Stories from Sunday, February 3, 1991

JACKSON - George F. Holtkamp, 86, of Jackson, died Saturday Feb. 2, 1991 at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Arrangements are incomplete at the Amick Burnett Funeral Chapel in Chaffee.

New taxes, while unsavory in a great many contexts, are at least thought to be borne of decisions made with deliberation, usually in a legislative setting. The public has sufficient time to consider the arguments for the revenue needs and the affected taxpayers and tax collectors have ample time to prepare. That scenario does not always hold true and the implementation Friday of a new sales tax on health club memberships is an example of this new attitude in revenue raising...

Since the war started in the Persian Gulf, I've had occasion to catch the big-time gurus of the national media several times on C-SPAN, or some other network, speaking as usual in highly self-congratulatory tones about their work. At some point in these discussions, the subject of Vietnam comes up. Because so many of the leading network correspondents and other media gurus covered the Vietnam War, the discussion gets interesting at this point...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The Department of English at Southeast Missouri State University is accepting applications for graduate assistants for the 1991-92 academic year. While pursuing studies for a master's degree, graduate assistants teach two courses of freshman composition each semester or teach one course and conduct tutorials in the University's Writing Laboratory. The stipend for the coming academic year is $5,000...

Daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Jeff Barker of Millersville, born at home, 8:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 11, 1991. Name, Lindsey RaeAnna. Weight, 5 pounds 8 ounces. Third daughter. Mrs. Barker is the former Emma Propst, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Propst of Millersville, and is employed at St. Francis Medical Center. Barker is a foreman at ACF Industries, and is the son of Kenneth Jack Barker of Jackson and Esther Barker of Cape Girardeau...

CHAFFEE -- Funeral mass for Mrs. Oma Mary Goehman of Chaffee was held Saturday at St. Ambrose Church. The Rev. John Cantore officiated, with burial in the church cemetery. Amick-Burnett Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements. Mrs. Goehman, 83 years old, died Wednesday, Jan. 30, 1991, at St. Francis Medical Center...

PERRYVILLE -- Funeral mass for Joseph S. Parres of Perryville will be held at 10 a.m. Monday at St. Vincent's Church. The Rev. Larry Koncewicz will officiate, with burial in Mt. Hope Cemetery. Friends may call at Young and Sons Funeral Home after 4 p.m. today. A parish wake service will be held at 7...

SCOTT CITY -- Mamie J. Adams, 89, of Scott City, died Friday, Feb. 1, 1991, at the Cape Girardeau Nursing Center. She was born June 9, 1901 at Cobden, Ill., the daughter of Charles and Julia Abney. She worked as seamstress at Ely Walker Co. A member of the Wesleyan Church in Scott City, she also taught Sunday School for five years at the church...

JACKSON - Funeral services for Oscar Weber, 57, of Jackson, will be held Monday at 11 a.m., at McCombs Funeral Home in Jackson. The Rev. Lawrence Etherton will officiate. Burial will be in Russell Heights Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home from 4-8 p.m. this evening...

EAST PRAIRIE - Graveside services for Virginia Lee Bisher Johnson of East Prairie, Route 1, were held Saturday afternoon at the East Prairie Memorial Park. Brother Larry Smith, and Brother Ernest Brown were the officiants. Johnson, 61, died Thursday, Feb. 1 at the St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau...

CAPE GIRARDEAU - Funeral services will be held today for Carrie K. Chappell, who died Friday, Feb. 1, 1991, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was 86. She was a resident of Chateau Girardeau. She was born March 2, 1904, in St. Charles, Mo., the daughter of Frederick W. and Caroline Astroth Hammer...

CHARLESTON - Funeral services will be held today for John Frank "Johnny" Norville, of Redding, Calif., and formerly of Charleston. He died Sunday, Jan. 27, 1991, in Redding Medical Center. He was 57. He has been a resident of Redding for 15 years. He was born Nov. 20, 1933, in Ridgely, Tenn., son of the late Samuel Augusta Norville and Della Boyer Tatum. Mrs. Tatum survives, in Anniston...

CHARLESTON - Funeral services will be held Tuesday for Marie Donaldson of Rt. 2, Charleston. She died Saturday, Feb. 2, 1991, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was 80. She was born Jan. 17, 1911, in Morley, to the late Tom and Bertha Yancy Williams. ...

JACKSON -- Marie McLard of Jackson died Saturday at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Funeral arrangement are incomplete at McCombs Funeral Home in Jackson.

CAPE GIRARDEAU - Mercantile Bank of Cape Girardeau has decided not to acquire the Colonial Federal Building at 2027 Broadway. It will cease operations at the facility on Friday. Mercantile purchased the assets of Colonial Federal on Nov. 9 after Colonial was declared insolvent by the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision. The Resolution Trust Corp. was named receiver of the institution and is continuing to operate with a staff in the Colonial building to close things out...

JACKSON -- Bob and Gladys Nitsch feel frustrated and helpless. The city of Jackson wants to take their 188-acre farm into the city against their wishes. At issue is the age-old battle of the rights of the property owner versus the power of the state and municipality to make sure future growth and expansion takes place in an orderly manner...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The groundhog may have seen his shadow here Saturday but the National Weather Service has a much more optimistic weather prediction for the final month of winter. According to the legend, if the groundhog comes out of his den on Feb. 2 and sees his shadow, he'll run back into the den and people are supposedly in for six more weeks of winter weather...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Frank and Carolyn LaFentres never expected to be raising a baby at a time in their lives when they were beginning to look toward retirement. But the couple's lives changed dramatically when their eight-month-old grandson was delivered to them Dec. 17. The boy is now living with his grandparents, who have temporary custody...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- A local organization trying to raise funds to build a new safe house for abused women and their children received a boost recently from Cape Girardeau County. Gene Huckstep, Cape Girardeau County Presiding Commissioner, presented $10,000 to Safe House for Women Inc. The money is part of the county Domestic Violence Authority funds earmarked for programs that serve victims of domestic violence...

PFC BRYAN D. SEYER U.S. ARMY PFC Seyer is the son of Daniel J. and Mary A. Seyer of Cape Girardeau, and is a 1989 graduate of Cape Central High School. He joined the Army in February, 1990, and completed basic training at Ft. Knox, Ky. He was deployed from Kansas to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 10...

CAPE GIRARDEAU - The major reasons Mildenberger and Willing Manufacturing Co. chose to locate its first U.S. packaging plant in this area was the people and the interest shown by the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, M&W President Harry Sanders observed Friday...

EAST CAPE GIRARDEAU, Ill. - Three people, two of them from Cape Girardeau, were injured early Saturday afternoon when two cars collided at the Illinois Route 3 and 146 intersection at the "Cape Y." Investigators said the accident occurred when a northbound car driven by Wladimir Orloff, 49, of Cape Girardeau attempted to make a left turn onto Route 146 toward Cape Girardeau...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- One of the nation's largest buyers and sellers of new and used office furniture will open a retail operation in downtown Cape Girardeau this month. This announcement, made Friday by Ken Davis, vice president of OFMCO, headquartered at Sikeston, was one of two major developments concerning the downtown retail business community Friday...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The newly organized Safe House for Women, Inc. will sponsor a workshop concerning domestic vilence Feb. 16. The workshop, entitled "Sometimes You Wish There Was No Place Like Home," will be held in the Harrison Room at Southeast Missouri Hospital from 9-11:30 a.m. An earlier scheduled workshop was canceled due to bad weather...

CAPE GIRARDEAU - Were it not for the inside dominance of Thomas Thames and the home court advantage, Southeast Missouri State may have been Missouri-Rolla's victim rather than the Miners' conquerer. Thames scored 21 points and a season-high 18 rebounds to help the Indians move past the Miners 70-59 before 5,596 at the Show Me Center Saturday night...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Southeast Missouri State University's women's basketball team should finally earn some national recognition this week. The Otahkians routed visiting Missouri-Rolla 71-56 Saturday at the Show Me Center, thus apparently putting them in line for a ranking among the nation's top 20 NCAA Division II teams...

FARMINGTON -- To say that Jackson High wrestling coach Bruce Thomas was elated Saturday would be an understatement. Thomas had just seen his squad win the Class 3A, District 1 Tournament held at Farmington. To claim top honors, the Indians had to finish ahead of powerful Ste. Genevieve, which had been the dominant wrestling team in Southeast Missouri all season...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Cape Central High's wrestlers struggled as a team Saturday, but the same could not be said for standouts Brent Felker and Josh Crowell. That pair of Tigers brought home individual championships Saturday as Central hosted the Class 4A, District 1 Tournament...

At left, Amy Nenninger, a sophomore, works on her Raggedy Ann doll in home economics class. At top, students move to another building between classes. Above, Jeff Turner takes his turn at the long jump as Coach Greg Hamm records the score. LEOPOLD By almost every measure, Leopold Public School is small. Yet students from the tiny school district score big academic results...

Well booted, mittened, coated and capped, I ventured over to the creek recently to determine if I could see any form of wildlife. At least that was my stated purpose. I think, in truth, I just wanted to get outside for a little longer time than it takes me to go to the garage, the mail box or take the garbage out. Our outside existence is at low ebb in February...

Winter's gray days have been with us for quite some time. No accurate count of days when the sun shone has been kept, but it seems there have been very few since Christmas Day. There is an old saying, "Every cloud has a silver lining," and there is some good to be found here. When it gets cold and stays cold as it has since winter began,, it is safer for our vegetation than when the weather is cold and then warms up and then turns cold again...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School will observe American Vocational Association Week Feb. 11-16. Several events are scheduled. Monday through Friday, sixth-grade students from area schools will tour the school and see skill demonstrations...

MARBLE HILL -- Students at Woodland High School are showing their support for troops in the Persian Gulf through a letter-writing campaign. Students in Cheri Lynn's six English and Spanish classes decided last week to show their support by writing letters to soldiers in Saudi Arabia...

ORAN -- A short story about a television producer who abused the laugh track on a program won its author, James Curtis, second place in a national writing contest. Curtis, a senior at Oran High School, entered his story in a contest sponsored by a national scholastic magazine called Read...

Todt Leasing Co. to Frank D. Emmendorfer; Michael L. Annis Inc. to Wesley D. Wright; Greenwood Land Co. to A & A of Cape Girardeau; A & A of Cape Girardeau to Conard Larry Williams, et al; Robert D. and Cathy Dietl to Jhan R. Thomas; Dale M. and Judith M. Myers to J. Mark and Donna L. Boardman; Bill and Mary Schubert to Donald R. and Dorothy M. Bailey; Marvin and Lafern Schoen to Schoen Farms Inc...

SCOTT CITY -- The Scott City Kiwanis Club plans to honor area servicemen and women by building a red, white and blue pyramid in front of the Scott City Hall. Don Roth, a spokesman for the club, said names of servicemen and women would be displayed on the six-foot-high pyramid with a four-foot-high rotating base...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Cape Girardeau County employment officials may still be wondering what happened in February 1990, but they are pleased with overall employment totals for last year. "We had 95.8 percent employment during the month of December," said Jackie Cecil, manager of the Missouri Job Service Office here. "For the year, our average employment rate was 95.6. That's not bad. We're pleased with those totals."...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Maurice R. ("Moe") Sandfort and Nancy Bray have been elected to the Chateau Girardeau Board of Directors. Sandfort, executive vice president of Boatmen's National Bank of Cape Girardeau, was elected to a four-year term and Bray, director of marketing and communications at Southeast Missouri Hospital, was elected to fill the remaining two years of a term vacated by Louis B. Sewell...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Manpower Temporary Services has opened an office here. "We're looking forward to meeting the temporary employment needs of local businesses," said Kim Hill, branch manager. "Manpower is the world's largest temporary help service." The new office is located at 106 Farrar Drive, Suite 104. Other staff representatives include Martha Minton, Janet Heise, and Peggy Webb...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Shery Varney has joined The Hair Performers at 208 West Park Mall. Varney has nine years' experience as a hair stylist. She previously owned and operated a salon at Jackson, and specializes in precision cuts, specialty perms and acrylic nails...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Pinkerton's Inc. has hired two individuals in the Southeast Missouri area to enlarge its operations. Jeff Slinkard of Advance and James Williamson Jr. of Cape Girardeau have joined the investigative and security agency. Both will be working with the St. Louis district office and will be opening a local office in the future. The operation will be expanded with the addition of uniformed security guards, Slinkard indicated...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Kenneth Trentham of Marble Hill has been appointed as Business Lines agent for Farmland Insurance Companies in the Bollinger and Cape county area. Trentham started with Farmland Companies in December of 1990 after completing a three-month training program with the company, where he received on-the-job and classroom training in product knowledge, selling and customer service...

JACKSON -- Dr. Nelson L. Stone, doctor of veterinary medicine and mixed animal practitioner here, was recently elected for a third term as secretary-treasurer of the Missouri Veterinary Medical Association (MVMA). Stone served the MVMA the past two years as secretary and has been a member of the organization's executive board, representing the Southeast Missouri District, three years. He has served on a number of MVMA committees...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- John David Moore has joined the Beacon Recovery Center, 20 S. Sprigg. Larry Holdman, executive director of the center, announced Moore's appointment this week. Moore, a native of the Sikeston area, has lived here five years. He is a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University with a bachelor of science degree...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Ann Swanson, manager of Gulliver's Travel Agency, recently toured Philadelphia, including visits to Independence Hall, Congress Hall, the Liberty Bell, the Philadelphia Mint, Betsy Ross's House, Independence Mall Visitor Center and the Museum of Art...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Keith L. Monia, an agent with Bankers Life and Casualty, recently receive four awards The National Sales Achievement Award for sales and service achievement; Health Insurance Quality Award; Largest Number of Issued Policies Award by Bankers Life and Casualty; and Highest Total Yearly Premium Award...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Missouri Industrial Equipment of Cape Girardeau is observing its 20th anniversary this year. The forklift company, situated near the intersection of Highways 177 and 61, was founded in January 1971 by Don Owen of Cape Girardeau. It is the only franchised material-handling company locally owned and operated...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Kwik-Kopy Corporation has launched "Project Cupid," a program to provide valentines to U.S. troops stationed in the Persian Gulf. The project is a special military promotional campaign designed to produce and ship 420,000 postcards to military forces for individual use on Valentine's Day. The Valentines were designed and produced by Kwik Kopy...

ST. LOUIS "Financing Projects in Tough Times" will be the topic during the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Missouri/Kansas Idea Exchange meeting to be held Feb. 26-27 at the Adam's Mark Hotel here. The discussion will touch on rapidly changing demographics, overstored markets and problems among anchor stores...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Schott & Company, Certified Public Accountants, has passed its quality review, conducted by Watkins, Watkins, & Keenan, Certified Public Accounts, of Memphis, Tenn. Passage of the review entitles the firm to join the Private Company's Practice Section of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, which is the governing body of certified public accountants...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Alan Rickman has joined the Coad Chevrolet staff as a new-car salesman. Rickman recently moved to Cape Girardeau from St. Louis, where he was operations manager of maintenance in high-rise buildings for four years. He previously lived in Cape Girardeau. He operated Al's Cleaning Service, which he started in 1975. In 1981, be started a ServiceMaster commercial cleaning franchise in Cape Girardeau. He sold the cleaning business in 1983...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Leah Vails has joined the D.J. Beauty Mart, 1020 N. Kingshighway here. Darlene Barham, owner of the salon, announced Vails' appointment this week. Vails, of Dexter, is a graduate of The Clip Joint School of Cosmetology at Springfield, Mo. She also attended Southwest Missouri State University at Springfield...