Stories from Friday, December 23, 1994

WOLF LAKE, Ill. -- Seventh-grader Dana Phillips hung around after final exams Thursday to watch a volleyball tournament and see who would win use of a new car or stereo equipment. She never thought her name would be drawn to win the semester-long attendance contest at Shawnee High School...

Tragedy haunted this B-24 Liberator bomber crew that flew out of Norwich, England, in late 1944 and early 1945. On the plane's first combat mission, the plane lost two engines, and Sgt. Denver Clyde Loberg was killed in a bizarre accident when he was dropped from the bomb bay. A month later the entire crew, including Loberg's replacement, perished when the plane went down in flames over Germany. Loberg is kneeling second from right...

Cape Girardeau has a travel agency for every 4,000 residents. That's as many travel agencies as cities twice its size. For example, Columbia, a town of 70,000, has the same number of travel agencies as Cape Girardeau: nine. At first glance it appears the market is flooded. But agencies are finding their niches, each agency appeals to customers in different ways by providing special services...

Area travel agents are booking more pleasure trips this holiday season than necessity trips. Agents said lower air fares and a boost in the economy have likely triggered such a trend. Domestic travel is popular, Designing Travel Agent Peggy McLain said...

Triumph. Fear. Joy. Agony. Death. Birth. Love. Hardship. These stand above the mundane topics generated by family get-togethers when your elders reminisce about the there-and-then in hopes that those in the here-and-now will find connections and meaning in their roots...

SCOTT CITY -- Only some minor wording changes remain to be finalized in an option to place a gambling boat in the Diversion Channel at the northern city limits of Scott City. Larry Dowdy of Cape Girardeau, executive vice president of the Little River Drainage District, said his board of directors essentially agreed to a contract this week with Lady Luck Gaming Corp. of Las Vegas...

Sixth-grader Ashley DePree wonders what World War II soldiers wore, what they ate and what happened to them when they returned home. DePree will get living history lessons next semester at the Cape Girardeau Veterans Home through a $2,000 grant she and classmates at May Greene Elementary School wrote and won. The students wrote a proposal, saying what they would do with the grant...

Long Distance Discount Inc. has moved its telephone switching network operations to its new building at 24 South Minnesota. "LDD employees have worked for a year in preparations for this relocation," said Paula Burke, LDD public relations director. "The overall switch cut-over went very smooth."...

To the area's needy, Fred Kelley might as well be Santa Claus. His Craftsman Independent Union distributed about 450 food baskets and several boxes of toys to needy area residents Thursday. Kelley grew up in Smelterville, an area along the southern edge of Cape Girardeau. He saw poverty up close...

Scott County Land Transfers Warranty Deeds Mildred Henry to Winfield H. and Emily N. Featherston; Angie Mae Lawless to Marvin and Esther Lawless; Jerry B. and Connie Dock, et al. to Frederick W. Dock; Frederick W. and Yvonne Dock to Paul E. and Pauline K. Richardson; Robert B. Eaton to Jason Grubbs and Lori Lett, joint tenants with right of survivorship; Glen and Robbie Christene Godwin to Glen and Robbie Christene Godwin, Trustees of the Godwin Revocable Living Trust...

SIKESTON -- Larry Gene Gady, 54, of Sikeston died Thursday, Dec. 22, 1994, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. He was born June 9, 1940, in Sikeston to Cordie and Evelyn Ryan Raines. Gady married Immogene Hayden on Nov. 29, 1958, in Sikeston. She survives...

Son to Steven and Michelle Huggins of Jackson, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 8:52 p.m. Friday, Dec. 16, 1994. Name, Kaleb Emery. Weight, 8 pounds 8 ounces. First child. Mrs. Huggins is the former Michelle Pool, daughter of Judy Reed of Eldorado, Ill., and Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Pool of Metropolis, Ill. She is a registered nurse at St. Francis Medical Center. Huggins is a technician with Hacker Plumbing and Heating. He is the son of Nina Huggins of Pinckneyville, Ill., and the late Emery Huggins...

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Betty May Jane Bass, 64, of Carbondale, formerly of Tamms, died Thursday, Dec. 22, 1994, at her home. Bass was born May 30, 1930, in Thebes, Ill., to Joseph Franklin Bigham and Dorothy Eugena Lonord Bigham. Bass was a member of the Rockhill Baptist Church of Carbondale and a former member of the United Pentecostal Church in Karnak...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Funeral service for Asberry Garland of East Prairie will be held at 2 p.m. today at Shelby Funeral Chapel. The Rev. Carroll Gibbons will officiate, with burial in East Prairie Memorial Park Cemetery. Garland, 83, died Wednesday, Dec. 21, 1994, at his home...

ADVANCE -- John Newton Parks, 94, of Advance, died Wednesday, Dec. 21, 1994, at Advance Nursing Center. He was born Oct. 12, 1900, in Pontotoc, Miss., son of Tom and Ida Parks. He and Ruth Cooper were married Nov. 13, 1921. Formerly of Vanduser, Parks was a member of the Church of God there...

MARBLE HILL -- John William Troxell, 88, of Marble Hill, died Wednesday, Dec. 21, 1994, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born July 15, 1906, in Pilot Knob, son of James and Bertha Jones Troxell. Survivors include a son, Calvin Troxell of Marble Hill; two sisters, Irene Janick and Marie Dodson of Belleville, Ill., and two granddaughters...

GORDONVILLE -- Funeral service for Magdalene E. Doering Fiedler of Gordonville will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Christ Lutheran Church, with the Rev. D. Lee Cullen Jr. officiating. Burial will be in the church cemetery. Friends may call at McCombs Funeral Home in Jackson from 4-8 p.m. today, and at the church after 10 a.m. Saturday...

Julie Marie Schwantes, 23, of Cape Girardeau, died Wednesday, Dec. 21, 1994, in an automobile accident near Steelville. She was born Sept. 29, 1971, in Sedalia, daughter of Carl and Melba Davis Miller. She and Steven D. Schwantes were married Dec. 6, 1990, in Cape Girardeau...

SIKESTON -- Gene Hipes, 66, of Mountain Home, Ark., died Wednesday, Dec. 21, 1994, at his home. He was born April 8, 1928, in Chaffee, son of Ira and Ella Morris Hipes. He and Mary Sue Boone were married Nov. 10, 1949. She died May 6, 1988. He later married Phyllis Witt Nov. 25, 1988...

Monday night the Cape Girardeau City Council refused to bring to a vote a proposed ordinance that would have given the mayor powers to remit fines and forfeitures and to grant reprieves and pardons for violations of city ordinances. The genesis of the ordinance arose as a result of information brought to my attention about two circumstances involving incarceration of people charged with shoplifting. ...

The following letter was sent to every member of the Cape Girardeau City Council prior to Monday night's meeting during which an ordinance was proposed to allow the mayor to pardon Municipal Court offenders. I am writing to encourage you to vote against the proposed city ordinance that would give the mayor the power to pardon someone prosecuted in city court. I believe the proposed law would create far worse problems that it purports to remedy...

The statistics are convincing: Efforts to impose stiffer penalties and to raise public awareness are reducing the number of traffic deaths related to drinking and driving. Many groups and organizations in both the public and private sectors have campaigned long and hard to reduce the number of motorists who get behind the wheel after drinking. ...

Another effort to promote safe driving is the "Show Me Safe and Sober Campaign" of the Missouri Division of Highway Safety. There are two goals: By 1997 the aim is to eliminate alcohol-related fatalities by under-age drivers in the state and to increase seat belt use by Missourians to 80 percent...