Stories from Wednesday, December 22, 1999

To the editor: I would like to express my disagreement with some of your recent editorials on the issue of charter schools. In these pieces, you sing the praises of the charter-school movement and the concept of choice in education. I am perplexed by the idea that people are so willing to divert public money into what are essentially private schools. ...

You're a good man, Charles Schulz. It is said all good things must come to an end, and so it is with one of America's most beloved comic strips, "Peanuts." Creator Charles Schulz has written, drawn, colored and lettered every "Peanuts" strip for nearly 50 years. But the 77-year-old artist is retiring at the new year. He was recently diagnosed with colon cancer...

A doctors' clinic that makes house calls? It's unusual in this age of high-tech medicine. But sometimes a return to old-fashioned services can be welcomed, especially for those in need. The Midtown Family Medical Clinic is trying to resurrect the practice of house calls. The house calls are made by a nurse practitioner as opposed to a doctor and are limited to patients who simply can't make it to the clinic...

Persistence pays: At the splendid investiture for Dr. Ken Dobbins as 17th president of Southeast Missouri State University, the guest speaker was Dr. Aubrey Lucas. In his remarks, Dr. Lucas relied on one of my favorite quotes: Press on: Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. ...

When Delores Pachett left Florsheim Shoe factory Tuesday, she hesitated just outside the door. She looked back and said, "I've been working here since the new plant opened." The "new" Florsheim plant, near Southern Expressway and Southwest End Boulevard, opened in 1969...

Candidates in several area counties filed for municipal and board of education seats Tuesday, creating at least two races in Scott City and another in Charleston. Filings opened Tuesday and close Jan. 18 for municipal elections in Jackson, Delta, Oran, Chaffee, Scott City, Charleston, East Prairie, Marble Hill and Perryville...

Courtney Mayberry knew that Santa Claus came from the North Pole because all the presents he brought to her house Tuesday night were cold. "They feel cold," she said. "Where did you get these?" Santa Claus, aka Mike Leimer, said all the gifts came from the North Pole. "It's cold outside but it's frigid there."...

Just like a child waiting for Santa, one of the recipients of Christmas for the Elderly gifts didn't sleep the night before the gift delivery because she was so excited. "When we came to her door, she jumped for joy and cried because she was so happy," said Carol Sarff, a nurse with the Cape Girardeau County Health Department who helped deliver the gifts donated to this year's Christmas for the Elderly campaign, an annual program of the health department and the Southeast Missourian newspaper...

Why is Christmas like a day at the office? You do all the work and the fat guy with the suit gets all the credit. Santa is actually lucky to cram all his Christmas activities into one evening. The rest of us have lived with the holiday season since mid-October. Now that Christmas is almost here, I'm tired of hearing about it being the time of peace and good will while actually encountering rude comments from frazzled sales clerks and pushes and shoves from tired shoppers...

Whether it's because he was born on Dec. 25 or the way he was raised, Paul Kinder is certainly imbued with the Christmas spirit. The soon-to-be 95-year-old shares many similarities with Santa. Kinder always has a project going in his workshop, he gives away what he makes and he's got that same twinkle in his eye...

A Sikeston woman will serve 51 months in prison and pay over $3 million in restitution for a fire that she had set last June. Donna J. Wages, 44, was sentenced by Judge E. Richard Webber on Monday, the U.S. attorney's office said. Wages had pled guilty to setting the fire, which destroyed the Riggs Wholesale Co. building in Sikeston. She had set the fire to cover up thefts of money that she had taken from the company, the U.S. attorney's office said...

JACKSON -- A Cape Girardeau man pleaded guilty to breaking into his former girlfriend's apartment and assaulting her twice as she took a shower, the Cape Girardeau County prosecutor said. Jonathan D. Pierce, 22, pleaded guilty to two counts of trespassing and two counts of assault Tuesday before Judge Gary Kamp...

The Groundwater Foundation has recognized Cape Girardeau County as a Groundwater Guardian Community for the fourth consecutive year. "We are very proud of it because it indicates we have done something to improve the quality of the water in the county," said Martha Vandivort, co-chair of the Cape Girardeau County Groundwater Guardian Committee and deputy coordinator of the county's emergency management office...

PATTON -- Meadow Heights Superintendent Duane Schindler hopes his school district will continue the progress demonstrated in its most recent district report card. The report card, an annual self-examination released two weeks ago, shows the school district made modest improvements in financial and educational data during the 1998-99 school year...

Area residents got a calling card of cold weather Tuesday in advance of today's official start of winter. But weather forecasters predict area residents won't see a white Christmas. In fact, temperatures are expected to warm up this weekend. Temperatures are expected to be in the 40s on Saturday, Christmas Day. On Sunday, temperatures could climb into the mid-50s and possibly reach 60, said Doug Boyette, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky...

Men of Steele have kept the U.S. Attorney's office busy this fall. Eight residents of Pemiscot County, four who live in Steele, have appeared in federal court in Cape Girardeau for distribution of cocaine, said Paul Hahn, assistant U.S. attorney. All except one had been involved in organized cocaine dealing...

We had a great basketball atmosphere at the Show Me Center Saturday night and the enthusiastic crowd helped us beat a very good Arkansas State team. It took our best 40-minute effort of the season to beat ASU. I thought the crowd really helped us late in the game, when ASU had the ball and we were up by only three...

Sources have told the Southeast Missourian that Marshall defensive coordinator Tim Billings will become Southeast Missouri State University's new head football coach. Billings will likely be formally introduced as the Indians' coach Thursday during a press conference on the Southeast campus...

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley's men's basketball team might be struggling a bit right now, but Southeast Missouri State University coach Gary Garner isn't fooled at all. Garner knows the Braves will be one of the best -- if not the best -- squads the Indians face all season...

For Cape Central girls basketball fans, there is no sweeter sight than a swipe and no sweeter sound than a swish. Especially when they happen within about five seconds of each other. Especially when it happens in overtime. And especially when it seals an overtime win against county rival Jackson in the semifinals of the HealthSouth Holiday Classic at the Show Me Center...

If experience breeds confidence, then Poplar Bluff's self assurance was decisive in a 53-37 victory over a tentative Notre Dame squad. The Lady Bulldogs may have been intimidated before the game even started, facing top-seeded Poplar Bluff in a semifinal match in the HealthSouth Holiday Classic at the Show Me Center Tuesday night...

Notre Dame broke open a three-point game with a 48-point offensive explosion in the second half for a78-56 victory over Fredericktown Tuesday night in boys high school basketball action. Chris Dirnberger led the way with a season-high 23 points for Notre Dame, which improved to 3-4...

PERRYVILLE -- Edward J. Besand, 75, of Perryville died Tuesday, Dec. 21, 1999, at his home. He was born June 22, 1924, at Perryville, son of Joseph and Lena Fenwick Besand. He and Dorothy Welland were married Sept. 6, 1947. Besand retired as a mechanic with Monsanto Corp. He was a member of Immanuel Lutheran Church and Veterans of Foreign Wars...

ADVANCE -- Robert Lee Boner, 68, of Advance died Tuesday, Dec. 21, 1999, at his home. He was born March 20, 1931, at Creal Springs, Ill., the son of Ruth Ann Choate Bohan of Carbondale, Ill., and Clinton Boner. He married Maxine Jones on Oct. 14, 1948, at Cape Girardeau. She survives...

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Ella Belle "Toots" Peterman, 72, of Carbondale died Monday, Dec. 20, 1999, at Memorial Hospital in Carbondale. She was born Jan. 26, 1927, at Marion, the daughter of Lloyd and Delila Jane Sheppard Baggett. She married George L. Peterman. He died June 26, 1998...

SIKESTON -- Di'Cody A. Lane, 8 months, of Sikeston died Monday, Dec. 20, 1999, at his home of sudden infant death syndrome. He was born March 25, 1999, in Sikeston, the son of Shalonda Lane and Diangelo Ellis of Sikeston. They survive. He also is survived by a sister, Briana Lane of the home; a brother, Zaccheus Lane of the home; two grandmothers, Ursula Lane and Mary Ellis, both of Sikeston; maternal great-grandmother, Jessie Lane of Sikeston; and paternal great-grandparents, Mr. ...

A memorial service for William Christian Fischer will be held at 4 p.m. today at Balmoral Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tenn., following private burial. William, 2, died Monday, Dec. 20, 1999, at LeBonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis. He was born Oct. 16, 1997, son of Terry and Mindy Ueleke Fischer of Germantown, Tenn...

ADVANCE -- Funeral for Wayne A. Haws of De Soto, formerly of Advance, will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at Morgan Funeral Chapel. The Rev. Charles Woodard will officiate. Burial will be in Oak Ridge Cemetery near Bloomfield. Friends may call at the funeral home from 8-11 a.m...

Beatrice Iwilda Wilson, 84, of Malden died Monday, Dec. 20, 1999, at Ridgeview Nursing Center in Malden. She was born Jan. 26, 1915, at Cottonplant, daughter of Elliott and Mary Jane Woods Kilbreath. She and Willie Wesley Wilson were married Nov. 2, 1929. He died Dec. 8, 1977...

Scott City - Brian Michael Lowery, 65, of Scott City died Monday, December 20, 1999 at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born May 29, 1934, in Trenton, Tennessee, the son of Alvin Ethridge and Beulah Mae Holt Lowery. He married Virginia Crews on August 7, 1954 at Rives...

BLOOMFIELD -- Lenard Frank Hovis, 74, of Bloomfield died Monday, Dec. 20, 1999, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Oct. 12, 1925, in Townley, the son of Alfred Benton and Lola Mae Francis Hovis. He married Wilma Jean Jones on May 3, 1946. She survives...

ANNA, Ill. -- Glenda S. Ridgway, 57, of Anna died Tuesday, Dec. 21, 1999, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo. She was born Nov. 11, 1942, in Cobden, daughter of Carl and Una Sloan. She married Oliver Ridgway. Ridgway had been a secretary at Clyde L. Choate Mental Health Center...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Lucille Greenwood, 91, of East Prairie died Tuesday, Dec. 21, 1999, at the East Prairie Nursing Center. She was born Oct. 11, 1908, in Florence, Ala., the daughter of Oliver Q. and Nina Bromley Bradley. She married Howard B. Greenwood on Oct. 31, 1925. He died April 13, 1971...

John Woodrow "Woody" Godwin, 87, of Cape Girardeau died Monday, Dec. 20, 1999, at St. Francis Medical Center. He was born Sept. 22, 1912, in Cape Girardeau County, son of James Shelton and Daisy Cowan Godwin. He and Viola Crites were married April 12, 1929, at Jackson. She died Jan. 19, 1993...

GRAND CHAIN, Ill. -- Carl Greer, 71, of Grand Chain died Tuesday, Dec. 21, 1999, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Arrangements are incomplete at the Wilson Funeral Home in Karnak.

John Lewis Edward Boardman, 73, of Cape Girardeau died Monday, Dec. 20, 1999, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. He was born Oct. 10, 1926, in Sikeston, son of Edward Lewis and Rubye Trousdale Boardman. Boardman received a degree in architectural engineering from Iowa State University. He was active in the architecture field at the time of his death...

Son to Kevin R. and Julie Ann Stafford of Sikeston, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 9:48 p.m. Monday, Dec. 13, 1999. Name, Austin Ray. Weight, 5 pounds 4 ounces. First child. Mrs. Stafford is the former Julie Witt, daughter of Orvel Witt and Carolyn of Sikeston. She is employed at the Flower Basket in Sikeston. Stafford is the son of Roy and Bonnie Stafford of Dexter. He is employed by Sikeston Department of Public Safety...

Dec. 21, 1986, was a sunny, unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon. It was also the day my best friend became my husband. Candlelight and the scent of gardenias bathed the chapel as Larry Joe Holtzhouser and I were married. We began our honeymoon at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tenn. Among the amenities waiting for us at the Peabody was a miniature wedding cake with White Chocolate Anniversary Frosting...

"You can never be too rich or too thin," admonished Gloria Vanderbilt. While her advice may be valid when applied to people, it is only half right when it comes to eggnog. I've never tasted one that was too rich, but I've had plenty that were too thin...

Merry Christmas! What a wonderful opportunity I have to be able to send Christmas greetings to all of you and save on the postage. No, seriously, I do wish each of you a very merry Christmas. This is such a very special time of year as we celebrate the birth of Jesus. It is my wish to you that you slow down and take time to truly enjoy the Christmas season and ponder in your heart the reason for the season...