Stories from Thursday, July 18, 1996

Continental Divide will perform Saturday at the Grassy Mid-Summer Festival. Like many musicians, Don and Marge Ezell have other jobs. Both teach in the Van Buren schools. But 40 weekends a year they're off performing at a Midwest bluegrass festival as The Ezells...

SILVER DOLLAR CITY -- The first Missouri Kids State Finals, a talent show for kids, will be held July 26 at Silver Dollar City. The competition will be for ribbons, trophies, cash scholarships and performance opportunities. Winners will advance to the American Kids National Finals Aug. 9-10 in Oklahoma City...

The Internet hit Cape Girardeau full swing about one year ago, local communications consultants say. Now this new world of information transmission is making live voice communication possible. Internet phones, also called Web Phones and I-Phones, are "just a new toy for Internet users," said Kevin Goodier of Clas Computers in Cape Girardeau...

Almost four decades ago, when Lois Feigenbaum and Marge Loiseau learned to fly, piloting wasn't a popular pursuit for women. Feigenbaum was married to a pilot who encouraged her girlhood dream to be "just like Amelia Earhart." When she tried to register for lessons, the flight instructor at the Carbondale, Ill., airport wasn't quite as encouraging: He told her to go home and play bridge...

SIKESTON -- The Sikeston Board of Municipal Utilities would operate and maintain an additional 420-megawatt power unit at the Sikeston Power Plant if plans are worked out. The board entered into an agreement with Burns and McDonnell Engineering of Kansas City to pursue the development of a second unit at the Sikeston Power Station more than two months ago...

July 18, 1996 Dear Ken DC and I went to a cocktail party last weekend. Except that cocktail parties long ago became wine and cheese parties, which not only sounds nicer but seems to have cut down on the gin-soaked Virginia Woolf dramas. The new university president was there, being very amiable. ...

An car driven by an elderly Cape Girardeau woman swerved from the road at high speed and crashed into the side of a building in Broadway Wednesday, Cape Girardeau police said. It appeared the car actually was partially deflected from the building by a sign pole located just outside. The car, which was totaled, knocked the pole into the building, smashing bricks loose...

With the help of some crayons and a Polaroid camera, children preparing for kindergarten created personalized "kindergarten passports" that will help their soon-to-be teachers get to know them. The passports, which children constructed at Cape Girardeau's Public Health Department Wednesday included information from both kindergartners and their parents...

JACKSON -- From polymers to packaging, the Jackson Chamber of Commerce's Agri-Business Tour covered it all. Darrell Aufdenberg, chairman of the chamber's Agri-Business Committee, said a record 160 to 170 people took the tour, which covered Associated Sheet Metal, Knaup Greenhouses, Unistar, Fruitland Dressed Meats, Rapco and VIP Industries...

School children across the nation could be choosing their career path by the time the enter junior high school as part of the national School to Work program. But exactly how the federal program will work in Missouri is not clear, so graduate students at Southeast Missouri State University intend to find out today during a class discussion...

IN ANSWER to Dr. Wolfers' letter in the Missourian: Until he and the other doctors will give adequate pain control to their patients, I think they should keep their mouths shut about Dr. Kevorkian's suicide machine. When you go to a doctor and you ask for pain medicine, right away they act like you're an addict. ...

In addition to the many candidates wooing voters between now and the Nov. 5 general election, no fewer than four initiatives will likely appear on the ballot. Sifting through these issues can be as important as a vote for any candidate from the county courthouse to the national level. ...

To the editor: Missouri businesses are currently face with a most severe challenge to their ability to successfully compete against a growing list of national and international rivals. An initiative petition will be on the November ballot which would raise the state's minimum wage to the highest level in the nation: $6.25 in 1997, $6.50 in 1998, $6.75 in 1999 and 15 cents each year after the year 2000. ...

Southeast Missouri State University students will be able to keep up with campus activities on a student-run television channel. Student Government is setting up the channel, slated to be in operation by the middle of the fall semester. Bids for the equipment will be sought within a few weeks...

Don Davis will jet into Cape Girardeau from the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, area this weekend. Don Newcombe of Clearwater, Fla., will be in town. Ron Sells won't have to travel as far, but the Dexter antique car buff will be here. The attraction for these men, and hundreds of other serious antique and classic car enthusiasts, is the Smith Auction Company's Classic and Collector Car Auction to be held at the Show Me Center Saturday and Sunday...

ALTO PASS, Ill. -- Robert L. "Bob" Holderfield, 63, of Alto Pass, died Tuesday, July 16, 1996, at his home. He was born Sept. 26, 1932, in Cairo, son of Raymond and Alverda Pearman Holderfield. He and Helen Louise Bennett were married Aug. 10, 1956, in Cobden...

JACKSON -- Funeral service for Robert Scott Laves of Bowling Green, Ky., will be held at 11:30 a.m. today at J.C. Kirby and Son Funeral Home in Bowling Green. Burial will be in Booneville, Miss. Robert, 13 months, died Tuesday, July 16, 1996, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn...

Lila Mae Davis, 83, of Cape Girardeau, died Tuesday, July 16, 1996, at the Lutheran Home. She was born Sept. 8, 1912, in Fredonia, Kan., daughter of Harry and Alice Blizzard Hurlock. She married William L. Davis, who died in 1988. Davis was a graduate of Emporia State Teachers College in Emporia, Kan. She was an elementary teacher in Iola, Kan., 40 years. She moved to Cape Girardeau in 1988 from Olathe, Kan. She was a member of First Christian Church...

Daughter to Kevin DeLisle and Keiki Nicole Patterson of Jackson, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 9:25 a.m. Tuesday, July 9, 1996. Name, MacKenzie Nicole. Weight, 6 pounds 13 ounces. First child. Mrs. Patterson is the former Keiki McBride, daughter of Don and Judi McBride of Cape Girardeau. She is a department manager at Target. Patterson is the son of Gene and Yvonne Patterson of Cape Girardeau. He is a salesman with River Eagle Distributing...

State Sen. Peter Kinder will be guest speaker at the Missouri American Legion Convention here this weekend. Kinder will be the keynote speaker during the 10 a.m. Saturday session of the convention being held at the Holiday Inn. Kinder, a Republican, is of Cape Girardeau. He is the associate publisher of the Southeast Missourian...

The American Red Cross will conduct blood drives across the area in the next two weeks. Southeast Missouri Hospital will have a blood drive today from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from noon to 5 p.m. at meeting rooms 101 and 102 in the south corridor, 1701 Lacey...

TAMMS, Ill. -- Anna May Tatum, 75, of Tamms, died Tuesday, July 16, 1996, at Daystar Care Center in Cairo. She was born Jan. 31, 1921, in Elco, daughter of Leonard and Nellie Bridges Dillman. She and Clyde Tatum Sr. were married Dec. 3, 1936. He died April 17, 1968...