Stories from Saturday, May 17, 1997

To the editor: The teachers of Millersville Attendance Center would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to the parents and students for their special efforts and thoughts during the recent celebration of Teacher Appreciation Week...

Southeast Missouri Hospital's LifeBeat Air Medical trauma team Friday celebrated 10 years of treating trauma in Southeast Missouri. With cake and candles, a team of 20 flight nurses, paramedics and eight communications specialists were honored for their service during a trauma-related conference at the Show Me Center...

A two-year project comes to an end for Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical students this afternoon when their house goes on the market. Students in the vo-tech building trades classes hope buyers will want to purchase the house it took them two years to build. ...

A few explosions and oozing, colored soap suds can be just the recipe to get students hooked on science. That is the premise behind Weird Science, a program put on by a group of three Chicago-area chemistry teachers. From disappearing ink to exploding balloons, the Weird Science team entertained about 3,500 elementary and high school students Friday in two 75-minute presentations at the Show Me Center. Students came from about 60 different schools...

MOUND CITY, Ill. -- U.S. Rep. Glenn Poshard, a candidate for Illinois governor, will be guest speaker at the annual Memorial Day service at Mound City National Cemetery. Sharing the speaker's rostrum at the May 24 ceremonies will be Ben Flerlage, past commander of the Illinois Department of AMVETS...

Perryville students are kind Kathy Billahay from Perryville Elementary School called in with the kindness the school participated in all week. On Monday, the staff greeted parents with coffee and mints as they dropped their children off. On Tuesday, students brought in new socks for the needy and the staff presented soda and aspirin to the bus drivers in the afternoon. ...

Cara Watts wants to thank Janetta Sachse one last time. Sachse of Cape Girardeau was killed in an automobile accident May 6 just north of Columbia. But her kindnesses to Watts have not been forgotten. Last November, Watts and her husband moved to town from Largo, Fla. Her husband came to work on the new Mississippi bridge, and Cara enrolled full time at Southeast Missouri State University...

Dan Upchurch lives in a kind Cape Girardeau neighborhood. Neighbors Ray and Joann Leadbetter keep busy visiting shut-ins, driving friends to Florida and working through their church. Then there's S.S. Borum, who lives up the road. "He's a spry guy," Upchurch said. The 93-year-old Borum spends much of his time visiting nursing homes, hospitals and shut-ins...

For two local families, a patch of concrete was the catalyst for meeting, but kindness has become the more fertile common ground. Across town, a neighbor's few extra steps in an acts of kindness during the winter months result in the recipient's continuing gratefulness...

A curious situation exists today in Jefferson City, where Gov. Mel Carnahan is having troubles with his own Democrats in the General Assembly. That would be the same governor who was re-elected by a heavy majority last year, and those would be the same Democrats who have enjoyed majority status in both houses of the General Assembly for more than four decades...

The chaos mentioned above has nowhere been more in evidence than in the failure of the General Assembly to deliver the first among its constitutional duties: Timely passage of a state budget. All but two of the 13 bills appropriating Missouri's $15 billion state budget have passed. ...

To the editor: Graduation time is here, and we congratulate those young people who have attained this goal. Yet there are some brilliant and wise people who have not spent years under university training or tutelage. The same may be said of those who have been granted honorary degrees. We cannot say that an honorary degree has not been earned in terms of merit or work and accomplishment on the part of the recipient...

To the editor: As I drank my Folgers and smelled the roses and read the Sunday paper, a new smell became evident. It was the article about the lake supporters. As Ed McMahon says, yes, they have done it again, although Joe Vermier comes right to the point and says the real reason for his support of the lake is money. ...

A Realtor's job is to help people move into new homes, but the Cape Girardeau County Board of Realtors showed Friday they also help families already in homes and animals looking for homes. Board members made their rounds throughout the county on Friday, distributing kind gestures in honor of Random Acts of Kindness Week. ...

SCOTT CITY -- Scott City's Main Street was turned into Kindness central this week as the high school, library, grocery store and fire department participated in Random Acts of Kindness. Kindness activity organizer Brenda Moyers said people sometimes forget how much fun kindness can be...

The Cape Girardeau County banking scene is changing. Three names familiar to banking customers a half decade ago -- Capital Bank, First Exchange and Amerifirst Bank -- are history. Soon to join that disappearing list are Boatmen's Bank and Roosevelt Bank, which are becoming victims of mergers...

CHARLESTON -- Despite objections, the three-man Mississippi County Commission voted unanimously to build a $2.5 million county courthouse at the location of the one damaged by an arson fire Feb. 10. Part of the money needed will come from a $1.4 million insurance settlement collected when the 100-year-old courthouse burned, said Presiding County Commissioner Jim Blumenberg...

It's that time of year when kids dream of hitting home runs in a summer ball league, but I'm still trying to shake the nightmare of umpiring little league in my former state of residency. Now I don't know how serious the folks around here take their youth sporting events, but I was absolutely appalled at what I experienced last summer...

OAK RIDGE -- Chaffee's girls softball team concluded a stellar spring season Friday with a 22-1, five-inning thumping of Oak Ridge. Chaffee finished with a 15-1 record. Senior Kelly Glueck (6-0) recorded the win on the mound and established a new school record with a 1.13 E.R.A. for the season...

Area high school track and field teams will begin the push toward state today when district meets are contested. Cape Girardeau Central and Jackson will both take part in the Class 4A, District 1 Meet in Poplar Bluff while Kelly will host the Class 2A, District 1 Meet. Both of those competitions will begin at 11 a.m...

BREWER - Two people were hospitalized after a two-car accident Thursday on Highway 61 in Perry County South of County Road M. Edward Robinson, 93, and Mary Robinson, 85, a passenger, both of Perryville, were admitted to the Perry County Hospital when their vehicle turned into the path of another vehicle and was struck...

SCOTT CITY - An elderly Scott City man was killed when he was struck while crossing a city street Friday. Scott City police identified the victim as Melvin Cook Sr., 84. Police said Cook was struck at 3:35 a.m. by a car driven by David Mayberry, 44, of Commerce. Cook was attempting to cross at the intersection of Main and Cape streets. The car was eastbound on Main...

Daughter to Travis Ryan and Lisa C. Rose of Advance, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 4:59 p.m. Monday, May 12, 1997. Name, Lera Lenay. Weight, 7 pounds 4 ounces. Mrs. Rose is the former Lisa Watkins, daughter of Ora Jean Watkins of Morley. She is employed at Columbia Sportswear Co. in Chaffee. Rose is the son of Linda Rose of Frankford and Rodney Rose of Sikeston. He is employed by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad...

NEW MADRID -- Russell Laverne Walker Sr., 74, of New Madrid died Friday, May 16, 1997, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born May 25, 1922, in Sikeston, son of Jasper Newton and Myrtle Walker. Walker lived in Sikeston most of his life. He retired from Union Electric in 1988. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Donald Lee Clendenen, 49, of Jonesboro died Friday May 16, 1997, in Anna. He was born Aug. 16, 1947, in Herrin. Clendenen was a cook in the VA Hospital in Tacoma, Wash., until returning recently to this area. He was a veteran of the Vietnam War...

PIEDMONT -- Thomas L. Robins Sr., 67, of Piedmont died Friday, May 16, 1997, at Doctors Regional Medical Center in Poplar Bluff. He was born Jan. 26, 1930, in Moline, Ill., son of Luther and Louise Robins. He and Ramona Jones were married Jan. 2, 1949, in Cape Girardeau. She died Dec. 14, 1996...

SCOTT CITY -- Melvin Cook Sr., 84, died Friday, May 16, 1997, in Scott City after being struck by an automobile. He was born July 4, 1912, at Brownwood, son of Eugene and Mary Ann Fife Cook. He and Clara Marie Wylder were married April 2, 1932, at Benton. She died Feb. 15, 1986...

ANNA, Ill. -- Iva Pearl Edwards, 88, of Nacogdoches, Texas, formerly of Anna, died Tuesday, May 13, 1997, in Nacogdoches. She was born Feb. 21, 1909, in Glendale, daughter of William Henry and Sallie Ann Grant Schumaker. She married Gus Miller, Lee Mowery, and Doyle Edwards, all of whom preceded her in death...