Stories from Monday, February 12, 2001

Thomas Insurance Services, 1925 William, has been named the number one agency in State Mutual Insurance Company's Midwest Region for the year 2000. The region includes areas in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska. The principle agents of Thomas Insurance Services are Jeff Thomas and Laura Faye Thomas...

An old automotive hood ornament -- a chrome symbol from an early-model Cadillac -- was among some of the items neatly stacked on the table. The design, one of more than 5,000 different ornaments, or "mascots," that adorned many a hood of older cars and trucks, was a rare one -- a 1931-to-1933 "Cadillac Goddess."...

Shawn Allen never knows what he'll hear when he opens the phone lines. As the host of Trade Mart, a popular call-in show at WXLR-FM in rural eastern Kentucky, he has helped people sell everything from billy goats to bass boats, fighting roosters to four-wheel drives...

A lot of fast-food people remember the day -- Jan. 2, 1998 -- when governors in three states welcomed a new Burger King French fry. Fifteen million people enjoyed a free order of fries. Mr. Potato Head became the Burger King "spokes-spud." It was an exciting day in Burger King land...

Paula Lewis has joined Coldwell Banker Hamilton Realty, as a sales associate. Lewis, of Cape Girardeau, has been a licensed Realtor three years. She previously worked in the East Prairie, Charleston and Sikeston areas. Lewis is a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University and the Independent Career Institute. She was previously a teacher and business owner...

The 2001 Missouri Cotton Production and Outlook Conference will be held Tuesday at the American Legion Building in Kennett. Nematode testing, cotton soil research, boll weevil issues and the cotton economic outlook are among topics on the day's agenda...

Missouri home ownership is 7 percent higher than the national average. The Missouri Department of Economic Development (DED) reported last week that the home ownership rate for Missouri in 2000 was 74 percent. Nationally, home ownership was 67 percent...

Farm Equipment Guide Quick Reference Guide, the 2001 "blue book" for farm tractors, combines and implements, is now available. In its 20th year of publication, the annual guide is a source for information on equipment manufactured from 1912 through the current 200 brands of machinery...

The Pulaski-Alexander Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), headquartered at Tamms, Ill., is taking orders for the 2000 fish sale for pond stockings. Channel catfish, hybrid sunfish, largemouth bass, bluegill, fathead minnows, redear, crappie and grass carp can be order by calling the SWCD office, (618) 747-2305. Additional stocking information is available at the same number...

The Malden Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual banquet March 15 at the Malden Community Center, at 6:30 p.m. Rebecca Sharp's Restaurant will cater the prime rib dinner. Tickets are available for the meeting, by calling Paul Reeder at (573) 276-4519...

Spartan Light Metals of Sparta, Ill., will invest $5.1 million in a 35,000 expansion that will retain 35 jobs and created an addition 34 jobs. Spartan, with help form the State of Illinois to Spartan and the city of Sparta, will construct the first phase of a long-term site plan which consists of a 35,000-square-foot addition to the south side of its existing Sparta plant, installation of a new 1,400-ton diecast work cell and addition of a central melt furnace, said Scott Homan, executive vice president of Business Planning and Development.. ...

Despite a sharp slowdown in the final quarter of 2000, Americans' productivity for all of last year posted the best gain since 1983, capping a remarkable five-year stretch of growth in this important indicator of rising living standards. Worker productivity -- the amount of goods and services produced for each hour worked -- rose at an annual rate of 2.4 percent in the last three months of 2000 as the nation's economic growth lagged, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. ...

Donna Smith, Danetta Held and Jeanne Prultt of Studio Designs Beauty salon, 229 S. Broadview, recently attended the Redken International Symposium, held in Las Vegas. Smith, Held and Pruitt attended numerous classes on the latest hair techniques, including razor cutting and hair coloring...

Rick Sparks, University of Missouri Outreach and Extension business and industry specialist in Jackson, has received the Missouri Chamber of Commerce Outreach and Extension Business Award. Sparks works with businesses and entrepreneurs in Southeast Missouri to start and grow successful enterprises. Sparks also presents workshops on such topics as basic supervision, home-based businesses, pricing products and services, and dealing with on-the-job conflicts...

Elizabeth Neldon Lorenz has been named executive director of the Sikeston-Miner Convention and Visitors Bureau. Lorenz replaces Tammy Carlyle, executive director of the CVB since it was created in 1998. Lorenz, of Sikeston, is a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University, with a degree in business, and major in marketing...

David L. Hahs of Cape Girardeau received the "Bull O' the Woods" award, presented by Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, for the highest percentage increase in sales for the final six months of 2000. Hahs was also recognized as the agency sales leader for 2000. He produced 185 percent of his quota...

With a combined annual income of $576 billion, African-Americans are becoming the most targeted consumers in the country, with companies eager to sell them everything from fast food to fashion. The key, however, is in the delivery, said an successful African-American advertising executive who spoke to students at Southeast Missouri State University Sunday night...

A 20-year-old man who died in a shootout with Cape Girardeau police Saturday had been smoking and making methamphetamine in the days leading up to the gun battle, investigators said. Matthew S. Marsh of Scott City, Mo., promised he would shoot police rather than go to jail on Friday at the mobile home he shared with 27-year-old Jenna M. McDaniel, said Krystal Miller, McDaniel's former stepdaughter...

The first Cape Girardeau police officers to be seriously wounded in a shootout in nearly 40 years were reported to be in serious but stable condition Sunday. Sgt. Bradley Moore and Cpl. Keith May were talking and in good spirits, officer Bill Bohnert said...

About a dozen groups that provide afterschool programs for Cape Girardeau youths are pooling information to coordinate their services. Tom Davisson, executive director of the Community Caring Council, brought together school, private and church organizations because he wanted to see what activities were available for school-aged children who might otherwise be left home alone...

Like most Americans, Sheila Caskey has strong feelings about taxes. "I don't believe people who don't make a lot of money should have to go pay 50 bucks to file their taxes," the retired university dean says. It's that philosophy that leads her to volunteer at the East Missouri Action Agency during tax season to help low-income individuals and families fill out and electronically file their income taxes...

When Brother Mark Elder, a painter at DePaul University in Chicago, wondered how local residents reacted when the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears crossed the Mississippi River here, he asked Marie W. Exler. Exler told him about Henry Windeknecht, who found a Cherokee boy and girl hiding in the bushes, scared and hungry. ...

ORAN, Mo. -- The Scott County Soil and Water Conservation District will sponsor its annual meeting at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 20 at the Oran Knights of Columbus Hall. The guest speaker will be U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, who will give an update on agriculture issues...

Southeast Missouri State University's baseball Indians -- who might be better known as the "Comeback Kids" so far -- won both ends of a Sunday doubleheader at Capaha Field to sweep the three-game weekend series against Iowa State. The Indians needed late-inning heroics to pull out a 3-2 first-game victory, much like the series opener on Saturday when the Indians rallied from a three-run deficit to defeat the Cyclones 5-4 in extra innings...

DENTON, Texas -- Southeast Missouri State University's women's gymnastics team posted its highest score of the season Sunday in finishing second during a quad meet hosted by Texas Women's University. Air Force won the competition with 194.275 points, followed by Southeast with 193.125. Texas Women's placed third (191.975) and Centenary was last (188.550)...

Lemen H. Hahs, 80, of Jackson, Mo., died Saturday, Feb. 10, 2001, at his daughter's home in Perryville, Mo. Friends may call between 4-8 p.m. today at McCombs Funeral Home in Jackson. Funeral service will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home. Interment will be in Russell Heights Cemetery in Jackson, with a Missouri Honor Guard Service. The Rev. Grant Gillard will officiate...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Lillie Macel Howell, 91, of Sikeston died Saturday, Feb. 10, 2001, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born July 28, 1909, in Springerton, Ill., daughter of James and Mary Hooker Rister. She and Roy W. Howell married on March 16, 1927, in Jackson, Mo. He died June 17, 1964...

UNIONTOWN, Mo. -- Erwin P. Kasten, 85, of Uniontown died Sunday, Feb. 11, 2001, at the Missouri Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau. He was born Dec. 17, 1915, in Uniontown, son of Arthur and Agnes Telle Kasten. He was an agricultural and livestock farmer and a veteran of the U.S. Army, having served in World War II...

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Margie Pauline Kirkpatrick, 59, of Marble Hill, Mo., died Sunday, Feb. 11, 2001, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born March 12, 1941, in Lutesville, Mo., daughter of Charley and Radie James Cook. She and George Lee Kirkpatrick were married Aug. 25, 1956...

Billy French, 67, of Cape Girdeau, died Sunday, Feb. 11, 2001, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston, Mo. Arrangements are incomplete at Ford and Sons Funeral Home.

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Joanna Taylor Black, 68, of Sikeston died Saturday, Feb. 10, 2001, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born Aug. 22, 1932, at Kewanee, Mo., daughter of Ira Lee "Scotty" and Edna Fern Schaffer Taylor. She and C.P. "Junior" Black were married Oct. 13, 1978, in Sikeston...

FROHNA, Mo. -- Gilbert E. Dreyer, 85, of Frohna died Saturday, Feb. 10, 2001, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born May 27, 1915, in Frohna, son of Joachim and Anna Schlimpert Dreyer. He and Eugenia Emma Schimer were married May 16, 1937. She died Dec. 25, 1992...

HOW ABOUT those SEMO Indians? What are they going to brag about next? Are they going to start playing high school teams? Gary Garner has scheduled the softest schedule he could find anywhere. It's the weakest one in the OVC, and still when they beat someone like Morris Brown they brag...

The Stars and Stripes Museum at tiny Bloomfield, Mo., is growing. Groundbreaking recently was held for a 3,800-square-foot addition that will cost some $120,000. The addition is part of a 10-year master plan that includes a museum complex, the Missouri Veterans Cemetery due to open in 2002 and a museum housing more than 500 pieces of antique agricultural equipment donated by Gene Rhodes of Cape Girardeau...

With Cape Girardeau County spending nearly $109,000 last year on medical services and prescription drugs for prisoners, the county has prudently hired a nurse to provide on-site health care and to help decide who gets medical treatment outside the jail and who doesn't...