Stories from Saturday, March 27, 1999

Health and family service representatives attended the Bootheel Healthy Start Retreat Friday to learn how to reduce infant death rate and disease in Southeast Missouri. More than 100 people attended the event, held at the Holiday Inn Convention Center. Local, regional and national speakers were scheduled to discuss issues related to low birth weight babies and infant mortality...

The Madcap Medics again took home bragging rights after trouncing the Legal Eagles 61-47 in the annual Doctor-Lawyer Basketball Game Thursday at Cape Girardeau Central High School Fieldhouse. The two teams, made up of practicing doctors and lawyers in Cape Girardeau, square off in athletic events twice yearly to benefit local agencies. A softball game is planned later in the year to benefit the Area Wide United Way...

Taking off pounds is never an easy task, but many people have discovered that losing weight isn't just a matter of having a strong will. Sometimes it requires a spiritual motivation as well. Weigh Down Workshop's EXODUS Out of Egypt seminar is a Bible-based program that teaches people to transfer their love relationship with food to a love relationship with God...

SIKESTON -- Five of country music's most durable and popular stars will perform at the 47th annual Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo Aug. 11-14. Sammy Kershaw, Lorrie Morgan, Toby Keith, Tracy Byrd and Kenny Chesney will entertain audiences at the Bootheel Rodeo Grounds...

Martha Hamilton saw the wrong end of a gun. On Dec. 30, 1985, she was shot in the abdomen during an armed robbery at a Cape Girardeau laundromat. Hamilton wasn't armed. Thirteen years later, she insists she wouldn't have fared better if she had been carrying a concealed weapon...

Repair work on the Mississippi River bridge at Cape Girardeau continues another day next week. But expect additional repairs to be scheduled in the coming months. "Really we are doing what is typical for a 70 year old bridge," said Scott Meyer, District 10 engineer with the Missouri Department of Transportation...

It's more difficult for long-distance telephone providers to "slam" or "cram" their customers these days, but complaints about slamming, cramming and billing charges topped the list of consumer complaints made to the Missouri Attorney General's office last year...

Missouri voters will decide April 6 if Proposition B, the concealed weapons measure, is right on target. The measure would allow residents to obtain permits to carry concealed guns. John Lott Jr., a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, has studied concealed weapons laws nationwide. He estimates about 22,000 people would hold permits in Missouri after three years, assuming the measure passes...

There's nothing like a special family event to strain relations among your relations. Case in point: I know four -- count 'em, four -- soon-to-be brides who are almost ready to pull their hair out over familial interference regarding their wedding plans...

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon, Southwestern Bell and the Federal Communications Commission offer a number of preventative measures to avoid being crammed or slammed: -- Thoroughly read everything you sign, especially the small print. -- Carefully review your monthly telephone bill and watch for changes to service...

A COUPLE of callers have commented it is legal to carry a gun openly in Missouri. Apparently, that's as a result of Mr. Swingle's column in which he points out that it's OK to carry a gun openly in Missouri. I'd like to point out that federal law prohibits those except persons with concealed-carry permits from carrying a gun within 1,000 feet of a school. ...

Do the crime, do the time. Increasingly, this maxim has been the embodiment of Missouri's get-tougher-on-crime mission. In an effort to reduce crime, the state has pushed through more mandatory sentencing for certain crimes. But it hasn't stopped there. Law enforcement has been spurred to step up arrests. Prosecutors have been prodded to be more aggressive. Judges and juries have been encouraged to throw criminals in jail and throw away the key...

For 20 years, Leroy Mason was a marching-band master at Southeast Missouri State University. Twenty years after his death, his accomplishments remain untarnished, and his memory remains vibrant for many of his former students and colleagues. One such student has begun a drive to fully endow a scholarship named for Mason. A '60s benefit dance on April 16 will raise funds for the scholarship, which remains several thousand dollars short of its $10,000 goal...

To the editor:For those of you with the sense to ask the question, "Why do we need to pass the concealed-weapons proposition if its already in our Constitution?" One hundred twenty-five years ago, in 1874, our constitutional rights were taken away from us by a state law banning concealed weapons. We now have the opportunity to put things straight and vote yes on Proposition B.CAROL POOLEJackson...

To the editor: A more moronic perversion of my position I could not imagine than Mr. Hodge's March 21 letter. To say I "demand that everyone be allowed to buy more guns ... then ... it is necessary to allow everyone to carry concealed guns for protection from the other people he has encouraged to buy guns in the first place" is to show a limited mental capacity...

To the editor: Ever notice how whenever this so-called commander-in-chief gets into trouble, he bombs some poor country that has never harmed the United States? I'm a Vietnam vet. I love my country. I love my Constitution. And I am still quite capable, prepared and more than willing to fight any enemy, foreign or domestic. ...

It's only the second weekend of league play, but Southeast Missouri State University's baseball team already faces a showdown of sorts. When the Indians and Eastern Illinois square off in a three-game series at Capaha Field, it will pit last year's top two teams in the Ohio Valley Conference -- and the two squads expected to battle for the OVC title this season...

Another Class 4A team, another Notre Dame victim. Notre Dame, a Class 2A squad, won its third straight game over a 4A program, romping visiting Jackson 12-2 in six innings Friday. The Bulldogs, winners over Sikeston, Poplar Bluff and Jackson in a span of four days, scored seven runs in the sixth to put away the self-destructing Indians by the 10-run rule and improve to 3-0 on the season...

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southeast Missouri State University's softball team inched closer to the .500 mark as the Otahkians picked up two shutout victories Friday in the SIU Invitational. The Otahkians beat Ohio Valley Conference rival Eastern Illinois 2-0 and then knocked off Saint Louis 5-0...

Amanda Hiler scored a hat trick Friday in leading the Cape Girardeau Central High girls soccer team to a big 3-2 win over visiting St. Charles West. The Lady Tigers, who have been beaten just twice in two years -- both times by the eventual state champs -- improved to 3-0 on the season...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Debra Sue Smith, 43, of East Prairie died Friday, March 26, 1999, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston of an apparent heart attack. She was born Feb. 23, 1956, in Cairo, Ill., daughter of Albert and Wanda E. Smith. Survivors include a son, Albert Smith of East Prairie; a daughter, Christi Navarro of Oran; a brother, Dennis Smith of Houston, Texas; three sisters, Dorothy Linley of East Prairie, Kathy Smith of Sikeston, Brenda Holly of New Caney, Texas; her fiance, Stanley Davidson of East Prairie; and two grandchildren.. ...

BERNIE -- Naomi Lee Murphy, 83, of Bernie died Thursday, March 25, 1999, at Vintage Villa Nursing Center in Dexter. She was born May 15, 1916, at Bernie, daughter of George and Minnie Fonville Jones. She and Pete Murphy were married April 16, 1941, at Dexter. He died Oct. 2, 1990...

Marvin J. Nenninger, 91, of Cape Girardeau died Friday, March 26, 1999, at Heartland Care Rehab Center. Lorberg Memorial Funeral Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

ORAN -- Funeral for Alta M. Davis of Granite City, Ill., was held March 17, 1999, at Irwin Chapel in Granite City. The Rev. Darrin Hughes officiated. Burial was in St. John's Cemetery in Granite City. Davis, 93, died Saturday, March 13, 1999, in Granite City...

PERRYVILLE -- Lois M. Hager, 73, of Perryville died Thursday, March 25, 1999, at Perry County Memorial Hospital. She was born Jan. 31, 1926, in St. Louis, daughter of Clyde and Ola Blair Hinkle. She and Wilson H. "Speed" Hager were married Sept. 10, 1948. He died July 30, 1995...

DONGOLA, Ill. -- Marcella Schaible, 81, of Dongola died Thursday, March 25, 1999, at the home of a daughter in Dongola. She was born July 21, 1917, in Cleveland, Ohio, daughter of Conrad and Anna Shellhamer Martin. Survivors include two daughters, Carol Hanson of Dongola, Pamela Schaible of Tampa, Fla.; and two grandchildren...

Son to Scott and Annette Readnour of Festus, 4:56 a.m. Thursday, March 4, 1999. Name, Eli Michael. Weight, 7 pounds 10 ounces. First child. Mrs. Readnour is the former Annette Rutledge, daughter of Freddie and Shirley Rutledge of Sikeston. She was formerly a teacher at Herculaneum High School. Readnour is the son of Mike and June Readnour of Cape Girardeau. He is a teacher at Lindberg High School in St. Louis...

CHAFFEE -- Funeral for Anna Marie Guyott of Chaffee will be held at 2 p.m. today at Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Chaffee. The Rev. Watis Harrell will officiate. Burial will be in Union Park Cemetery. Guyott, 88, died Thursday, March 25, 1999, at Chaffee Nursing Center...

Many area churches will have worship services or dramas for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Maundy Thursday Centenary United Methodist Church will host a worship and drama service Maundy Thursday at 7 p.m. on "Women of Courage." The service will look at the role of women in Jesus' life. It includes communion...