STARS AND STRIPES REUNION PLANNED FOR THIS WEEKEND

DEXTER -- Through the years it has been a voice that kept American military men and women informed of news and happenings.

And, through the years, it has launched many careers in journalism.

Now, the folks who have made the Stars and Stripes newspaper will be returning home to its birthplace.

The Stars and Stripes Association -- an organization of past and present staff members and employees of the newspaper -- will gather this weekend in the place where it all began more than 130 years ago.

The Stars and Stripes Association will host its annual meeting in Southeast Missouri, beginning Friday. A portion of the group's reunion will be held at the new Stars and Stripes Museum and Library just south of Bloomfield on Highway 25.

According to museum volunteer Gary Capps, the majority of those attending the reunion will stay at the Holiday Inn in Cape Girardeau. In addition, many of the association's meetings will be held there.

However, the group will all board buses Saturday and head south to the birthplace of the journal and to the grand opening of the museum dedicated to its heritage.

"We think there will be about 100 'Stripers' coming in for the reunion," Capps said this week during a visit in the lobby of the museum.

As a part of the festivities, Stars and Stripes alumni and friends will be treated to a private reception at the museum on Saturday morning, and will have the opportunity to tour the museum and examine the many exhibits.

Later in the morning, Capps and his corps of volunteers have organized the formal opening of the museum as well as a barbecue for the association members and for the public.

The public is invited to attend the festivities from 1 to 4 p.m. There will be opportunities to visit with retired 'Stripers' and other dignitaries.

"We would like as many people as possible to come here and see our facility and eat with us," Capps said. "It will be a good, southern hospitality barbecue."

The Stars and Stripes is a newspaper published for military personnel throughout the world. The journal had very humble beginnings in Stoddard County during the Civil War.

During November of 1861, Union forces under the command of Col. Richard J. Oglesby arrived in Bloomfield. It was during this period of time that a newspaper was born.

According to a history written by Jim Mayo of Bloomfield, a group of Union soldiers noticed the abandoned newspaper office in Bloomfield.

"Its editor, James O. Hull, a native of New Jersey who had evidently been in the newspaper business in Southern Illinois prior to the opening of the Herald in 1858, had left Bloomfield with General Thompson's rebel forces," Mayo's history reports.