Stories from Friday, November 28, 1997

To the editor: I find it interesting that exactly one month after I addressed the Cape Girardeau Board of Education regarding my concern about excessive overspending by the business department, the superintendent says there are serious budget problems. ...

For 15 years, Young Life members and leaders have been developing relationships with high school students in Cape Girardeau by incorporating Christian theology into everyday living. About 300 people -- former members and volunteers -- are expected to attend the first ever Young Life reunion this weekend. Events begin at 5 p.m. Saturday at LaCroix United Methodist Church, 3102 Lexington...

Rumors circulating in Cape Girardeau earlier this week about a head lice epidemic at the high school have proved false, officials at Cape Central said Wednesday. Reports had put the number of head lice victims at over 100, with stories of additional students waiting in long lines at the nurse's office to be checked out...

I WOULD like to comment on the Sammy Hagar concert. I thought it was an incredible show, actually better than the St. Louis one that I attended Aug. 1. The thing I'd like to address is the fact that St. Louis obviously did not advertise this concert well. ...

If a circuit judge in Cole County (home of our state capital and the legal jurisdiction for lawsuits involving state laws) follows the lead of the Missouri Supreme Court, this state could become the first to shut down an operating casino in recent history. As a result, a ruling this week by the state's highest court is being closely watched...

Meanwhile, the casinos in Illinois suffered a setback in their efforts -- as in virtually every state that allows gambling -- to change the rules after they've spent hundreds of millions of dollars to get into the game. In Illinois, riverboat casinos are still required to cruise on designated rivers rather than be permanently docked along the shore as Missouri officials have allowed -- despite an understanding when voters approved Show Me gambling that this wouldn't happen...

Editor's note: Southeast Missourian Reporter Jeffrey Jackson spent Thursday as a volunteer server at the Salvation Army Thanksgiving dinner. What I will remember most are people's faces -- faces that at other times and in other places I might have overlooked, even ignored, because they are different, sometimes rougher, harder...

The men, women and children shed their coats, walked into the brightly-decorated dining area and chose their seats, just like at home. Delightful smells of buttered rolls and baked ham wafted out of the kitchen, causing empty bellies to rumble hungrily, just like at home...

Once upon a time in America, preparing the Thanksgiving feast was as much a part of the celebration as eating it. But the crowded Cape Girardeau eateries serving turkey dinners Thursday were testament that more and more people are letting someone else make the gravy and clean the roasting pan...

CHARLESTON -- Former Missouri governor Warren E. Hearnes spent Thanksgiving Day recuperating in a private hospital room after undergoing open-heart surgery a day earlier. Hearnes, 73, a Charleston native, was the first Missouri governor to be elected to two consecutive terms...

SIKESTON -- James C. Schwaninger has been named executive director of the Sikeston Area Chamber of Commerce (SACC). Schwaninger will replace Steve McPheeters, who has served in that position since early 1995. McPheeters announced his resignation earlier this year, saying he wanted to return to private business...

An attempted insurrection against an eighth grade math teacher meant just one thing: Mr. White was now in charge. A school bus driver in the St. Louis area was in a lot of hot water this week after it was learned she asked some students -- just the bigger kids, I hope -- to get out and try to push the bus out of a mud hole...

Bradley head coach Jim Molinari argued a call late in the second half Wednesday at the Show Me Center before getting ejected in the Indians' 79-71 upset of the Braves. Just three games into the Gary Garner era and Southeast Missouri State University's basketball Indians already have one of their biggest victories on the Division I level...

Southeast Missouri State University women's basketball coach Ed Arnzen knows just how difficult a challenge awaits his team in Nevada. But Arnzen also knows that challenge will be a lot less daunting now that the Otahkians have a victory under their belts...

PERRYVILLE -- The Notre Dame Lady Bulldogs completed their undefeated run through the Perryville Thanksgiving Tournament Wednesday with a 54-47 victory over St. Pius. The Lady Bulldogs, which had already clinched the championship Tuesday night with a victory over Perryville, completed the round-robin tourney with a 3-0 mark. St. Pius fell to 0-3...

Kelly High School won the 1997 Missouri Class 2A Softball State Championship and saw its achievement further recognized as four players were placed on the 1997 Missouri All-State Softball team that was selected by the Princeton Post-Telegraph in Princeton, Mo...

NEW MADRID -- Some of Southeast Missouri's top basketball teams will square off with top teams from St. Louis and Texas when the fourth annual Riverbend Classic is held today and Saturday. New Madrid County Central High School serves as host for the event...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Everett Ellis, 94, a resident of East Prairie and former resident of Sikeston, died Wednesday, Nov. 26, 1997, at his home. He was born Oct. 29, 1903, in Jonesboro, Ill., the son of Jim and Fronia Osborne Ellis. He married Martha C. Stockman on Nov. 25, 1928. She preceded him in death on Aug. 23, 1995...

DONGOLA, Ill. -- E. Glenn Hoffner, 90, of Dongola died Thursday, Nov. 27, 1997, at his home. He was born Feb. 18, 1907, at Dongola, the son of Ezzard and Margarite Earnhart Hoffner. He married Murchie Dillow on Dec. 24, 1926. She survives. He was a retired farmer and a member of the Union County Farm Bureau. He was a member of Mount Zion Cumberland Presbyterian Church...

Gordy Alexander, died Tuesday, Nov. 25, 1997, at the Hardin County Nursing Home in Savannah, Tenn. He was 89. He was a retired farmer and carpenter. He is survived by his wife, Lantie Pipes Alexander; two sons, Chester Alexander of Cape Girardeau and Gerald Alexander of Savannah; three daughters, Johnnie Evelyn Rhoads and Elaine Moore of Blytheville, Ark., and Pat Hornsey of Boerne, Texas; a sister, Norma Northcutt of Calvert City, Ky.; 11 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren...

JACKSON -- Esther Whitledge Allen, 92, of Jackson died Thursday, Nov. 27, 1997, at Heritage Gardens in Jackson. She was born June 14, 1905, near Bloomfield, the daughter of Alex and Lucy Cotner Whitledge. She married to J. Allen on May 16, 1925, in Jackson. He died July 27, 1984...

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources will hold an open house Dec. 13 at Trail of Tears State Park. The open house will be from noon to 4 p.m. in the park's visitors center. At 1 p.m., park staff will present an overview of the park. There will be a question-and-answer session. Refreshments will be served...

Wilma L. Schrock, 70, of Granite City, Ill., died Thursday, Nov. 27, 1997, at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Granite City. She was born Oct. 17, 1927, at Marble Hill, the daughter of John E. and Flossie Limbaugh Brown. She married Roland L. Schrock on Dec. 7, 1945, in Marble Hill...