PEOPLE THAT MAKE CAPE GIRARDEAU THRIVE: A GOOD COP

If you don't personally know Cape Girardeau police officer Danny Niswonger, allow us to introduce him to you: He's truly one of Cape Girardeau's finest; a more polite, caring and professional officer you'll not meet.

Now, Danny lies in St. Louis University Hospital suffering from what doctors describe as major injuries that he received a week ago today when his police motorcycle collided with a van at North Sprigg and Emerald streets. On Thursday he underwent the first of many surgeries his doctors expect to perform. A team of 15 doctors, including reconstructive surgeons, plastic surgeons and orthopedic specialists, are tending him.

The officer has many accomplishments during his longtime career, one of the most vivid of which was his spectacular rescue of a 19-year-old woman who threatened to jump from the Mississippi River bridge in March 1977. At 6-feet, 4-inches tall, Niswonger, without a safety line, crouched beneath the bridge catwalk. As the woman walked by him on the catwalk, he gabbed her with one hand while keeping the other firmly attached to the bridge's superstructure. She fought him frantically, but he managed to save her, ending the two-and-one-half-hour ordeal.

As one would expect, Danny said at the time, "I'd do it again."

His doctors say he's in good spirits and that he will recover, but the process will be slow.

Danny's the type of guy who won't let something like this get him down. We join his many friends in extending our best to the officer and his family, and wish him the speediest of recoveries.