Stories from Thursday, July 31, 1997

In the early '90s, the Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo managed to book Garth Brooks just before he became a superstar. This year, young Wade Hayes gets to be the rising talent in the rodeo's entertainment lineup. But it's good old George Jones who's drawing a crowd...

A monkey with a computer is still a monkey. Louise Bodenheimer, who just spent the summer teaching a workshop on computer art, might not state the case to her students so bluntly but the image does illustrate an illusion about creating art on a computer...

Actions made an impression where words failed Wednesday at the Team Spirit Leadership Training Conference at Victorian Inn. The four-day conference is to inform teams of regional high school students about the laws and realities of drunken driving. The teams will use the information and lessons on teamwork to develop a plan students will implement in their schools and communities to combat teen-age drinking and driving...

It's now a done deal. Trans World Express and the U.S. Department of Transportation have signed an agreement that will add one flight a day Sunday through Friday and initiate Saturday air service at Cape Girardeau Regional Airport starting Oct. 1. All flights would go to St. Louis and connect with TWA flights for about $40. Connections to other airlines will be more costly. The total number of weekly flights will increase from 11 round trips to 19...

James P. Limbaugh, regional executive director of Nationsbank's Southeast Missouri-Southern Illinois region, has resigned a month after Boatmen's became NationsBank. Limbaugh, who was president of Boatmen's Bank of Cape Girardeau for a decade before it became NationsBank this year, said he was resigning effective Wednesday to pursue other interests. Limbaugh will join the local Merrill Lynch firm, a financial planning service and stockbroker...

The bipartisan balanced-budget agreement will make a college education more affordable and provide tax relief, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson said Wednesday. Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, praised the spending and tax-cut package worked out between congressional leaders and the White House...

MARQUAND -- For the second year in a row, the Marquand-Zion public schools finished the year in the red. The fact has not gone unnoticed in Jefferson City. Marquand-Zion is one of only two districts in the state that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has identified as "financially stressed." The other is in St. Louis County...

July 31, 1997 Dear Julie, Since you've never been to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, I will describe the experience for you. After passing through a metal detector, you and four other people you may or may not know squeeze through a doggy door into a windowless compartment the size of a pygmy closet, where you sit knee by jowl during a cacophonous and claustrophobic four-minute tram ride through the Arch's curved leg, eventually reaching the top, where you and many others just as glad the ride is over jostle for a peek out windows that offer a panoramic view of metropolitan St. ...

To the editor: I read your July 23 editorial regarding the public-access channel on the cable-TV system. I was disappointed that before you decided to publish your editorial you didn't do myself or any members of the committee the courtesy of talking to us and asking for our side of the matter. It would not have been a surprise to you, since you have spoken to members of the committee before about utilization of the local-access channel...

ON JULY 23 I was with my granddaughter in Barnes & Nobles Bookstore. My granddaughter was in the restroom. She washed her hands and left her ring with an "S" on it and a chain bracelet with a emblem on it. We would appreciate if the party that took it would take it back to the bookstore. ...

So there is an agreement between the president and congressional leaders on spending and taxes. One that balances the budget by the year 2002, we're told. Perhaps this is what the American people had in mind when they sent back a Republican Congress to work with the first Democratic president to be re-elected in 60 years. In so doing, those voters had to know there would be no bold new departures, no pathbreaking initiatives...

Arena Park Golf and Putt Putt opened Wednesday. Mayor Albert M. Spradling III hit the first ball to officially open the driving range, located at 2901 Hawthorne Road in Cape Girardeau. The new sports facility includes a golf driving range and an 18-hole miniature golf course...

Slowly but surely, donations for the Kohlfeld Capahas baseball team continued to come in Wednesday. A fund drive to help support the Capahas' trip to the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kan., began on Monday when the Southeast Missourian kicked things off with a $500 donation...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Cape Girardeau's Jon Younghouse has made his mark as one of the nation's elite swimmers during the Phillips 66 National Swimming Championships that are being held here. Competing against some of the best swimmers the United States has to offer, Younghouse placed sixth in the 400-meter freestyle during Tuesday's competition...

Chaffee earned a berth in the 1997 Junior American Legion Mid-States Regional 15-16-year-old baseball tournament by virtue of its status as the host team. But Chaffee manager Jeff Graviett says his squad is intent on proving that it belongs with the other seven state champions that will make up the eight-team field for the double-elimination event...

SIKESTON -- Five American Legion baseball teams will battle for a state berth when the Zone 4 Tournament begins today at Sikeston's VFW Park. Four district champions qualified for the zone tourney while Sikeston earned a spot as host team. Dunklin County won the Southeast Missouri district title by beating Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons in last weekend's championship game...

Paul Sylvester Messmer, 78, of Cape Girardeau died Wednesday, July 30, 1997, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. He was born Jan. 20, 1919, in Kelso to Robert John and Paula Leona Seyer Messmer. He worked as a lumber grader for H.C. Tooke Log and Lumber and Leming Lumber Cos. for 47 years...

DONGOLA, Ill. -- Funeral service for Gladys N. Lentz of Dongola will be held at 11 a.m. today at Crain Funeral Home in Dongola. John Shelton will officiate, with burial in Christian Chapel Cemetery. Lentz, 78, died Tuesday, July 29, 1997, at Memorial Hospital in Carbondale...

Mildred Lucille Keene, 76, 413 Albert, died Wednesday, July 30, 1997, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. She was born March 25, 1921, in Hickman, Ky., daughter of Isaac Joseph and Anna Nora Higgerson Tisher. She and Harold Keene were married Sept. 18, 1937, in Clinton, Ky...

DONGOLA, Ill. -- Funeral service for Carl Fisher of Dongola will be held at 1 p.m. Friday at First Baptist Church. The Revs. Paul Sadler and Carl Don Fisher will officiate, with burial in American Legion Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home from 5-8 p.m. today, and Friday from 8 a.m. to service time...

Beaumont Gholson, 80, of Cape Girardeau died Wednesday, July 30, 1997, at Heartland Care Rehab Center. He was born May 6, 1917, at Morrison, son of August and Julia Frillman Gholson. He and Lola D. Eifert were married May 18, 1946. Gholson retired as a negative stripper with Universal Printing. He moved to Cape Girardeau in 1987 from St. Louis. He was a member of St. Andrew Lutheran Church...

In politics, you don't always have to play hardball. But it doesn't hurt if you can field your position. U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson started at second base in Tuesday's charity baseball game between congressional Democrats and Republicans. The Republicans beat the Democrats 10-9 in Congress' 36th annual charity baseball game. The game was played at Prince George's Stadium in Maryland...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Ossie O. Anich, 70, of Cairo died Wednesday, July 30, 1997, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born Aug. 23, 1926, in Czechoslovakia, daughter of Joseph and Margarete Zuber Pompl. Anich was formerly of Seattle, Wash...

Former postmaster, community and civic leader Russell Jay Fowler, 89, of Cape Girardeau died Tuesday, July 29, 1997, at his home. He was born Oct. 16, 1907, in Cape Girardeau, son of Jay Ernest and Alma Friedrich Fowler. He and Zelma Elizabeth Dunkel were married July 6, 1930, in Cape Girardeau. She died Nov. 4, 1994...

Daughter to Todd Anthony and Tina Louise Robinson, Perryville Route 2, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 8:20 a.m. Thursday, July 24, 1997. Name, Abby Ann. Weight, 6 pounds 7 ounces. Second child, first daughter. Mrs. Robinson is the former Tina Lohmann, daughter of Roy and Virginia Lohmann, Perryville Route 2. She is a customer service representative at Mercantile Bank of Perryville. Robinson is the son of Arnold and Georgia Robinson, Perryville Route 2. He is an electrician at Robinson Electric...

KENNETT -- Graveside services for Dolores June Hargrove, 62, of Kennett will be at 10 a.m. today at the Baker Cemetery in Marble Hill. She died Wednesday, July 30, 1997, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. She was born June 29, 1935, in Fayette, the daughter of Lewis and Catherine Moore Sachenheimer. On April 28, 1984, she married Bill Verdell Hargrove. He died March 6, 1996...