Stories from Friday, January 25, 1991

The Missouri Highway and Transportation Department has made a bid to become the lead agency in exploring the feasibility of a new transcontinental highway that would run through this region, the so-called Interstate 66. There will be much work to do and many questions to answer before federal highway officials learn whether this dream can become a reality. Without belittling the highway officials of other states, we feel comfortable with putting the responsibility in the hands of Missourians...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Robert Gadberry, recently retired chief of the American Cancer Society, will be the speaker at the Cape Girardeau Executives Club meeting Feb. 12. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the Drury Lodge. Reservations must be received by Feb. 8. Meetings are open to club members only...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The American Red Cross will hold its monthly community blood drive on Wednesday at the Holiday Inn convention center from 2-7 p.m. The drive is sponsored by Elks Lodge 639. The goal is to collect 130 units of blood. Due to the increased demand for blood overseas, Red Cross officials hope people will start donating blood on a regular basis, every 57 days...

CAPE GIRARDEAU - Those wanting to show their support for U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf can do so by picking up a yellow ribbon at Arby's restaurant here Saturday. No purchase is necessary. "They can just drive through and say, `Give me one of those yellow ribbons; I want to show my support'," said Kelly Kerber, restaurant manager...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The Area Vietnam Veterans and Support Group will meet Feb. 7 at the American Legion Post 63. The group will meet again Feb. 21 at the Cape VFW Hall. Both meetings begin at 7:30 p.m. All Vietnam veterans, Viet vet spouses and interested persons are invited to attend...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce will be holding its annual meeting and dinner dance Feb. 8 at the Show Me Center. The event includes a buffet dinner served at 7 p.m. with program and band to follow. A highlight of the annual meeting include awarding the Rush H. Limbaugh Award...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The University of Missouri-Rolla has announced the names of students who made the honor list for the fall semester. Those on the list carried a minimum of 12 hours and had grade point averages of at least 3.2. Named to the list from Cape Girardeau were Jill Suzanne Gosnell, Brian R. Nettleton and Steven John Renick...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Angela Jo Tanner and Kevin Pikey have been named Students of the Month for December by the Cape Girardeau Elk's Lodge 639. Tanner, 18, is a senior at Notre Dame High School where she is president of the National Honor Society and secretary of the Student Council...

There is a price to being the world's beacon of freedom. And the bills are coming due. In the international community, count on the United States to play a benevolent, trusting father with a houseful of demanding kids, all appealing for favors when the old man has his hands full...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- "Burnout of `Short Circuit'?" is the subject of the presentation by Susan Pekios of the Southeast Missouri Hospital staff at the next meeting of the American Association of University Women. The Cape Girardeau AAUW branch meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Hirsch Community Room of the Cape Girardeau Public Library...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Kindermusik classes for children ages 18 months to seven years begin in February. Pre-piano, note reading, listening, singing, dancing, musical games, puppet shows and playing the glockenspiel are all part of the program. Classes are taught by Janet K. Presson in her home. She has a masters degree in music education plus 20 years of teaching experience...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The Cape Duplicate Bridge Club held its regular open game Jan. 11. Winners were Paul Gilbert and Tom Wood. Placing second were Jessie Brown and John Whitehead, and third were Frances Burnett and Shirley Gelsheimer. The club meets on the second and fourth Fridays and third Thursdays of each month in the Hirsch Room of the Cape Girardeau Public Library...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The good news for Cape Girardeau officials Thursday was that the city's population during the 1980s didn't decline as initial U.S. Census Bureau figures showed. The bad news is that the increase was only 77 persons, and city officials still contend the bureau has failed to count nearly 500 housing units...

JACKSON - Voters in Cape Girardeau County will have an opportunity to decide April 2 whether to enact a 5-cent property tax levy to help fund services for senior citizens. On Thursday, the Cape County Commission unanimously approved putting the matter on the spring ballot. The measure would fund services for those age 60 and over...

SCOTT CITY -- Students at Scott City High School were moved, some to tears, during a Thursday morning rally in support of American troops serving in the Persian Gulf war. Students, teachers and administrators, as well as some members of the community, honored soldiers who had been students at the high school, and who are now part of Operation Desert Storm...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Nell Holcomb has visitors this week checking out all parts of the school program from the superintendent to the kindergarten classroom. The 10-member team is conducting an evaluation for the new "Missouri School Improvement Plan," explained Gretchen Woods, team leader and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's area coordinator for special education...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Martin Hecht worries about the safety of friends in Israel. Like other American Jews, Hecht, a longtime Cape Girardeau businessman, is concerned about Iraq's recent missile attacks on Israel. "We have a lot of close friends in the country and on the faculty (at Hebrew University)," said Hecht, an American trustee and member of the university's board of governors...

PFC GREG HAFFORD U.S. ARMY Pfc. Hafford is the son of Margo and Bob Hafford of Cape Girardeau. He graduated from Cape Central High School in 1989 and joined the army that same year. He completed basic training at Ft. Knox, Ky., and has been stationed with the "Big Red One" of Ft. Riley, Kansas, for one year...

SCOTT CITY -- The ground shook in Scott City Thursday, but there was no earthquake. City crews and other workers helped pull down an unused city water tower, the first of two towers city officials have decided to remove. The 75,000 gallon tower, located at the corner of Warner and Broadway streets, came down at about 1 p.m. Workers had been preparing to pull down the tower since 8 a.m., cutting off one of the legs and several support cables...

CAPE GIRARDEAU - Sabrina Youngs' fifth grade class at Franklin School has been studying the process of government during this school year, and several students thought it might be a good idea to invite a public official to come and explain his job. One of the students, Terry Enloe, happened to mention that her father, Ken, knew Secretary of State Roy Blunt from when the family lived in Jefferson City. They attended the same church...

MARBLE HILL -- Funeral service for Mrs. Mary Irene Shields of Marble Hill will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Greenfield Funeral Chapel in Greenfield. The Rev. Manning Miller will officiate, with burial in Greenfield Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home after 11 a.m. Saturday...

ADVANCE -- Funeral service for Mrs. Evelyn L. McDaniel of Advance will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Morgan-Sifford Funeral Chapel in Puxico. The Rev. Frank Heitman will officiate. Friends may call at the funeral home after 6 p.m. today. Mrs. McDaniel, 74 years old, died Wednesday, Jan. 23, 1991, at Southeast Missouri Hospital...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Funeral service for Alma Margaret Spradling, 628 Sycamore, will be held at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel. Dr. John Owen will officiate, with burial in Memorial Park. Friends may call at the funeral home after 1:30 p.m. Saturday...

PERRYVILLE -- Funeral mass for Kelly P. Fulton of Perryville will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Vincent's Church. The Rev. Henry Grodecki will officiate, with burial in Mt. Hope Cemetery. Friends may call at Young and Sons Funeral Home after 3 p.m. today. A parish wake will be held at 7...

PERRYVILLE -- Funeral mass for George L. Dietrich of St. Louis will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Rose of Lima Church in Silver Lake. The Rev. Charles Rice will officiate, with burial in the church cemetery. Friends may call at Drayton Funeral Home from 2-9 p.m. today. A wake service will be held at 7...

ADVANCE -- Cleo William Scowden of Advance Route 2 died Thursday, Jan. 24, 1991, at Bloomfield Nursing Center. He was 78 years old. Morgan Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

CHARLESTON -- Funeral service for Overton Donaldson of Charleston will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at the McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston. The Rev. Richard Farquhar, pastor of the Free Will Baptist Church in East Prarie, will officiate and burial will be in Oak Grove Cemetery near Charleston...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Aldana Kimmich, 67, of Cape Girardeau died Thursday at Vanderbuilt University Hospital in Nashville Tenn. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel in Cape Girardeau.

SIKESTON -- Berta Jane Schuerenberg, 48 years old, of Sikeston, died at 11:55 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 23, 1991, at Missouri Delta Medical Center here. She was born Oct. 7, 1942, in Sikeston, daughter of Bert McWaters and Deloys Mitchell McWaters. Her mother, of Sikeston, survives...

TILSIT -- Funeral service for Paul H. Ahrens of Tilsit will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Immanuel Lutheran Church. The Rev. Dell Crockett will officiate, with burial in the church cemetery. Friends may call at McCombs Funeral Home in Jackson from 4-8 p.m. today...

JACKSON -- A second candidate has filed for the one-year, unexpired term of former Jackson R-2 School Board member and secretary, Nancy Schafer, who moved to St. Louis this month. Meanwhile, filing for school board and municipal office candidates ends Tuesday...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The Breakfast Optimist Club of Cape Girardeau has earned the Honor Club and Distinguished President awards from Optimist International for its community service work in the year ending Sept. 30, 1990. The awards recognize the club for, among other things, programs in youth service and membership growth...

OLIVE BRANCH, Ill. -- It may not be spring but the Canada Geese are leaving the Southern Illinois area. Two weeks ago, more than 750,000 Canada geese were wintering in the Southern Illinois area, with almost a quarter-million of the northern honkers at the Horseshoe Lake Wildlife Refuge near here...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Tony Bean, a bait designer for Ditto Products and Hoppy's Lures, and a member of the promotional staff of Berkley fishing Line and Daiwa Rods and Reels, will be guest speaker during the Cape Girardeau Sports Show, to be held at the Show Me Center, Feb. 22-24...

WAPPAPELLO -- The Missouri Department of Conservation has put "fish tagging" on hold. "Authorization of tagging fish by private groups will be curtailed this year," said DOC director Jerry J. Presley. "The practice could be prohibited by regulation in 1992."...