Stories from Sunday, January 7, 1996

CHARLESTON -- Bette Moreton, 75, of Charleston died Saturday, Jan. 6, 1996, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. Arrangements are incomplete with McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston.

The Southeast Missouri Multiple Sclerosis Society Self-Help Group will meet at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, in the Friends Lounge of St. Francis Medical Center. The meeting topic will be "Assistive Technology for the Physically Challenged," presented by Scarlette Seabaugh, assistive technology coordinator...

The 1996 Southeast Missouri Honors Wind Ensemble will perform at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 13 in Academic Auditorium on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University. The group is composed of 50 high-school students chosen by audition from 40 school districts. The program will include "Mazama," a piece by Jay Chattaway, and "American Fanfares" by University of Kansas composer James Barnes...

The Cape Girardeau County Sheriff is going back to school. John Jordan was selected by the executive director of the Missouri Sheriff's Association to attend the National Sheriff's Institute in Longmont, Colo., just north of Denver. Jordan is among 25 other sheriffs and deputies from around the nation attending the NSI's two-week training program beginning today...

Volunteers are needed to help others with their tax returns as part of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service. Local coordinators are Dorothy Ank and Robert Harper. "The VITA program uses volunteers to provide free assistance to taxpayers who cannot afford professional help," said Ank, who explained that volunteers frequently are college students, law students or members of professional business organizations...

Bad weather may have delayed surveys, but the Community Caring Council's asset-mapping project is continuing, organizers of the effort say. The council's Community Partnership Resource Board, which is overseeing the project, will meet Jan. 17 to discuss volunteers' progress and the next steps necessary, said Shelba Branscum, chairman of the CPR board...

Kniestedt dries herbs from her garden in her basement. Kniestedt became a certified master gardner after years of doing it just for the "calm and therapy" of it. A door mat like this welcomes visitors to Kniestedt's front and back doors. Kniestedt works in this herb garden and her vegetable garden "from morning until dark. (Submitted photo)...

The Concordia Concert Band, a select band from Concordia College, Seward, Neb., will present a concert at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 223 W. Adams St., in Jackson, on Monday, Jan. 8 at 7 p.m. The concert, through its music, centers on the proclamation of Christ's birth and the rejoicing and exultation that is the result of this event that changed the world. The concert will also include a number of classic compositions for band...

Some of Petzoldt's more popular items are the wreaths she makes from honey suckle vine, such as this one, which is made of grape vine. Petzoldt also puts together "fruit and vegetable" baskets that are made from cloth. This is one of Petzoldt's larger flower arrangements. Though she tries to put at least some natural flowers in all her arrangements, Petzoldt also uses many cloth and latex flowers...

The Optimist Club of Marble Hill is proud to announce the annual Optimist International Oratorical Contest for local youth under the age of 16. This year's contest is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 22 at Meadow Heights school. The contest is conducted annually by the local Optimist Club as well as Optimist Clubs all over the world. ...

Nola Murry Huskey recently celebrated her 108th Christmas. Born on Nov. 29, 1887, she observed her 108th birthday quietly with family members on hand for the occasion. Even at her advanced age the Bollinger County native still has days when she is alert. ...

The Woodard's Smorgasbord may be new to Jackson residents, but it's been around for a while. Woodard's Smorgasbord Restaurant has been serving home-cooked meals to the residents of the Delta area for the past 14 years. Now the Woodards hope to do the same for customers in Jackson...

A funny thing happened on the way to Big Education's plan to ram its "standards" down the throats of Missouri parents. Parents aren't buying. "Hearings" held last Thursday by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education at seven locations around Missouri may prove a milestone in the corruption of your state government, a watershed in the descent of a powerful state bureaucracy into a sinkhole of rigged "hearings" and fraudulent self-congratulation. ...

When candidate Bill Clinton developed his strategy for winning the presidency, foreign policy was nowhere in the plan. As a little-known governor of an obscure, landlocked southern state, he had no identifiable foreign affairs experience. His opponent, President George Bush, had devoted most of his public life to international politics. ...

Are you still young enough to remember the excitement you experienced when it was announced a circus was coming to town? The word circus never failed to ignite a glorious exhilaration, unlike almost any other sensation, for it is possible for a six-year-old to picture elephants performing, lions and tigers roaring and clowns entertaining children and adults alike as droves of them pile from a small car...

Gov. Mel Carnahan's $310 million tax increase in 1993 -- the one to pay for the Outstanding Schools Act that Missourians didn't get to vote on as promised -- has pumped millions into secondary and elementary education in the state. Now the governor will be going to bat for higher education in the state...

ADVANCE -- Virginia Mae Wiseman, 55, of Advance died Jan. 5, 1996, at St. Francis Medical Center. She was born Aug. 8, 1940, in Perkins, the daughter of Joe and Maymie McDaniels Allen. She married Ray Wiseman on Dec. 16, 1960, in Bell City. Wiseman was a member of the Calvary Cornerstone Church in Advance...

DEXTER -- Golden Clark, 90, died Saturday, Jan. 6, 1996, at her home in Dexter. She was born Feb. 20, 1905, in Doniphan, daughter of the late A.C. and Merty Carney McFarlen. She had lived in Dexter most of her life and was a member of the First Church of the Nazarene in Dexter...

Son to John and Jill Goddard, 1526 Whitener, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 7:34 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 31, 1995. Name, Ian Riley. Weight, 8 pounds 1 ounce. First child. Mrs. Goddard is the former Jill Strickert, daughter of Arnold and Elfrieda Strickert of Jackson. She is an administrative secretary in planning services with City of Cape Girardeau. Goddard is the son of Forrest and Mary Goddard of Corpus Christi, Texas. He is geographic information system technician with the City of Cape Girardeau...

Christmas and New Year's have recently passed, and I am feeling a bit fat. In fact, in the past three weeks, I am quite sure that I have consumed enough saturated fat and cholesterol (in the form of tree-shaped cookies) to successfully clog my arteries for life...

PUXICO -- C. Maythel Curtis, 93, of Puxico died Saturday, Jan. 6, 1996, at Lucy Lee Hospital in Poplar Bluff. She was born May 2, 1903, in Broughton, Ill., daughter of the late James Timothy and Elizabeth Ann Faries Allen. She was a former resident of St. Louis and had lived in Puxico the past 34 years. She was a member of the First Baptist Church in Puxico...

BLOOMFIELD -- Daisy Idalee Catherine Carwile, 92, died Thursday, Jan. 4, 1996, at the Bloomfield Nursing Center in Bloomfield. She was born Feb. 22, 1903, daughter of the late Talmage Duffie and Intha Altha Mae Horn Duffie. She was a homemaker. She married James Coy Carwile on Oct. 14, 1923, in Dexter. He died Sept. 9, 1979...

SIKESTON -- Laudie May Chapman Young, 86, of Sikeston, formerly of Vanduser, died Saturday, Jan. 6, 1996, at the Sikeston Convalescent Center. She was born May 29, 1909, in Poe, daughter of the late Louis and Della Cross Garner. She was a housewife and a member of the Vanduser Church of God...

Weekend donations should push the Salvation Army's Tree of Lights campaign to its $150,000 goal, Capt. Robert Gauthier said. "We'll make the goal," Gauthier said Friday. "I'm sure by Monday we'll be there." As of Thursday, the campaign had raised $148,551, an increase of approximately $23,500 from the previous year's campaign...

PERRYVILLE -- Two Illinois truck drivers were involved in an accident caused by ice-covered roads Friday afternoon. Carry E. Cairnes, 33, of Sparta, Ill., was driving a tractor-trailer east on Route H just east of Highway 61 at around 5:15 p.m. Friday...

DEXTER -- Wallis Andrew "Wally" Clippard, 82, of Dexter died Friday, Jan. 5, 1996, at St. Francis Medical Center. He was born in Blodgett on June 16, 1913, son of the late Glenn and Marguerett Wallis Clippard. He farmed in Southeast Missouri for 30 years and was a member of the First Baptist Church in Dexter. He served in the 2nd Marine Division in World War II in Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jimo...

Gertrude Frieda Schwartz, 86, of Cape Girardeau died Friday, Jan. 5, 1996, in the Fountainbleau Lodge. She was born Dec. 3, 1909, in Cape Girardeau County, the daughter of Robert G. and Frieda Koch Pierce. On Sept. 13, 1930, in Cairo, Ill., she married George C. Schwartz, who died Oct. 23, 1960...

PATTON -- Deep cuts take time to heal. And it's taken about six months for the wounds to heal in the Meadow Heights school district. Two Patton residents recently gave the board a standing ovation for its ability finally to "make some decisions the community and school district can live with," once said...

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. But not too much. Forecasters for the National Weather Service expected snow to end Saturday night after an accumulation of 2 to 4 inches of the white stuff in Southeast Missouri. It was a repeat of last week, when snow began falling Tuesday evening and continued through early Wednesday morning...

It's time to start thinking "573." That's the suggestion of Thomas D. Pagano, a spokesman for Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. The Southeast Missouri area gets a new area code Monday when it is disconnected from the 314 region. "This should come as no big surprise," said Pagano. Southwestern Bell has been providing informational inserts in more than a million telephone bills since October...

THIS IS a concerned resident of Cape Girardeau, and I've lived in Missouri all my life, and I'm a Republican. But I would like to say one thing: I have changed this last time. I will not be a Republican any more. I will change to a Democrat, or I will go for a third party. ...

Birds, fish can find post-holiday shelter in Christmas trees. With the holiday behind us, we are faced with a number of questions to ponder: Why do we eat so much? Why did we spend so much money? What do we do with the Christmas tree that we finally took down and hauled out of the house?...

During the recent holidays I received an unexpected and unintentional gift from a youngster who was totally unaware of the intangible present she bestowed. I'm not sure I've used the right adjectives describing the gift, so let me explain. The youngster was visiting with me along with some others her age. And as all honest and uninhibited children are, she asked a question I'd never been asked before. She said, "What's that thing in your front tooth?"...

Cape Girardeau Central High School will hold a regional Renaissance conference for 60 area educators on Jan. 9 from 8:30 to 3. Lafayette High School principal Dr. Dan Edwards will speak on his school's nationally-recognized Renaissance program. Central High also has a Renaissance program. the program recognizes and rewards academic excellence...

The Cape Girardeau Central Municipal pool will be open in January for public and fitness swimming. Public swimming times are Monday through Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Fitness swimming times are Monday through Friday from 5 to 7 a.m. and from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. On Saturday, fitness swimming is scheduled from 9 to 11 a.m...