Stories from Wednesday, November 27, 1996

Over at the Clampett residence, Thanksgiving dinner is a nightmare. Kids run all over the house while parents shout at them to sit still. There are three styles of flatware represented on the table -- Ma Clampett never replaces a whole set. Folks rush through their turkey dinners at breakneck speed and shout over each other to be heard...

By endorsing a new merit-pay policy, the Southeast Missouri State University Faculty Senate believes it has found a reasonable and fair method of handling a thorny issue. But passing the measure, which the group did Wednesday by an overwhelming majority, wasn't the biggest achievement. The most beneficial result, said Dr. David Naugler, Faculty Senate chairman, is a new spirit of cooperation between faculty and administration...

It was cold outside West Park Mall Tuesday night. Shoppers shivered as they rushed out of the warm shops and into waiting cars. But many Cape Girardeau residents deal with cold and other unpleasant sensations all winter long. They don't have money to pay utility bills, cook traditional Christmas feasts or buy prescription medications...

FRUITLAND -- Fourteen-year-old Martha Ann Huck can't help but feel a rush of emotion every time she hears the song, "Happy Trails." It was the song they played in January at the funeral of Gary McCauley, a man she considered as close as a grandfather. And it was the song they played much more recently when she and her horse, Boy He's Outrageous, won the Youth World Tennessee Walking Horse Grand Championship in Lewisburg, Tenn...

Mr. C is developmentally disabled and has had more than a dozen operations since 1990. Even so, he tries to live a fulfilling life on very little income. He loves to talk, and is a very gentle, friendly man. His only family is a sister who lives out of state. His only source of income is Social Security...

All they want for Christmas is anything. That's what many parents are requesting for their children this year. While many parents were specific about the gifts their children wanted from Toybox, many others said they just wanted their children to wake up to something on Christmas morning...

When Wal-Mart is sold out of mousetraps, you know you're in trouble. There's nothing quite like seeing a mouse in your home. You feel a little violated. It's YOUR home, gosh darn it, with cabinets full of YOUR food. Mice have no right to just come in and act like they own the place, making little mouse poops wherever they want...

THIS CALL is in response to the person who said he wasn't a Democrat or a liberal giving Clinton the credit for the end of welfare as we know it. I think they need to go back and read the past year's work through the Republican House and our buddy Newt. I think that's where the credit should go...

The biggest part of safety is eliminating or preventing dangerous situations. That is the thrust of a longstanding effort in Cape Girardeau known as the Community Traffic Safety Program. Now the program has been expanded to include other safety concerns, and it has a new name: Safe Communities Program...

Operations continue to appear muddled in the Missouri secretary of state's office. First there was Bekki Cook's handling of the House speaker's election that smacked of partisan politics. Then there was the bumbled state law that prevented Jo Ann Emerson from filing as a Republican in the special election to complete her late husband's unexpired term in Congress. ...

To the editor: A few months ago I heard a celebrity make a statement regarding a modern lifestyle which he said was now acceptable and approved. He claimed that promiscuity was now the "in" thing and popular. I hear that he has since died of AIDS. He claimed that everyone had to die sooner or later anyway. I thought of the kind of role model he was playing for the children and youth as well as for many adults in our day and time...

Christmas isn't all fun and games -- sometimes it's hours of high-impact shopping and package-juggling. Cape Girardeau firefighters want to help lighten the load. Every Friday and Saturday night from Nov. 29-Dec. 22, they will shuttle shoppers from four West Park Mall entrances to waiting cars...

MARBLE HILL -- Raymond E. Rhodes, 52, of Marble Hill died Tuesday, Nov. 25, 1996, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born April 6, 1944, near Lutesville, son of Joseph A. and Nancy J. Kirkpatrick Rhodes. He and Patty Ann Martin were married Aug. 16, 1969...

THOMASVILLE, Ga. -- Former Sikeston newspaper owner and publisher Charles Lee Blanton III lost his battle with cancer Monday at his home in Thomasville. He was 62. He was born July 15, 1934, in Cape Girardeau to Katherine and C.L. Blanton Jr. On Aug. 6, 1959, he married Cherie Lee in Charleston. She survives of the home...

SIKESTON -- Graveside service for L.J. Farley, 73, of Sikeston will be held at 1:30 p.m. today at Hagy Cemetery in Dexter. The Rev. J.L. Wells will officiate. Friends may call at Watkins and Sons Funeral Home in Morehouse after 11:30 a.m. Farley, 73, died Monday, Nov. 25, 1996, at Missouri Delta Medical Center...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Viola Victoria Stuart, 71, of Cairo died Monday, Nov. 25, 1996, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo. She was born Feb. 10, 1925, in Wetaug, daughter of Charles and Zella Sowers DeWitt. She married William R. Stuart. Stuart was a retired seamstress, and member of Immanuel Baptist Church...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Funeral service for Arno C. Thomure of East Prairie will be held at 1 p.m. today at Shelby Funral Home in East Prairie. Bobby Mouser and Winfred Wren will officiate, with burial in Dogwood Cemetery. Thomure, 75, died Monday, Nov. 25, 1996, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Nora Elizabeth Burnes, 76, of East Prairie died Tuesday, Nov. 26, 1996, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born Oct. 8, 1920, in Wann, Okla., daughter of George Washington and Susanna Beatrice Baldwin Wiggins. She and Willie M. Burnes were married Nov. 18, 1941, at Charleston. He died June 10, 1993...

JACKSON -- Funeral service for Emma Drucille Volz of Jackson will be held at 1 p.m. today at Cracraft-Miller Funeral Chapel. The Rev. Jeff Militti will officiate, with burial in Russell Heights Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home from 8 a.m. to service time...

PERRYVILLE -- Dr. Oscar A. Carron, 94, of Perryville died Tuesday, Nov. 26, 1996, at Perry County Nursing Home. He was born Nov. 3, 1902, in Ste. Genevieve, son of Andrew and Anna Schilly Carron. He and Anne M. Eisenbeis were married Oct. 29, 1932. Carron graduated from St. Louis University Medical School in 1929...

TAMMS, Ill. -- Florence Cauble, 83, of Tamms died Monday, Nov. 25, 1996, at the Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau, Mo. She was born May 28, 1913, at Mill Creek, daughter of Amos and Nellie Poole Baldwin. She and Norman F. "Chick" Cauble were married Dec. 21, 1928. He died Dec. 9, 1991...

Funeral service for Velma Pearl Pazkiewicz of St. Louis will be held at noon today at Kutis Funeral Home in St. Louis. Burial will be at 3 p.m. in St. Martin Cemetery at Starkenburg, with the Rev. Thomas Seifner officiating. Pazkiewicz, 71, died Monday, Nov. 25, 1996, at the Lutheran Home...

BLOOMFIELD -- Funeral service for Clennie Alma Williams of Bloomfield will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Chiles-Cooper Funeral Home. The Rev. Cletis Powell will officiate, with burial in West Antioch Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home from 6-8 p.m. Thursday...

WILSON CITY -- Lula May Newman, 76, of Wilson City, died Saturday Nov. 23, 1996, at the Charleston Manor Nursing Center. She was born Nov. 10, 1920, in Senatobia, Miss., daughter of Pearl Smith and the late Isa Hill. She is survived by several nieces and nephews...

For readers who expressed a wish to read Effie Leland Wilder's "Over What Hill?," reviewed in our last column, the book will soon be available through the Cape Girardeau Public Library. "Over What Hill?," as our readers learned, is a sequel to "Out to Pasture (But Not Over the Hill)," which is also in our local library unless it has gone the way of sticky-fingered autograph collectors. ...