Stories from Friday, November 1, 1991

ULLIN, Ill. -- David J. Ritter, 52, of Ullin, died Thursday, Nov. 7, 1991, at 4:37 p.m. at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born Nov. 1, 1939 in Pulaski, Ill., the son of Tillman and Virginia Wood Ritter. He was a dairy farmer, and a member of the Cache Chapel United Methodist Church. He was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force...

ADAMSDaughter to Mr. and Mrs. Rusby G. Adams Jr. of Ft. Collins, Colo., Poudre Valley Hospital there, 5:05 p.m. Monday, Oct. 28, 1991. Name, Madeline Taylor. Weight, 7 pounds 13 ounces. Second child, first daughter. Mrs. Adams is the former Tamara Ball, daughter of J.N. and Marilyn Ball of St. Joseph. Adams is employed by Anheuser-Busch, and is the son of Rusby and Mildred Adams of Jackson...

SCOTT CITY -- Edith Davidson of Scott City is one of 10 Missouri residents to receive a Governor's Leadership Award. Davidson was given the award Oct. 21 at a statewide Community Betterment Conference in Columbia. Davidson, 76, is the founder and president of Scott City's Community Betterment Association, a member of the Scott City Garden Club, Chamber of Commerce, DAR, and Historical Association of Scott City, and she does volunteer work with senior citizens. ...

Larry Helms, a former Fulbright Scholar with three books and numerous articles to his credit, will be guest speaker at the Nov. 19 meeting of the Cape Girardeau Executives Club. He will speak about "The Real Facts of Life." The program includes observations and quotations attributed to people throughout recorded history, from Jesus to modern political personalities...

Renee Mattingly, a senior accounting major at Southeast Missouri State University, has been awarded the KPMG Peat Marwick Scholarship for the 1991-1992 academic year. C. Michael Dambach, a partner at Peat Marwick, presented the scholarship at a recent ceremony. Peat Marwick is the nation's fifth largest accounting firm with more than 14,000 employees and 132 offices...

The city of Cape Girardeau leaf pick-up service will be in Zone B starting Monday and ending Friday. Zone B covers the area north of Broadway bounded on the east by North West End Boulevard and on the west by Highway 61, Victoria Drive, Grandview Drive, including Lakeview Estates and San Dangaro subdivisions...

The Regional Commerce and Growth Association will hold its Fourth Annual Banquet Nov. 7, to be launched by a news conference announcing the start of a federally funded feasibility study for the I-66 Project. The news conference and banquet will be held at Cape Girardeau's Drury Lodge...

A pre-Thanksgiving feast, flea market and art show will be held Saturday at the Cape Girardeau Civic Center, 232 Broadway. The event, sponsored by the Cape Girardeau chapter of the NAACP, will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The dinner will feature turkey and all the trimmings. Cost of the dinner is $3.50 for adults, $3 for senior citizens and $1.75 for children, age 12 and under...

It is both appropriate and essential to note that many of Missouri's 541 school districts are financial basket cases, facing higher costs, declining revenues and increased pressure from the public to provide more services. Since education is not a product that can be manufactured, there are few realistic economies that can be made in this field except to trim teacher costs, cut textbook purchases and scale back programs that society now expects and takes for granted...

The Middle East peace conference is dominating the news this week and gives all Americans a chance to think about other things. Right? Let's face it, the peace conference fails to attract Americans in the way the Clarence Thomas hearings did, or the William Kennedy Smith hearings will...

Cape Girardeau County voters face an election issue Tuesday, an education tax-and-reform package, that will have a long-range, ongoing impact on the quality of life in this state. Somewhat forgotten on this ballot will be an issue that on any given day will save a life. The county needs 911 emergency telephone service and the issue on Tuesday's ballot deserves a "yes" vote...

To the Editor: I'm a student of the Cape Public Schools. I'm all for Proposition B. We have no money to buy gym or playground equipment. Our Student Council raises money for most of it, but it's still not enough. I wish that everybody would take into consideration that we don't have enough money to give us the proper education. For example, our class has doubled in size the last year...

Like so many of you, I have indulged myself with every bit of information that I can find written about, for, and against Proposition B to help stimulate and form my own opinion about this issue which will allow me to make the correct and responsible choice at the polls this November 5th. ...

It is not my custom to write letters to the editor. I am a private person, and am very reluctant to get into a public debate in the newspaper, especially because I am a former reporter for the Southeast Missourian and have much respect for the editorial staff at the Missourian...

CHAFFEE -- Anna Olivia Goetz, 93, of Chaffee died Thursday, Oct. 31, 1991, at the Miner Nursing Center, where she had been a resident for five years. She was born Dec. 17, 1897, in New Hamburg, the daughter of Henry and Anna Scherer Grojean. On Aug. 19, 1919, she married Theodore A. Goetz Sr., who preceded her in death Oct. 20, 1974...

BENTON -- Meril Camden, 71, of Benton died Thursday, Oct. 30, 1991, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Feb. 27, 1920, at Bunker, the son of Jay Hue and Minnie Bounds Camden. On Aug. 10, 1971, he married Joy Allen, who survives of Benton...

Randol C. Young, 57, of Dallas, Texas, died Wednesday, Oct. 30, 1991, at Humana Medical City Hospital in Dallas. He was born Dec. 28, 1933, in Cape Girardeau, son of Earl and Lucille Young. He and Carmen Elizabeth Matias of New York were married July 17, 1982...

PERRYVILLE - The Rev. John Overkamp, 54, of Perryville, died Wednesday, Oct. 30, 1991, at St. Mary's of the Barrens Seminary, where he resided following his retirement as a Catholic priest. Overkamp was born May 26, 1937, at St. Charles, son of Frances Griben Overkamp and the late John Overkamp...

CHARLESTON -- Alvina Stader, 71, of Charleston died Thursday, Oct. 31, 1991, at her home. She was born Dec. 9, 1919, at Advance, the daughter of William Chester and Maud Alliston Hunt. On July 28, 1959, she married Lonnie Stader, who preceded her in death March 18, 1986...

Louise H. Curtis, 95, of Chateau Girardeau, died Wednesday, Oct. 30, 1991, at Chateau Girardeau Health Center. She was born March 9, 1896, in Brooklyn, N.Y., daughter of William C. and Mary Eliza Coffin Hewitt. She and Harry C. Curtis were married June 20, 1919, in Brooklyn. He died Nov. 21, 1971...

ORAN -- Funeral service for Celestine "Sally" Niehus of Bellwood, Ill., was held Tuesday at St. Simeon Church in Bellwood. Burial was in Oakridge Cemetery at Hillside, Ill., with Rosewood Funeral Home of Bellwood in charge of arrangements. Announcement courtesy of Amick-Burnett Funeral Home at Chaffee...

Edward M. Spicer, associate to the president at Southeast Missouri State University, died Wednesday of an apparent heart attack. He was 60. Spicer had been at Southeast since 1977, returning to his hometown from a post at the University of Wisconsin...

Little Bo Peep brought her sheep, the bride arrived with her groom, Mickey escorted Minnie, Robin Hood rounded up his band of merry men and Old McDonald brought the entire farm, from cows to a bumblebee, and a piglet with a blond ponytail. The Great Pumpkin was at his glowing best Thursday night when West Park Mall sponsored its annual Safe Halloween Party...

Alan Branson is a missionary with vision. His vision told him that optometry is a missionary area that's relatively untapped. So he tapped it. Today, hundreds of people in South America and a poor Caribbean island who were otherwise legally blind see because of his work...

THEATRE REVIEW "Energy! Smiles! Have Fun!" That was the final stage direction as 26 superkids took to the Concord Theater stage for a musical tribute to the childhood comedian. They will star in the musical production "How to Eat Like a Child and Other Lessons in Not Being a Grown-up," which opens tonight at the Concord Theater...

Olympic springboard diver Wendy Lucero will be among featured speakers at Saturday's Womancare Conference, to be held at the University Center. She will speak with her mother, Shirley Lucero, about Shirley's breast cancer at the conference luncheon...

A 24-hour flag vigil in front of Academic Hall, and a flyover of Houck Stadium by four Air Force A-10 (Warthog) jet aircraft prior to the Nov. 9 Southeast Missouri State University football game will highlight Missing in Action/Prisoner of War Awareness Week, which begins Monday...

OLIVE BRANCH, Ill. -- Plans have been announced for the 10th annual Goose Fest, to be held at the Horseshoe Lake spillway area near Olive Branch Nov. 10. Live entertainment, goose and duck calling contests, arts and crafts, games and prizes will be offered during the one-day celebration, sponsored by the Horseshoe Lake Chamber of Commerce...

JEFFERSON CITY -- Rabbits are dumb enough that you can forgive them for sitting in the middle of a road. But Bob King, chief of the Missouri Department of Conservation's Protection Division, says "dumb bunnies" who shoot rabbits from cars ought to know better...

POPLAR BLUFF -- In spite of sleeping through telephone calls and talking out of turn during staff meetings, Paul Andrew VanPraag has a good work record. The 4-month-old has been showing up at the U.S. Forest Service office in Poplar Bluff regularly for the past three months...

Three area artists have had their work selected for a nine-state competitive art exhibition. Forty pieces were chosen from 197 works submitted by 97 artists for the "Paducah `91" exhibit. Included in the exhibit is a small iron sculpture, "Armageddon," and a charcoal-thread drawing, "Tether to Tassel Image," by Scott Monteith of Jackson. Monteith is an art student at Southeast Missouri State University...

Warranty deeds issued at the office of Janet Robert, Cape Girardeau County recorder of deeds: The Erma and Pansy Eakins Trusts to L. T. Eakins; Ray C. Green, et al, to Charles A. and Vallie M. Graff; Janet S. Hill to the Jimmie Ray Boston Trust. Beacon Industries Inc. to Virgil A. and Gretchen M. Green; M & W Development Co. to International Sales & Co.; JB Properties Inc. to Kenneth W. and Laura Ann Lincoln...