Stories from Sunday, April 14, 1996

Missouri's budget is taking final shape, as the Senate has completed action on all 12 House bills that make it up. A House-Senate conference committee is at work ironing out differences. This is the only truly indispensable piece of business before lawmakers. They could adjourn without passing any of the other hundreds of bills before them, but the budget is an inescapable constitutional obligation...

Unlike the upcoming summer Olympic games in Atlanta, nobody built an entire village or carried a torch cross country, but these athletes didn't seem upset: They knew they were all winners. Most of the 250 athletes at the Area 9 Special Olympics Saturday were just excited about being able to compete in the local track and field games. About half will advance to state competition May 16-18 at Fort Leonard Wood...

Agenda, Monday, April 15 High School Library, 7 p.m. -- Approve grant proposals due April 30. -- Approve school calendar 1996-97. -- School program presentations -- Superintendent's report with information bond proposal, MSIP and kindergarten enrollment...

BENTON -- Kenneth Bullard was recently hired as the managing director of the New Madrid-Scott counties Enhanced 911 system. He took office April 1. Bullard has almost 20 years experience in emergency services dispatching. He worked at the Cape Girardeau County/City dispatch center as a systems manager until taking this job...

Winners of the annual District Vocational Agriculture and FFA Judging contests at Southeast Missouri State University have been announced. First- and second-place finishers by high school: - Jackson, first in agriculture mechanics, forestry, meats, and second in dairy cattle and entomology...

Will Lofdahl, who has handled the Show Me Center's marketing and operations duties for the past four years, has been hired to manage the sales and marketing department for the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Wash. Lofdahl will oversee sales and marketing for the city of Tacoma's public assembly facilities. They include a 23,000-seat arena, a 30,000-square-foot exhibit hall and Cheney stadium, home to Tacoma's AAA baseball team...

Burnett's shop, the Personal Touch, has many crafty items, including these dolls. This horse was hand carved by Burnett's father. Burnett also provides wedding items including these candelabras. These cowboy and cowgirl dolls can be seen at the Personal Touch...

Mike Norton of Fruitland and Lester Wilfong of Millersville lay bricks for a home being built on Main Street by long-time Jackson builder William Penrod. Norton laid the bricks in near-70 degree weather last Wednesday. Both he and Wilfong are employed by Morton Brick Laying...

The James Gang is expected to rob the St. Louis Iron Mountain steam train in Jackson, Saturday and Sunday, April 13 and 14. The train departs the depot Saturday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and on Sunday at 1 and 3 p.m. The James Gang has been a part of the special events held at the train for over five years. This notorious bunch of "bad guys" are the Bollinger County Posse. In reality they are a search and rescue organization and are affiliated with teh county sheriff's department...

Lancaster practices for hours to perfect his magic tricks, like balancing a pen with one finger. Since his heart transplant, Lancaster has had time to enjoy life. One of his favorite things to do is play his banjo while his wife crochets. Bob Lancaster has been given a second chance at life...

To the editor: In this election year we often hear the terms liberal and conservative tossed around, and sometimes it may be easy to become confused or uncertain as to what these terms really mean. Perhaps it might be helpful to provide a definition that gives a better sense of their meaning...

ONCE AGAIN controversy surrounds the possible increase in minimum wage. There's been no increase in minimum wage since 1991. In this period of time, the government cost of living index has gone up about 3 percent each year for a total of 12 percent. ...

On television this week, I saw a news report relating the story of a lesbian "wedding" held in Carbondale, Ill., a few days ago. So do San Francisco mores, after a fashion, arrive in the heartland. Do we really want to go down this road? Shouldn't we pause and think long and hard before doing so? For several thousand years, marriage has been understood to be a solemn contract between a man, a woman and their God, sanctioned by the state, whose principal reason for being is procreation and the nurturing of children. ...

A family loads its sparse furniture in the back of a horse-drawn wagon, readying for a trip that will take them to an unknown but hopefully friendlier environment. ... A middle-aged woman forages in a garbage can, searching for discarded scraps of food to help feed her children. .....

With a scant five weeks remaining in this year's legislative session of the Missouri General Assembly, time grows short for the hundreds of bills that were introduced in January. For at least the third year in a row, an effort to extend to Missourians the right to apply to law enforcement officials to carry a concealed weapon is apparently dying on the third floor of the Capitol. ...

A science workshop will be held April 25 at 7 p.m. at the Center for Child Studies at Southeast Missouri State University. The workshop, titled "Science: Exploring, Discovering and Experimenting," is for home and center child-care providers, early childhood teachers, students and parents...

SCOTT CITY -- Gertrude E. Drake, 86, of Scott City died Saturday, April 13, 1996, at Fountainbleau Lodge in Cape Girardeau. She was born Jan. 26, 1910, at Muskogee, Okla., daughter of Louis H. and Lydia L. Will Reidling. She married George A. Drake July 28, 1929, at Illmo. He died Feb. 13, 1964...

ALTON, Ill. -- Mary Jo Francis, 65, of Alton, formerly of Cape Girardeau, died Wednesday, April 10, 1996, at the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy. She was born March 10, 1931, at Cape Girardeau, daughter of Lee Roy and Myrtle Smith. She worked at St. Francis Hospital before moving to Alton in 1953...

BLOOMFIELD -- Laura Katharine Crosser, 96, a lifelong resident of Bloomfield, died Friday, April 12, 1996, at her home. She was born April 13, 1899, daughter of James Boyd and Nina Duncan Buck. She was a member of the First Christian Church at Bloomfield and PEO Chapter DZ...

A couple of weeks ago I watched an entertaining movie called "The Brothers McMullen." It's an interesting story about three brothers and their lives as Irish-Americans. These brothers didn't get along very well and that reminded me of my brothers. As children, my brothers and I never really got along either...

If you and/or your spouse have itemized deductions on your ERA, EIC, and UFO, and line 61 is greater than the square root of line 62, add lines 63 and 64, subtract the factorial roots of all these numbers, and write them in quadratic-equation form on line 71. This is your nonstandard deduction-pension redemption-exemption puny little income...

William Smith Criddle, 96, of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, April 13, 1996, at the Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau. He was born Dec. 9, 1899, in Oak Ridge to William Smith and Minnie Mae Davenport Criddle. He married Verda Irene Stroder on Nov. 25, 1920, in Hickory Grove. She survives...

Idell Pridy Sitzes of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, April 13, 1996. She was born to Thomas Jefferson and Alice Pridy at Castor. She married Paul Sitzes on Dec. 22, 1934, at Fredericktown. He died Jan. 9, 1973. Survivors include a sister, Thelma Pridy Bollinger of Cape Girardeau, and several nieces and nephews...

Army Pvt. Thor Edward Roempagel has graduated from basic military training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. During the training, students received instruction in drill and ceremonies, weapons, map reading, tactics, military courtesy, military justice, first aid, and Army history and traditions. Roempagel is the son of Kyong A. and Thomas E. Roempagel of Cape Girardeau. He is a 1995 graduate of Jackson High School...

Navy Airman Aaron D. Wunderlich, son of James and Marian Wunderlich of Jackson, is in the Western Pacific Ocean near the island of Taiwan aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. Wunderlich is one of more than 5,000 sailors and Marines abord the carrier providing a naval presence in international waters. Wunderlich's ship is monitoring the military exercises and missile firings that the People's Republic of China has been conducting in the waters around Taiwan...

CHAFFEE -- Glenda Ray LaGrand, 59, of Chaffee died Friday, April 12, 1996, at Heartland Care Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born March 15, 1936, to William and Winnie Barker LaGrand in Painton. Survivors include a brother, Marvin LaGrand of Chaffee; four sisters, Thelma Unfleet of Advance, Elma Head of Prudenville, Mich., and Marie Robinson and Faye Heath, both of Chaffee...

CHARLESTON -- Nola Louise Taylor, 83, of Charleston died Thursday, April 11, 1996, at Pemiscot Memorial Health Systems in Hayti. She was born July 30, 1912, at Cottonwood Point. She married Robert Lee Taylor at Blytheville, Ark., on Dec. 9, 1931. He died April 13, 1981...

Erna Louise Stone, 86, of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, April 13, 1996, at Southeast Missouri Hospital after an extended illness. She was born April 19, 1909, in Gordonville, daughter of William C. and Minnie Volkerding Wessel. She and Charles W. Priest were married Oct. 29, 1930. She later married Richard F. Stone May 30, 1958. Both preceded her in death...

SIKESTON -- Eunice Patricia "Patty" Britt, 46, of Sikeston died Saturday, April 13, 1996, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston following an extended illness. She was born Oct. 26, 1949, in Oran to Louella Goodwin Dowdy and the late James Thomas Dowdy...

Practice random kindness and acts of senseless beauty. -- Anne Herbert In a little less than a month, a remarkable happening will unfold in the Cape Girardeau area. Random Acts of Kindness Week will be observed locally May 12-18. It kicks off, appropriately, on Mother's Day...

Amusement parks, no. Museums, parks and monuments, yes. That is one way to summarize what is available for the spur of the moment, drive-by visitor to Cape Girardeau. It isn't always easy being a lone tourist in the Cape Girardeau area. The attractions are there, tourism officials say, but getting to them can sometimes be tricky...

The race is over, but supporters of Pat Buchanan aren't standing on the sidelines. Buchanan loyalists battled Bob Dole supporters Saturday in nine congressional district caucuses across Missouri to select delegates to the GOP national convention in San Diego...

JACKSON -- A meandering creek is eroding the St. Louis Iron Mountain Railway's business. Williams Creek is washing out in several places, which means the tourist railway is closed to passenger traffic from Delta to Dutchtown. George Peo, president of the railway, said that approximately 10 of the railway's 19 miles of track are closed to passenger traffic because of erosion caused by Williams Creek...

The rank-and-file members of the Cape Girardeau Police Department realize that their's often is a thankless job. Most residents rarely give a thought to the police, unless there is a problem -- they become victims of a crime or are involved in an accident, for example...

Todd Sides, a sophomore at Jackson High School, has osteopetrosis a rare bone disease that causes them easily break and retards growth. Sides is also blind. Sides does his schoolwork by braille via computer. Sides got to sit in an airplane earlier this month, but the strong wind forced the flight to be postponed...

Just one bit of a crispy brown, fried morel mushroom can be dangerous. Their fabulous flavor can turn the unsuspecting person into a mushroom fanatic. That's what happened to me: I've been a mushroom hunter ever since my father forked a couple of them onto my plate some 25 years ago...

JEFFERSON CITY -- Every year during Missouri's spring turkey hunting season, several hunters are injured in firearms hunting accidents. Most are wounded by shotgun pellets when they are mistaken for game. A few die. It doesn't have to be that way, according to Bob Staton, protection programs supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC)...

JEFFERSON CITY -- After a long hard winter, spring has finally arrived. In the coming weeks we'll see more signs of the season, such as flowers in bloom and migrating birds. Hummingbirds are due back in the state around April 15, so now is a great time to prepare nectar feeders for their arrival...

The early cold spring days didn't faze the violets at all. Great intensive blue patches of them dot the yard. Here and there, as if buttoning down the violet patches, are the yellow dandelions. "Well, of course, they're yellow," you might say. But I have a point to make here. ...

Times, they are a-changin', and so is the Southeast Missourian newspaper. Leap Years ago -- as late as 1972 -- the paper ran lists of all the eligible bachelors reporters could find, along with the bachelors' ages, occupations and addresses. The tradition came all the way from medieval Scotland, when women were allowed to ask men to marry them during Leap Year. If a man was single and said no, he received a stiff fine...

Back when the local newspaper listed bachelors for single women's benefit, Cape Girardeau County Collector Harold Kuehle and Dr. Wendell Wyatt were regulars. Not anymore. Both made the list for the last time on Feb. 29, 1968. The names had an interesting introduction...

The SEMO Alliance for Disability Independents is seeking donations for a May 2 fund-raising auction. Proceeds will be used for such community service projects as building ramps for people with disabilities and assistance technology. All kinds of furniture, including lamps, are sought for the auction...

JACKSON -- The Riverside Regional Library will hold a book sale on April 27 during regular Saturday business hours, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The location of the sale has been moved this year to the library garage. Customers may enter the garage from the parking lot on the back side of the library...

Hundreds of volunteers were honored for their 1995 service to the 150 residents at the Cape Girardeau Missouri Veterans Home during Volunteer Appreciation Night held Friday. Veterans Home volunteers deliver ice and water each morning, deliver mail in the afternoon, operate the canteen and information desk, assist with outings and in-house activities, make personal visits and help in many other ways...

The City of Cape Girardeau in conjunction with area veterinarians will host the annual rabies clinic May 2 and 3 at Arena Park. The clinics will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Trinity Lutheran Men's Club shelter. Rabies shots cost $6 per animal and a city dog license is $1 each...