STATE DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE TO MEET IN CAPE

The State Democratic Committee will hold its first-ever meeting in Cape Girardeau on Oct. 11.

Plans are being made to bring in a big-name speaker for the gathering of Missouri's top Democratic Party officials.

The committee has 68 members. That doesn't include executive officers and staff, who also would attend the meeting, local party leaders said.

Some of the statewide Democratic officeholders may also attend.

The Democratic Party voted Saturday at its meeting in Springfield to hold the October meeting in Cape Girardeau. The committee meets four times a year.

Details haven't been finalized, said Cris Edwards, secretary of the Cape Girardeau County Democratic Central Committee.

Edwards said LaCretia Drum of Jackson was instrumental in landing the state party meeting.

"She had really campaigned to have that down here," Edwards said.

Drum chaired the county committee and served on the state committee.

She suffered from heart trouble and died Saturday at St. Francis Medical Center at the age of 56.

Dr. Rick Althaus, a political science professor, is vice chairman of the county committee. He also serves on the state committee.

He said Drum showed him the political ropes.

"I have a Ph.D. in political science, but I learned more about grassroots politics from her than I did in my studies," he said.

"From the time I began to be involved in the party in the 1980s, she essentially took me under her wing. She introduced me to people."

Althaus said, "We were both Southern Baptists. We had a lot of things in common, a lot of politics and religion to talk about."

Althaus ran for the state Senate last fall, but lost to incumbent Republican Peter Kinder of Cape Girardeau.

He said the state committee meeting could bring more visibility to Democrats in Cape Girardeau County and the region.

Cape Girardeau County has voted Republican for years.

But Althaus said the region historically has been Democratic. Secretary of State Bekki Cook, a Democrat, is from Cape Girardeau.

Edwards said Drum was always a promoter of Democrats and women in politics.

"She said that women were the backbone of the Democratic Party," said Edwards, who lives in Jackson.

"She was very much the worker, the doer, the organizer," Edwards said.

"In the last six years, she moved Cape County Democrats from obscurity to a contender," Edwards said.

"She is the one who got the party organized and having fund raisers, and really promoting the candidates and what she called grassroots politics."

Drum also was active in other Democratic Party organizations. She revived the Byrd Township Democratic organization and served as its president.

Born in Jefferson City, Drum was involved in Democratic politics most of her life.

Edwards said Drum knew Democratic Party people throughout Missouri and the nation.

Drum helped coordinate President Clinton's campaign visit to Cape Girardeau last August.

"She was a very gracious lady," said Max Stovall, Cape Girardeau County associate commissioner.

"She was very outgoing," said county committee member Betty Ross of Cape Girardeau.

Ross said Drum was always full of enthusiasm.

Although Drum hadn't been feeling well lately, she never complained.

Said Edwards, "Most of them never knew she was ill."