Stories from Thursday, September 19, 1991

The Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois is a place of great natural beauty. It is also a place of uncommon and ongoing contention. Groups concerned with the environment have chosen the forest as a place to make their stand against timber cutting. ...

The American Red Cross and Zonta Club are sponsoring a blood drive Wednesday at the Holiday Inn Holidome. Type O blood is in short supply at this time. David Palmer, with the Red Cross, said due to the increase in heart surgeries in the area, it is important to keep an adequate supply of all blood types on hand...

SIKESTON -- The Vietnam Veteran's Moving Wall memorial opened Wednesday in Sikeston for a six-day stay. The wall is being brought to town by the Sikeston Jaycees and an organization called Firebase Sikeston, established specifically to bring the wall to Sikeston...

When the lights go up on the 1991-92 University Theater season at Southeast Missouri State University, audiences will be dazzled by a variety of comedy, satire, drama and children's theater. "We have a good mixture so students can learn and audiences can enjoy the different types of plays," said Dennis Seyer, director of theater at Southeast...

CHAFFEE -- The River City C.B. Club is planning their first-ever Christmas Craft Bazaar on Nov. 1 and 2 at the club's activity center in Chaffee. Booth spaces for the bazaar are available and are $5 per table. Reservations should be made by Oct. 15. There is no admission fee...

NEW HANOVER -- The Black Forest, home of two early American villages, will be the site of a working crafts festival Oct. 12 and 13. The Black Forest, located three miles north of Cape Girardeau on County Road 638, is home to New Hanover and Arnsberg. It has been opened to the public only twice in the past seven years...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Living History Day, sponsored by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, will be held Sept. 21 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Big Oak Tree State Park. Crafts and skills, such as basket weaving, blacksmithing, quilting, spinning, barrel making, black powder gun demonstrations and banjo playing, will be demonstrated at the event to show how early Missouri settlers lived...

Cape Girardeau native Rush Limbaugh, America's most listened-to radio talk show host at something like 403 stations, is heard locally on KZIM AM-960. He appeared Wednesday morning on NBC's "Today" show. Rush is also the subject of an admiring, two-page spread ("A Man. A Legend. A What!?") in the current (September 23) issue of TIME magazine. On "Today", Rush briefly offered counterpoint to an otherwise mostly favorable report on making condoms available in our public schools...

BURFORDVILLE -- A Marble Hill woman was injured early Wednesday morning in a single-vehicle accident on Cape Girardeau County Route OO, near Burfordville. A spokesman with the Missouri Highway Patrol in Poplar Bluff said Connie Grindstaff, 19, received serious injuries when the pickup she was driving left the roadway, struck an embankment and overturned about one mile south of Burfordville...

Lamar Alexander is the U S. secretary of education. He was governor of Tennessee from 1979 to 1987; and he went onto become president of the University of Tennessee. President Bush is going back to school and he is bringing the rest of America along with him...

MARBLE HILL -- Marble Hill's annual fall Harvest Festival is set to begin Friday and continue through Saturday. Highlights of the two-day festival include an antique car show, a parade and numerous craft displays. On Friday, a youth dance with a sound system will be held at the Lutesville Park pavilion from 7-10 p.m...

With Saturday's deadline approaching, there is at least a possibility that the Missouri House Redistricting Commission will have one more meeting. Last month in Kansas City, the commission approved a new map for the state's 163 districts. By law, they have until Saturday to formally adopt a final plan. But at the meeting last month, the commissioners agreed that the map could be their final one...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson said Wednesday that White House plans to use military pressure to force Iraq to allow unrestricted U.N. inspections of its weapons of mass destruction won't lead to a repeat of the Persian Gulf War. "I don't think we are looking at a repeat of Desert Storm," the 8th District congressman said. "This is an entirely different scenario than was involved when Iraq raped its neighbor Kuwait."...

Southeast Missouri State University's proposed College of Business Administration building will include an international business center thanks in part to a $150,000 donation from a Japanese businessman. Yoshihiro Takase, a longtime friend and supporter of the university, made the donation Wednesday. His son, Shigeomi, is a 1984 graduate of Southeast...

The shelves are empty where the 5,000 pounds of free food used to be and the Bethesda Fellowship, at 14 N. Sprigg St. in Cape Girardeau, now has to turn away people who depend on that food. The Fellowship, which has given away free food and clothing for five years to the needy, stopped giving food away Tuesday. If they do not get outside funding, they will stop giving away free clothing and close their doors at the end of October, Fellowship officials said...

The Cape Girardeau Historic Preservation Commission, appointed in April 1990, considered its first applications for local historic landmark designations Wednesday night. The commission viewed both applications favorably and will work to designate the properties as local landmarks...

Southeast Missouri State University hopes to make up nearly half of an anticipated $942,000 in added state budget withholdings by increasing student fees. Cuts in university operations are expected to make up for the rest of the budget shortfall, Allen Gathman, Faculty Senate chairman, said Wednesday...

The summer of 1991 went into the record book here as warmer, but less humid than normal. The lower humidity levels made it seem somewhat more pleasant than most typical Southeast Missouri summers in this area, according to Al Robertson of the Earth science department at Southeast Missouri State University...

CHARLESTON -- While officials in Charleston and nearby East Prairie are dreading the planned Nov. 6 closing of the Brown Shoe Company, they are also working to attract other businesses to employ hundreds of displaced workers. And though fewer workers will lose their jobs at the plant than had originally been anticipated, the partial closing of the town's largest employer will still deal a tremendous blow to the area, officials said...

As a teacher, Laraine Adams is quite familiar with the 88 keys to learning. The keys are on a piano. Adams teaches elementary music, beginning band and select chorus at Scott City Elementary School, where she has taught for 22 years. "My mother began taking me to piano lessons when I was just seven years old," Adams said. "I found that I loved the piano and spent lots of time practicing and pretending to be my piano teacher...

Funeral service for Myrtie Jane Hobbs of Cape Girardeau will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at Lorberg Memorial Funeral Chapel. The Rev. Audie Long will officiate, with burial in George Cemetery near Swinton. Friends may call at the funeral home after 4 p.m. today...

BERTRAND -- Mervin Eugene "Blue" Jones Sr., 50, of Bertrand, died Tuesday, Sept. 17, 1991, from injuries received in an automobile accident. He was born Sept. 6, 1941, at Wyatt, son of Harley and Nervy Woodward Jones. He and Alice Faye Gulledge were married June 4, 1963...

PERRYVILLE -- Alma A. Soehl, 75, formerly of Farrar, died Tuesday, Sept. 17, 1991, at Westview Nursing Center in Herculaneum. She was born Jan. 4, 1916, at Altenburg, daughter of Charles and Mary Doering Wachter. She married Walter H. Soehl Sept. 18, 1938. He died Feb. 12, 1976...

PERRYVILLE -- Erich H. Mueller, 91, of Perryville, died Wednesday, Sept. 18, 1991, at Perry County Memorial Hospital. He was born June 23, 1900, at Farrar, son of Adolph and Martha Koenig Mueller. He married Sophie Gaede June 27, 1924, who died Feb. 21, 1989...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Luther E. Gibbs, 77, Jonesboro Route 1, died Tuesday, Sept. 17, 1991, at his home. He was born July 12, 1914, at Jonesboro, son of Arthur and Fannie Day Gibbs. He married Gladys Arnold, who preceded him in death. Gibbs was a retired farmer, and member of Reynoldsville Missionary Baptist Church. He was a veteran of World War II...

Bess Margaret Barks, 93, 3120 Independence, died Tuesday, Spet. 17, 1991, at St. Francis Medical Center. She was born July 8, 1898, at Jackson, daughter of Milton Webster and Margaret Sadie Campbell Gholson. She married William M. Barks Feb. 12, 1928, at Jackson...

PERRYVILLE -- Joseph Elward Lukefahr, 68, of Perryville, died Tuesday, Sept. 17, 1991, at Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. He was born Aug. 16, 1923, son of Theodore B. and Mary J. Valleroy Lukefahr. He married Dorothy Jeanette Weinkein June 15, 1946, at Highland...

Daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Roger F. Westrich, 1612 Grandview, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 8:44 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 10, 1991. Name, Audrey Nicole. Weight, 7 pounds 7 ounces. Second child, first daughter. Mrs. Westrich is the former Pamela Francis, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert B. Francis of Cape Girardeau. Westrich is a painter with Midamerica Hotels, and is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Westrich of New Hamburg...

Rose Marie Clemons, 69, of Cape Girardeau, died Tuesday, Sept. 17, 1991, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. She was born Feb. 25, 1922, in New Madrid, daughter of Joe and Minerva Graham. She married Charles Clemons in 1953 in Arkansas. He survives. Survivors include her husband; three sons, Charles Clemons Jr. ...

SCOTT CITY -- An informational meeting concerning the installation of a 911 emergency system in Scott City will be held Oct. 8 at the Scott City High School. Voters will be asked in November if they will fund the service in the city. The meeting is open to the public. Representative of Southwestern Bell, the 911 committee and city officials will be present to answer questions about the 911 system and its costs...

The National Association of Truck Stop Operators wants to stop illegal drug trafficking at truck stops. To that end, the association has set up Operation Roadblock, a program that combines anti-drug education and law enforcement cooperation. Next Wednesday and Thursday, bumper stickers, buttons, ribbons and fliers about the program will be handed out at the Rhodes Travel Center along Interstate 55. ...