Stories from Wednesday, June 21, 2000

A portion of North Sprigg Street will be temporarily converted into a speedway for gravity-operated vehicles when the Cape Girardeau Rotary Club sponsors its first soapbox derby Sept. 16. A hilly portion of North Sprigg that runs in front of Barbara Blanchard Elementary School will become the raceway for at least 27 stock cars. ...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- A Perryville development group has agreed to fund up to $400,000 in renovations to turn a former Catholic seminary building into a higher education center. The Perryville Development Corp. board approved the funding arrangement following a meeting Tuesday evening with officials of Southeast Missouri State University, Mineral Area College, Perryville, Perry County and the local industrial development authority. About 30 people attended the meeting at the American Legion hall...

Forgetting budget restraints, the city Parks and Recreation Advisory Board did a little dreaming about what sort of park development and recreational facilities Cape Girardeau could use. The board spent nearly 18 months reviewing existing park uses and dreaming about what sort of facilities could be built. It then developed a 15-year master plan from the information and adopted the plan Tuesday night at a board meeting...

SCOTT CITY, Mo. -- A Scott City teen-ager was injured Tuesday when his vehicle ran off a road and overturned. The accident happened at 2:15 p.m. on Route N two miles south of Scott City. Matthew Drury, 17, of Scott City was taken to St. Francis Medical Center for treatment...

Jackson Board of Aldermen Public hearings n Held hearing to consider the request for a special use permit for he establishment and operation of self-storage facilities in a C-2 (general commercial) district at 974 W. Independence St. n Held hearing to consider the rezoning of Lots 1 through 7 in Brookview Subdivision, Lots 8 through 11 in Brookview II Subdivision and the property addressed as 2941 Old Cape Road from C-2 to R-2 (one- and two-family residential)...

DEXTER, Mo. -- Life became a lot more aggravating in the last week for one Dexter family, thanks to a problem that regularly surfaces in Stoddard County. Members of the Robert Helton family now have first-hand knowledge of confusion that can be caused when a person with the same name turns up in the county's court records that are published in The Daily Statesman...

JACKSON, Mo. -- Since the beginning of April, Jack Priest and others who own 53.5 acres of property along East Main Street have been wrestling with the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Jackson Board of Aldermen in an attempt to have their property rezoned commercially. The tussle continues...

In 1957, an Australian visiting California told about the children in his country entertaining themselves by twirling bamboo hoops around their waists. Two men thought the idea was a good one and initiated what they called the "hula hoop." The hoop, one of the top 10 toys of the century by some accounts, sold more than 150 million hoops and realized more than $45 million in profits before the hula hoop craze died down a year later...

Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Talent wants the state to put $10 million into improving and expanding community health clinics for uninsured and poor Missourians. In a telephone conference call to reporters Tuesday, the U.S. congressman said the state needs expanded community health clinics...

When Cape Girardeau native Burl Stamp began work in the Southeast Missouri Hospital marketing department after graduating from college, he had no idea it was the beginning of a career in health care that would lead him to become the president of one of the top children's hospitals in the country...

JACKSON, Mo. -- Contrary to early reports, the 16-year-old Jackson High School student killed in an accidental shooting Friday night was not one of the youths who were shooting the gun earlier that evening, authorities said Tuesday. Nicholas James Hendrix was killed at 8:20 Friday night when a 9 mm handgun accidentally discharged inside a residence at 3090 state Highway FF in Fruitland...

Sometimes it pays to be a nice guy. And it doesn't hurt being a good writer, either. Pierce Yates, who said he always puts an emphasis on displaying good sportsmanship when he participates in sports, recently took second place in a statewide essay contest sponsored by the Missouri State High School Activities Association...

Classic United Boys 13 will hold soccer tryouts July 5-7 at Shawnee Soccer Park. The tryouts, for boys born between Aug. 1, 1987 and July 31, 1988, will be held from 6-8 p.m. A makeup tryout will be held July from 5:30-7:30 p.m. For more information, contact Barry Zerbe at 334-0283...

Jeremy Todd, a left-handed hitting catcher of the Capahas, has signed a minor-league contract with a Class A team in the New York Mets organization. He will play for a team based in Pittsfield, Maine. Todd is from West Frankfort, Ill. and attended an NAIA school in Nashville...

Elmer J. Foeste, 79, of Cape Girardeau died Tuesday, June 20, 2000, at his home. He was born July 10, 1920, at Egypt Mills, son of Maple and Rose C. Nabe Foeste. He and Ruby Hengst were married Sept. 5, 1942, at Benton. She died March 18, 1999. Foeste was retired from Foeste Nursery. He was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church and VFW Post 3838...

Daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Walter Allen Leech III of Chico, Calif., Feather River Hospital in Paradise, Calif., 7:40 p.m. Thursday, March 23, 2000. Name, Natanie Franxine. Weight, 6 pounds 8 ounces. First child. Mrs. Leech is the former Clare Memoracion, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Efrem Memoracion of Chico. She is an early childhood teacher. Leech is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Walter A. Leech Jr. of Jackson. He is a computer cartographer...

CLINES ISLAND, Mo. -- Gladys Ridge Dowdy, 90, died Monday, June 19, 2000. She was born Sept. 30, 1909, at Clines Island, daughter of Sophia Kelly Avery. She first married Bonnie A. Ridge, who died in May 1945. She later married David Dowdy, who died in September 1962...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Karl A. Moranville, 85, of Perryville died Tuesday, June 20, 2000, at Perry County Memorial Hospital. He was born Nov. 22, 1914, at Perryville, son of Monroe H. and Virginia M. Tucker Moranville. Moranville retired as a bookkeeper with A.E. Birk and Son in Cape Girardeau. He was a member of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church...

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Deloris Nations of Poplar Bluff died Monday, June 19, 2000, at Lucy Lee Hospital. Watkins and Sons Funeral Home in Dexter is in charge of arrangements.

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- William G. Espy, 85, of Perryville died Monday, June 19, 2000, at St. Mary's Hospital in St. Louis. He was born Feb. 8, 1915, in St. Louis, son of Clarence P. and Annie Mueller Espy. He and Virginia K. Walker were married Jan. 14, 1984...

BENTON, Mo. -- Helen Mae Freeman, 72, of Benton died Monday, June 19, 2000, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born May 7, 1928, in Lamar, Ark., daughter of Ernest and Sarah Ellen Harris Thomas. She and Ulysses L. Freeman were married April 13, 1946, in Hernando, Miss...

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Mardell Agatha Finney, 87, of Chaffee died Monday, June 19, 2000, at Chaffee Nursing Center. She was born Oct. 17, 1912, daughter of Walter P. and Elizabeth Stausing Masters. She and Dr. W.O. Finney were married April 22, 1941. He died May 29, 1970...

The Cape Girardeau County Commission has named not just one, but two panels to tackle the issue of public transportation. A five-member transit authority, which will wield the real bureaucratic power, was established first. The commission then appointed a nine-member advisory committee to assist the transit authority in formulating policy...

The father's eyes: Bob Richards, the former pole-vault champion, shares a moving story about a skinny young boy who loved football with all his heart. Practice after practice, he eagerly gave everything he had. But, being half the size of the other boys, he got absolutely nowhere...

To the editor: This refers to David Broder's June 18 column, "Capital punishment is a broken system," concerning a study by a Columbia University law professor and others which found that serious errors occurred in 68 percent of the death-sentence cases tried from 1973 to 1995...

To the editor: Hats off to the Cape Girardeau Police Department. While tending to a separate act of vandalism adjacent to my business (overturned Coke machine in front of Totally You Salon), they managed also to catch two very inebriated young men uprooting the flowers in front of my business in the wee hours of a recent Sunday morning...

The Queen of Sheba chocolate cake is everything a recipe should be. It is so rich and decadent that you want top bake one immediately. Some years ago a lady wrote to the London Daily Telegraph and reported, "The hymn 'Onward Christian Soldiers' sung to the right tune and in a not too brisk tempo makes a very good egg timer. If you put the egg into boiling water and sing all five verses and chorus, the egg will be just right when you come to 'Amen.'"...

Imagine that your child is ill and needs medical attention and the worry of where to get quality affordable healthcare is added to your stress. The Children's Miracle Network was established in 1983 just for this purpose. The simple goal of the Children's Miracle Network is to provide all children, regardless of their families ability to pay, access to quality healthcare. ...