Stories from Saturday, March 16, 1996

DONGOLA, Ill. -- Ruth Hill, 88, of Albuquerque, N.M., formerly of Dongola, died Wednesday, March, 13, 1996, at Las Palomas Nursing Center in Albuquerque. She was born Nov. 28, 1907, at Danville, Kan., daughter of William Edwin and Ardella Almyra Steward Durst...

Three people were injured in two separate accidents Friday morning in which vehicles overturned. William Walker, 61, of Advance was in serious but stable condition Friday night at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Walker was flown by helicopter to the hospital following the accident, which occurred at 11:15 a.m. in Wayne County...

Daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Stacey E. Hart of Chesterfield, St. John's Mercy Hospital, 10:40 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 25, 1996. Name, Abigail Lauren. Weight, 6 pounds 8 ounces. First child. Mrs. Hart is the former Stephanie Fuemmeler, daughter of Dave and Sherie Fuemmeler of Cape Girardeau. She is office manager at Today's Temporary. Hart is the son of Ed and Mary Jane Hart of Cape Girardeau. He is sales engineer with Electro Rep in St. Louis...

PUXICO -- Allen Dale Potter, 66, of Puxico, died Thursday, March 14, 1996, at John J. Pershing VA Medical Center in Poplar Bluff. Watkins and Sons Funeral Home at Puxico is in charge of arrangements.

JACKSON -- Mildred Pauline Ruesler, 80, of Jackson, died Thursday, March 14, 1996, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born Feb. 15, 1916, at Perryville, daughter of Herbert and Hedwig Frentzel Klaus. She and Edmund "Bud" Ruesler were married April 29, 1934, at Uniontown. He died July 28, 1988...

KEWANEE -- Mary K. Copeland, 51, of Kewanee, died Thursday, March 14, 1996, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born Nov. 28, 1944, in Roswell, N.M., daughter of M.H. and Anna Marie Smith Harless. She and Mathis Copeland Jr. were married June 2, 1961...

ADVANCE -- Opal R. Lewis, 82, of Lindale, Texas, died Wednesday, March 13, 1996, at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler. She was born Dec. 22, 1913, in Advance, daughter of Jim and Nealy Stroup Richmond. She married Dean E. Lewis. Lewis was a member of Advance United Methodist Church...

MATTHEWS -- Mary M. Atchley, 87, of Matthews, died Friday, March 15, 1996, at Sells Rest Home here. She is the mother of Dr. Bill Atchley, president of Southeast Missouri State University. Ford and Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Fred W. Kurre Jr., 78, of Clearwater, Fla., died Friday, March 15, 1996, at Morton Plant Mease Healthcare. Ford and Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Henry C. Voss, 66, 1645 N. Spanish, died Friday, March 15, 1996, at his home. Ford and Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Funeral service for Mamie Anna Elizabeth Boswell of Reno, Nev., will be held at 1:30 p.m. Monday at Ford and Sons Sprigg Street Chapel. The Rev. William Dickey will officiate, with burial in Memorial Park. Friends may call at the chapel from 4-7 p.m. Sunday...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The grand master of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Missouri died Wednesday. Visitation for James H. Cobban of Springfield will be held Sunday. The Masonic Grand Lodge oversees some 60,000 Masons in Missouri. Jess Hopple, a past master of St. Mark's Lodge in Cape Girardeau, expects a large number of Masons from across the state to pay tribute to Cobban in Springfield...

After a high-jumper clears the bar, the best thing his coach or trainer can do is raise the bar, says motivational speaker Bill Sanders. Teachers, likewise, should strive to be "bar-tenders," always raising the expectations of their students, he said...

Sheri Rose Shepherd is familiar with experiences of students at Mid-America Teen Challenge. Shepherd, of Scottsdale, Ariz., and 1994-95 Mrs. United States of America, was guest speaker during the 11th annual Teen Challenge Fund-Raising Banquet Friday night at the Show Me Center...

When Fred Schmucker was a teen-ager, he traded chores at a little airport in Canton, Ohio, for flying lessons. "We had no paved runways at the airport," recalled Schmucker, 66, of Cape Girardeau. So he used the little tractor from the family farm to keep the runways mowed...

There's only one friend from junior high school who still speaks to me regularly. The law of averages probably comes into play here. I didn't make friends with many people in school, and the few friendships I had died of natural causes -- graduation, marriages, job transfers, criminal convictions, you know how it goes...

I NEED an answer. Why are a few states such as Kentucky called a commonwealth instead of a state? Please give answer in Speak Out. REPLY: This sounds like a student trying to find an easy way to complete a homework assignment, which really isn't the purpose of Speak Out. ...

Children in the United States should learn English before any other language, that was message Friday from Rep. Bill Emerson's chief of staff, Lloyd Smith. Smith addressed a meeting of the Southeast Missouri English Teachers Association at Southeast Missouri State University. The meeting coincided with this week's release of the "Standards for English Language Arts," a publication of standards compiled by the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association...

A section of South Sprigg was closed to traffic Thursday as a contractor began work to see that the road remains open in future floods. Mississippi River floodwaters have regularly closed a low-lying section of South Sprigg over the years. But a $573,450 project to elevate the roadway from Vine to LaCruz streets should keep the street high and dry in the future, city officials said...

JACKSON -- City leaders mingled with the public Friday at the Jackson City Hall open house, beaming like proud parents and pointing out all the building's special features. The city left the old City Hall on South High Street Dec. 29 and opened at the Court Street building on Jan. 2. The new building, formerly occupied by Boatmen's Bank, had been appraised at more than $1 million. The city paid $625,000 for it and invested another $125,000 in renovations and furnishings...

As so often happens, there are trade-offs with development and progress in a city. In Cape Girardeau, a new Highway 74, which eventually will connect Interstate 55 on the city's west end with a new Mississippi River bridge to Illinois, is a fine example of a multilane highway that opens up for development a large portion of southwest Cape Girardeau. The route also adds another east-west arterial route for Cape Girardeau. Such existing routes are among the most congested in the city...

In three years, pediatrician Dr. James Hoffman saw plenty of sick children. He also saw an epidemic of paperwork and other administrative duties because he was in solo practice. "With increasing government regulation of medicine and that kind of thing, I just found myself doing more and more of the business end of the practice," recalled Hoffman. "I wanted to devote more time to medicine and my patients."...