EMERSON TO REMARRY NEXT YEAR

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson plans to tie the knot again.

Emerson, 48, plans to marry Ronald C. Gladney, a 50-year-old St. Louis lawyer, early next year in Cape Girardeau. It will be the second marriage for both.

Emerson announced her marriage plans during a telephone conference call to reporters.

"I am excited about it. The kids are excited about it. My mother-in-law is excited about it," said the Cape Girardeau Republican.

Emerson previously was married to Bill Emerson, who served as the 8th District congressman for 16 years.

Jo Ann and Bill Emerson were married on June 21, 1975. Five years later, Southeast Missouri voters elected Bill Emerson as their congressman.

He died in June 1996. In November of that year, Jo Ann Emerson succeeded her late husband. In doing so, she became the first Republican woman elected to Congress from Missouri.

"I had 21 wonderful years of being married to Bill," Emerson said.

Although she is planning to remarry, Emerson said she doesn't plan to change her name. "I am going to keep Emerson. I have been Jo Ann Emerson for 24 years," she said.

Emerson said she and Gladney will live in Cape Girardeau. But she said her finance plans to keep his St. Louis law practice.

"Computers and faxes make life a lot easier," she said.

Emerson plans to seek re-election in 2000. She intends to combine work and marriage.

"He will travel around the district with me so I will have a travel companion," Emerson said.

She said she met the West Point graduate last year in a meeting concerning construction problems with the new Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge. Gladney represented construction interests in the project.

Emerson said the meeting was set up by Charles Kruse, Missouri Farm Bureau president.

Gladney and Kruse are close, longtime friends.

Gladney spent five years in active duty in the Army. He spent 23 years in the National Guard.

Gladney was married for 20 years. He divorced in 1992. He has custody of the four children from that marriage. Emerson has two daughters and two stepdaughters.

Emerson said she hopes her constituents will welcome her marriage.