Stories from Thursday, August 28, 1997

To the editor: Many citizens of Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties have been receiving brochures that ask them to "Get hooked on the lake." This is really a scary concept. Getting hooked on something means becoming addicted or enslaved to it. Getting hooked on the proposed lake project will mean getting hooked on more taxes...

PERRYVILLE -- The city of Perryville has entered the 1997 Missouri Community Betterment Awards competition, a statewide contest run by the Missouri Department of Economic Development. Perryville will compete against other communities of similar size for cash and recognition, said contest coordinator Gene Speichinger. The department plans to announce winners at the 30th Annual Missouri Community Betterment Conference from Oct. 26 to 28 in Columbia...

Last week, Councilmen Melvin Gateley and Tom Neumeyer planned to compile the results of a house-by-house survey of southeast Cape Girardeau. But that was cut short when Gateley took ill. Gateley, who is in his early 70s, is now in Southeast Missouri Hospital and expects to undergo open-heart surgery Wednesday...

Chess has an image problem. People think it's a game for boring nerds when in fact it holds many possibilities for fun and spontaneity, says John Elfrink, a member of the Southeast Missouri Chess Club. Saturday and Sunday, for instance, United States Chess Federation-rated experts Waldo Odak and Jim Musumeci, who are from St. ...

"Faulkner Images" by Margaret Randol Dement of Sikeston This oil on canvas painting by K. Kincses of Tulsa, Okla., is titled "The Sound & the Fury." Early in his life, William Faulkner considered a life a painter. He chose writing instead, but scholars say painting imagery and painterly techniques infuse his prose...

WHEN I see all the shootings in the paper and on TV, I always think of my old friend who had an answer for all of it. Arms should not be allowed anywhere in a car but in a trunk and locked in a case with a trigger lock on it. He felt if you had the arms in the home, that was your own problem. ...

Missouri is returning inmates from Texas, where they were clearly and outrageously abused in certain privately operated jails. For some years Missouri has addressed prison overcrowding by sending prisoners to the Lone Star State, where they have been housed for a fee while serving out their sentences. Release to the news media and certain legislators of a videotape of prisoners being beaten, forced to crawl on their stomachs and bitten by dogs has precipitated quite a stir in certain quarters...

The Joint House-Senate Committee on Corrections has a new member, following the resignation of state Rep. Phil Tate, D-Gallatin, to take a job in the Missouri Department of Economic Development. House Speaker Steve Gaw appointed as Tate's replacement Rep. Bill Skaggs, D-Kansas City...

Electronic transfers will replace paper food stamps and checks Monday as the Missouri Department of Social Services begins its newest effort to eliminate its No. 1 enemy: fraud. Sept. 1 marks the statewide distribution of benefits by the Electronic Benefits Transfer system. Welfare recipients have been issued debit cards that they can use to deduct purchases from a food-stamp or cash-benefits account...

By mid afternoon Wednesday, Dr. Dan Tallent, Cape Girardeau superintendent of schools, was starting to worry. School had opened without a single crisis, not even a small one. "It's been very smooth," Tallent said from his office. "Unusually smooth."...

A new student wandered the halls of Cape Girardeau Central High School Wednesday for the first day of school. Uniformed and smiling, Cape Girardeau police Cpl. Barry Hovis was the model freshman as he began his first day as the school's resource officer...

Roosevelt Banks will close in Cape Girardeau and Dexter in mid-November as a result of Roosevelt Financial Group Inc.'s merger with Mercantile Bancorporation. The two banking networks will combine on Nov. 17, with Roosevelt officially changing its name to Mercantile...

Aug. 28, 1997 Dear Julie, We've had a bit of a New England August in Missouri this year. Some nights when the AC was replaced by a light blanket, and mornings of heavy dew. It's too early to speak of winter, of course, but fall seems to be about. The university's first football game is this weekend, and the region's harvest will be on display at the Southeast Missouri District Fair in a few weeks...

Southeast Missouri State University's new women's gymnastics coach knows first hand the strength of the program she is taking over. "Oh yes, they're good," said Kris Buchheister with a laugh. "They beat us last year." By "us," Buchheister meant her former school, the University of Missouri. And "they," in reference to Southeast, will now change to "we."...

Greg Goff has been hired as an assistant baseball coach at Southeast Missouri State University. He replaces Bart Osborne, who recently accepted a similar position at Murray State. Goff has most recently been an assistant coach at Delta State, where he worked with a pitching staff that was one of the best in the nation among Division II teams. He helped develop three All-Americans and two top-10 draft choices...

Cape Girardeau Central High's softball team started its season Wednesday afternoon with a tough 5-4 loss to visiting Oakville. After Central rallied with three runs in the fourth for a 3-3 tie, the St. Louis squad got a run in the fifth and one in the sixth. Central scored its final tally in the seventh but fell just short...

Neta Celia Heins, 80, 1437 Howell, died Tuesday, Aug. 26, 1997, at the Lutheran Home. She was born Dec. 4, 1916, at Lake Village, Ind., daughter of Ignace and Mary Lecuyen Monet. She and Gilbert Heins were married May 8, 1937, in Chicago. The Heins lived in San Jose, Calif., 16 years; 10 years each in Mountain Home and Rogers, Ark., moving to Cape Girardeau in 1990. She was a member of Good Shepherd Lutheran Chapel...

ZALMA -- Warren Cooper, 84, of Star City, Ark., died Wednesday, Aug. 27, 1997, at Star City Nursing Center. He was born Dec. 31, 1912, at Dongola, Mo., son of Fulton and Tula Harrell Cooper. He and Dora Fisher were married July 18, 1936. She died June 8, 1997...

BENTON -- Wayne Diamond, 82, of Benton died Tuesday, Aug. 26, 1997, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. He was born July 31, 1915, in Pocahontas, Ark., son of Mont Gobel and Tina Ellen Grissom Diamond. He and Oma Zena Hopkins were married April 3, 1937, at Benton. She died Oct. 26, 1992...

ADVANCE -- Lena Long, 93, of Advance died Wednesday, Aug. 27, 1997, at Advance Nursing Center. She was born Oct. 6, 1903, in Rector, Ark., daughter of W.E. and Tenna Thomas Boner. She and John Long were married Sept. 7, 1918, at Bloomfield. He died Feb. 28, 1960...

Daughter to Charles Matthews and Melanie Moore of Sikeston, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 20, 1997. Name, Amelia Caroline. Weight, 7 pounds. Third daughter. Mrs. Moore is the former Melanie Dame, daughter of Terry Dame and Janet Dame of Sikeston. Moore is the son of Handy Moore and Dottie Moore of Sikeston. He is a farmer...

A Scott City woman was in Southeast Missouri Hospital Wednesday night after a one-car accident in Scott County. Shareen Lands, 46, was driving her car northbound on Route A one mile south of Chaffee at 3:25 p.m. when she failed to negotiate a curve, went off the road, and struck a ditch and several trees, according to the Missouri Highway Patrol...

BLOOMFIELD -- Marjorie Coleman, 74, of Bloomfield died Wednesday, Aug. 27, 1997, at her home. She was born Oct. 24, 1922, in Stoddard County, daughter of Ervin and Lula Gaines Lane. She and Thelbert Coleman were married Dec. 4, 1941, at Dexter. Formerly of Dexter, she had lived in Bloomfield since 1970. She was a member of First Church of the Nazarene...