BUSINESS PERSONNEL

The Cape Girardeau law firm of Limbaugh, Russell, Payne & Howard has announced changes in the firm.

Curtis O. Poore is now a shareholder in the firm, and J. Brian Baehr and Patricia L. Ray have joined the firm as associates.

Poore, who serves as a municipal judge in Jackson, received his bachelor's degree from Southeast Missouri State University and his juris doctorate from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

He was associated with the company in 1990-, until receiving an appointment as assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri. Poore rejoined the firm in March 1997.

He is a member of the Missouri Bar, the American Bar Association, the Cape Girardeau County Bar Association, Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Missouri Municipal and Associate Circuit Judges Association. His areas of emphasis are civil and criminal litigation.

Shareholders in the law firm include Joseph J. Russell, David S. Limbaugh, J. Michael Payne, Diane C. Howard, R. Michael Howard, John D. Harding, Nancy L. Barowne, and Poore.

Robin H. Edwards, Brian D. Mauk, Baehr and Ray are associate members of the firm.

Baehr received his juris doctorate from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law in 1998, and holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Missouri.

Baehr is a member of the Missouri Bar, the American Bar Association and the Cape Girardeau County Bar Association.

Ray received her juris doctorate from Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law in Washington in 1983. She received the American Jurisprudence awards in the areas of administrative law, civil procedure and remedies.

She is also a graduate of State University of New York at Buffalo, with an undergraduate degree in social police of health care. She is also a graduate of Medical College of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing.

She is a member of the Missouri Bar, the American Bar Association, the Cape Girardeau County Bar Association, the California Bar, and the American Health Lawyers Association.

Prior to practicing law, Ray worked in intensive care at hospitals. Her legal background includes work as a litigation associate in San Diego, teaching at the University of San Diego School of Law, and a private practice in San Diego. Her interest is in health law.

Carole Clayton of Cape Girardeau has joined Southwestern Bell Wireless as an account executive.

Clayton is experienced in sales and was with the Southeast Missourian as an advertising representative since 1992.

She will cover the Perryville, Jackson, Cape Girardeau and Sikeston areas, calling on business and individual accounts.

Dr. Keith Russell, professor of accounting, finance and business law at Southeast Missouri State University, is active in the "PhD Project," a national program to increase the diversity of America's college and university classrooms.

The project's goal is to find successful minorities -- African-Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans -- to pursue Ph.Ds in business and become professors.

Russell, professor-in-residence for the Institute of Management Accountants, which has invested more than $100,000 in the project, said there are only 388 minority business professors throughout the United States.

Co-sponsors of the PhD Projects include IMA, 75 of the nation's most prestigious business schools, Citibank, Ford Motor Co., Fannie Mae Foundation, Texaco, Abbott Laboratories, James S. Kemper Foundation, Merrill Lynch & Co. Foundation, and Mobil Corp.

Jeanne Pruitt, Kelley Callow and Amy Twidwell of Studio Designs, 2295 Broadview, recently attended the Redken International Symposium in Las Vegas.

They attended classes on new techniques, styles and trends, along with motivational classes.

Bill Yuede has joined Union Planters Bank in Cape Girardeau as vice president and commercial loan officer.

He has more than 12 years experience in commercial lending and was previously with NationsBank as a commercial lender.

Yuede has a bachelor's degree in business administration from Southeast Missouri State University and has completed graduate coursework in banking in Colorado and Norman, Okla.

Union Planters Bank here is an affiliate of Union Planters Corp., a multi-bank holding company, headquartered in Memphis, Tenn.

Deborah Gerecke of Jackson has been elected president of the Missouri Dental Hygienists Association.

Gerecke has worked with local peridontist, L. Taylor Bahn, 12 years.

MDHA represents and promotes the interests of dental hygienists, promoting the art and science of dental hygiene.

Rosemary McAllister of Cape Girardeau recently attended the Creative Memories' 1999 Regional Convention, held at St. Louis.

McAllister, a unit manager, has been with Creative Memories four years. She was honored for her achievements during a special recognition ceremony.

Creative Memories, headquartered in St. Cloud, Minn., teaches people how to organize and preserve photographs in creative scrapbook photo albums.

Kenneth E. Volkerding, a district Lutheran Brotherhood's representative at Jackson, has been honored for sales of insurance and investment products.

Volkerding, affiliated with Pals Financial Group in St. Charles, is a recipient of Lutheran Brotherhood's most prestigious sales honor, the 1998 Top Club.

Lutheran Brotherhood offers range of financial products and services to Lutherans nationwide.

Edward D. Dement, a Sikeston cotton producer; Charles H. Parker, a Senath cotton producer; Charleston R. Earnest, ginner with Dolphin Gin Co., Steele; and Kenneth L. Berry Jr., ginner with Berry Gin Co., Holland, have been elected to leadership positions in the National Cotton Council, headquartered at Memphis, Tenn.

Parker was re-elected Missouri producer chairman for the Council's American Cotton Producers (ACP); Dement will serve as chairman of the Council's Missouri group; Earnest and Berry will serve as vice chairman and secretary, respectively, of the Missouri group.