Stories from Wednesday, June 17, 1992

PERRYVILLE - Hilary Dunker of Perryville died Monday, June 15, 1992 at the American Care Nursing Center in Perryville. He was 93. Dunker was born Dec. 2, 1898 in Perry County, son of the late Louis J. and Josephine Schindler Dunker. He farmed in Perry County his entire life...

Police reported a state highway department employee injured himself Monday when he fell from scaffolding while working on the Kingshighway overpass at Interstate 55. The man, Lawrence W. Fritz, 42, of Jefferson City, went to St. Francis Medical Center by Cape County Private Ambulance Service, said Cape Girardeau police Sgt. Carl Kinnison. A spokesperson there said Tuesday afternoon that the man remained in stable condition...

Degrees were conferred upon 619 undergraduates and 55 graduate students during spring commencement exercises last month at Southeast Missouri State University. Area residents who graduated with advanced degrees, listed by hometown, are as follows. ADVANCE: Ben E. Lanpher, Route 1, master of arts, major psychological counseling; and Jim B. Simpson, P.O. Box 397, specialist in education, major educational administration...

"Stress Reduction Solution for Women" will be the topic of a program presented by National Seminars, Inc. Thursday. The presentation will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Drury Lodge. The workshop will cover specific strategies for dealing with stress and will empower attendees with the ability to control the ways in which stress affects their lives...

"Flowers Arranging: Capturing Sunshine in a Vase" is the topic of the June Woman to Woman luncheon. The meeting will be at noon on Thursday in Conference Rooms A and B of the St. Francis Health and Education Centre. Francine Seier, owner of Francine's Flower and Garden Shop in Cape Girardeau, will be the featured speaker. This program will offer first-hand tips from an expert on designing floral arrangements...

JACKSON -- The Jackson Municipal Band will hold its weekly concert on Thursday at 8 p.m. in the Band Shell in the city park. Pat Schwent again will direct the band. Special guest this week is Don Presson. He will perform a variety of traditional religious and contemporary gospel music. Presson has had extensive experience in music, including working as a recording and concert artist and serving as a Music Evangelist...

Special entertainment for Wednesday evening's Cape Municipal Band concert will be the choir from First General Baptist Church. The program will be presented at 8 p.m. in the Capaha Park Band Shell. The choir will perform excerpts from their upcoming production "Freedom Celebration," a patriotic salute to America's freedoms...

This Thursday, "Ask Your Doctor" will address "Hemorrhoids and Rectal Problems." The guest speaker is Dr. Charles P. McGinty. "Ask Your Doctor" is jointly sponsored by St. Francis Medical Center and Southeast Missouri Hospital, in conjunction with the Cape Girardeau County Medical Society...

Brian Shelton is from Cape Girardeau. He graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1992 with a degree in business. Judging by some of the questions that were asked by callers at the NAACP forum June 7, there were many watching who were as discouraged as I was by the endless stream of nonsense that flowed forth from the panel. What was even more discouraging was that except for the calls from the people without names or faces, even the most ridiculous statements went unchallenged...

The sounds of summer are the sounds of music. That's because the municipal bands in Cape Girardeau and Jackson are continuing their rich heritage of entertainment. Together, these two city bands boast of more than 135 years of performances. That's an impressive commitment of musical entertainment. Many of us have grown up on these muny band performances...

Son to Mr. and Mrs. Scott L. Hendrix, Chaffee Route 1, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 8 a.m. Wednesday, May 27, 1992. Name, Joshua Lyn. Weight, 5 pounds 15 ounces. Second son. Mrs. Hendrix is the former Jill McCallister, daughter of John and Patricia McCallister of Gordonville. Hendrix is a conductor on Burlington Northern Railroad, and is the son of the Rev. Dale and Virginia Hendrix of Chaffee...

SIKESTON -- Charles Byron Mulcahy, 28, of Sikeston, died Monday, June 15, 1992, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born Dec. 9, 1963, in Sikeston, son of Paul B. and Carol Sue Lathum Mulcahy. He is a 1982 graduate of Richland High School. He and Debbie Head were married Dec. 12, 1981...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Funeral service for James R. Williamson of Dyersburg, Tenn., formerly of East Prairie, will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at Shelby Funeral Chapel. Burial will be in Oak Grove Cemetery near Charleston. Friends may call at the funeral home after 8:30 a.m. today, and on Thursday from 8:30 a.m. until service time...

FRUITLAND -- Graveside service for Ruby Workman of Adrian was held Friday at a cemetery there. Workman, 83, died Wednesday, June 10, 1992, in an Adrian nursing home. She was born Dec. 28, 1908, at Fruitland, daughter of Charles and Nellie Howard McDowell. She married Ralph Workman, who preceded her in death...

JACKSON -- Clinton D. Dow, 58, of Jackson, died Tuesday, June 16, 1992, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. He was born Jan. 22, 1934, in Cape County, son of Ray and Reba Overbeck Dow. He and Flossie Wilkinson were married June 28, 1969, in Cape Girardeau...

MARBLE HILL -- Mary L. Hahn, 81, of Marble Hill, died Tuesday, June 16, 1992, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born June 6, 1911, at Zalma, daughter of Charles Franklin and Della Rowland Hopkins. She and Lawrence L. (Doc) Hahn were married Aug. 8, 1935, at Patton...

MATTHEWS - Walter Lee Beck Sr., 63, of Matthews, died June 15, 1992 at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. He was born in Sikeston July 26, 1928. His parents were the late Spurlin Beck Sr. and Birdie Duke Beck. Beck was a farmer and worked at DeWitt and Co. in Sikeston...

ULLIN, Ill. -- Della D. Haynes, 89, of Ullin, died Monday, June 15, 1992, at Lifecare Nursing Center in Jonesboro. She was born July 17, 1902, in Morgantown, daughter of Thomas and Theoloshia Jones. She married Cecil Haynes, who died in 1967. Survivors include two sons, Eugene Haynes of Dongola, Leslie Haynes of Cairo; two daughters, Irene Davis of Bristol, Wis., Pauline Bond of Dongola; a brother, Wilbur Jones of Roundhill, Ky.; 27 grandchildren; 48 great-grandchildren, and several great-great-grandchildren.. ...

ANNISTON -- Marvin Kenneth Knupp, 57, of Anniston died Tuesday, June 16, 1992, at his home. He was born Nov. 18, 1934, in Stoddard County, the son of Ira A. Knupp and the late Pearl J. Pullum Knupp. He lived in Mississippi County most his life where he worked as a house mover for Blackwell House Moving in Charleston. He was of the Baptist denomination...

SIKESTON - Sikeston resident John Lett died Monday, June 15, 1992 at the Memphis Veterans Administration Hospital. He was 74. Lett was born in Bertrand Sept. 6, 1917 to the late Thomas L. and Minnie Golightly Lett. He worked in industrial construction, served in the Army in World War II, and was a member of the Charleston Veterans of Foreign Wars post, New Madrid American Legion Post No. 595, the Sikeston Disabled American Veterans and the Cape Girardeau Laborers' Union...

Union Electric customers who are not on the budget-billing program are seeing higher electric bills as summer rates kick in. "That's not a rate increase," said Virgil Chirnside, district manager with the company's office in Cape Girardeau. "That is a normal occurrence."...

Two local Vietnam veterans hope Russian President Boris Yeltsin's confirmation that American prisoners from the Vietnam War were taken to the Soviet Union, and his promise to search out more information may bring the final chapter of the war to an end...

Even though the Missouri General Assembly passed legislation this year designed to bring skyrocketing costs of workers' compensation insurance under control, legislative and business leaders agree that more work needs to be done. "I think the bill we saw this year was nothing more than a start; it still needs a lot of work," said Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce President Bob Hendrix. "I think it was a decent start."...

Nine months of effort to secure expanded service at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport apparently is for naught as Trans World Express this week withdrew its application for a federal subsidy to operate here. That means the U.S. Department of Transportation isn't likely to consider the city's recommendation that Lone Star Airlines of Texas be awarded the subsidy instead...

BENTON -- A massive power outage in Chaffee, Benton, Morley, Oran and parts of Delta Tuesday night left residents without power for several hours. A spokesman at the Scott County Sheriff's Department said the power went out about 9 p.m. in all the towns except Benton. The power came back on again at about 10:10 p.m., the spokesman said, but went out again after about five minutes, leaving those towns and Benton without power...

The Southeast Missouri Council on the Arts is one of 11 Missouri arts councils receiving federal and state money to conduct a survey on what type of programs a community arts council should sponsor. A grant of $6,000 will enable the council to hire a consultant and complete the survey, said Beverly Strohmeyer, executive director of the Southeast Missouri Council of the Arts based in Cape Girardeau...

SCOTT CITY -- Robert Elledge, a former sergeant with the Scott City Police Department, is now the department's chief. Elledge was sworn in Tuesday after being appointed to the position by the City Council. He has been with the department for 14 years, starting as a patrolman in 1978...

JOYCE PENNY Occupation: Accounts assistant, athletic department, Southeast Missouri State University. Pet Peeve: "People who don't use common sense." The best part of my job is: "The variety of the work and all the people I get to meet." What do you do in your spare time? "Chaufer my kids, read, fish in our pond and watch TV."...

JACKSON - The paving machine working on the West Main Street improvement project in Jackson is probably as unique as the man who designed and still operates it. Harry Dale, 85, is a semi-retired contractor who worked more than 50 years in the construction-paving business. For 25 of those years Dale owned and operated a construction company that included street-paving projects...

The year 1992 is a birthday year for many events, including the centennial of the "Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag." Most of us remember when as kindergarten pupils we were taught the words of the pledge, and how important we felt when we learned to recite it without making a mistake...

Top students at area high schools have garnered awards and scholarships as valedictorians and salutatorians for 1992 graduating classes. Cape Central Deborah Soun Chung has been named valedictorian and Mala Ahuja has been named salutatorian of the senior class at Cape Girardeau Central High School...

Area farmers are making hay while the sun shines. "A lot of farmers have been in the hay fields this week," said Terry Birk. "They're cutting and baling alfalfa, fescue, timothy and various orchard grass mixtures." Hay harvesting has been hampered by recent rains, and the crop was effected earlier by dry spring weather...

A husband and wife, Charles and Judy Thrower of Cape Girardeau were installed May 16 as heads of Veterans of Foreign Wars and Auxiliary. The ceremony was at the district convention held at Charleston VFW Post 4294. Thrower was installed as commander of the 15th District, Department of Missouri Veterans of Foreign Wars. His wife was elected and installed as district president of the auxiliary...