Stories from Wednesday, November 27, 1991

Despite last week's wet weather, a $35 million flood-control project is moving ahead, with work continuing on channel improvements along Cape LaCroix Creek north and south of Route K. Dumey Excavating of Oran and Brenda Kay Construction of Cape Girardeau are contractors on the $7.2 million first phase of the three-phase project...

Americans at home and abroad will put aside the daily hustle and bustle Thursday to pause and give thanks and enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner. To those whose family members were deployed to the Persian Gulf at this time last year, Thursday will especially be a day of thanksgiving...

U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson called the final version of a new federal highway bill "a jobs bill" and said it would provide funding for many key projects in southern Missouri. "It will put two million Americans to work immediately repairing and expanding our highway infrastructure," Emerson said Tuesday. ...

ZALMA -- A 16-year-old Bollinger County resident was critically injured late Tuesday afternoon when the pickup truck he was driving overturned five times on Bollinger County Route H, six miles north of Zalma. Authorities said the driver, Louis Montgomery of Advance, was taken by helicopter from the accident scene to St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau...

Moving day for the Community Counseling Center is just over a week away. On Dec. 9 the center will open its new 20,000-square-foot, $1.5 million building at 402 S. Silver Springs Road. The Community Counseling Center provides a variety of mental health services in the community...

KEN BARRETT Occupation: Nuclear Medicine Technologist Pet Peave? "Tailgating motorists." I've always looked up to: "My high school coach. He taught me to believe in myself." What do you do in your spare time? "Fish and sing at various functions." Describe your oddest experience: "A subway ride at midnight in New York City."...

A student from Cape Girardeau and one from Jackson were named 1992 Young Women of the Year at a competition last weekend. Janie Propst, a student at Cape Girardeau Central High School, won the South Cape County competition. She is the daughter of Ed Propst and Donna Propst...

BENTON -- Classes at Kelly schools near Benton are canceled today because of a flu virus that has struck about 25 percent of students. Superintendent Michael Johnson said on Tuesday that 84 of the high school's 300 students stayed home. On Monday, 54 students were out sick, "and we probably had 30 to 40 more who shouldn't have been here," he said...

SCOTT CITY -- Ollie Edgar Hensley, 85, of Scott City, died Monday, Nov. 25, 1991, at Fountainbleau Lodge in Cape Girardeau. He was born Sept. 17, 1906, in Tolu, Ky., son of John Harvey and Susan Elizabeth Burns Hensley. He and Mabel Hazel Jobe were married Jan. 28, 1925, at Benton. She died Sept. 28, 1988...

MARBLE HILL -- A former city alderman is the new administrative assistant for Marble Hill. David V. Jackson, a Marble Hill minister and former Ward 2 alderman, was appointed Monday night to fill the position by Mayor Shirley Cooper and other members of the Board of Aldermen...

Cleanup of the Kem-Pest Superfund site north of Cape Girardeau could begin in the spring, an Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman said Tuesday. "We're kind of thinking perhaps in the spring of next year that we'll actually be on site to start some work, (but) I don't know what work at this point," said Hattie Thomas, community relations coordinator for the EPA's regional office in Kansas City, Kan. "If there's something unforeseen, of course, that would push the date back."...

MARBLE HILL -- Junior Oscar Rhodes, 65, of Marble Hill Route 1, died Monday, Nov. 25, 1991 at John Cochran V.A. Medical Center in St. Louis. He was born Oct. 20, 1926 at Bessville, the son of Oscar Franklin Rhodes and Beulah A. Butler Rhodes. He married the former Viola Robins on Sept. 18, 1955. She survives...

CHARLESTON -- Helen Frances O'Connor, 84, of Charleston, died Saturday, Nov. 23, 1991, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born Jan. 8, 1907, in Cape Girardeau, daughter of George Francis and Bertha Louise Franck AuBuchon. She married Patrick Herman O'Connor May 12, 1930. He died July 16, 1988...

Louis H. Hirsch, 90, of St. Louis, died Sunday, Nov. 24, 1991, at Deaconess Hospital in St. Louis, following a lengthy illness. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois. Hirsch was employed 42 years with Century Electric Co. in St. Louis, 16 of which he was chief engineer. He retired in 1967...

FRIEDHEIM -- Elizabeth "Betty" Berkbigler, 42, of Friedheim, died Monday, Nov. 25, 1991, at her home. She was born April 2, 1949, in Cape Girardeau, daughter of Gilbert and Ruth Unverferth Baer. She married Perry Berkbigler May 1, 1965. at Biehle. Berkbigler was a school bus driver with Meyer Bus Line in Perryville...

The Rev. W. Ralph Kier, 62, of Sikeston, died Tuesday, Nov. 26, 1991, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. He was born Sept. 17, 1929, in Canton, Ohio, son of James Irwin and Olive E. Giffin Kier. He and Mary Bingham were married in 1952 at Canton. Kier attended Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, and Pittsburgh Xenia Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pa...

FRIEDHEIM -- Flora Brune, 89, of Friedheim, died Monday, Nov. 25, 1991, at St. Francis Medical Center. She was born Sept. 27, 1902, at Arnsburg, daughter of John and Ida Kayser Sauer. She married Walter H. Brune, who died April 18, 1963. Brune was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church here...

Thanksgiving is a holiday of glorious meaning and skewed history. That we celebrate the former and disregard the latter makes the day special. As a holiday, Christmas sometimes takes criticism because its intent, that of celebrating the birth of God's son, too often falls in the shadow of holiday parties, gift exchanges and the latest Nintendo offering...

Even though John Dennis announced his retirement from the Missouri Senate four months ago, there has been no rush of candidates publicly proclaiming interest in running for his seat. Though many names are being tossed around and the final field may ultimately be crowded, for now most potential candidates are sitting back, quietly talking to potential supporters, and waiting...

Today's libraries not only have to keep up with changing information, but with changing technology as well. To that end, the Cape Girardeau Public Schools have automated libraries at Central High School, Central Junior High School and L.J. Schultz Middle School...

Language buffs, myself included, continue to be taken aback by the quality of most made-up words. John Updike, reviewing a novel in a recent issue of The New Yorker, quoted the narrator as having written: "She was unfresh", and "It was unso." Such feeble efforts render the most fluent speakers virtually speechless...

After Don Louis Lorimier became commandant of the Cape Girardeau District in January 1793, he employed Louis Francois Largeau as his secretary to keep a daily journal and carry on all written correspondence with the Spanish officials, since he could neither read nor write. Then in 1795 Lorimier petitioned Baron de Carondelet for a grant of land where Cape Girardeau was established. He did this through Juan Barno y Ferrusola acting as his agent, in September 1795...