Stories from Saturday, October 7, 1995

Operation Lifesaver is one of those projects that ought to be superfluous. The program is intended to promote safety at railroad crossings. Too many people ignore warning signs and signals and risk injury and death by challenging trains for the right of way at crossings. ...

I tapped my Webster's dictionary to search for the best word to describe my reaction to the verdict this week. The entry for "consternation" comes pretty close: "Amazement or dismay that hinders or throws into confusion; to bewilder, alarm." Unlike many who tried to analyze the jury's brief deliberation, I never wavered from my year-long belief that O.J. ...

To the editor:Remember the old saying, "What goes around comes around." Situations do repeat themselves, but not necessarily identically. Similarity seems to be emerging with the continued courting by Colin Powell of the Republican Party. I remember when Dwight Eisenhower became president. ...

To the editor: The Society for Conservation Biology is an interntaional organization of professionals involved in teaching and practicing natural resource mangement. Included in its membership are hundreds of American scientists and resource managers. At its annual conference this summer in Fort Collins, Colo., the membership approved a resolution urging strong support for, retention and reauthorization of the Endangered Species Act...

Under the two-party political system, each party places a premium on winning the governor's mansion. This is true not merely because it is the chief executive office of state government, or because of the thousands of appointments a governor can make, but also for party leadership. ...

PERRYVILLE -- Mary Zita Schmeiderer, 86, of Perryville died Friday, Oct. 6, 1995, at the Perry County Nursing Home. She was born March 3, 1909, in Ste. Genevieve, the daughter of Anton and Mary Cecelia Jokerst Schmeiderer. Schmeiderer was a housekeeper for many years in Perry County...

Underage drivers face serious consequences when they drink and drive in Illinois. In its first six months, Illinois' Use It & Lose It law more than doubled the number of motorists under 21 who lost their driving privileges because they drank and drove...

A community health assessment will be the first step in a new effort to determine Cape Girardeau County's health-care needs and assets. The Healthier Communities Committee will hold a kick-off meeting Oct. 19 at 4:15 p.m. at Drury Lodge. The committee is made up of representatives of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, the Cape Girardeau County Area Medical Society Inc., the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center, the Community Caring Council, St. ...

JACKSON -- To Cape Girardeau County commissioners, the issue isn't hard to understand: They want the county's 911 account audited now. But Southwestern Bell, the agency collecting 911 fees through its phone bills, says an audit isn't that simple. And now it is up to lawyers for both sides to decide the issue...

Anja Meyer Zu Loesebeck, a high school student from Germany, looked over the Mississippi River and couldn't believe her eyes. "It's big," she said. "I thought it was smaller." Loesebeck is among 20 German students visiting Southeast Missouri for three weeks through an exchange program at Perryville High School. The students Friday stopped at Cape Rock Park in Cape Girardeau to view the river and meet the "bergermeister" of the city, Mayor Albert M. Spradling III...

Tip One: Spray a little lemon Pledge in the air right before your in-laws enter the apartment. It gives them that "she-just-dusted" feeling. I'm not sure how it happened, but everyone knows American society has an unwritten rule. Men work in the yard, women clean the house...

Local families are invited to join a new intergenerational family activity at Southeast Missouri Hospital's Main Street Fitness Center. The "Family Fitness Force" meets every other Saturday from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Main Street Fitness Center. Activities include step and slide, wallyball, parachute play, cage ball, boffer bats and scooter...

A Jackson couple arrived home safely and dry after Hurricane Opal forced an early end to their Florida vacation. Dawn and Ken Detring made it home Thursday night after fleeing a vacation condo on the sugar-white beaches of Destin. The Detrings were staying there with some cousins from St. Louis, Dawn Detring said...

"Lunch at the Seminary," a fund-raising activity for Cape Girardeau's Vision 2000, will be held Thursday at the Old St. Vincent's Seminary. The luncheon will be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., with lunch being all-you-can eat hamburgers and hot dogs for a $4 donation...

A program designed to help some young people in career planning could help ease the unemployment problems faced by many Southeast Missouri employers. The Missouri Mentoring Partnership, funded by a grant from the Department of Social Services, is designed to help young people, 16 to 21, who have been placed in foster homes or in other public facilities, get jobs...

METROPOLIS, Ill. -- Dates for the annual Fort Massac Encampment at Fort Massac State Park along the Ohio River here will be Oct. 21 and 22. The two-day event, which attracts thousands of people to Metropolis, will present the area as it was between 1750 and the early 1800s...

The annual Boy Scout Popcorn Sales program starts Oct. 14 and will continue through Nov. 3. Scouts in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois will participate. The program allows individual Cub Scout packs and Boy Scout troops to raise funds for such items as camping equipment, trips, awards and badges and other scouting materials...

Son to Tim and Sherri McKeon of White Oak, Texas, Good Shepherd Hospital in Longview, Texas, 6:46 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 23, 1995. Name, Xavier Vincent. Weight, 7 pounds 9 ounces. Fifth son. Mrs. McKeon is the former Sherri Short, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Short of St. Peters. McKeon is a chemical engineer with Texas Eastman. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Joe McKeon of Cape Girardeau...

CHAFFEE -- Funeral mass for Eugene William Dumey of Chaffee will be held at 10 a.m. Monday at St. Ambrose Catholic Church. The Rev. Allan Saunders will officiate, with burial in the church cemetery. Friends may call at Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Chaffee after 4 p.m. Sunday. Parish prayers will be at 7 p.m...

SIKESTON -- H. Herb Stephens, 66, of Sikeston, died Thursday, Oct. 5, 1995, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. He was born March 21, 1929, in Pocahontas, Ark., son of Benjamin and Della Jones Stephens. He and Doris Holyfield were married Sept. 28, 1946, in Sikeston...

COBDEN, Ill. -- Graveside service for William Orval "Jargo" Camden of Cobden will be held at 2 p.m. today at Cobden Cemetery. The Rev. Dewayne Taylor will officiate. Lutz and Rendleman Funeral Home in Cobden is in charge of arrangements. Camden, 88, died Thursday, Oct. 5, 1995, at Hillside Terrace Nursing Home...

JACKSON -- Thelma M. Winkler, 71, of Jackson, died Wednesday, Oct. 4, 1995, at University Hospital in St. Louis. She was born Sept. 21, 1924, in St. Louis, daughter of Roy and Edith Boswell Hobeck. She married Edward E. Winkler, who died Aug. 15, 1983...

RICHARDSON, Texas -- Cornelia N. Sander, 91, of Richardson died Friday, Oct. 6, 1995, at the Plano Hospital in Plano, Texas. She was born Oct. 19, 1903, in Gordonville, daughter of Edward H. and Emma Glucksherty Kerstner. She married Lawrence A. Sander on July 27, 1929...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Maurice D. Hilton, 80, of East Prairie died Thursday, Oct. 5, 1995, at his residence. He was born Oct. 12, 1914, in Clarkton, the son of Edward and Euple Shipman Hilton. On Jan. 30, 1943, he married Charlsie Pauline Sanders at St. Louis...

In a breast self-exam six years ago, Mary Lynch of Scott City found what many women fear most, a lump. The mass was cancerous and Lynch subsequently had a mastectomy. Four years ago, Judi Eaker of Chaffee went for her annual mammogram and a suspicious spot was found. A biopsy showed she had breast cancer, and she underwent a bilateral mastectomy and reconstructive surgery...