Stories from Tuesday, May 25, 1993

To the editor: The election in Cape Girardeau on riverboat gambling is now upon us: June 8. As was anticipated, those who want to bring this to Cape have geared up an aggressive, expensive campaign, financed greatly by outside gambling concerns who know legalized gambling will lift them big dollars of profit from our community...

APPLE CREEK -- A Buchheit family reunion will be held June 6 on the grounds of St. Joseph Church at Apple Creek. Each family is to bring a basket lunch, drinks, table service and lawn chairs. Families are urged to bring photos and any information to share with others...

Two Cape Girardeau Central High School students have been named winners of Merit Scholarships funded by colleges and universities. Alyssa C. Browning received a scholarship to DePauw University and Carol Robinson received a scholarship to Northeast Missouri State University...

Music students from Cape Girardeau Central High School earned top ratings at the Missouri State High School Music Festival recently. Students competed in solo events and small ensemble events in both vocal and instrumental area. Vocal soloists Jenny Broos, Jennifer Kafka, Chris Redfearn and George Aplin earned a I rating. Soloists Sarah Deimund, Alison Nall, and Alexis Anthony earned II ratings...

John Blue is a retired editor of the Southeast Missourian newspaper, and remains active in civic affairs. Riverboat gambling, no matter in what light its promoters and proponents choose to cast it, is nothing but a snare and a delusion. It snares the unwary, it preys on those least able to afford it, it deludes the ones it proposes to help...

Remember back in 1982, when we Missourians voted on something called Proposition C,? Kind of hazy on it? Time for a refresher. In the early 1980s, it was widely publicized that Missouri was heading for statewide property tax reassessment. In due course (1985) this reassessment did occur, with valuations going skyward in most, if not all, cases...

Northeast Missouri State University wants a new, more distinctive name. Officials at Northeast believe the name, which has served the school for decades, breeds confusion and discounts the changed role of the Kirksville institution. While doubting any wide~spread confusion or geographical calamity has been touched off by Northeast's longstanding name, we acknowledge the school's claim, because of its revamped mission, to update its nomenclature...

Recent national events make us yearn for the days when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. It's not that such a desire beckons for simpler, more innocent times, though it occasionally does. It's not that the 1950s were watershed years in terms of culture, government or human relations, though in some ways they were. And it's not that Ike ever vied for a spot on Mt. Rushmore, though in some ways he was an excellent president...

To the editor: For a long time now, the attendant benefits of gambling enterprises are purported to be many and substantial. At the same time, negative spin-offs are down-played as being non-existent or minimal. The projected economic gains seem to rule the day...

Missouri kindergarten students may be hitting the books a little longer next year if local school districts opt to extend classes all day. The $315 million tax-and-reform package the legislature passed a week ago includes funding, phased in over four years, for full-day kindergartens in all districts that want to offer them...

At least in one sense, opponents of riverboat gaming in Cape Girardeau are waging a losing venture in campaign yard signs. Melvin Gateley, a city councilman and member of Citizens Against Riverboat Gambling, estimated that 275-300 of the 350 yard signs the group printed have disappeared...

Republican State Auditor Margaret Kelly took aim at Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan and the Democratic-controlled legislature Monday, charging that taxpayers are not being told the truth about whether a tax increase for education could trigger the refund provision of the Hancock Amendment...

When it comes to cable television rates, the picture remains a fuzzy one. City and cable officials say it's uncertain just what impact new federal regulations will have on the setting of cable TV rates. "We are still putting the pencil to it to figure out what the devil is going on," said Roger Harms, general manager of TCI Cablevision of Missouri Inc...

If Cape Girardeau voters approve riverboat gambling June 8, city officials will have to decide the best use of local revenue from riverboat proceeds. Councilman Al Spradling III, whose current term on the council expires in 1996, said two projects would top his list...

GORDONVILLE - The Gordonville Volunteer Fire Department will hold a public informational meeting tonight to explain details of the proposed Gordonville Fire District that would serve Gordonville and the 120-square mile rural area now served by the fire department...

ZALMA -- When Barbara Lemons of Zalma won a dream vacation to the Bahamas two years ago, she never dreamed it would land her a spot on "Wheel of Fortune." But Lemons spins the wheel on tonight's program. She's a winner, earning $8,600 and a trip to New England for cash and prizes totalling $13,020...

MARBLE HILL -- A 10-year-old Marble Hill boy drowned Sunday afternoon after the boat he and two other boys were fishing from capsized in a pond. Bollinger County Coroner Gene Ward said Dodge Christopher Webb, 10, of Marble Hill fell into the small pond at about 3:45 p.m. Sunday...

Southeast Missouri State University has netted its biggest class of National Merit scholars ever. Thirty-eight students from 14 states have accepted National Merit scholarships to attend the university for the 1993-94 academic year. The students are coming from Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Virginia, Montana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kentucky and Arkansas...

Cape Girardeau police, emergency medical personnel and firefighters were kept busy Monday with two injury accidents and at least five non-injury accidents inside the city limits. At about 8:30 a.m., police and paramedics were summoned to the intersection of Perryville Road and Sherwood Drive, where a truck had broadsided a car that pulled out in front of it...

A Missouri Highway and Transportation Department task force is making plans for the Oct. 1, 1996, conversion to the metric system. That's when most federal agencies will require businesses and industries that deal with the federal government to use the metric system...

Drury Inn's Cape Girardeau manager, Pete Poe, will roll up his sleeves and serve breakfast to youngsters at the Cape Girardeau Head Start Center Wednesday. Drury Inn will make a similar cash contribution to cover one day's breakfast costs at more than 30 Head Start programs in cities where they have hotels. Company officials estimate the total value of the contribution at over $20,000...

Farmers and businesses aren't the only ones affected by the wet spring weather this year.20Work on several major street improvements and other capital projects in Cape Girardeau and Jackson have been delayed because of rainy weather the past 45 days...

MARBLE HILL -- Funeral service for Dodge Christopher Webb of Marble Hill will be held at 2 p.m. today at Liley Funeral Chapel here. The Revs. Diana Cook and Charley Hovis will officiate, with burial in Lessley Cemetery near Marble Hill. Friends may call at the funeral home after 9 a.m. today...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Todd Alan Garner, 23, of East Prairie, died Friday, May 21, 1993, in Ft. Worth, Texas, from injuries received in a truck accident. He was born Oct. 12, 1969, in Flint, Mich., son of Donald Ross and Willene McCloud Garner. He was employed by Joe True Trucking of East Prairie...

SCOTT CITY -- Louis Odell Miller, 43, of Scott City, died Monday, May 24, 1993, at St. Anthony's Hospital in Arnold, Mo. The Amick-Burnett Funeral Home in Scott City is in charge of funeral arrangements, which are incomplete at this time.

ADVANCE -- Nettie Croy of Oxford, Ohio, formerly of Advance, died Monday, May 24, 1993, in Oxford. She was born June 26, 1918, at Arab, daughter of Edgar and Ella Stephens Van Matre. She and Evan Croy were married July 11, 1937, in Advance. Croy was a former member of Advance First Baptist Church, and had taught Sunday School. After moving to Ohio, she helped establish and became a member of a Southern Baptist church in Oxford. She was a member of Order of Eastern Star...

PATTON, Mo. Everett O. Yount, 76, of Cape Girardeau, formerly of Patton, Mo., died Monday, May 24, 1993, at the family home. He was born March 13, 1917, at Yount, Mo., son of Albert and Myrtle Conrad Yount. He was married to Olive Barber, Feb. 11, 1939...

SCOPUS -- In the obituary Monday of Lester Troy Chostner of Winston-Salem, N.C., the name of a surviving sister was omitted. She is Mildred Terrelle of Houston, Texas. Chostner, 83, died Sunday, May 23, 1993, at the home of a daughter in Winston-Salem...

SIKESTON -- James E. Walters, 69, of Sikeston, died Sunday, May 23, 1993, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. He was born April 21, 1924, at East Prairie, son of T.H. and Julia Walters. He and the former Julia Riggs were married in 1945. Walters was retired from the U.S. Navy...

SIKESTON -- Graveside service for Margaret Hickman, Sikeston Route 1, will be held at 11 a.m. today at Essex Cemetery in Essex. The Rev. Dwayne Coleman will officiate. There is no visitation. Amick-Burnett Funeral Home at Sikeston is in charge of arrangements...

CAMPBELLSon to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Campbell III of O'Fallon, St. Luke's Hospital in Chesterfield, 3:58 a.m. Thursday, May 20, 1993. Name, Blake Evan. Weight, 8 pounds 3 ounces. Second son. Mrs. Campbell is the former Leigh Ann Wiggins, daughter of Jerome and Charlotte Wiggins of Winchester. ...

CHARLESTON -- Nancy Elizabeth Short, 43, of Charleston, died Monday, May 24, 1993, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. She was born Aug. 14, 1949, in Cairo, Ill., daughter of Earl M. and Lucille Grider DeLine. She and Henry W. Short Sr. were married in November 1975...

CHARLESTON -- Sam Murphy, 73, of Charleston, died Monday, May 24, 1993, at Fountainbleau Lodge in Cape Girardeau. He was born April 15, 1920, at Wyatt, son of Thomas Jefferson and Lula Mae Osborn Murphy. He and Addie Mae Hodges were married Dec. 1, 1945...

SIKESTON -- William A. "Bill" Portlock, 66, of Dalhart, Texas and formerly of Sikeston died Saturday, May 22, 1993, at the Coronada Nursing Home in Abilene, Texas. He was born July 9, 1926, at Sikeston, the son of Walter and Gladys Portlock. He attended schools in Sikeston and Wilmington, Del., before moving to Dalhart...

JACKSON -- Paul R. DuSablon, 77, of Route 4, Jackson died Sunday, May 23, 1993, at the Jackson Manor Nursing Home. He was born Feb. 6, 1916, at Winnipeg, Canada, the son of James and Corinne Boiteau DuSablon. On Sept. 3, 1939, he married Virginia Ehlers at Maynard, Iowa. She survives of the home...

DELTA -- Tula Waddle, 87, of Delta, died May 24, 1993, at St. Francis Medical Center. Arrangements are incomplete at the Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Chaffee.