Stories from Tuesday, March 21, 1995

When it comes to military training, the example set by more than 200 National Guard members from Southeast Missouri is a good one. Members of the 1140th Combat Engineer Battalion recently spent two weeks in Panama to help build schools, health clinics, roads and water wells...

Degrees were presented 477 undergraduate and 40 graduate students during fall commencement exercises at Southeast Missouri State University. Area students who graduated with honors or advanced degrees, and their hometowns: Advance Linda Gail Elfrink Payne, bachelor of science in education (early childhood); major, early childhood education; cum laude...

PERRYVILLE -- About 125 kindergarten through fourth-grade students at Perryville Elementary School learned Monday how to correctly use 911 in emergencies. Mary Bohnert, manager of the Perry County Ambulance Service and a member of the county's 911 advisory committee, also took the opportunity to ask the students to encourage their parents to vote "yes" April 4 for an Enhanced 911 System...

Dr. Henry Garon made the trek from New Orleans to Cape Girardeau to weigh soap bubbles, roll BB-gun pellets on a cardboard tray and turn straws into makeshift scales. Garon, who makes his living as a physics professor at Loyola University in New Orleans, wasn't testing comic material on a new audience in a moonlighting role...

OAK RIDGE -- Voters in Oak Ridge School District will be asked to approve construction of a new high school. The proposed 12,000-square-foot building can be built without a tax increase. Taxpayers in the school district are paying 60 cents per $100 assessed valuation to pay off a 1984 school addition. The 1984 issue will be paid off in 1997...

The first day of spring brought the best of spring-like weather Monday with the high temperature holding steady at around 75. However, Scott Truett, forecaster for the National Weather Service in St. Louis, said the next several days likely will bring the kind of temperature fluctuation most associate with the change of seasons...

Cape Girardeau Evening Toastmasters Club 3804 will meet Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the parlor of First Presbyterian Church, 235 Broadway. Person interested in learning how to speak better before a group and gain confidence in doing so are welcome to attend and join Toastmasters...

Three former Teen Challenge students whose lives went from despair to renewed hope will relate their stories at the 10th annual Teen Challenge banquet April 7 at 7 p.m. at the Show Me Center. Music will be provided by the New Creations Choir under the direction of Phil Breithaupt...

Having recently spent hours pouring over quite literally hundreds of pages and thousands of entries at the office of the Missouri Ethics Commission, I have regretfully reached the conclusion there is probably nothing that can to done to guarantee the public of the good conduct of its elected officials. I reach the decision with considerable anguish, but more importantly, with even greater fear...

What good news it was to hear that the donated organs of a 13-year-old Cape Girardeau boy had helped to save the lives of five others following the lad's untimely death from bacterial meningitis last week. The parents of Michael Sweet will always cherish the memory that out of something so horrible came so much good...

Cape Girardeau City Manager J. Ronald Fischer will retire this summer, ending three decades of service in city and county government. Fischer, who will turn 62 on July 27, made the announcement at the end of Monday night's City Council meeting. Fischer has headed the city for the past seven years. He was selected as city manager in January 1988 and began his duties on Feb. 15, 1988...

The Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents Monday approved a scaled-back tuition hike for the 1995-96 academic year. The action came after regents Don Dickerson of Cape Girardeau and Pat Washington of St. Louis expressed concern that ever-increasing hikes in student fees are pricing some students out of a college education...

Wrong page Because of a production mixup, the wrong opinion page was published in Monday's edition of the Southeast Missourian. The opinion page that was published Monday was a repeat of the Feb. 27 page. The Southeast Missourian regrets the error. Incorrect figures...

Becca's into "B" in a big way. There are 26 letters in the alphabet, but our 3-year-old daughter has eyes for only one these days. She notices "B" everywhere, whether it's on a restaurant sign or a word on the television screen. If you read her a book, she proudly points out every "B."...

Ralston Purina Company announced last weekend that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of Golden Cat Corporation, the leading manufacturer and marketer of branded cat box filler in the U.S. and Canada. The transaction is subject to normal government review. Closing is expected in mid-to-late April. Terms were not discussed...

I WOULD just like to say a big thank you to whoever was in charge of bringing "Jesus Christ Superstar" to the Show Me Center. The acting was great, the music was great, the story of course was wonderful. It was just a very moving experience and on the quality of a Broadway play. Thank you again, and how about getting "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat" next?...

The Ozark Harmony Boys of Marquand set the mood for the second night of the Heartland For Christ Crusade at Cape Girardeau's Show Me Center on Monday with three lively gospel songs. Pastor Robert Wright of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Cape Girardeau, who read the opening Bible verse, said it was "pretty exciting" to have so many churches, more than 50, joined together in a common purpose...

JACKSON -- Hours of research by city staff paid off in big dividends for Oak Hill Road residents. Thanks to a 1987 advertisement in the Cash-Book Journal and an article in the Southeast Missourian, the residents will pay only half the cost of paving their road...

The Cape Girardeau City Council took only a few minutes Monday night to approve a measure regulating adult businesses. The council acted quickly at the start of the meeting at City Hall, giving unanimous approval to first reading of the ordinance. Final approval is expected to come at the next meeting, ending weeks of discussion...

ANNA, Ill. -- Louise W. Tranbarger, 72, of Anna, died Sunday, March 19, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born May 20, 1922, in Alexander County, daughter of William Franklin and Viola Sims Darnell. She and Donald Tranbarger were married Feb. 7, 1947, in Paragould, Ark...

Cape Girardeau County Alva Allen Hall, 31, and Cora Joyce Glasscock, 22; Robert Raymond Hoffman, 32, and Sherrie Ann Caldwell, 27; Virgil J. Freeman, 35, and Mary Katherine Oberle, 36. Craig Alan Carmichael, 25, and Paula Jean Burnette, 23; Richard Ray Lincoln, 31, and Wendy Lynn Nesslein, 33; Kevin Wayne Skaggs, 23, and Amy Colleen Sheehan, 23...

Daughter to Juanita Holderbaugh of Cape Girardeau, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 1:32 p.m. Tuesday, March 14, 1995. Name, Victoria Marie. Weight, 8 pounds 3 ounces. First child. Miss Holderbaugh is the daughter of Irvin E. Holderbaugh and Deloris A. Holderbaugh of Cape Girardeau. She is a certified nurse assistant at the Lutheran Home...

DEXTER -- Funeral service for Treva M. Culver of Dexter will be held at 10:30 a.m. today at Watkins and Sons Funeral Chapel in Dexter, with the Rev. Vaughn Wright officiating. Burial will be in Dexter Cemetery. Culver, 77, died Saturday, March 18, 1995, at her home...

MATTHEWS -- Dorothy M. Reeves, 86, of Matthews, died Sunday, March 19, 1995, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. She was born Aug. 12, 1908, in Wayne County, Tenn., daughter of Tom and Roxie Reaves Moore. She and Thomas W. Reeves were married in 1925. He died in 1968...

CHARLESTON -- Funeral service for Betty J. Weems, Charleston Route 3, will be held at 2 p.m. today at Shelby Funeral Chapel in East Prairie. The Revs. Orval McKinney and Mike Cartwright will officiate, with burial in Dogwood Cemetery near East Prairie...

Ed Carr, 73, 4379 State Highway 74, died Sunday, March 19, 1995, at his home. He was born Nov. 20, 1921, in Vaiden, Miss., son of Wilbert and Fannie Kennel Carr. He and Bertha Burleson Grimes were married Oct. 17, 1986, in Cape Girardeau. Carr was a self-employed scrap metal broker. He had also been a truck driver with Nip Kelley, and was pastor of New Home Baptist Church in Oran...

JACKSON -- Marie Ella Dannenmueller, 90, of Jackson Manor, died there Monday, March 20, 1995. She was born April 10, 1904, in Dutchtown, daughter of Martin and Louise Kaufman Greaser. She and George A. Dannenmueller were married April 8, 1926, in Cape Girardeau. He died May 10, 1965...

DONGOLA, Ill. -- Ola A. Peterson, 69, Dongola Route 2, died Sunday, March 19, 1995, at her home. She was born Oct. 21, 1925, in Jonesboro, daughter of Charles and Laura Fox Housman. She and Robert E. "Bob" Peterson were married Dec. 5, 1948, in Marion...

PERRYVILLE -- Bessie M. Seabaugh, 88, of Perryville, died Sunday, March 19, 1995, at Perry County Nursing Home. She was born March 26, 1906, at Sedgewickville, daughter of Joseph M. and Sarah Moore Propst. She and Lester D. Seabaugh were married March 8, 1923. He died Oct. 5, 1962...

PERRYVILLE -- Funeral service for Zita Bachman of Perryville will be held at 2 p.m. today at Young and Sons Funeral Home. The Rev. Donald Loesch will officiate, with burial in Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home from 6:30 a.m. to service time...

Clarence T. Seabaugh, 79, 4287 State Highway W, died Monday, March 20, 1995, at his home. He was born Dec. 1, 1915, at Daisy, son of Thomas and Avis Drum Seabaugh. He and Lydia Anna Schlegel were married Aug. 18, 1941. Seabaugh owned and operated Seabaugh Wholesale snack food business from 1956-84. He was a mechanic when he was a young man...

Funeral service for Calvin Young of Stockton, Calif., was held Monday in Stockton. Young, 70, died Thursday, March 16, 1995, in a Stockton hospital. He was hit by a car while walking earlier that day. Young was born March 15, 1925, in Cape Girardeau, son of Cappy and Connie Strong Young. He and his wife Evelyn were married in 1945...

CHARLESTON -- Lucille Wilson, 69, of Charleston, died Saturday, March 18, 1995, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. She was born July 31, 1925, in the state of Mississippi. Wilson was a member of Bethlehem Baptist Church and served on the Usher Board...

Samuel Louis Stephens, 27, of St. Louis, died Sunday, March 19, 1995, at St. Louis University Hospital, following a shooting incident. He was born May 2, 1967, at Fredericktown, son of Michael P. and Martha Kinder Stephens. He and Sara Davant were married July 8, 1989, in Port Lavaca, Texas...

Reba "Honey" Harmon, of Cape Girardeau died at Monday, March 20, 1995, at the Lutheran Home. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at Ford and Sons Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau.

Harry Lee LaFont, 86, 536 Silver Springs Road, died Monday, March 20, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. He was born Sept. 2, 1908, in Portageville, son of Samuel Lee and Lula Dillinger LaFont. He and the former Virginia Harris were married in Portageville...

Brian Heuring has been chosen to attend the 61st annual Sophomore Pilgrimage in Jefferson City April 11. He is sponsored by the Quest Club, MFWC/GFWC, of Cape Girardeau. He is a student at Kelly High School and is active in FFA, Beta Club, varsity basketball and 4-H Club. He has been a class officer and is president of the student council. He is active in his church youth group...

St. Mary Cathedral School placed first in the chapter level of the 12th annual Mathcounts competition. Central Junior High finished second and St. Vincent de Paul third. All three teams advanced to state competition Saturday in Columbia. In the individual competition, St. ...

A graduate from Kelly High School in Benton has been decorated with the Army's Commendation Medal. Sgt. Joseph E. Crenshaw received the honor for outstanding achievement-meritorious service in the performance of his duties. Crenshaw, a field artillery system mechanic, is the son of Penny M. Griggs of Charleston and Richard V. Crenshaw of Bertrand...

Carrie Beth Smith of Cape Girardeau was recently accepted into the Oxbridge honors program at William Jewell College in Liberty. Oxbridge is an honors program that selects only 10 to 30 outstanding students a year. The small group of students admitted prepare for senior comprehensive examinations in the major field by students in individual or small-group tutorials and by independent reading and research...

Chad Jansen will represent Oran High School at the Hugh O'Brian Youth Foundation Leadership Seminar this spring. HOBY's purpose is to bring together a select group of high-school sophomores who have demonstrated leadership so that they can interact with leaders in business, government, education and other professions...

Preschool screenings for children 1 through 4 are being offered by the Parents As Teachers program in the Chaffee, Delta, Kelly, Kelso and Scott City school districts. It is not necessary to be enrolled in PAT to participate. Dates and places are: April 5, First Baptist Church in Chaffee; April 7, Kelly Elementary School; and April 10, Scott City Elementary School...

Risco High School with 15 winning entries won the Sweepstakes Award for the second consecutive year at the History Day District Contest Saturday at Southeast Missouri State University. About 500 students participated. The winners in the senior division, grades 9 to 12, from first through third places were:...

Kelly-Benton FFA Chapter recently put on its annual Food for America program. FFA members were encouraged to drive tractors to school. Approximately 12 members did so. Chapter officers presented a program to Kelly elementary students. Children were shown the cab of a tractor. Exhibits consisting of crops, seeds and animals were also on display...

The Central Junior High Academic team received a certificate of academic excellence for a first-place finish in the state Questions Unlimited Electronic Scholastic Tournament recently. The 15-member team amassed 1,773 points to put them above the mean score of 1,433 by answering 182 of 200 questions correctly. The team placed second in the region and fifth nationally...

People interested in improving their skills in reading, math and language are encouraged to take part in the Adult Learning Center's orientation and diagnostic testing session Friday at 8 a.m. Those at least 16 and not enrolled in a secondary school may enroll. Students may study for the GED test or to improve basic skills for work-related needs...

The City of Roses Charter Chapter of the American Business Women's Association has extended to April 15 the deadline for accepting applications for a $500 scholarship for the fall semester. Students applying for scholarships must include in their application a biographical statement. The application must be filled in its entirety and students must include a copy of their current transcript and maintain a grade-point average of 2.5...

Elizabeth Kunz will attend the Sophomore Pilgrimage in Jefferson City April 10-11 under sponsorship of the Tuesday, Club of the General Federation of Women's Clubs of Missouri. Purpose of the pilgrimage is to promote citizenship and provide a view of state government...

Cape Christian School received awards from the Speech and Word Tournament in St. Louis recently. Students receiving awards were: Merideth Snow and Jenna Leet, both second in poetry; Lucas Presson, second in scripture; Nathan Snow and Jared Schippers, both third in poetry; Ashley Freeman, second in dramatic prose; Rachel McCormick, Amy Wittle and Tammny Henson, all third in scripture; and Jonathan Smart, third in dramatic prose...

When Alma Schrader sixth-grade teacher Rosa Dunn talks about her profession, her answers are filled with enthusiasm. "What better job could a person have than teaching?" she asks. Dunn said that every day is a new experience and challenge. Every day she is in control of organizing and creating the day's activities...

Head Start students Dontay King, left, and Tyler Figliolo looked at books and tapes offered by the Cape Girardeau Public Library. Library officials hope children who participate in Story Hours find the library inviting later in life. The Cape Girardeau Public Library offers Story Hours for 3- to 5-year-olds until April 5. After that, the program will be on hold until mid June...