Stories from Sunday, December 22, 1996

House Speaker Steve Gaw has taken a praiseworthy step in ending tax-paid trips to the presidential inauguration for selected members of the Missouri House. For years, seven representatives and seven senators have had the benefit of trips to the quadrennial inauguration on the taxpayers' tab -- just a little perk, hidden away in a $14 billion state budget, but one that wouldn't pass a reasonable cost-benefit analysis. ...

This week's show was done without Grant Gillard, pastor of First Presbyterian church, being present. (Left to right) Scott Lohse, Conway Briscoe, pastor of Zion United Methodist church and Rev. J. Friedel, director of Catholic campus ministry. (Left to right) Conway Briscoe, Rev. J. Friedel, Jan Whitehouse, KUGT station manager, and Scott Lohse discuss the show on Wednesday...

Additional Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers will be out patrolling Missouri's roadways during the holidays in hopes it will lead to safer holidays this year. Last year seven people were killed over the Christmas holiday, and 11 people died over the New Year's holiday in traffic crashes on Missouri's roadways...

Three separate motor vehicle accidents Friday and Saturday resulted in the deaths of five area residents. The accidents took place over a six-hour period in Scott and Cape Girardeau counties. The first incident occurred at 6:47 p.m. Friday on Route M, two miles east of Chaffee...

IF YOU have made the ride from the mall for the Holiday of Lights tour, it's wonderful. Thank you, everyone, for putting it together for those of us who do not know our way around town. I enjoyed the ride. I AM extremely annoyed with the greediness of both KFVS-TV and TCI. ...

The Clinton administration avoided an internal bloodletting when Richard Holbrooke was not selected as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Holbrooke's first goal was to be named secretary of state, with the U.N. post being something of a consolation prize. Now that he won't get that position either, his legacy for the time being will be the Bosnian cease-fire, but that legacy is a mixed one...

And it came to pass that Joseph and his espoused wife, Mary, being great with child, came unto their own city to be taxed. And lo, a star appeared in the East. The family had just moved into a home in a neighborhood some distance from their older, more dilapidated residence, and both had expressed the hope that, in this new location, they would find the peace and happiness that had eluded them since they had married and produced their first child. ...

Although no facts related here were disputed, this column has recently been taken to task for certain comments made about our first lady. Anyone so inclined should make two items required reading. Both are chilling indictments of the current administration. Both are delivered by Democrats. One is from a long-time Clinton associate...

Vice President Dan Mehan of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce called, during a visit to Cape Girardeau last week, for much-needed reforms in Missouri's civil justice system. Specifically, Mehan urged reform in an area of the law called venue, having to do with what lawyers call "forum shopping." The chamber is joining with other business groups to form the Civil Justice Reform Coalition to push for changes...

To the editor: Two thousand years ago, the wise men found the precious baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. He was sent here to set an example for the world to know there is love, peace and joy. Two thousand years later, other caring and wise people have found precious babies wrapped not in swaddling clothes but in paper or plastic either dead or barely alive lying in trash dumpsters...

It all started when their son went nuts when he saw homes decorated for Christmas. That's when Randy and Rhonda Welker began making Christmas yard ornaments. Their son Ryan now five can step outside when he wants to see a house beautifully decorated for Christmas...

The attic of the home has produced a treasure of documents and artifacts from the late 1800's and early 1900's. McCLURE, Ill. -- All his life Charles Webb knew he was going to inherit his family home here. Now that he has it, he realizes restoring the home will be a lifelong mission...

Privately run prisons and/or jails are one of the nation's newest growth industries. Corrections management corporations today operate private facilities housing more than 70,000 prisoners in 18 states. A decade ago, in 1986, only 2,620 inmates were housed in such facilities...

For a number of Cape Girardeau students, dropping out of high school seems to be mandatory. They feel they cannot make it in the school system, and since they can't keep up, they may as well give up. Cape Girardeau's high school drop-out rate was 11.7 percent for the 1995-96 school year. This is more than 5 percentage points higher than the statewide average, and some former students said there is a simple reason for the higher numbers: economics...

JACKSON -- To foster an exchange of cultures and ideas between the Old World and the new, efforts are under way to establish a formal relationship between the city of Jackson and the oldest city in Denmark. The Jackson Board of Aldermen agreed Monday to explore the possibility of becoming "sister cities" with Ribe, Denmark...

When you have young children, Christmas Eve is household chaos. You know the poem. You hear it every Christmas. But from this dad's perspective, Clement Moore's "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" just doesn't ring true. When you have young children, Christmas Eve isn't a time of peace; it's household chaos...

Soon Christmas will have come and gone and by the New Year you might be wondering what to do with your Christmas trees. Recycling your Christmas trees into your pond can create fish attractors. Fish attractors are elements in or near the water that provide valuable fish habitat. ...

JEFFERSON CITY -- Need a few good tips on the best places to pursue your favorite fish in Missouri? Then check out the 1997 Fishing Prospects report from the Missouri Department of Conservation. It has detailed information on prospects for fishing success at 22 streams and 58 lakes across the state...

WEST ALTON, Mo. -- Birdwatchers near here are growing accustomed to seeing huge white birds at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Riverlands wildlife refuge along the Mississippi in December. Waterfowl hunters at Truman Lake are noticing the same, huge, snow-white birds each winter, and so are winter residents at Lake of the Ozarks. The sightings are the beginning of what hopefully will become a Christmas tradition in Missouri -- the annual return of the trumpeter swans...

PERRYVILLE -- Mary Naomi Schaaf of Perryville died Friday, Dec. 20, 1996, at the Perry County Nursing Home. She was born May 23, 1925, in Perry County to Harry Odine and Elsie Mary Laws Tucker. On July 24, 1943, she married Alvin Wilson "Mousie" Schaaf, who died June 23, 1989...

Hyang Kuk Mauk, 50, of Tallapoosa died Friday, Dec. 20, 1996, at St. Francis Medical Center. She was born Sept. 24, 1946, daughter of Kim Kahn Na and Yang In Suk. Survivors include a fiance, Jim Paskel of Tallapoosa; a son James T. Mauk of Jackson; a daughter, Tracy M. Hankins of Kennett; four sisters, Yang Chung Ja, Yang Kyung Ja, Yang Chung Suk and Yang Kyung Sun, all of the Republic of South Korea; and three grandchildren...

Kathryne Ann Clark, 91, of Cape Girardeau and formerly of Sikeston, died Saturday, Dec. 21, 1996, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at Nunnelee Funeral Chapel in Sikeston.

DEXTER -- Lydia Mae Fortner, 86, of Dexter died Saturday, Dec. 21, 1996, at Vintage Villa Nursing Center in Dexter. She was born Oct. 28, 1910, at Eupora, Miss., daughter of James Frank and Lillie Verona Miles McCain. She and Lonnie E. Fortner were married Dec. 26, 1925, at Oseola, Ark. He died Dec. 24, 1968...

Cecelia M. Marrs, 85, of Perryville died Friday, Dec. 20, 1996, at Perry Oaks Nursing Center in Perryville. She was born Nov. 12, 1911, in St. Louis to Francis and Ellen Friel. On Nov. 24, 1930, in St. Louis, she married Reaves Carl "Ray" Marrs, who died in 1986...

MARBLE HILL -- R. Frank Welker, 44, of Marble Hill died Saturday, Dec. 21, 1996, near Gordonville. He was born April 23, 1952, near Bessville to Pete and Wilma Cook Welker. He was employed at the Angelbeck Lumber Co. at Patton. Survivors include his father and stepmother, Bessie Welker, of Marble Hill; four stepdaughters, Heather Cook of Sedgewickville, Nickie Nagrady of Patton, and Sadie Davis and Jamie Abernathy, both of Jackson; four brothers, Gary Cook of Virginia, Leon Welker of New Orleans, and Rickey Welker and Don Welker, both of Marble Hill; five sisters, Kathryn Bollinger of Sedgewickville, Eyvon Bailey of Patton, and Kathy Sullivan, Julie Welker and Elizabeth Welker, all of Marble Hill; three stepbrothers, David Evans Jr. ...

DALLAS -- Cecil Edgar Gaddis, 55, of Dallas died Friday, Dec. 20, 1996, at Dallas. He was born Aug. 25, 1941, at Jonesboro, Ill., to Cecil Albert and Betty C. Grear Gaddis. He was retired from the U.S. Army and worked as a truck driver for McMurry Metal Co. He was a member of a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Dallas and the Great Southwest Vietnam Vets...

Scott County Land transfers Patricia Ann Neal to Larry Nelson Neal; Glenn and Janet Slusher to Stephen Ray and Deborah Skelton; Stephen Ray to Preston Jr. and Lori Price; Vernon and Flora Robert to The Vernon L. and Flora F. Robert Trust; Betty Bradbury et al. ...

NEW ATHENS, Ill. -- Nelda Ernestine Craft, 64, of New Athens died Friday, Dec. 20, 1996, at Missouri Baptist Hospital in St. Louis. She was born Aug. 28, 1932, at Cape Girardeau to Leo E. and Frieda Maag Nussbaum. In November 1953, she married Billy J. Craft, who died Aug. 25, 1979...

MORLEY -- Raymond Emerson Jr., 72, of Morley died Saturday, Dec. 21, 1996, at Chaffee Nursing Center. He was born May 29, 1924, at Morley to Raymond and Florence Barker Emerson. He was a retired farmer. On June 14, 1941, he married Lucille Isaccs, who survives...

BENTON, Ky. -- John J. Grider, 86, of Benton and formerly of Mississippi County in Missouri, died Saturday, Dec. 21, 1996, at Oakview Manor in Calvert City, Ky. He was born Aug. 3, 1910, in Liberty, Ky., to Ollie Lee and Molly Bell Atwood Grider. On Feb. 25, 1935, at Charleston, he married Modest Nolen. She survives...

Tracy Regina Holder, 29, of Scott City died Saturday, Dec. 21, 1996, at St. Francis Medical Center. Arrangements are incomplete at Amick-Burnett Funeral Home in Scott City.

Frank Essner of Chaffee dressed as a Toy box Santa to deliver toys to Athisha Robinson, 7, and her brother Elbridge, 5, during the Toy Box gift delivery. Kathy Eastley of Cape Girardeau, helped her brother Keith Seyer get his Santa costume on before he delivered toys from the Toy Box...

Last year I spoke of the time my sister, Lou, and I had a little Christmas of our own in the old farmhouse attic. This year let me tell you about my very own Christmas in the attic. When one lives in the same place for 60 years, a lot of Christmas things accumulate as well as a thousand and one other things, although not one Dalmatian...