Stories from Wednesday, January 13, 1993

Tonight our community begins a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Southeast Missouri State University plans a number of talks, entertainment and programs during the coming week as a celebration of this extraordinary man. The second annual communitywide service is scheduled Friday, which coincides with the slain civil rights leader's birthday. It will be held at First Presbyterian Church, beginning at 7:30 p.m...

Education and prevention these are two critical factors in Missouri's declining number of accident fatalities. The 1992 numbers achieved a seven-year low in Missouri mirroring a nationwide trend. Commendation is due to state and local law enforcement agencies and ... all of us. After all, motorists are the ones who are buckling up when they get behind the wheel and who decide not to drink and drive. Our reward can be found in human life...

JACKSON -- City officials are optimistic this year's application for a Community Development Block Grant for neighborhood development will be a winner. Jackson narrowly missed funding of its application in statewide competition last year. The block grant program is administered by the Missouri Department of Economic Development. ...

Mid-winter ailments are starting to take their toll on adults and school-age children in the Southeast Missouri area. Local health officials report increases in most categories of sickness among the young and old throughout the area. However, they emphasize that at this time, the numbers are not unusual for mid-January...

Twenty-one buildings, most of them homes, will be razed soon as the first phase of demolition work gets under way on the new Mississippi River bridge route project. The Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission awarded a nearly $26,000 demolition contract Friday to Amy's Trucking Service of Cape Girardeau...

Flu-like symptoms are being blamed for a wave of absences at two Cape Girardeau elementary schools. A third of May Greene School's 220 students were absent Tuesday. Twelve students were sent home from school sick, bringing to 75 the total number of students absent...

JEFFERSON CITY - Most area legislators say they will be open minded on a tax increase for education that Gov. Mel Carnahan plans to propose. But the lawmakers said voters may be in no mood to approve a tax hike and money is not the only solution to problems facing education...

JACKSON -- Jackson School Board members got their first glimpse of district's proposed middle school Monday. Calling the architect's preliminary floor plan of the building "step one, a starting point," school Superintendent Wayne Maupin and the building's architects, John D. Dudley and Bob Stearnes, guided board members and the news media on a 90-minute journey through the proposed middle school...

When spring semester classes commenced Monday at Southeast Missouri State University, 7,440 students were enrolled. That's a drop of 220 compared with the first-day enrollment total of 7,660 for the 1992 spring semester, said Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast...

TONYUA TOWNSEND Occupation: Teller supervisor at Commerce Bank. Birthplace: Westminister, Calif. Current home: Chaffee Pet Peeve: "Know-it-all people." The best part of my job is: "The contact with people. I love to get to know them!" I've always looked up to: "My mom. She is independent, caring and never backs down from a challenge."...

JEFFERSON CITY - A Republican legislator from Southeast Missouri says he is concerned that the House of Representatives is sending the wrong signal to citizens by combining its ethics committee with another panel. "I feel there is a potentially long-range effect on the public's perception of this body and that we are not placing enough emphasis on ethics," said the legislator, Rep. Mark Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff. "I feel we should leave ethics in a stand-alone committee."...

CHARLESTON -- R.P. "Popcorn" Craft, 95, of Charleston, died Monday, Jan. 11, 1993, at Bertrand Nursing Facility. He was born Oct. 15, 1897, in Utica, Miss., son of Earvin and Percilla Craft. He and Vera Flucker were married in 1932, in Carroll County, Miss...

CHARLESTON -- Funeral service for Villa Kathryn Petty of Charleston will be held at 1 p.m. today at Shelby Funeral Chapel in East Prairie. The Rev. Gerald Collier will officiate, with burial in Anniston Cemetery. Petty, 77, died Sunday, Jan. 10, 1993, at East Prairie Nursing Center...

SIKESTON -- Funeral service for Carolyn Gail Coffer of Sikeston will be held at 11 a.m. today at Shelby Funeral Chapel in East Prairie. The Rev. Raymond Hannah will officiate, with burial in Dogwood Cemetery near East Prairie. Coffer, 46, died Monday, Jan. 11, 1993...

MOUNDS, Ill. -- Marie K. Goins, 99, of Mounds, died Monday, Jan. 11, 1993, at Massac Memorial Hospital in Metropolis. She was born Dec. 31, 1893, in Olmsted, daughter of Sam and Stella Harman Chittick. She married James F. Goins, who died in 1941. Goins was a member of First United Methodist Church in Mounds...

SIKESTON -- R.T. Sharp, 83, Sikeston Route 1, died Monday, Jan. 11, 1993, at his home. He was born June 3, 1909, in Monroe City, son of Vautis Thomas and Jesse Wilmena Maddox Sharp. He married the former Virginia Lane Cox. Sharp was associated in farm machinery sales and management most of his life, and was currently employed by DeWitt Auction Co. here. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II...

CHAFFEE -- Ottis Walter Evans Sr., 72, of Chaffee, died Tuesday, Jan. 12, 1993, at Cape Girardeau Nursing Center. He was born Dec. 5, 1920, at Chaffee, son of William and Nettie Arnold Evans. He and Norma Lee Jones were married Dec. 8, 1941. Evans was a machine operator 31 years with National Lead Co. in St. Louis, retiring in 1978. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He was a member of Chaffee VFW Post 3127...

GRASSY -- Paul L. Eaker, 88, of Grassy, died Tuesday, Jan. 12, 1993, at John J. Pershing VA Medical Center in Poplar Bluff. He was born Sept. 5, 1905, at Zalma, son of Caleb and Pernecie Myers Eaker. He and Pearl Acup were married July 6, 1933. She died July 28, 1986...

OAK RIDGE -- Curtis Lee Roberts, 60, Oak Ridge Route 1, died Monday, Jan. 11, 1993, at his home. He was born June 30, 1932, at Oak Ridge, son of Lynn and Artie Barks Roberts. He married the former Margie Hahs Dec. 2, 1956, at Daisy. Roberts had farmed, and drove a bus for Oak Ridge Schools 35 years. He was a member of New Salem United Methodist Church at Daisy. He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War...

BENTON -- Albert Franklin Baldwin, 68, of Benton, died Tuesday, Jan. 12, 1993, at his home. He was born Jan. 28, 1924, at Charter Oak, son of Arzie and Bertie Barnett Baldwin Sr. He and Hazel June Tharp were married Dec. 1, 1946. She died April 26, 1978...

Alfred B. Schwab, 86, 306 Louis, died Tuesday, Jan. 12, 1993, at his home. He was born Dec. 24, 1906, at Dutchtown, son of John and Minna Beathe Schwab. He and Anna Ford were married Feb. 3, 1947, in Cape Girardeau. Schwab was a self-employed carpenter. He was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church and its Men's Club, VFW, and Carpenters Local. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II...

Son to Mr. and Mrs. Chris Ruch, Jackson Route 2, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 9 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 29, 1992. Name, Ethan Matthew. Weight, 7 pounds 8 ounces. First child. Mrs. Ruch is the former Vickie Macke, daughter of Charlotte Edmonds and Victory Macke of Jackson. She is a medical assistant at Family Practice. Ruch is warehouse manager at Major Brands, and is the son of Pat Ruch and Larry Ruch of Jackson...

Esther Irene Reed, 93, Cape Girardeau Nursing Center, died there Tuesday, Jan. 12, 1993. She was born June 12, 1899, at Jackson, daughter of Ernest and Rosa Lee Whittaker Wagner. She first married Andward Owens, who preceded her in death. She later married Aquilla Reed, who also preceded her in death...

JACKSON -- Victor F. Bock, 90, of Jackson, died Tuesday, Jan. 12, 1993, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Jan. 17, 1902, in St. Louis. Bock had worked at a soap manufacturing plant. He was a chemical warfare specialist with the U.S. Army during World War II...

The Cape SEMO Chapter of Parents Without Partners will hold an orientation for prospective members at 7 p.m. Jan. 21 at the Community Counseling Center. Parents who are divorced, widowed, legally separated or never married are encouraged to attend and learn more about PWP...

JACKSON -- The Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association will operate out of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce building. The association's Board of Directors Monday voted to accept the chamber's offer of free office space and support staff for the new industrial recruitment group...

A four-week Christian-based group dealing with self-exploration and self-esteem will be offered by the Day Spring Missionary Baptist Church beginning Jan. 21. The series of meetings will be held on four consecutive Thursday nights Jan. 21 through Feb. 11 from 7-8 p.m. For more information, call 334-1153...

The Missouri Humanities Council has awarded a $2,500 grant to Southeast Missouri State University to help fund the Cape Girardeau Bicentennial Lecture Series, which was initiated last fall. "The grant supports a monthly lecture series on important themes relating to the history of the community and the region," said Frank Nickell, director of Southeast's Center for Regional History...

Perhaps Mary Ziegler's students are a little more willing to learn from her these days than when she "started" many years ago. "I can remember as a little girl `making' my two younger brothers play school with me," she said, "and of course, I was always the teacher. As long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a teacher."...

JACKSON -- Warranty deeds issued at the office of Janet Robert, Cape Girardeau County recorder of deeds: Truman E. and Verda M. Moore to Lonnie R. and Susan K. Moore; Ernest Cathcart to Donald Gene Cathcart and Lena Marie Johnston; Donald Gene and Pauline Jane Cathcart to Donald Gene and Pauline Jane Cathcart...