MUSEUM EXPECTS TO BENEFIT

BLOOMFIELD -- Supporters of the Stars and Stripes Museum and Library are excited and hopeful that having a new state veterans cemetery as a neighbor will draw attention to their efforts.

The first of six planned buildings of the museum complex honoring the American military newspaper opened in June after years of planning and fund raising.

The Missouri Veterans' Commission announced a month later its intention to build a $5 million cemetery on 65 acres adjacent to the 7.5-acre Stars and Stripes site.

Unlike the cemetery, which will be entirely government funded, the dedicated museum supporters are funding their multimillion-dollar project entirely through private donations. They are confident the museum will benefit from the cemetery.

"I think our stock split and probably doubled when they announced the cemetery," said Gary Capps, executive director of the Stars and Stripes Museum and Library Association. "I think the two facilities will complement each other very well."

Bloomfield is the birthplace of Stars and Stripes, which matured into a primary source of news for generations of servicemen.

The $100,000, first phase of the museum project consisted of a 3,600-square-foot structure housing offices and a small museum.

Capps said the project would have cost at least 50 percent more, but area businesses donated labor, equipment and building materials.

"That made quite a difference," Capps said.

The museum, situated just south of Bloomfield on Highway 25, has received substantially more visitors than expected since opening, Capps said.

It is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. except for Sunday, when its hours are 1-4 p.m., and Tuesday, when it is closed.

When the remaining five, interconnected buildings are completed, the complex will cover 20,000 square feet and include a large display area, library, reading room and 200-seat auditorium.

Construction on the next phase is slated for 2000, with a new building following every two years. It is hoped the entire project can be completed by 2010.

That, however, depends on the level of private financial donations. Capps estimates the whole project will end up costing $5 million.

Support has flowed in from all over the world. One former Stars and Stripes staffer who now resides in California anteed up $40,000, and a London architect whose father worked for the paper designed the complex for free.

One of the most interesting and unexpected gifts was a $6,000 cash donation from an elderly Japanese who remembered the compassion of Stars and Stripes staffers following his country's defeat at America's hands 53 years ago.

"He knew people during the occupation after World War II who worked for Stars and Stripes," Capps said. "They treated him well, and he wanted to show his appreciation."

The museum association is in the process of collecting every edition of Stars and Stripes ever published onto microfilm. Then it will undertake the ambitious task of creating a computer database listing every person, place or topic the paper ever mentioned.

"We plan to have first-class exhibits and a first-class library for research," Capps said.

Historical items -- including original photographs and artwork, personal mementos and unpublished works -- donated by former staff members comprise part of the museum's collection.

The prize exhibit is the only known remaining first edition of Stars and Stripes. It was published Nov. 9, 1961, after the 8th Illinois Regiment drove Confederate forces from Bloomfield. Several soldiers with prewar newspaper experience commandeered the offices of the Bloomfield Herald to produce the issue.

Stars and Stripes was printed twice more during the Civil War, in Arkansas and Louisiana. It re-emerged during World War I and has been continuously published since World War II.