Stories from Monday, August 26, 1996

It should come as no surprise that a report last week by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that drug use by U.S. teen-agers increased by 78 percent from 1992 to 1995. Young people, after all, are the primary targets not only of those who push illegal drugs but the industries that sell alcohol and tobacco -- the so-called legal drugs -- as well...

The 10th annual reunion of all employees of the former Jackson Hosiery Mill will be held Sept. 7 in North Cape County Park. The 11 a.m. event will be held at Shelter 5 with a basket dinner scheduled for noon. Those attending should bring food, table-service, beverages and lawn chairs, and pictures of the mill if they have any...

Lowe's home improvement centers are expanding in Southern Illinois. A 160,000-square-foot supercenter is under construction at Carbondale, and the company recently announced that a similar-sized store will be built on a 16-acre plat just west of Interstate 57-U.S. 15 at Mount Vernon...

D&K Wholesale Drug Inc. sales were down 3.8 percent, but net earnings were up for the first quarter of fiscal 1997, ended June 30. Net sales were $106,234,000, down from the $110,463,000 for the same period a year ago. Net earnings for the quarter were $113,000, or 4 cents a share, compared to $34,000 or a cent a share during the first quarter of 1996...

Wal-Mart reported strong earnings for the May-June-July quarter. Wal-Mart had net income of $706 million, or 31 cents a share, up from the $633 million, or 28 cents a share, during the same quarter in 1995. Sales for the quarter were reported at $25.6 billion, up from $22.7 billion during the same period a year ago...

Jackson School District general obligation bonds will be available through a number of investment companies. Local investors may contact area stock brokers for an opportunity to invest in the bond issue, which passed in the Aug. 6 election. Voters passed a $7.8 million bond issue to fund an addition to North Elementary School, a new high school math and science building and a new South Elementary School...

Schnucks Markets Inc., which operates a total of 71 full-service pharmacies in four states, has initiated a new certified pharmacy technician program. To become certified for the program, Schnucks pharmacy technicians must pass a national test administered by the Professional Examination Service for the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board Inc...

Brown earnings on plus side The Brown Group Inc. earned $5.5 million during its second quarter. Brown, the company that has closed so many shoe-manufacturing facilities -- many of them in Southeast Missouri -- over the past decade, lost $8.4 million during the same quarter a year ago...

St. Francis Medical Center has added home health services to its health care services. The new department, St. Francis Medical Center Health Delivery-Home Health, recently received its license from the state and is certified by Medicare to provide the home health services in Cape Girardeau, Perry, Scott, Bollinger and Stoddard counties...

My Daddy's Cheesecake, a gourmet cheesecake business which was established almost a decade ago, is under new ownership. Wes Kinsey of Cape Girardeau, who has more than 20 years of experience in baking, and his wife, Ann, have purchased the downtown business, from Tom and Jane Harte and Joe and Lauchette Low...

Pedro's Handyman Service in Jackson has opened to serve the Cape Girardeau County area. Owner Pedro Ayuso, along with partner Ramona Harty, provide several services, including painting, sheet rocking, installing and cleaning gutters, concrete finishing and installing vinyl siding...

Mail Boxes Etc., a network of postal business and communications services, has opened in Sikeston. Julie Miles is manager of the new business at 941 E. Malone St. The center offers a number of consumer services including mailbox rental, stamps and metered mail, packaging and shipping via Post Office, UPS and Federal Express and MailCheck call-in service...

Minor's Harley-Davidson/Suzuki Sales Inc. has been recognized for a quarter-century of service to the motorcycle community. The Cape Girardeau company, 905 Enterprise, has received a "Longevity Award" from the Harley-Davidson Motor Co. Nick Minor accepted the award for his parents, Charles E. "Sonny" and Barb Minor, at the annual Harley-Davidson international conference, held recently at San Antonio...

George Treon of Hillsboro has joined Cape Toyota-Suzuki, 835 S. Kingshighway, as a salesmen. Treon has 23 years experience in auto sales, 11 of them with a Toyota dealership in St. Louis. Lynn Grant has joined the cardiac-pulmonary rehabilitation staff at Southeast Missouri Hospital...

Dwight Eisenhower's plan to establish a ribbon of highways that would move military troops and equipment efficiently around the country has been a godsend to travelers and the communities through which they pass. Forty years after construction of the nation's interstate highway system began on I-70 near St. ...

Mac Neilson used a scroll saw to cut fret work patterns out of six layers of wood during the craft show at West Park Mall. Sunflowers are in full bloom, and so is the arts and crafts business, in all their forms -- from T-shirts to teapots. Sunflowers are one of the most popular items sought by arts and crafts aficionados. ...

The nation's honey bees are working themselves to death. "Bees don't give up," said Ray Nabors, an area extension entomologist for the University of Missouri. "You turn a colony of bees loose on a flowering crop and they won't quit until they have worked the entire crop."...

There won't be any metal detectors at the doors or security guards roaming the hallways between classes, but Southeast Missouri schools should be safer this year. A new law designed to promote school safety will require few changes in Southeast Missouri school districts when it takes effect Wednesday...

This year's House of Prayer Jam Fest basketball tournament at Indian Park had something for everyone. Saturday and Sunday offered barbecue, live gospel music, a playground for the kids, some basketball celebrities, give-aways, contests and of course some of the area's best basketball players...

I was on my way to work one morning and noticed a boy, about 6 or so, rollerblading in the street. He called out "Hey!" to another boy, maybe 11 or 12, hurried up to him and asked if he wanted to play. Then the negotiations began. The older boy wanted to know what grade the younger one was in, what he liked to do and so on...

In an effort to create interest in beekeeping, the University of Missouri will present a short course on beginning beekeeping this fall. A special meeting is set for 1 p.m. Oct. 4, at the Ramada Inn in Jefferson City. University of Missouri extension service entomologist Ray Nabors also suggest a couple of MU publications, "Beekeeping Tips for the Beginner" and "Seasonal Apiary Management for Missouri," which are available at most county extension centers...

There is a delightful scene in Oscar Wilde's "An Ideal . Husband" that goes: . Lord Caversham: "Do you always really understand what you say, sir?" Lord Goring: "Yes, father, if I listen attentively." If Wilde were around to observe life in America in 1996, he would probably modernize the dialogue, but since he has long departed, let me offer a revision:...

BEKKI COOK says she has restored credibility in her office. I think she needs a new motto. She certainly has not restored credibility. Her first day on job she acted without integrity. After a vote was for speaker of the House and her crony, Bob Griffith, lost, she held the voting open allowing liberal Democrats to twist more arms. ...

This week the Southeast Missourian asked, "What are you going to do Labor Day weekend?" Jerry Duley, Gordonville, "Fishing over at our place at Kentucky Lake." Jake Ruebel, Cape Girardeau "I'm going to drive my car around a lot and look for something to do because my girlfriend is probably working."...

BENTON -- Every year about this time the citizens of Benton welcome about 3,000 new friends to their neighborhood. Beginning around 1941 and resuming in the mid 1960s after a 20-year absence, Benton has had a Neighbor Day celebration. This year's, the 28th annual, will feature only one significant change over that of years past -- there will be a mini-tractor pull for the kids Saturday at 2 p.m...

CHAFFEE -- Myrtie Mae Schoen, 81, of Chaffee, died Sunday, Aug. 25, 1996, in her car near Arbor. She was born Sept. 10, 1914, in Chaffee, daughter of the late Joseph and Mary Blanche Finley King. She married Harold Michael Schoen on July 16, 1932. He died Feb. 9, 1975...

SEDGEWICKVILLE -- Dennis Orville Seabaugh, 81, of Sedgewickville, died Sunday, Aug. 25, 1996, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. He was born July 20, 1915, in Cape Girardeau County, the son of the late Jesse and Myrtle Seabaugh. He was a farmer in Sedgewickville and a member of Sergeants Chapel Lutheran Church. His wife, Beatrice Ruehling Seabaugh, died May 18, 1973...

PERRYVILLE -- Arthur D. Statler, 83, of Perryville died Saturday, Aug. 24, 1996, at Perry Oaks Health Center. He was born Nov. 19, 1912, in Lixville, the son of Barney C. and Mary J. Fellows Statler. Statler was a member of the Sedgewickville Methodist Church...

SCOTT CITY -- Edward "Jack" Gage, 80, of Scott City died Sunday, Aug. 25, 1996, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. Arrangement are incomplete with McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston.

Blanche Senn, 92, of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, Aug. 24, 1996, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. She was born Sept. 3, 1903, in Leora, the daughter of R.H. and Clara Goforth Wilborn. She first married Marvin Allen in 1924, and he died in 1932. She then married John Senn in 1939, and he died in 1947...

MARBLE HILL -- Azilea Rhodes, 78, of Marble Hill died Sunday, Aug. 25, 1996, at Bond Nursing Center. She was born March 18, 1918, in Scopus, the daughter of Ernest and Della Limbaugh Mayfield. On Nov. 20, 1937, she married E.J. "Jim" Rhodes, who died June 4, 1966...

GREENVILLE -- Verla M. Tedford, 59, of rural Greenville died Saturday, Aug. 24, 1996, at Doctor's Regional Medical Center in Poplar Bluff. She was born Jan. 29, 1937, in Dexter, the daughter of Frank and Jaunita Duffie Johnson. On April 9, 1955, in Union City, Tenn., she married Orville J. Tedford...

Area residents can begin picking up free tickets Tuesday to see President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore as they pass through the area. The candidates and their wives are expected to fly from Chicago, the site of the Democratic National Convention, to Cape Girardeau on Friday. They possibly may stop at Capaha Park around 10:30 a.m., but no definite places or times have been released...

The American Queen won't dock in downtown Cape Girardeau Wednesday because of the low water conditions of the Mississippi River. Only one more docking of the "Queens" is on the 1996 schedule for Cape Girardeau. The Delta Queen visits between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. Sept. 8...

A 240-acre industrial site in Nash Road Industrial Park is listed for sale in New America Network's National Sealed Bid Event, a list of 48 properties in 20 states. The property described in the 58-page publication is leased for farming purposes that generate $16,500 a year. However, the lease may be canceled by either party with a 60-day notice...

FENTON -- Clyde Kenneth Long Sr., 64, of Fenton died Saturday, Aug. 24, 1996, at his home following a lengthy illness. He was born Dec. 11, 1931, in Marquand, the son of Arch and Zelma Lee Killian Long. Long worked for the Laclede Gas Co. in St. Louis and was a former vice president of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Local...