6 p.m. Friday...

Funeral for Bertha Marie James of Cape Girardeau will be held at 1:30 p.m. today at Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel. The Revs. Jim Caughlan and Ernest Jordan will officiate, with burial in Memorial Park. Friends may call at the chapel from noon to service time...

Funeral for John Reed Brandt of Cape Girardeau will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at La Croix United Methodist Church. The Rev. Ron Watts and Jim Beise will officiate, with burial in Memorial Park. Friends may call at Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel from 4-8 p.m. today...

Albert Uhl, 93, of Cape Girardeau died Wednesday, Sept. 30, 1998, at St. Francis Medical Center. Arrangements are incomplete at Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Funeral Home.

Pauline C. Webster, 93, formerly of Sikeston and a resident of Nevada, Iowa, died Tuesday, Sept. 29, 1998, at the McFarland Clinic in Nevada. She was 93. She was born Aug. 15, 1905, in Bardwell, Ky., daughter of Edwin O. and Mahalia Ann Yates Chenault...