Stories from Sunday, May 7, 1995

The explosion in juvenile crime plaguing Missouri cries out for a reform of an antiquated state juvenile code that dates from the 1950s. An overhaul bill is a top priority for both Gov. Mel Carnahan and lawmakers in both houses of the General Assembly. ...

GORDONVILLE -- A 2-year-old boy who was struck by a vehicle backing out of a driveway Friday afternoon died a few hours later in a St. Louis hospital. Evan Lee Wyatt, son of Jeff and Linda Wyatt, was taken to St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau following the 3:25 p.m. Friday accident...

The general public was a no-show at Saturday's transportation meeting, leaving Cape Girardeau city officials to talk among themselves about how to fund street projects. City Manager J. Ronald Fischer, Assistant City Manager Doug Leslie and City Councilman Melvin Gateley showed up at the May Greene School Gymnasium Saturday morning...

Cape Girardeau Board of Education members got a crash course Saturday on the educational operation they lead. Six of seven board members attended the first of a three-phase orientation process to help them learn about Cape Girardeau's public schools...

Attorney General Jay Nixon visited Cape Girardeau recently and had high praise for the city's efforts to implement victims' rights programs. It is gratifying to know that the Cape Girardeau Police Department is in the forefront of efforts to redress this long-ignored area of the law...

Banners, balloons and Big Band sounds will highlight Senior Fun Fest '95 May 20 at the Show Me Center. The event is a regionwide salute to the elderly and will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. This year's celebration is built around the theme, "A Banner Day for Seniors...the Heart of Our Community."...

I first met Ruthie Boxdorfer last year when she began singing with me in the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church choir. She, too, sings alto, so we sit side by side. "What a cheerful, pleasant lady," I thought as we parted that first evening. Rehearsals continued week-to-week and our friendship grew. So did my appreciation of her perky personality...

The Southeast Missouri State University Alumni Association of Business Professionals and Southeast's Harrison College of Business will hold their third annual golf tournament May 26 at Bent Creek Golf Course. Registration and lunch is scheduled for noon, followed by a golf clinic beginning at 12:15 p.m. A shotgun start is slated for 1 p.m. An awards reception will be held following the tournament at the club house...

Designers & More, a consignment shop, officially opened for business April 1. The shop offers quality pre-owned namebrand and designer clothing for the entire family. Designers & More stocks infant through teen sizes for children and adult sizes through extra large...

James Smith of Jackson, top left, poses with other members of the Horsham St. Faith caravan crew. The other soldiers are, clockwise from lower left, Lou Freiberg, Jim Graham and Wes Huntress. James Smith and the other caravan crew members were responsible for guiding B-24 Liberator bombers like "Final Approach," shown here in a photo taken by Smith during his service at Horsham St. Faith...

In today's society, rural towns are rapidly dying as their young people migrate to the job opportunities and diverse social climate which exists in larger cities. The young person who remains in the rural town where he or she grew up is becoming more and more rare...

Vernon L. Kasten, president and co-founder of Ceramo Co. Inc. of Jackson, will be honored by the University of Missouri at Rolla during commencement ceremonies there May 13. Kasten, who holds bachelor's and master's degrees in ceramic engineering from the university, is among 19 Rolla alumni who will be awarded professional degrees in honor of their professional accomplishments...

Also during their Jefferson City visit, the Immaculate Conception eighth graders visited with State Rep. David Schwab. From left, front row, Rep. Schwab, Becky Winkler, Joshua Zoellner, Jennifer Brown, Sara Rhodes; second row, Cara Tibbs, Jennifer Schaaf, Jennifer Ellis, Brittney McDowell, James Miller, Chris Kohm; third row, chaperone Denise McDowell, teacher Kathy Nanney, Chrissi Glastetter, Mary Beth Niederkorn, Annie Stoverink, Matthew Schamburg, Jonathon Knaup...

The Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, or SCANS, is a Clinton administration initiative from the U.S. Department of Labor. Labor Secretary Robert Reich is enthusiastically pushing SCANS, which is a grandiose effort to shape nothing less than the work force and the society of the 21st century...

Even if America's highly cherished criminal justice system were systemically perfect, which it isn't, it would be difficult to achieve perfect equity for every defendant, since it's administered by humans capable of intentional or unintended prejudice. In these times, when high-profile cases merely add to the average citizen's skepticism over whether justice is truly blindfolded the exceptions to the system's Efficacies seem to be the rule rather than the exception...

Teachers will soon be handing out grades as the school year comes to a close. For Speaker Newt Gingrich's Contract With America, the grades would be straight A's for invention, strategy and implementation. Those are the marks for the first semester -- the first 100 days. We are now in the second semester and here's where the heavy lifting begins...

Missouri Secretary of State Bekki Cook was short and to the point Saturday. "I am the very last thing that stands between you and your diploma," she told the graduates at Southeast Missouri State University's spring commencement. Seven-hundred thirty undergraduates and graduate students received their diplomas in front of a packed house of about 7,000 parents, friends and relatives at the Show Me Center...

The SEMO-Tech Center for assistive technology will hold a Design-A-Logo contest that pays $50 to the winner. Assistive technology coordinator Joyce Horky said the contest is open to people who can dream up a design that will raise awareness of the center's mission...

MARBLE HILL -- Anna Loretta Robins, 83, of Marble Hill died Friday, May 5, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born Feb. 7, 1912, at Arbor, Mo., the daughter of Charley and Louise Ward Zinn. She married William Robert Robins on Aug. 30, 1930. He preceded her in death Dec. 25, 1968...

ANNA, Ill. -- Grace Lee Lilly, 83, of Anna, formerly of Alto Pass, Ill., died Friday, May 5, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Sept. 16, 1911, in Johnson County, Ill., the daughter of George and Lula Gore Mangrum. She married Lester Earl Lilly Sept. 8, 1930, at Alto Pass. He preceded her in death Sept. 14, 1974...

PUXICO -- Henry Americus Ferguson, 93, died Friday, May 5, 1995, at the Greenville Health Care Center. He was born in Americus, Ga., July 16, 1901, son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ferguson. He lived most of his life in St. Louis, where he worked as a ticket agent for the Terminal Railroad Association...

GORDONVILLE -- Evan Lee Wyatt, 2, of Gordonville, died Friday, May 5, 1995, at Cardinal Glennon Hospital in St. Louis. He was born March 19, 1993 in Kansas City, son of Jeff Mark Wyatt and Linda Lee Wulfers Wyatt. Survivors include his parents; a brother, Thomas Paul Wyatt; maternal grandparents, Carl and Dorothy Wulfers of Cape Girardeau; paternal grandmother, Louise Boyd of Cape Girardeau; and a paternal great-grandparent, Alda Fisher of Overland...

Age is purported to bring wisdom. I am neither old nor wise. One might describe me as being middle-aged and fair to middling wise. I like to pretend I am a little younger than middle aged and a little wiser than fair to middling, but truth always prevails...

Paul T. Hackney, 86, of Cape Girardeau died Friday, May 5, 1995, at St. Francis Medical Center. He was born July 24, 1908, at Bertrand, son of Thomas and Myrte Vaughn Hackney. He married Lillian Fassett on April 9, 1935, in Mounds, Ill. She died June 5, 1985...

DEXTER -- Eric Melton Gouldman, 78, died at Dexter Memorial Hospital Saturday, May 6, 1995. He was born May 26, 1916, in Wayne County, son of John and Sarah Gobbles Gouldman. He married Margaret Cole on Sept. 5, 1936. She preceded him in death in June of 1981. He married Ollie Johnson on Dec. 15, 1982. She survives...

Vera Gertrude Peterson, 88, of Cape Girardeau, died Saturday, May 6, 1995, at Fountainbleau Lodge. She was born July 23, 1906, at Capron, Ill., the daughter of John and Mary Ellwander Nelson. She married Henry A. Peterson Dec. 23, 1939 in Dubuque, Iowa. He died Nov. 7, 1966...

SCOTT CITY -- Verlon G. Corn, 59, of Scott City, died Wednesday, May 3, 1995, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Dec. 16, 1935, at Ancell, now Scott City, son of Youal and Lula Corn. He worked for the Central Mine Equipment Co...

Unfunded mandates will cost Cape Girardeau more than $16.5 million this year. Most of that cost is tied to sewer improvements required by the federal Clean Water Act. That figure amounts to about 35 percent of the city's $46 million budget. The budget for fiscal 1996, which begins July 1, hasn't been finalized...

JACKSON -- In this fast-growing community, subdivision plats are a mainstay of the rapid development of new housing. But professional engineers and others involved in the subdivision and platting process claim there is a conflict of interest in the approval procedures...

When asked to tell their World War II stories, Jim Warden, Everett Blaylock and Dwight Dodson handle their tales like delicate fruit, cautious about the peeling process. And when asked what they did to receive numerous bronze and silver stars for their wartime efforts, the Missouri Veterans Home residents seem to neither know nor care...

Deciding which color to paint your house is a trauma akin to public speaking, John Crosby Freeman says. "Picking colors for your home is a public exercise -- you don't want to appear to have made a mistake," says the erudite Philadelphian, who's in the business of preventing such mistakes...

The Cape Girardeau Central High School booster club will hold its All School Recognition Banquet Tuesday, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Convention Center. Tickets for the buffet-style dinner are $3 for students, $5 for adults. They can be purchased at Howard's Sporting Goods, Shivelbine's Music Store, the high school or at the door...

"On Location Landscape Painting" and "Experimental Tapestry Weaving" will be among the art courses offered this summer at Southeast Missouri State University. "On Location Landscape Painting" will be taught June 13 to July 7 by art professor Dr. Grant Lund. The class will meet from 8 to noon Tuesdays through Fridays...

Empowering the less fortunate takes time, skill and money, SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence Executive Director Miki Gudermuth said. "There are more people with disabilities than we can afford to help, but we do the best we can with what we have," Gudermuth said...

POPLAR BLUFF -- Southeast Missouri State University President Kala Stroup will be the featured speaker at the 27th annual commencement exercises at Three Rivers Community College on May 19. Commencement is set for 7 p.m. in the Arrettia and Herschel Bess Activity Center...

The Missouri Veterans Home will celebrate V-E Day with a commemorative ceremony today. It will begin at 1:15 p.m., with a 15-minute musical performance by the 135th Army band of Springfield, followed by the official ceremony. Nearly 100 World War II veterans will be honored. ...

Fans of the old St. Louis Browns probably read with interest a list of the former American League team's records that appeared in small type on page four of the sports section in Thursday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch. And some local baseball followers who have watched the game in this area over the years no doubt took special notice of the club record for most career games pitched...

RIVERS Black (upper): Muddy, 4 1/2' above normal; all fishing slow. Castor (upper): Muddy, high; all fishing fair to poor. Current: Muddy, 10' above normal, all fishing slow. Eleven Point: Muddy, 2' above normal, all fishing slow. Jack's Fork: Muddy, 3' above normal; all fishing slow...

Fishermen and other users of small boats may have lost a bit of freedom when a new U.S. Coast Guard rule on life jackets recently went into effect, but it will prove worthwhile to those who survive their outing because of it. As of May 1, law requires that any boat under 16 feet in length have on board one approved wearable flotation device (a life jacket) for each passenger. It applies to all small boats, including canoes and kayaks, powered or unpowered...

"Mrs. Mosley, this is Phonyscam Photographers Inc. We have an exceptional bargain this week I'm sure you won't want to miss. We have a family speci------" "No, thank you." --- "Mrs. Mahsley, I'm sure you've heard of our company, Shelterson Siding. We can put siding on your house for practically nothing if you would be willi------"...

Most of the 2,084 vehicle accidents in Cape Girardeau last year happened for no good reason, police officers say. The occurred, the city's traffic division officers said, mostly because motorists don't pay attention. Like last summer, when Patrolman Ken Rinehart, working an accident on North Kingshighway, noticed a driver who pulled into the wrong lane and kept going...

The eighth annual Miss Riverfest Queen competition is looking for candidates. The pageant will be held Saturday, June 10, as part of 1995 Riverfest activities. Bonnie McCullough, event chairman, said the event is open to all area students who attended high school during the 1994-95 school year. Miss Riverfest contestants must have at least a C grade point average, be single and have no children...