Stories from Friday, June 13, 1997

To the editor: I am writing in response to "Flooding in Jackson" Speak Out article. Normally, we do not respond to wild accusations but I felt this would be the exception. As the developer of Fairway Estates in Jackson, we take exception to the caller. We take great pride in this subdivisions that we started six years ago. It is well established and was engineered by a private firm and approved by the city of Jackson...

A Kansas City man and a Poplar Bluff man died after two separate auto accidents just hours apart in Southeast Missouri Wednesday and Thursday. William Paul, 77, of Kansas City, died after an accident seven miles west of Jackson on Highway 72. He was driving his car westbound on Highway 72 at 10 p.m. Wednesday when he crossed the center line and crashed head-on into a car driven eastbound by Edward Moore, 53, of Sedgewickville, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol...

A downtown, mid-1950s banking landmark closed it doors at 6 p.m. Thursday. Boatmen's Bank of Cape Girardeau, soon to become NationsBank, closed its branch office at 100 Broadway following the day's business. "Lobby operations ended at 4 p.m. and drive-in service closed at 6 p.m.," said Susan Vincel, banking center manager who has worked at the 100 Broadway during her 19 years in banking...

CHAFFEE -- The Chaffee Board of Education learned Thursday night that the district has received accreditation after a recent state evaluation. The school district recently received the results of an evaluation performed in February by members of the Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP) review team...

Media reports constantly refer to the Speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives as the second most influential job in the state. Only if the Governor is a bachelor. --- Rumors in St. Louis claim the president of Southwestern Bell moved the company headquarters because he wasn't invited to join a local country club. Maybe the club officers tried to phone him but he didn't have Call Waiting...

The mighty Mississippi River: It is linked inexplicably to Cape Girardeau from its very start. The town was founded as a trading post near the river's edge. The river provided ample access the post for traders, travelers and Indians. So it seems fitting that each year the community and region pay tribute to the river -- that mighty river that gave birth to thriving communities along its muddy banks...

Volunteers -- in the truest sense of the word -- can make a remarkable difference in today's world. Riverfest is just one example of their invaluable behind-the-scenes contribution. Volunteers support numerous agencies, organizations and causes in town -- not because they are required to, but because they choose to give their time freely...

This letter will probably ramble a great deal because it is written straight from the heart. First, I want to say how much my family and I appreciate the supporting calls and letters we have received these last few weeks from the community, fans, former players, and colleagues. Your kind words have helped us greatly during this difficult time. You have all meant so much to us over the years...

Security will be beefed up, downtown parking limited, and carnival rides safe and fun during this Riverfest '97 weekend. Capt. Stephen Strom of the Cape Girardeau Police Department said extra officers will be on duty. "There will be more officers in the four square blocks of Riverfest than in the rest of the city," said Strom. He said the normal number of policemen will be present in the rest of the city but extra officers have been brought in for Riverfest...

Riverfest '97's theme "Come Home to Riverfest, Family, Friends, and Fun" will be featured in the festival's Family Fun Village and the Miller Spectacular Shows. Riverfest official Jerra Hutson said the Family Fun Village will be manned with 40 volunteers and will have many activities for children...

Longtime Southeast Missouri State University Basketall Coach Ron Shumate left the university in mid-May. Announcement of the new coach came this week. A long chaptr in Southeast's basketball history has come to a close. On today's Opinion Page, Page 10A, Shumate reflects on his 16 years at the university...

One thing visitors to Riverfest won't find this weekend is an informational kiosk. For more than eight years, boosters of Cape Girardeau tourism have worked to place the small structure with maps and tourist information on the northwest corner of Broadway and Water streets. The structure is ready to be assembled, but plans for its installation have hit a few snags: It stands in the way of the lift-station forced-main project, a sewer improvement planned to run down Water Street...

Vietnam veteran Jerry Stauber was ready to celebrate Flag Day a little early after the U.S. House voted Thursday for a proposed constitutional amendment against flag desecration. Stauber is first vice commander of the American Legion post in Cape Girardeau. The American Legion, both locally and nationally, wants to ban flag burning and other acts against the U.S. flag...

The organizers of the 15th Annual Kohlfeld Riverfest Run are hoping a more subdued Mother Nature is among those preregistered in this year's field. The race, which will begin tonight at 7:30 as part of the Riverfest weekend festivities, has endured a rather rebellious Mother Nature in recent years...

SIKESTON -- In Thursday's first round of the NGA/Hooters KFVS 12 Golf Classic, unlikely heroes surfaced. Filling the top slot was Brent Brooks of Melbourne, Fla., Teeing off in the afternoon, Brooks tied the course record and set the tone for the rest of the tournament, going 9-under-par with a 63. It was the tour's lowest round of the season...

SIKESTON -- Cape Ford & Sons Senior Legion played two tight games with Sikeston to open its district schedule Thursday with a doubleheader split. Sikeston won the first game in extra innings 2-1. Cape (7-3, 1-1) came back in the second game for a 6-5 victory...

The Bloomfield Road bridge over Interstate 55 was not on the verge of collapse earlier this week. The crew from the Missouri Department of Transportation that worked on it Monday through Wednesday and blocked off one lane of traffic at times repaired a girder that apparently was damaged months ago, said Randy Hitt, area engineer for the department...

ANNA -- Mary E. Hileman, 95, of Anna, died Thursday, June 12, 1997, at City Care Center in Anna. She was born Oct. 2, 1901, in Mill Creek, Ill., to Arthur Elvis and Olive Holshouser Goodman. On Oct. 2, 1920, she married T. Clifford Hileman, and he preceded her in death on Jan. 8, 1974...

Cyrus Raymond Martin, 80, of Cape Girardeau died Tuesday, June 10, 1997, at Briarcliff Haven in Atlanta, Ga. He was born Jan. 18, 1917, in Oak Ridge, son of Ira and Carrie Moore Martin. He and Arleen Williams were married in 1943 at Great Lakes U.S. Naval Base, Ill. He later married Bessie Nealy Jan. 20, 1955, in Reno, Nev. She died June 26, 1995...

MARBLE HILL -- Myrtle Myers, 86, of Marble Hill died June 11, 1997, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born March 1, 1911, at Lutesville, daughter of Columbus and Edna Wycoff Chadd. She and the Rev. Orville Myers were married Dec. 25, 1928. He died April 8, 1996...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Graveside service for Lovie Irene Garrett of Fredericktown, formerly of East Prairie, will be held at 2 p.m. today at East Prairie Memorial Park Cemetery. Shelby Funeral Home in East Prairie is in charge of arrangements. Garrett, 80, died Wednesday, June 11, 1997, at Madison Memorial Hospital in Fredericktown...

TAMMS, Ill. -- Carolyn Sue Lance, 55, Tamms Route 1, died Wednesday, June 11, 1997, at Memorial Hospital in Carbondale. She was born May 4, 1942, in Jackson County, daughter of Jessie Hill. She married Charles A. Lance. Lance was a home health care employee with Shawnee Development Services in Karnak 15 years. She attended Cairo Pentecostal Church...

Vernon H. Landgraf, 72, a longtime Cape Girardeau business, civic and political leader, died Thursday, June 12, 1997, at his home. He was born Oct. 4, 1924, in Cape Girardeau, son of Ludwig Herman and Hilda Gerler Landgraf. He and Mary Victoria "Tori" Williams were married July 3, 1952, in Cape Girardeau...

McCLURE, Ill. -- Linnie Louise Simpkins, 69, of Wheatfield, Ind., formerly of McClure, died Wednesday, June 11, 1997, at her home. Friends may call at Hileman and Parr Funeral Home in Jonesboro from 4-8 p.m. Saturday. Funeral service will be at 1 p.m. Sunday at the chapel. Burial will be in Lindsey Cemetery near McClure...

ANN, Ill. -- Lura Friese, 94, of Anna died Thursday, June 12, 1997, at her home. Hileman and Parr Funeral Home at Jonesboro is in charge of arrangements.

Son to Gregg William and Reba Faye Trankler of Oran, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 3:25 p.m. Wednesday, June 4, 1997. Name, Thomas William. Weight, 7 pounds 6 ounces. Second son. Mrs. Trankler is the former Reba Jones, daughter of Faye Jones of San Antonio, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Trankler are employed at Jarvis Motor Co. He is the son of Henry and Phylliss Trankler of Oran...

CHAFFEE -- Bertie Crump, 58, formerly of Chaffee, died Thursday, June 12, 1997, at her residence near Benton. Funeral arrangements are incomplete with Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Chaffee.

Jenny Lage, 21, begins a European adventure today when she boards an airplane and heads for Vatican City. Lage, daughter of Wally and Dori Lage of Cape Girardeau, will perform in the Operafestival di Roma, an annual event begun three years ago by former Southeast Missouri State University faculty member Dr. Louisa Panou-Takahashi...

The floor of the AC Brase Arena building will turn into a six-ring dog show this weekend as 800 akitas, whippets, dachshunds, danes, beagles and black-and-tan coonhounds show their breeding. Southeast Missouri Kennel Club's 76th and 77th dog shows will be held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday. They will feature as many as 135 breeds of dog in a fairly new back-to-back competition arrangement...

This weekend children will wash cars for an opportunity to go to Washington, an experience many of them may never have known. On Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Sam's Club near the Cape Girardeau Wal-Mart, 34 area disadvantaged children will help earn money for a weeklong trip to the nation's capital...