Stories from Thursday, August 17, 1995

METROPOLIS, Ill. -- Johnny Rivers, known for such hits as "Secret Agent Man," "Poor Side of Town" and "Midnight Special," will perform at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25, at Players Casino's Merv Griffin Theater. Tickets are $14.95 per person and seating is limited. To reserve tickets, call 1-800-929-5905...

Dr. Dan Cotner has always had four or five relatives in the band. Fred Goodwin says the quality of the band shot up when women were allowed in. For Homer Gilbert, "cutting the stuff" for the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band has become a healthy addiction...

Country music stars Vince Gill and Patty Loveless will perform Saturday, Sept. 30 at the Show Me Center. Gill is known for such hits as "I Still Believe in You," "One More Last Chance" and "When I Call Your Name." He has won 14 County Music Association awards, including Entertainer of the Year two years in a role and Male Vocalist of the Year four years running...

Walt Disney's World on Ice will present "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" at the Show Me Center Sept. 22-24. The show will star Karen Preston, two-time Canadian women's figure skating champion, and Russian figure skater Serguei Tartykov. They will be supported by the Russian pair of Serguei Boroda and Tatiana Tropina and a chorus of 43 skaters who hail from the U.S, Canada and Russia...

After about three decades of county service, Chester "Chet" McCain will turn in his park department cap and call it quits. He is retiring at age 62, ready to hunt, fish and spend time with his grandchildren. In light of McCain's service as a road patrol volunteer, county coroner and finally park superintendent, former and current county officials say nobody deserves to rest more...

JACKSON -- In 78 years Edna Hopkins hasn't missed a Jackson Homecomers. The 100-year-old Jacksonian is such a fixture at Homecomers that she has her own spot on the courthouse lawn for observing the event. Last year, Hopkins was recognized for her years of attendance...

Long-awaited improvements to Perryville Road, one the projects that will be financed with Cape Girardeau's new transportation sales tax, won't happen without help from property owners along the road. Mayor Al Spradling III said the project won't be done unless property owners donate the right of way or the city can levy special assessments on abutting property owners...

Rachael Essner looked down at her new plaid jumper, smoothed out a wrinkle in the pleated skirt, and said she loves the new uniforms for St. Vincent de Paul Grade School in Cape Girardeau. Elizabeth LaFoe agreed. "In the morning, we will know just what to wear," she said...

The attorney general and secretary of state have approved wording for a petition a Jefferson City man wants on the November 1996 ballot. Now all Frank Rycyk Jr., 50, needs is 120,000 registered voters to sign his petition, which would put his proposal on the ballot...

Aug. 17, 1995 Dear Deion, DC and I were thinking about you when the news came about Jerry Garcia. We watched the faces of the people on TV who gathered at the makeshift wakes, and noticed the remarkable lack of grief and dolorous pronouncements. They had the look of people who believe that life is a long strange trip, a series of passages of which death is only one...

AS A LIFELONG resident of the Commerce area, I don't believe there are 45 to 50 homes in Commerce, unless they are counting the dog houses too. I just can't hardly see how there can be that many down there. THERE IS a simple solution to the tobacco problem. ...

Funeral service for Eric Lee Field of Apex, N.C., was held Wednesday at Cary Alliance Church in Cary, N.C. Burial was in Apex Cemetery. Field, 23, died Saturday, Aug. 12, 1995, in a hospital in Atlanta, Ga., following an automobile accident. He was a 1991 graduate of Cary High School, and member of Cary Alliance Church. He was employed at Emory University in Atlanta...

Son to Anthony Robinson and Shanie Purl of Cape Girardeau, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 8:17 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 10, 1995. Name, Chatez Anthony. Weight, 6 pounds 8 ounces. Third child, second son. Miss Purl is the daughter of Denise Purl of Cape Girardeau and Jerome Jenkins of Blytheville, Ark. Purl and Robinson are students. He is the son of Yvonne Egson of Cape Girardeau...

Dallas Howe, 62, 220 Edgewood, died Wednesday, Aug. 16, 1995, at St. Francis Medical Center. Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

POCAHONTAS -- Grant Loron Townsend Sr., 74, formerly of Pocahontas, died Tuesday, Aug. 15, 1995, at Missouri Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau. He was born June 28, 1921, in Badger, S.D., son of Edward L. and Byrde Thompson Townsend. Townsend had been a machinist and assembler with Barry Wehmiller. He was a member of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Funeral service for Betty Sue Garner of Marion, Ill., will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston. The Rev. Rudy Bond will officiate, with burial in Dogwood Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home from 5-8 p.m. today...

SIKESTON -- Johnny Ray Tucker, 36, Sikeston Route 5, died Tuesday, Aug. 15, 1995, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. He was born Feb. 3, 1959, in Phoenix, Ariz., son of Max LeRoy and Sue Evelyn Curry Tucker. He and Cheryl Ann Layton were married July 8, 1978...

PERRYVILLE -- Sarah Ann Lurk, 65, of Perryville, died Tuesday, Aug. 15, 1995, at her home. She was born Nov. 13, 1929, in Cape Girardeau County, daughter of Harry and Gertrude Schenck Fritz. She and Ronald F. Lurk were married July 14, 1949. Survivors include her husband; a son, Tom Lurk of Perryville; a daughter, Ronna Stortz of Perryville, and two grandchildren...

The Rev. Hartwell Jared Taylor, 78, of West Plains, died Tuesday, Aug. 15, 1995, at his home. He was born Dec. 17, 1916, at Thayer, son of the Rev. Hartwell Lee and May Jared Taylor. He and Marjorie Kight were married July 8, 1945, in Cape Girardeau...

VILLA RIDGE, Ill. -- Robert Lewis Sharp, 50, of Joppa, died Wednesday, Aug. 16, 1995, at Massac Memorial Hospital in Metropolis. He was born Feb. 28, 1945, in Illinois, son of Albert and Mary Lance Sharp. Sharp was a timber cutter with Westvaco Paper Co. in Wickliffe, Ky...

SIKESTON -- Abbie Lee Morrison, 94, of Sikeston, died Tuesday, Aug. 15, 1995, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. She was born April 24, 1901, in Sikeston, daughter of Harvey E. and Ida Belle Pinkerton Morrison. Morrison owned and worked at Galloway Drug Store 10 years. She was a member of First United Methodist Church and its Missionary Society, and worked in Sikeston Little Theater...

I don't know about you, but I long ago had a bellyful of the revisionist historians listing all the reasons why we are guilty for having dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is interesting to note that most of these revisionists are too young to have lived through the war. ...

The Jackson Board of Aldermen on Monday approved an agreement to merge the Jackson Public Library and the Riverside Regional Library. The board also appointed an architect for the project. The two library boards want to combine their resources into one library, to be housed in a new $1.5 million building on two acres at the northwest end of Jackson City Park. ...

After a recent meeting of the Missouri Ethics Commission, I remarked that I couldn't understand why anyone would want to run for public office under today's laws and regulations. I hope this comment will be understood in the context in which it was made -- that the rules on how to finance and run a campaign seem to change on a monthly basis. ...

Corn and soybean acreage is about average in Cape Girardeau County, but questions about the potential yield remain, an Agricultural Stabilization Conservation Service official said. "Everything is looking good for corn and soybeans," said Terry Birk of the county ASCS office. "But, the generally late planting and poor early growing conditions in some areas could result in reduced yields."...

It's time to head back to class, and the Salvation Army and Target Stores are making preparations. The Salvation Army and Target will sponsor a school supplies drive this week. As families purchase school supplies for their children, the Salvation Army is asking that they purchase additional supplies for families that cannot otherwise afford them...