Stories from Thursday, July 6, 1995

STE. GENEVIEVE -- This year's Ste. Genevieve County Fair July 21-23 will feature a costume contest for animals. The fair's sheep, goats, ponies, donkeys, rabbits and poultry will be decked out in spectacles, ribbons, bows and other finery for the Animal Costume Contest. The contest will be held Saturday, July 22...

"Games Behind the Playhouse" by Aaron Horrell "The Arboretum of My Mind" by David L. Smith "Art Experience '95," a show of work by artists from all over the United States, will open Friday at Gallery 100. The opening and awards reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday at the Gallery, 100 Mount Auburn Road...

NEW YORK CITY -- It's a long way from Notre Dame High School's stage to Broadway, but Roger Seyer has made it. Two weeks ago, the 1985 Notre Dame graduate became a member of the ensemble of the long-running musical "Miss Saigon." He describes being notified a short time after auditioning: "My mouth kind of dropped and I kind of was shaking," he said. "You set goals for yourself and when you achieve the goal it's very exciting and hard to express."...

Wendell Kerr, left, and Harold Nothdurst divided up teams at the clubhouse before teeing off. Every weekday about noon, a group of vintage gents gathers in the clubhouse at the Jaycee Municipal Golf Course. They kibitz, they joke, they hand over a little money and they get ready to play what amounts to a mini-tournament...

The deadline for making nominations for the Otto F. Dingeldein Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts is Sept. 1. The annual award presented by the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri recognizes individuals or organizations whose support of or participation in the arts has been outstanding...

JEFFERSON CITY -- When Missouri's budget experts began predicting in the fall of 1993 the state's revenue for a fiscal year that wouldn't end until last Friday, they were cautious. Missouri had just experienced the worst floods in its history. To make matters worse, the state was still recovering from a recession that had produced the second largest number of bankruptcies in the last decade...

Cape Girardeau residents were more careful this year when they celebrated Independence Day -- area hospitals reported only a few minor burns from fireworks. The numbers go up and down from year to year. Jay Wolz, a spokesman for St. Francis Medical Center, said not one fireworks injury case showed up in St. Francis' emergency room this year, but other years are extremely busy...

The 140th edition of the SEMO District Fair, Missouri's oldest outdoor event, will be held Sept. 10 to 16 in Cape Girardeau's Arena Park, featuring country music singers Holly Dunn, Aaron Tippin and Ricky Van Shelton. While small fairs around the country are struggling to make a go, the SEMO District Fair is expecting attendance to top 100,000 this year, making it the state's fourth largest outdoor event...

July 6, 1995 Dear Pat, What's the story from Newport News? Have you seen the Orioles play this year? I'd love to go to Camden Yard. Built by people who love the game. Like the rest of America, I'm short on enthusiasm for baseball right now. To paraphrase Gordon Gekko in "Wall Street," greed is good and ugly...

BLOOMFIELD -- Funeral service for Bertha Mae Long of Bloomfield will be held at 2 p.m. today at Chiles-Cooper Funeral Home, with the Revs. Jerry Pennington and Kevin Eskew officiating. Burial will be in Walker Cemetery near here. Long, 91, died Tuesday, July 4, 1995, at Dexter Memorial Hospital in Dexter...

PERRYVILLE -- Ruth Brown, 83, of Perryville, died Wednesday, July 5, 1995, at Perry Oaks Health Care Center. She was born June 13, 1912, in Perry County, daughter of T.B. and Mayme Cox Sanders. She and Edgar Brown were married Feb. 25, 1940. Brown was a retired teacher. She was a member of Retired Teachers Association...

William J. Whistler Jr., 53, of 109 S. Ellis died Wednesday, July 5, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. Arrangements are incomplete at Amick-Burnett Funeral Home in Chaffee.

McGEE -- Funeral service for Gary R. Carver will be held at 10 a.m. today at Watkins and Sons Funeral Chapel in Puxico. The Rev. LeRoy Hefner will officiate, with burial in New Hope Cemetery at McGee. Carver, 38, died Tuesday, July 4, 1995, at Doctors' Regional Medical Center in Poplar Bluff...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Funeral service for Mickey Leon Thresher, East Prairie Route 1, will be held at 2 p.m. today at Shelby Funeral Chapel here. The Rev. George White will officiate, with burial in East Prairie Memorial Park Cemetery. Thresher, 53, died Tuesday, July 4, 1995, at his home...

JACKSON -- Walter L. (Ott) Crites, 65, of Jackson, died Tuesday, July 4, 1995, at his home. He was born July 6, 1929, in Jackson, son of Phillip and Myrtle Hahs Crites. He and Beulah Haupt were married Aug. 31, 1951. Crites was a meat inspector with the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1965-84. Prior to that he had worked at the former Jackson Hosiery Mill and Associated Natural Gas Co...

Flora Davis, 87, of 1918 Briarwood died July 5, 1995, at the Jackson Manor. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Ford & Sons Mount Auburn Chapel.

FROHNA -- Norma A. Mueller, 85, of Frohna, died Wednesday, July 5, 1995, at Perry County Nursing Home. She was born Aug. 19, 1909, at Frohna, daughter of Martin and Sarah Palisch Fischer. She and Edmund R. Mueller were married July 14, 1929. He died June 12, 1977...

JACKSON -- Lillie E. Ray, 87, of Jackson, died Tuesday, July 4, 1995, at Jackson Manor. She was born Feb. 12, 1908, in Mississippi, daughter of Abner and Mattie Jackson Trucks. She first married Earl Hayes Sr. in 1926. He died in 1938. She later married Roy H. Ray in 1939. He died in 1984...

To the editor: All things considered, after the elections of 1992 and 1994, the Contract With America, the public opinion polls, the battle over the balanced budget and health care reform along with the rhetoric and political posturing of the Republican candidates, it seems most likely that what America wants is a dramatic change without entailing dramatic change...

President Bill Clinton, who campaigned as a "new" -- read nonliberal -- Democrat only to govern as a hard-left one, is having an interesting effect on the party it is his job to lead. Clinton obviously came to office hoping to retool liberalism, an exhausted ideology. But instead, his stewardship is further discrediting liberalism and further shrinking its ranks...

The public access channel televised on the Cape Girardeau cable television system has been an overlooked opportunity. Lack of local programming prompted a time-sharing situation between the public access channel and C-SPAN about a year ago. At least two councilmen would like to see C-SPAN move elsewhere, so that public access programming can be expanded without interfering with the popular coverage of the U.S. House of Representatives and other national government coverage...

Cape Girardeau's taxi coupon program geared up for a new year July 1. The program provides a cost-effective means of public transportation that is well utilized by city residents. Primarily, the program targets those residents over the age of 60 and disabled persons. These taxi riders pay just $1 for a coupon and can purchase a book of 16 coupons each month. A much smaller number of coupons are available to the general public for $2...

To the editor: The Southeast Missourian sponsored me for the Missouri Freedom Forum at Southeast Missouri State University recently. I am writing this letter to tell you I really enjoyed the forum, and I appreciate your sponsoring me. I learned a lot about the freedoms we often take for granted here in the United States and what we can do to keep from taking these for granted...

To the editor: We have read millions of words about the failure of almost everything in this country, and nearly every article expresses a feeling of perplexity as to why this is so. The answer can be summed up with only four words: Socialism simply doesn't work...

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials encourage anyone -- not just flood victims -- to visit the mobile Disaster Recovery Assistance Center today and tomorrow. The center will be at Arena Park today from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m...

Troy Wilson, president and chief executive officer for First National Bank in Sikeston, will be guest speaker at The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's First Friday Coffee Friday at 7:30 a.m. at the Drury Lodge. Wilson, who recently attended the White House Conference on Small Business, will report on his trip...

Five days after the city's adult business license ordinance went into effect, Regina's House of Dolls remains in business. The strip-tease bar hasn't applied for the city's adult business license. "Regina's is open and intends to stay open," said attorney Thad Taylor of the Rosener law firm that represents the bar...

POPLAR BLUFF -- Two Poplar Bluff residents were killed in a traffic accident Tuesday. Roy Moore, 26, and Freddie Moore, 29, were killed when their 1988 Chevy Beretta crossed lanes and struck a 1990 GMC pickup head-on, said the Missouri State Highway Patrol officer. Neither man was wearing seat belts...

The weather has certainly not been kind to Cape Girardeau's Ford & Sons American Legion baseball team lately. For the third time in the past six days, Ford & Sons saw a District 14 doubleheader wiped out by a wet field. The latest postponement occurred Wednesday night, when Capaha Field was too wet for Cape to face Caruthersville...

The Cape Girardeau Kohlfeld Capahas baseball team will hold its annual oldtimers game Saturday beginning at 7:30 p.m. at Capaha Field. Capahas manager Jess Bolen stresses that the oldtimers game is not only for ex-Capaha players but for any former area baseball players...

The Kohlfeld slow-pitch softball team climbed out of the loser's bracket to win the recent Scott City Tournament. Kohlfeld lost its opening-round game, 11-4 against Davault. Kohlfeld began its trek through the loser's bracket with a 12-7 win over JAB Company. Mark Simmons had three hits while Tim Welter, Val Crader, Bruce Robert, Paul Dirnberger and Steve Dirnberger added two apiece...

Seventy couples competed in the Cape Girardeau Country Club's annual 4th of July Couples Scramble, with competition being divided into morning and afternoon flights. Following are the top finishers in each of the flights from the morning and afternoon, along with special events winners:...

PADUCAH, Ky. -- Cape Girardeau's Senior Babe Ruth baseball team, the White Sox, continued its exceptional season by winning the Paducah Tournament held over the weekend. The White Sox improved their record to 18-3 as they won three games in the tourney. Cape defeated Paducah 4-3, Alton 11-3 and Sikeston 14-4...

Parents Without Partners Cape Chapter 519 will sponsor a "Summer Breeze Dance" from 8:30 p.m. to midnight July 15 at the VFW Hall. There will be a $5 donation collected at the door and prizes will be offered. The group has also scheduled an orientation for new members at 7 p.m. July 20 in the Harris Room of the Community Counseling Center...

ST. LOUIS -- With blood donations down 25 percent last week due to the ongoing heat, the American Red Cross urges eligible blood donors who have type O negative, B positive and B negative to give blood as soon as possible. The Red Cross said that blood supply levels for those three types have fallen dangerously low. ...