Stories from Friday, November 17, 1995

To the editor: As a marcher in last Saturday's chilly Veterans Day parade, I became fearful that the mass of spectators might become unruly and get out of hand, as was the case a few years back at some of the university homecoming parades. Happily, my fears were laid to rest when Cape Girardeau's finest imposed prompt and strict crowd-control measures. ...

SIKESTON -- When Sunset residents ask for proof of progress through Operation Weed and Seed, promoters point them to the city's police force. It seems changes happen the quickest there. Weed and Seed is a program through the U.S. attorney's office to weed out criminals and seed in social programs. Residents of Sunset, a primarily black community on Sikeston's west side, started community meetings in June to set the program's agenda...

A Cape Girardeau nursing home is among 50 in the state asked to release reports on quality of care to a coalition of senior citizens groups. The coalition, which includes members of the Missouri Council of Senior Citizens, Silver Haired Legislators, the Missouri Coalition for Quality Care and Service Employees International Union Local 50, announced this week that the state's 50 for-profit nursing homes were being asked to release quality assurance reports, which are internal company inspection reports.. ...

Plans to turn Cape Girardeau's former Catholic seminary into a museum and cultural center could hinge on securing some city tax revenue as part of a public-private partnership, project proponents said Thursday. The Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation earlier this year requested $75,000 a year in motel and restaurant tax money to help establish Old St. Vincent's College as a Civil War museum and cultural center...

When so much of the news from the Sunset neighborhood of Sikeston is negative, it is uplifting to see nearly 100 black men get together for an event they called the Hundred-Man Rally, an offshoot, in a way, of the Million-Man March that was held recently in Washington, D.C...

A federal program that was conceived as a way of providing funding to education experiments that would break the mold of business as usual in public education is, instead, being used to fund projects in Missouri schools that have already been tried with varying degrees of success and failure...

To the editor: (The following letter is for elementary-school teachers in the Cape Girardeau School District.) Dear Cape elementary teachers: Greetings for American Education Week from the students of Schultz Middle School. As an English project for this special week, our seventh graders wrote favorite-teacher essays. Though I cannot send copies to every one of you, we wanted you to know...

To the editor: Like the fable about a blindfolded committee describing an elephant, your Oct. 18 editorial about AmeriCorps exhibited an incomplete and inaccurate picture. You suggest that volunteers should do the job. Southeast Missouri AmeriCorps members focused where there weren't enough volunteers: tutoring at-risk youths, teaching health literacy and helping flood victims. Even Rep. Bill Emerson endorsed AmeriCorps as "what the region needs, a hand up."...

JEFFERSON CITY -- A three-year, $2.6-billion state highway program may encounter some bumpy traveling before it reaches its destination at the end of 1998. The ambitious construction program, announced recently by the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department's chief engineer, Joe Mickes, faces a series of detours that could slow its speed or sidetrack it completely...

Tonight's Lorrie Morgan and Daryle Singletary concert at the Show Me Center has been canceled. The decision to call off the show was made at 8:30 a.m. Thursday by the promoter, Wisconsin-based Starshow Presents. Fewer than 1,500 tickets had been sold, according to Will Lofdahl, events coordinator for the Show Me Center...

Access to health care for all veterans is a primary concern of the American Legion, according the leader of the veterans organization. Daniel A. Ludwig, national commander of the 3.1-million-member group, toured the Cape Girardeau Missouri Veterans Home Thursday...

The best and easiest manner for a municipality to annex land is through voluntary annexation. If that is not possible, acquiring new territory can be a difficult and time-consuming task with no guarantee of success. Officials from Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Scott City discussed the merits, drawbacks and legal processes of annexation Thursday during a meeting of the League of Women Voters of Southeast Missouri...

Several people said the snow that fell Wednesday morning was pretty, and it was. What gave it most of its beauty was that it wasn't sticking on the streets. Beauty is, after all, in the eye of the beholder. Growing up in the Ozarks hills, you didn't see much snow. ...

The battle for the position of speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives is not about who will lead that chamber during the upcoming legislative session, one area member said. It is about the future direction of House leadership. Rep. Sam Leake, a four-term House member from Laddonia, was nominated by fellow House Democrats last week to succeed Bob Griffith as speaker, the most powerful political office in the state after governor...

Daughter to Amanda Hyde of Sikeston, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 9 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17, 1995. Name, Amber Nile. Weight, 7 pounds 7 ounces. First child. Miss Hyde is the daughter of Ronald Hyde and Marla Hyde of Sikeston. She is a student. Daughter to Scott and Melissa Hubbard, 718 North Street, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 1:22 p.m. ...

SIKESTON -- Jestina "Tina" Johnson, 69, of Sikeston died Wednesday, Nov. 15, 1995, at Missouri Delta Medical Center after a lengthy illness. She was born Oct. 26, 1929, in Catron, the daughter of Sam and Sarah Gayles Robinson. Survivors include two daughters, Gloria Wade and Jeanette McCaster of Sikeston; two sons, the Rev. ...

BLOOMSDALE -- Jesse W. Meggs Sr., 64, of Bloomsdale died Thursday, Nov. 16, 1995, at Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Crystal City. He was born April 24, 1931, in Cherry Valley, Ark., to William C. Meggs Sr. and Zella Robertson Meggs. He was a correctional officer for more than 20 years at Statesville, Ill., and Pontiac, Ill. He was a member of the Mounds, Ill., Masonic Lodge...

MARBLE HILL -- Funeral service for Norman Hartle Phelps of Marble Hill will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at Cracraft-Miller Funeral Home in Jackson. The Revs. Michael Woods and Virgil Bunch will officiate, with burial in Memorial Park in Cape Girardeau...

SIKESTON -- Funeral service for Jewell E. Raspberry of Sikeston will be held at 10:30 a.m. today at Nunnelee Funeral Chapel. The Rev. Kevin Barks will officiate, with burial in Garden of Memories Cemetery. Raspberry, 82, died Wednesday, Nov. 15, 1995, at Missouri Delta Medical Center...

Funeral service for Dr. Harold Oscar Grauel, 722 Normal, will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel. The Rev. James Zink will officiate. Private burial will follow in Memorial Park. There is no visitation. Grauel, 94, died Wednesday, Nov. 15, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital...

FROHNA -- Arnold H. Roth, 86, of Frohna, died Wednesday, Nov. 15, 1995, at Perry County Nursing Home. He was born Dec. 28, 1908, at Farrar, son of Herman and Frieda Fritsche Roth. He and Martha Hoehn were married Jan. 17, 1935. Roth retired from Frohna Machine Shop. He was a member of Concordia Lutheran Church...

MARBLE HILL -- Glen "Art" Hill, 79, of Marble Hill, died Wednesday, Nov. 15, 1995, at Jefferson Oaks Home Care Center in Festus. He was born Feb. 9, 1916, in Grassy, son of James M. and Rosa Moore Hill. He and Ethyl Taylor were married Oct. 31, 1951. She died July 14, 1991...

Rose Clara Heisserer, 85, 1903 Marietta, died Thursday, Nov. 16, 1995, at St. Francis Medical Center. She was born April 4, 1910, in New Hamburg, daughter of Theon and Ida Menz Grojean. She and Charles A. Heisserer were married Oct. 11, 1932, at New Hamburg. He died July 18, 1944...

DEXTER -- Brad Short, 34, of Dallas, Texas, died Wednesday, Nov. 15, 1995, at Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. He was born Aug. 18, 1961, in Cape Girardeau, son of Phillip and Opal Coffey Short. Short was a graduate of Neelyville High School and the University of Texas. He had lived in Dallas 11 years, and was employed by Foley's Department Stores...

WOLF LAKE, Ill. -- Virginia Rose Smith, 77, of Wolf Lake died Thursday, Nov. 16, 1995, at her home. She was born May 22, 1918, near Dutchtown, Mo., the daughter of John and Alice Forcee Hamel. On Oct. 23, 1943, she married Ellis Smith, who preceded her in death on Jan. 22, 1994...