FRANK ADAMS WAS INNOVATOR

With the passing this week of Frank Adams, Cape Girardeau has lost one of this community's foremost industrial leaders. Adams, the longtime captain of local operations for Thorngate Ltd., anchored one of our community's most important industries and with it, several hundred well-paying jobs.

Adams was a tough and often blunt-spoken manager in the rapidly changing apparel industry. He was also an innovator and a visionary leader of a globally competitive producer of men's and women's suits. Beginning more than 20 years ago, Thorngate's twice-annual suit sales did much to put Cape Girardeau on the map, with governors, state and federal lawmakers, judges and other luminaries flying in for great deals on the quality merchandise Frank Adams' people consistently turned out. He was proud of the team he headed here. Cape Girardeau will miss his leadership.