Stories from Thursday, December 22, 1994

Efforts to create a better learning environment at Cape Girardeau Central High School by, among other things, cracking down on disciplinary problems resulted in NAACP-organized picketing in front of the school Wednesday. Why? Because some members of the NAACP and some parents of black students at Central High believe the stiffer disciplinary actions have been racially unfair. The picketers also focused attention on minority hiring by the school district...

To the editor: The evening of Dec. 7 will be one that the Jackson Fire Department will remember for a long time to come. A fire destroyed the McDonald's Restaurant at 2220 E. Jackson Blvd. Controlling an emergency of this magnitude required that many different agencies, both public and private, be brought together for the common goal of extinguishing the fire...

Disdaining virtually every practice bearing the imprint of the British crown, our Colonial founders chose to reject the parliamentary system of governance that had been in effect in their former country, choosing instead a system that was peculiarly American. ...

Ghosts of Cape Girardeau's musical past, present and future will play Christmas songs at Broussard's Friday to help abused and neglected children. The 8 p.m. event is the second annual Cape Girardeau Musicians Christmas Hoot, which this year will benefit the Cottonwood Residential Treatment Center in Cape Girardeau...

When Margaret Miller was a little girl growing up in Chicago, dolls were a luxury her family scarcely could afford. Now that she's 82 she's surrounded by them. Depending on the time of year, up to 200 dolls might line the walls of the basement where she and her 50-year-old Singer sewing machine turn cloth and thread into familiar characters from storybooks...

She has her dog, Nicki, and enough friends to keep from feeling lonely during the holidays. After a visit from Cape Girardeau County Health nurse Vicky McDowell Wednesday, the elderly woman felt even more connected to the community. She received a stuffed bear and enough Christmas gifts to crowd a corner of a living room that includes pictures of past presidents and Jesus...

St. Louis accountant C. Michael Dambach has been named chairman of the Southeast Missouri University Foundation Board. Dambach is a tax partner in the financial services practice of KPMG Peat Marwick LLP. Dambach, who will serve a two-year term, is the sixth chair in the board's history. He replaces Robert Dickemper, whose term has expired...

About 40 percent of Cape Girardeau Central High School's black students have been disciplined this year, while about 10 percent of the school's white students have been punished. Some 10 to 20 people participated in a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People protest at the high school Wednesday...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Although both sides made concessions Wednesday, talks broke off late Wednesday night without a settlement to the Cairo teachers strike that started more than a month ago. With teachers in one office and school board members in another, proposals and counter-proposals were dispatched back and forth late into the night Wednesday...

Dec. 22, 1994 Christmas letter 1994 Dear friends, I've always deplored as impersonal and lazy these one-size-fits-all Christmas messages from our family to yours. Until this year. Be assured, the quality of our relationship has not deteriorated. Nor I have become a complete slug. It's the family part that has changed...

Joe McLaughlin of Cape Girardeau has been the district manager for almost two years of the Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America's Station 309 near Marble Hill. This 16-cylinder engine, capable of 7,250 horsepower, is the workhorse of the Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America compressor station near Marble Hill...

JACKSON -- Magdalene Doering Fiedler, 80, of Jackson, died Wednesday, Dec. 21, 1994, at Heartland Nursing Care Center in Cape Girardeau. Friends may call at McCombs Funeral Home from 4-8 p.m. Friday. Funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Christ Lutheran Church in Gordonville...

Daughter to Gregg and Ann Hopkins of St. Louis, St. John's Mercy Hospital there, 11:40 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25, 1994. Name, Erin Elisabeth. Weight, 7 pounds 12 ounces. Second daughter. Mrs. Hopkins is the former Ann Morgan, daughter of Jan Doneff of Florissant, and the late Mr. Morgan. She is an investment broker with Mark Twain Brokerage of Frontenac. Hopkins is owner of Vintage Amp Restoration of St. Louis. He is the son of Charles and Dixie Hopkins of Marble Hill...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Florence R. Bucher, 98, of Cairo, died Wednesday, Dec. 21, 1994, at her home. She was born Sept. 10, 1896, daughter of Lawrence E. and Mary McNulty Barry. She and Joseph Bucher were married in 1918. He died in 1980. Bucher was a member of St. Patrick's Catholic Church...

The Chinese measure time by the year -- Year of the Dragon, the Lion, the Dog. In our country, time goes so fast we settle for decades -- the Terrible Twenties, Depression Thirties...the rebellious Sixties, the extravagant Eighties. How to define the Nineties is hardly feasible at the half-way mark, but our vote goes to the Child. To the realization and renewed focus on children as the world's most valuable asset...

Hello "Sweet Georgia Brown," goodbye "Sweet Lou" Dunbar. The Harlem Globetrotters' famous theme song will ring through the Show Me Center at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 26 when the basketball magicians return to Cape Girardeau. The 1995 "Salutes the Family" tour is a farewell tribute to Dunbar, the so-called "clown prince of basketball."...

"I want to gather all the artists who have stuffed their art in a closet," says Tammy-Jo Auston, the self-described "visionist" and entrepreneur who has founded an art marketing company called Wing Creations. "We have gathered up a family of artists," Auston says...