Stories from Monday, January 27, 1997

Local manufacturers can help each other. A recent manufacturing survey in Southern Illinois reveals great diversity of manufacturers throughout a 30-county region, with products ranging from auto parts, sporting goods, heavy manufacturing machinery, consumer specialty products, home and building components and food products...

Scott Wachter of Chaffee has joined the staff of Schott & Van de Ven, certified public accountants, as information systems analyst. In his new position, Wachter will be in charge of the network program for the accounting firm and will be available in analyzing computer services, programs and procedures for clients of the firm...

WARE, Ill. -- John Smith, 73, said he enjoys his work as a woodcutter. "I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it," Smith said. Seven days a week, he can be found outside his home in Ware, Ill., either splitting the wood or gathering it up to prepare for splitting. If he's not at his home, he said he's out trying to find wood that can be used as firewood...

NEW YORK -- Despite Boeing's plans to shelve development of a superjumbo jet, rival Airbus Industries said it is proceeding on schedule and should be ready to launch the mammoth plane next year. Boeing Co. said last week it was mothballing plans to develop the larger and longer-range versions of its workhorse 747-400 jumbo jet because it didn't have enough orders to justify the $7 billion project...

The Small Business of the Year Award and the Rush H. Limbaugh Award will be presented during the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's annual meeting-dinner dance Friday at the Show Me Center. Cost is $25 per person, and tables of eight are available. Reservations and additional information are available by calling the chamber office, 335-3312...

Southeast Missouri State University will conduct an Employment Recruiting Fair April 3 at the Show Me Center. The forum, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., is designed for exchange of information between employers and college students. Additional information is available by contacting Career Services, (573)-651-2583...

Prudential Home Buildings Investors has agreed to provide a participating loan for the development and sale of 157 single-family lots in Cape Girardeau. The loan for the project -- to be called "Forest Hill" -- was made to Texas-based Holigan Family Investments Inc., the project's developer...

The Dyersburg/Dyer County Chamber of Commerce has unveiled plans for new headquarters at Dyersburg, Tenn., a few miles east of Caruthersville, Mo., across the Mississippi River. The proposed 12,800-square-foot structure would serve a dual purpose as chamber headquarters and a conference center. It is planned for a vacant 1.7-acre site near the U.S. 51 Bypass and Lake Road, near the Holiday Inn and Green Village Shopping Center...

The dates have been set for the annual Sikeston Corporate Games. The games feature competitors from as many as 25 area companies competing in softball, swimming, bowling, horseshoe, golf, tennis, volleyball and tug of war. The games will be conducted from June 6 through June 21...

Power plants operated by Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. have been ranked among the top 25 U.S. steam electric plants. The company's New Madrid Power Plan placed 22nd on the list, and the Thomas Hill facility is ranked 11th. Both of the power plants have been awarded the 1996 Power Plant Award by Power Magazine, marking the first time Associated has won the award...

WASHINGTON -- The government plans to raise $7 billion on Wednesday in its first auction of securities designed to shield investors from inflation while shrinking the cost of government borrowing. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said the notes will be auctioned quarterly in denominations of $1,000, the minimum purchase, and will mature in 10 years. But since they will be tied to the government's Consumer Price Index, their value will increase as prices increase...

Silk Tree Factory will open in Cape Girardeau March 1. Silk Tree Factory, headquartered at Paducah, Ky., will open at 201 S. Broadview in a 45,000-square-foot building that previously housed American Superstores. Silk Tree Factory was founded by Joe and Cindy Wallace with one store at Paducah five years ago...

Goody's Family Clothing store will move into the Missouri market this spring, when it opens a 27,500-square-foot facility in Cape Girardeau. "The store at Cape Girardeau will be the first for Missouri," said Justin Titcombe, a Goody's spokesman. Missouri also marked the 15th state for Goody's, a fast-growing retailer headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn., with more than 200 stores in 14 states with sales of more than $700 million annually...

Plaza Tire Service Inc., headquartered in Cape Girardeau, has opened a new store in Pocahontas, Ark., and moved to a new facility in Desoto, Mo. The seven-bay store in Arkansas, previously Pocahontas Tire & Services, is located at 2111 Highway 67 South. Mike Hand, who was with Pocahontas Tire for 17 years, is manager of the Plaza Tire operation...

Peddler's Corner Furniture and Stuff has moved into a new building at 111 N. Sprigg. L.R. Brandes, formerly an auctioneer who has been selling "furniture and stuff" for more than nine years, and his son, Lonnie Brandes, own the retail outlet. Brandes added the retail operation almost five years ago when he opened Peddler's Corner at 701 Broadway. The Brandes family has purchased the building at 111 N. Sprigg...

Lorberg Memorial Funeral Chapel Inc. has opened a new monument display yard at 829 N. West End Blvd. The new facility at the funeral chapel includes a wide selection of monuments, including granite monuments and markets and bronze, metal, marble and granite memorial vases...

Once she made up her mind to become a doctor, Verna Porter never gave up her pursuit of that goal. Porter was honored Sunday at Southeast Missouri State University by the members of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority for becoming the first African-American woman to graduate from Southeast and go on to become a physician...

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education and voters will get a first look at possible changes in elementary school boundaries today. A committee studying elementary attendance areas since November will present its recommendations at today's board meeting at 6 p.m. at Central Junior High...

There is a difference between being a victim and suffering from victimization, says Doug Johnson, a counselor at Southeast Missouri State University. A victim is anyone who has been exposed to a traumatic event, he said. The person may have witnessed or was confronted with events that involved actual or threatened death. They may have been raped or robbed or have been the victim of a pickpocket...

"You're my future and my present My pride and joy You're my one and only My son Momma's little boy." Jenifer Edmundson wrote those words to her only son, Dennis Tucker, shortly after his first birthday in 1983. She described him as a beautiful son she would have done anything for, the two of them halves of one complete whole...

Missouri and Illinois schools received average grades in a recently released evaluation on the condition of public education in the United States. The report, compiled as a supplement to Education Week magazine, analyzed data from government and private sources, including policy-makers, business leaders and educators. What they found was that public education systems in the U.S. are "riddled with excellence but rife with mediocrity."...

Twenty-five years of elaborate musical productions at Notre Dame High School inspired an elaborate thank-you Sunday to the woman who has directed those shows. Notre Dame drama and English teacher Cindy King was given a surprise party by more than 100 friends, students, former students and family members at the school gymnasium...

I've been doing a lot of laundry lately. Well, the actual volume of dirty clothes hasn't changed, but the laundering act itself is being performed with greater frequency. Translated: I have a washer and dryer of my very own. I no longer have to lug my unmentionables across town in order to achieve a semblance of cleanliness...

Given the prevalence of the Alben Barkley Syndrome ("What have you done for me lately?"), it is somewhat surprising that so many Missourians permit themselves to be enthusiastic partisans of one of the two major political parties. The last election provided yet another example of how purely partisan beliefs overshadow the usually common sense values of logical and responsible citizens...

The case of a Cape Girardeau man with 19 drunken-driving arrests over the past 30 years illustrates how the courts are failing to deal with such menaces to society. Despite all of the public-awareness campaigns designed to convince people not to drive when they have had too much to drink, drunken drivers like James M. Bailey, 55, of Cape Girardeau will continue to plague the highways until judges start dealing out harsh punishments to those who insist on driving drunk...

Cape Girardeau can be pleased that progress is being made toward the establishment of a Crime Stoppers program here. The program, which has been so successful in other places, would likely be equally successful in Cape Girardeau. With the Noon Lions Club organizing the effort, civic groups will get together Feb. 4 to discuss setting up the program. Volunteers will be sought, and from them will be selected a Crime Stoppers board of directors, which would oversee the program...

To the editor: As long as adults continue to consider themselves more important than children, abortions will continue. As long as we have mothers who consider themselves to be more important than their babies, abortions will continue. As long as selfish, pleasure-seeking me think they are more important than their offspring, abortions will continue...

This week the Southeast Missourian asked, "What do you think of a recent Missouri Senate committee proposal to make it illegal for children younger than 18 to ride in the beds of pickup trucks" Sandy Walter, Oran Yes, they should make it illegal, but it shouldn't be just 18 and under. It should be anybody riding in the back of the pickup."...

Slowly but surely, Southeast Missouri State University's women's gymnastics team is getting healthier. But whether the Otahkians will be healthy enough to prevail in their home opener tonight remains to be seen, according to coach Bill Hopkins. The Otahkians will kick off their home schedule with the four-team KZIM/Schnucks Invitational, set for a 7 o'clock start at the Show Me Center...

NEW MADRID -- Jackson High's wrestlers lost a shootout with Ste. Genevieve during Saturday's 11-team SEMO Conference Meet hosted by New Madrid County Central. The Indians had five individual champions, the same as last season when they won the title. But this year that only netted Jackson second place...

CHARLESTON -- James William "Jack" Boyd, 71, of Charleston died Sunday, Jan. 26, 1997, at the Bertrand Nursing Facility. He was born Jan. 17, 1926, in Diehlstadt, son of Ralph and Bertha Hicks Boyd. He lived most of his life in Mississippi County where he worked for the Atteberry Dairy for 20 years then the Community Sheltered Workshop in Sikeston for 31 years. He was a member of the First Baptist Church in Charleston...

ADVANCE -- Dixie Sample Fortner, 58, of Spring, Texas, formerly of Advance, died Sunday, Jan. 26, 1997, at Northwest Medical Center in Houston. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at Morgan Funeral Home of Advance.

CAIRO, Ill. -- Josephine B. Piotrowski, 85, of Cairo died Saturday, Jan. 25, 1997, at her home. She was born March 7, 1911, in St. Louis, daughter of Oscar and Angeline Dahlman Wimer. She was a homemaker and member of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Cairo...

COBDEN, Ill. -- Sidney Hartline, 84, of Cobden died Saturday, Jan. 25, 1997, at his home. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at the Lutz and Rendleman Funeral Home in Cobden.

ROGERSVILLE -- John P. Ryan, 54, of Rogersville died Saturday, Jan. 25, 1997, in Lakeland, Fla., from injuries suffered in an auto accident. Arrangements are incomplete at Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Chaffee.

PULASKI, Ill. -- Herman Frederick Stern, 70, of Belleville, Ill., formerly of Pulaski, died Saturday, Jan. 25, 1997, at the Willow Creek Nursing Home in Belleville. He was born March 9, 1926, in Pulaski, son of Charles and Sarah Shumaker Stern. He married Dorothy Sue Everly on April 15, 1961, in Mounds, Ill. She died July 16, 1989...

John William Kimball, 61, of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, Jan. 25, 1997, at his home. He was born May 25, 1935, in New York City, the son of John and Sophie Meyer Kimball. He married Carol Ann Baden on Jan. 14, 1956, in New York City. She survives...