Stories from Wednesday, December 4, 1991

SIKESTON -- Frank Hardin Smith Jr., 78, of Protem, died Tuesday, Nov. 26, 1991, at Cox Medical Center South in Springfield. He was born Aug. 31, 1913, at Sikeston, son of Frank Hardin and Alice Barnes Smith Sr. Smith was a sales representative with Murison Label Co. in Peoria, Ill. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II...

If you're looking for a job with unlimited power, consider a federal judgeship. For years, Missouri has been held financial hostage by federal court-ordered desegregation. By the end of the 1992 fiscal year, more than $1.5 billion will be drained from the budget without state or taxpayer consent. If that isn't bad enough, a federal appeals court has now ruled that Missouri must try to get a bank loan rather than cut the state budget to come up with desegregation payments...

Gail L. Chatfield, D-St. Louis, is a state representative from District 69. For the past six years, I have struggled in the Missouri General Assembly to gain accessible and affordable health care for all Missourians. Throughout that period, I have always been able to tell myself that some day state government will realize what a terrible problem we have with health care services in Missouri...

Based on events of the past 30 days, it is possible today to write the campaign platform of the winning candidate in next year's gubernatorial election. This is possible not because of divine inspiration from some Electoral Heaven but because the mood of the electorate, both in Missouri and across the country, has seldom been as apparent and predictable...

The words "full confidence" should have been a hint. To John Sununu, it probably was the hint. Only Tuesday morning, the White House press officials said that President Bush had "full confidence" in his beleaguered chief of staff, John Sununu. This came a week after President Bush had given Sununu the thumbs up, Barbara Bush had publicly expressed her support and every soul living or working at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was publicly giving out the company line that the chief of staff remained in good graces.. ...

Freeman McCullah, Missouri Highway and Transportation Department District 10 engineer, and Tony Reinhart, vice president of governmental affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are among key speakers at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce retreat Friday and Saturday at the Lone Star Natatorium...

Fire early Tuesday caused extensive damage to a residence at 22 Edgewood. The fire was among a number of fire calls that occurred in the city Sunday through Tuesday. Fire department officials said the occupants of the house on Edgewood, Gerald Stott and his family, were asleep at the time, but escaped the burning structure without injury...

The Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, will schedule a repeat performance in Cape Girardeau May 9 and 10, airport officials announced Tuesday. The squadron last performed at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport during Aviation Days in 1983, when the two-day crowd was estimated at 25,000 to 30,000...

To the Editor: The absurdity of last year's fiasco might have taught the public ~~that we can and cannot do in terms of predicting specific times and places for an earthquake. We are still unable to predict a time and place for an earthquake. A prediction such as that cannot be made now and may never be possible. Also let's hope that in the future the public might be more skeptical when someone such as Iben Browning comes around making such statements...

Clarence Virgil Daniels, 69, 2834 Independence, died Tuesday, Dec. 3, 1991, at his home. He was born Jan. 18, 1922, in Irvine, Ky., son of Millard and Mamie Scrivner Daniels Sr. He and Margaret Mary Clark were married July 2, 1955, in Jeffersonville, Ind. She died July 10, 1986...

OLIVE BRANCH, Ill. -- The Alexander County Ambulance Service is operating on a day-to-day basis. "We've shut the door on the ambulance service temporarily," said Louis Maze, a member of the Alexander County Board of Commissioners. "The service was operated by volunteers over the weekend. We also had volunteers on duty Monday, but we're on a day-to-day basis now."...

CHAFFEE -- Eva Frances Steimle, 72, of Chaffee, died Tuesday, Dec. 3, 1991, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. She was born May 21, 1919, at Benton, daughter of Lawrence and Kathryn Trienen Gangel. She married Richard Steimle June 28, 1941. He died Oct. 30, 1981...

JACKSON -- Buford O. Bollinger, 79, of Jackson, died Monday, Dec. 2, 1991, at his home. He was born March 11, 1912, near Sedgewickville, son of Amon and Cora Masters Bollinger. He married Mattie Abernathy in 1929, who died June 6, 1970. He then married Lanora Sawyer in May 1971, who died Jan. 27, 1980...

A fund-raising campaign for the construction of a senior citizens nutrition center in Cape Girardeau will move into high gear after the first of the year. "I hope by this time next year we can have that new building started or at least be a whole lot closer," Jo Nell Lingo, nutrition center administrator, said Tuesday...

Headquarters for Toybox operations is open for business. Volunteers are ready to work, but they are in need of toys. The office on North Kingshighway, which needs to be brimming with gifts, is nearly empty. Just 15 days remain before the toys will be delivered. The list of children who will not receive a single Christmas gift without Toybox's help is growing daily, and not nearly enough toys have been collected to give each child just one gift...

Construction of a 30,000-square-foot addition to the Show Me Center would provide needed convention and meeting room space, center Director David Ross said Tuesday. In a proposal to the city, Ross suggested that some of the motel and restaurant tax revenue from the city's tourism fund be used to help fund construction of an addition on the south side of the Show Me Center...

JACKSON - Cape Girardeau County Presiding Commissioner Gene Huckstep called a 1992 budget request for the juvenile office "mindboggling" Tuesday, and said it would be absurd to even discuss the kind of increase requested. "You can rest assured we're not even going to consider this budget as it is presented. No way," declared Huckstep...

Betty Chong has been named special services director for Cape Girardeau public schools. Chong has been serving as interim director since the retirement of Calvin Chapman in June. Prior to that, she was assistant director. Special education is a growing field in education. "I look forward to the challenge," Chong said...

A proposed revision in the summer-session fee structure will be an item of business when the Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents meets Thursday. The board will convene at 10 a.m. in the University Center party room. Under the fee proposal, 1992 summer-session incidental fees would be set at $74 per credit hour for Missouri undergraduates, regardless of the number of hours taken...

SCOTT CITY -- A Scott City businessman is the first candidate to file for mayor in Scott City. The filing period opened Tuesday. After an unsuccessful bid for the seat in 1990, Larry Forhan said Tuesday he'd like to try again. "I think we've got a good community here and I think we can make the good things even better," he said...

On Christmas day Mrs. F waits by the telephone for two phone calls. One from each of her sons. She doesn't fix a special meal. She can't afford a turkey or the trimmings. She doesn't put up decorations. Why for just one person to enjoy, she believes...

The Southeast Missouri Council on the Arts will host its annual membership meeting Thursday at Drury Lodge in Cape Girardeau. On the agenda are dinner, entertainment, recognition of volunteers and sponsors, and the presentation of the Otto Dingeldein Award...

Rick Murray, supervisor of Cape Girardeau's Inspection Services Department, says he hopes recent changes in how the office handles building inspections and permits will quell past criticism of the department. Murray started his job here Aug. 19 after working 18 years in a similar position at Ames, Iowa. Since then he has established new goals and procedures for the department with a renewed emphasis on community relations...

Brass players in the music department at Southeast Missouri State University will present a concert at 7:30 tonight at Old St. Vincent's Church, William and Main streets. The concert will feature two student brass quintets, the Southeast Euphemistic Euphoniums and the Low Brass Ensemble...

The presidents of Southeast Missouri State University and Aichi University in Aichi, Japan have signed an agreement designed to foster student, faculty and academic program exchanges between the two schools. Kala Stroup, president of Southeast Missouri State University, and Yoshiro Makino, president of Aichi University, shook hands on the deal following a signing ceremony Monday evening at the Cape Girardeau Holiday Inn...

CHAFFEE - Union Electric forced the Chaffee City Council Monday to pass an amending ordinance to let the Scott County R-2 School District quit paying the city's franchise tax to the utility. The council adopted a resolution in March to exclude the district from paying the tax. But City Attorney David Summers said Monday that Union Electric didn't like the arrangement and has been taxing the district all along...

PORTAGEVILLE -- Avery soybeans, planted as a second crop following wheat, really paid off this year says Jake Fisher, superintendent of the University of Missouri Delta Center located near here. "Growers in this area grew 50-bushel beans following wheat this year," said Fisher. "Avery has found its niche in the wheat-soybean double-crop situation."...

Matt Hopkins and Barbara Hopkins of the Cape Girardeau Jaycees participated in the 24th annual Missouri Jaycees Mock Legislature held recently at the State Capitol in Jefferson City. As representatives and/or senators, these Jaycees had an opportunity to introduce legislation, participate in committee hearings and debate legislation. Bill that were passed into law through the mock legislature will be printed in a bill book that will be distributed to all members of the Missouri General Assembly...

When Don Louis Lorimier came to the Spanish-held territory called Cape Girardeau, he did not realize he would be involved in the largest real estate transaction in history, known as the Louisiana Purchase. History books seldom go into detail about the ownership of Louisiana, unless the course of study is an advanced one dealing with constitutional law, and the acquisition of land by the United States. ...

Students are notorious for aging their teachers, but Debra Nenninger doesn't feel that way. "Their enthusiasm for each new day is contagious," she said, "and that helps to keep me young." Nenninger teaches students in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades at Kelso C-7 School in New Hamburg. She has taught there for 16 years...