Stories from Friday, September 20, 1996

Jay Knudtson and Dan Muser like to talk about the newest Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation facilities to be available next year. The Osage Park Community Center, a 33,728-square-foot building, is expected to be ready by the first of the year, and the new Shawnee Park Softball Complex and Concession Building will be ready for the 1997 spring season...

The leading candidates in the 8th District congressional race are debating over debates. Despite weeks of negotiations, Democrat Emily Firebaugh and independent-Republican candidate Jo Ann Emerson haven't reached agreement on a series of debates. Both candidates fired verbal volleys at each other Thursday via faxes, accusing each other of holding up the debates...

JACKSON -- The Cape Girardeau County Commission voted Thursday to establish a Tax Increment Financing Commission and appointed six of the nine mandated members. The TIF Commission will meet for the first time next week. Only two reporters attended a public hearing on the proposed TIF district Thursday morning...

JACKSON -- Work started Thursday on the first in a series of road improvements as part of Cape Girardeau County's new long-range road plan. Apex Paving started paving County Road 253 between Highways A and N, and five other county roads will be paved this year, county commissioners said Thursday...

Dear Editor: It seems obvious that healthy competition can promote initiative and progress. Rivalry can also bring positive results if it doesn't deteriorate into animosity and hatred. An opponent doesn't have to be an enemy just because he may hold another point of view. One has to admit that an opponent may have a measure of truth...

Dear Editor: I don't appreciate KVFS-12 giving bad information about the Delta school. It's just as good as Jackson or Cape because we don't have the gangs or as much of the drugs in our school as they do in theirs. Also, I don't think it was right to interview the dropouts of Delta because some of them haven't even passed the eighth grade. Some of the students do care about their education and want to go on to college...

Dear Editor: In your Sept. 13 edition, you printed a letter that questions a letter I had written about the use of herbs and the FDA regulation of herbs. Perhaps because my original letter was so heavily edited, some of what was printed sounded like the ramblings of someone of very low intelligence...

There is nothing more shattering to a person's sense of security than a home break-in. This invasion of privacy becomes all the more offensive when the burglar strikes when people are home. Such is the modus operandi of a burglar targeting elderly people in Cape Girardeau. Police attribute at least eight burglaries since July to this brazen criminal...

ALTENBURG -- The East Perry Community Fair will kick off at 1:30 p.m. today with a parade down Main Street in Altenburg. Donald Welge, president and general manager of Gilster-Mary Lee Corp., will serve as grand marshall. A lifelong resident of Chester, Ill., he began working for the company in 1957...

A man was killed Wednesday night when the vehicle he was driving left the road and struck a tree in Pulaski County Illinois. Carl B. Lingle, 60, of Dongola, Ill., was pronounced dead at the scene of the single-car accident on Perks Road approximately three miles east of Highway 51 at 10:15 p.m...

PERRYVILLE -- James M. "Jim" Lakenan Jr., 70, of Perryville died Wednesday, Sept. 18, 1996, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born Jan. 4, 1926, in Perry County, son of James M. and Clara Hoff Lakenan Sr. He and Frances Clara Ponder were married June 14, 1947...

John William Lowell Jr., 18, of Cape Girardeau died Wednesday, Sept. 18, 1996, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. He was born July 7, 1978, in Centralia, Ill., son of John W. and Vanessa Ladd Lowell Sr. Lowell moved to Cape Girardeau in 1995 from Abilene, Texas, and attended Central High School...

ULLIN, Ill. -- Mary Marie Miller, 97, of Ullin died Wednesday, Sept. 18, 1996, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born Oct. 26, 1898, in Pulaski County, daughter of Robe and Stella Prick. She and Wayne Miller were married Aug. 11, 1918, in Elco. He died Dec. 2, 1985...

DONGOLA, Ill. -- Carl B. Lingle, 60, of Dongola died Wednesday, Sept. 18, 1996, as the result of an automobile accident in Pulaski County. He was born May 5, 1936, in Dongola, son of Raymond A. and Ellena Carney Lingle. Lingle was employed in the maintenance department of Allied Signal in Metropolis. He was a member of Masonic Lodge 822 in Belknap...

SIKESTON -- Terry Odell Miller, 45, of Laurel, Md., died Wednesday, Sept. 18, 1996, at University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore. He was born Sept. 12, 1951, in Sikeston, son of Odell and Betty Jane Davis Miller. He and Melba Jean Shirkey were married Nov. 26, 1983, at Morehouse...

Walter Raymond Davis, 87, 904 Melody Lane, died Thursday, Sept. 19, 1996, at St. Francis Medical Center. He was born Oct. 22, 1908, in Blossburg, Pa., son of David S. and Dora Bell Jessup Davis. He and Doris Alta Doud were married June 21, 1928, in Batavia, N.Y. She died July 17, 1984. He later married Margaret Bell Rogers July 26, 1986. She died June 1, 1994...

Mildred Makemson Low, 84, of Bartlesville, Okla., died Wednesday, Sept. 18, 1996, at her residence. She was born Nov. 29, 1911, in Parsons, Kan., to Charles and Anna Makemson. She received a nursing degree from the University of Kansas. She married Joseph H. Low on July 12, 1935. They lived in Coffeyville, Kan., for 40 years before retiring to Sun City, Ariz...