Stories from Tuesday, January 6, 1998

JACKSON -- Language arts teacher Pamela Scott adds variety to her curriculum to pique her students' interest. Scott, who teaches at R.O. Hawkins Junior High School in Jackson, uses numerous strategies, including library scavenger hunts, essay writing and sandwich paragraphs to teach her students principles of grammar and literature...

Shirley X. Deng of Cape Girardeau has earned inclusion in the fourth edition of Who's Who in Science and Engineering 1998-1999. To be chosen for inclusion, candidates must have held a position of responsibility or have attained a significant achievement in their field. Deng has worked at Southeast Missouri State University since 1992...

Are you a dog or cat kind-of-person? At our houses the dogs and cats both beep -- a lot. They are virtual pets, the toys that took the world by storm. No doubt Santa left a lot of them under Christmas trees. It just makes sense that these computerized pets are popular with computer addicts on the Internet. And there are lots of web pages devoted to the beeping beings...

The National Geographic Society is holding its 10th annual National Geography Bee for students in the fourth through eighth grades. Sponsorship is being provided by Sylvan Learning Centers. First-round regional competition will be held at 8:30 a.m. today at the Jackson Middle School band room. The winner of the Jackson Middle School bee will advance to the next level of competition, a written examination...

After exhausting so much energy warning their children about potentially quick killers like illicit drugs, drinking and driving and unsafe sex, perhaps to parents smoking seems relatively innocuous. At the same time, 400,000 Americans die each year from tobacco-related illnesses like cancer, heart attack, emphysema and stroke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's more deaths than from AIDS, murders, fires, accidents and all other drug use combined...

A number of area employers are looking over their health insurance options after an announcement Monday that MedAmerica HealthNet Inc. is dissolving. The network of some 250 physicians and six hospitals in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois no longer will exist come March 1. It will continue to offer services until then...

Editor's Note: This is the third of a five-part series examining the issues facing America's elderly population. Irma Lappe thought life would slow down when she reached her 80th birthday, but not much has changed. "I thought I'd slow down, but I don't want to," she said...

For senior adults in search of a new hobby, the Hoover Center's senior learning program offers classes in everything from mature driving to yoga. The center's primary program, Eldercare-Senior Alive, is an adult day program designed to help senior citizens by offering activities and health information as well as access to the community...

The name and logo of Mid-America Teen Challenge may have changed for 1998, but staff members said everything else should remain the same. The new name of the organization is Teen Challenge International, Mid-America and its new slogan is "The proven cure for the drug epidemic."...

The Missouri Department of Transportation plans to take a second look at a proposed Highway 34 bypass route favored by Cape Girardeau community leaders. Highway officials and a consulting firm earlier had rejected the idea of building a section of highway that would extend northwesterly from the new Highway 74 west of Interstate 55 to Route K. That and other routes had been rejected because they would require extensive construction of highway through largely undeveloped areas...

Humana, at one time a top competitor for managed health care in the area, withdrew its Southeast Missouri presence by closing the Cape Girardeau office last year. Robert Burd, executive director for Humana in Missouri, said the office was closed in a consolidation effort...

In college, I took a course in television programming that required me to watch a set number of programs each week. I liked the class (although my father is still amazed I got credit for such work) but I don't think I learned as much in that semester as I did last week when Jerry Seinfeld announced the final season of his hit sitcom...

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS is chock full of people who care about other people, people who will bend over backwards to help you. Now don't you teetotalers and do-gooders feel smug? MICHAEL KENNEDY not too long ago tried to have his marriage annulled by the Catholic church. I wouldn't say that he is a good father if he was going to do that. Now that he is dead, they say how wonderful he was and how much he loved his children. You'll never convince me of that...

One year ends, another begins. It's the eternal sequence, one that each of us has followed since we arrived on planet Earth. Although the zodiacal date for Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 scarcely differ and the numbering of days on the calendar is strictly conventional (our calendar was last revised in 1752), somehow the turnover of years carries special meaning in the human psyche...

Wednesday marks the start of the 1998 legislative session in Jefferson City, and politicians are busy readying bills to be pursued this session. Near the top of Gov. Mel Carnahan's agenda is a renewed push for state financial help for Missourians in their first two years of higher education...

Churches are making headlines. In the wake of the welfare reform, they are stepping up efforts to help the needy, sick and poor, says an Associated Press report. Wait a minute. Churches have always helped the needy, sick and poor. It has been a mission far longer than welfare reform in America...

To the editor: I sat alone on New Year's Eve watching television and waiting for the countdown to usher in a new year, 1998. I preferred it that way so that I could ponder on the many changes I have experienced in my lifetime. I go back many years. I also consider myself blessed...

Cape Girardeau Mayor Al Spradling III and Jackson Mayor Paul Sander will be speakers at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's First Friday Coffee. The program, to be held Friday at 7:30 a.m. at the Show Me Center, will be held the second Friday of the month because of the New Year's holiday...

Changes to a number of proposed fee increases that will go before voters in April were approved Monday night by the Cape Girardeau City Council. Mayor Al Spradling III proposed, and the council approved, amendments to the proposed expansion of the city's hotel-motel-restaurant tax. Spradling's amendments would impose the city's 3 percent hotel tax on caterers serving 100 or more people at a function and added a definition of caterer to the proposed ordinance...

Six area school districts -- including three in Bollinger County -- saw Christmas break come and go with nary a candidate to file for upcoming school board elections. Filing for April 7 school board elections began 8 a.m. Dec. 23. Voters across the state will elect candidates to two, three-year terms, and several regional districts will hold special elections to fill unexpired terms...

GORDONVILLE -- Gordonville Fire Chief Patrick Jett is recuperating from injuries suffered during a traffic accident at Blytheville, Ark., Dec. 29. Jett was one of four men injured in an 11-car pileup on an icy Interstate-55 overpass about 6:30 a.m. Jett, Art Bodenstein, Gary Matlock and Dan Luepke were taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Blytheville. All were Gordonville firemen except Luepke. All are at home now...

JACKSON -- The city of Jackson has decided to take bids for its employee health insurance after being informed of a 30-35 percent increase in premiums by its carrier, Blue Cross Blue Shield. "In my opinion, this is an outrageously high increase," City Administrator Steve Wilson told the Board of Aldermen Monday night. Wilson said the increases were coming in the wake of one of the city's best years in terms of health-care usage...

RICHMOND, Ky. -- Eastern Kentucky's Lady Colonels were an angry basketball team Monday night. Southeast Missouri State University's Otahkians wound up having to pay the price for EKU's wrath. The Lady Colonels, still smarting from Saturday's surprising home loss to Eastern Illinois, took it out on Southeast by posting a 97-58 Ohio Valley Conference romp at McBrayer Arena...

RICHMOND, Ky. -- They sure didn't go down easily, but Southeast Missouri State University's basketball Indians continued their futility at McBrayer Arena Monday night. The Indians entered the Ohio Valley Conference game having never won on Eastern Kentucky's home court since Southeast joined the OVC seven years ago...

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- De'Teri Mayes paced five Murray State players in double figures with 19 points Monday night as the Racers topped Tennessee Tech 95-72. Tech (4-10, 0-3 Ohio Valley Conference) led 32-31 with 5:49 left in the first half before Murray State (12-2, 3-1) took control...

PERRYVILLE -- Perryville avenged a two-point loss to Notre Dame by defeating the Lady Bulldogs 58-44 in girls high school basketball action Monday night. Perryville (10-4) built its lead early, leading 11-6 after the first quarter and 30-16 by halftime. The advantage grew to 44-26 by the start of the fourth quarter...

Diana Lynn Hampton-Crader, 27, of Arnold died Sunday, Jan. 4, 1998, at Barnes-Jewish Cancer Center in St. Louis. She was born June 3, 1970, in Poplar Bluff, daughter of Louis and Madelyn Atkinson Hampton. Survivors include a daughter, Colleen Crader of Arnold; her parents of Arnold; two sisters, Teresa Connell of Cape Girardeau, Cindy Hampton of St. Louis; and paternal grandparents, Paul and Opal Hampton of Poplar Bluff...

SIKESTON -- James L. Cox, 73, of Sikeston died Monday, Jan. 5, 1998, at Clearview Nursing Center. He was born June 17, 1924, in Sikeston, son of William F. and Mary Ann Cunningham Cox. He and Mary Olivia Perry were married in 1945. She died Oct. 10, 1974...

Margaret Louise Reed, 93, of Cape Girardeau died Sunday, Jan. 4, 1998, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. She was born Sept. 6, 1904, at Fruitland, daughter of John Calvin and Effie Alexander Reed. Reed was a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University, and did graduate work at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale...

JACKSON -- Delores Davis, 56, of Jackson died Monday, Jan. 5, 1998, at her home. She was born Sept. 28, 1941, in Clubb, daughter of Willard and Goldie Libla. She married Charles Davis on Sept. 5, 1959. He survives. She was a homemaker. Also surviving are her parents of Greenville; a son, Gregory Davis of Jackson; a daughter, Cynthia Davis of Jackson; two brothers, Daryl Libla of Greenville and Dale Libla of Piedmont; and two grandchildren...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Minnie Showalter, 79, of Cairo died Monday, Jan. 5, 1998, at her home. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at Barkett Funeral Home in Cairo.

PERRYVILLE -- Clare E. Chappius, 89, of Perryville died Saturday, Jan. 3, 1998, at Perry County Nursing Home in Perryville. She was born Nov. 17, 1908, at New Hamburg, daughter of William and Magdalina LeGrand Essner. She married Floyd E. "Snubby" Chappius Oct. 28, 1944, in Blytheville, Ark. He died April 9, 1992...

Edgar William Heinbokel, 85, of Cape Girardeau died Monday, Jan. 5, 1998, at St. Francis Medical Center. He was born April 24, 1912, in Jones Ridge, Ill., son of William Henry and Mathilda Bremer Heinbokel. He and Myrtle A. Mangels were married April 28, 1935. She died Jan. 6, 1984. He later married Lilian Leimbach June 16, 1996...

Harold Bell Wright, 77, died Sunday, Jan. 4, 1998, at Missouri Veterans Home. He was born Aug. 15, 1920, at Illmo, son of Ernest Theodore and Nora Davenport Wright. Wright was a former conductor with Cotton Belt Railroad. He was a member of Harold O. Grauel Masonic Lodge 672. He served in the U.S. Marines during World War II...

ALTO PASS, Ill. -- Radcliff Allen Vancil, 86, of Alto Pass died Monday, Jan. 5, 1998, at his home. He was born Aug. 22, 1911, in Anna, son of Rolla and Rosa Castenhuber Vancil. He and Mabel Norton were married Aug. 1, 1936, in Pontiac, Mich. Vancil retired from Fisher Body Plant in 1959, and after moving back to Alto Pass he worked at Koppers Co. 13 years...

SIKESTON -- Funeral service for Frank Altom of Sikeston will be held at 10 a.m. today at Ponder Funeral Home. The Rev. Dolan Rogers will officiate, with burial in Sikeston City Cemetery. Altom, 80, died Saturday, Jan. 3, 1998, at Missouri Delta Medical Center...

GLEN ALLEN -- Virginia Lee Wright, 70, of Glen Allen died Sunday, Jan. 4, 1998, at her home. She was born Oct. 19, 1927, at Glen Allen, daughter of Lester Lee and Dora Burns Phelps. She and Elihu "Giggs" Wright were married July 3, 1945, in Corning, Ark. He died March 19, 1993...

SIKESTON -- James Yant, 57, died Monday, Jan. 5, 1998, at St. Francis Hospital in Mountain View. Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel at Sikeston is in charge of arrangements.

Daughter to Philip Lee and Tina Marie Harrison, 505 N. Broadview, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 3:58 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 17, 1997. Name, Sarah Marie. Weight, 6 pounds 15 ounces. Mrs. Harrison is the former Tina Taylor, daughter of Claude Earl and Danetta Taylor Jr. of McClure, Ill. She is a medical assistant at Physician Associates. Harrison is the son of J.R. Harrison of Clarkton and the late Pauline Harrison. He is employed at Cottonwood Treatment Center...

DEXTER -- Eldon Perry Payne, 86, of Dexter died Sunday, Jan. 4, 1998, at Crowley Ridge Care Center in Dexter. He was born July 31, 1911, at Milburn, Ky. He married Mildred Stafford in Dunklin County on June 21, 1941. She survives. He had owned and operated Payne Shoe Store in Dexter for 40 years. He was Pentecostal...