FAMOUS FACES VISIT FOR MURAL DEDICATION

Jack Buck, a noted sportscaster for more than 40 years, and Porter Wagoner, a country music entertainer for more than four decades, will be in Cape Girardeau today to help dedicate the Missouri Wall of Fame Mural.

Buck and Wagoner, two of the famous Missourians featured on the mural, a multi-color painting featuring portraits of 45 Missouri faces on the Mississippi River wall in downtown Cape Girardeau, will be on hand for the noon dedication of the mural.

The dedication comes more than a year after the mural was completed in October of 1995.

"We've been planning the dedication a long time," said J. Tim Blattner, president of the River Heritage Mural Association, which planned the 500-foot long mural.

Other guests at the dedication, to be held at the corner of Independence and Water streets, include Cape Girardeau Mayor Albert M. Spradling III, and representatives of the Downtown Merchants Association and Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB).

"The public is invited to attend the dedication," said Blattner. "This mural brings a lot of people to the downtown area on a daily basis. It is the focal point of the Great Murals Tour marketed by the CVB."

Buck, who was born in Massachusetts, gained fame as a sportscaster with the St. Louis Baseball Cardinals. In addition to baseball, Buck broadcast National Football League games and other big sporting events.

Wagoner is a native Missourian, born in West Plains.

Buck and Wagoner join the likes of the 33rd president of the U.S. -- Harry S. Truman; noted author Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens); George Washington Carver, a research scientist, and radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

Also on the wall are two of the state's most notorious outlaws, Frank and Jesse James, members of the infamous "James Gang," which supposedly "robbed from the rich and gave to the poor."

The Wall of Fame was designed by Margaret Randol Dement, a native of Cape Girardeau.

Among other faces on the wall are noted Missouri artist Thomas Hart Benton; Walter Cronkite, who served as anchorman for "CBS Evening News" for a number of years; James Cash Penney, born in Hamilton and founder of JCPenney Co. Inc.; actress Jean Harlow, born in Kansas City; and Susan Blow, founder of the first successful public kindergarten, born in St. Louis.

Local celebrities include Limbaugh and world-renowned musician Jess Stacy, both born in Cape Girardeau, and Cape Girardeau County native Linda Godwin, a physicist and pioneer woman astronaut.

Missing from the list is one of the most well-known figures of all, Walt Disney. Disney, although not born in Missouri, was raised in the state and got his first start as a cartoonist at Kansas City. He went on to become one of the world's top cartoonists and founder of Disneyland.

The basic criteria used by a 10-member selection committee was that the person be born in Missouri, or achieve national or international recognition in Missouri, and that permission be obtained to use the likeness. The Disney Company refused to allow Walt Disney's likeness to be used on the mural.

The selection committee worked for more than year in compiling the list of people to be included.