Stories from Wednesday, April 10, 1991

The Salvation Army remains one of the region's most ardent advocates for the needy. When people need food, the Army answers the call. When a transient family runs short on funds, the Army assists. When a lonely individual seeks companionship or spiritual help, the Army is there...

Nancy Reagan has lived a good life through the public's benevolence and the tariff on that good life is scrutiny. As was the case with Imelda Marcos and Tammy Faye Bakker, whose own icy pretensions disguised thin resumes, it's hard to work up a great deal of sympathy for the former first lady...

April is a significant month for the nation. On the morning of April 26, 1865, a conflict between troops of the Southern Army and the Northern Army took place. The battle would have been another Vicksburg except for a last-minute change of fate in Missouri...

OAK RIDGE -- Space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to glide to a landing today, carrying back to Earth an astronaut who has brought a modest sense of pride to this small, Cape Girardeau County town. Linda Godwin of near Oak Ridge and the rest of Atlantis' five-member crew are expected to touch down in the spaceplane at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., at about 10:35 a.m. The landing will cap a five-day mission, the primary goal of which was to deploy a 17-ton Gamma Ray Observatory satellite Sunday...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The city's Recycling Center will move to a larger place by the end of the month as part of an expansion of public works facilities. The city in February approved purchase of property adjacent to the public works building, 219 North Kingshighway, for expansion of the facilities. The city paid $180,000 for the property, formerly Stovall Block Co., situated south and west of the public works building...

CAPE GIRARDEAU - When Missouri House districts are re-drawn later this year, the Bootheel likely will lose one seat because of population losses. Nearly all of the current legislative districts in the area have lost population based on 1990 census figures. The population losses appear even greater when compared with the ideally-sized district of 31,393 residents...

PERRYVILLE -- Dr. Ronald J. Fitch, superintendent of the St. James School District, has been chosen as the new superintendent of Perry County schools. Fitch's selection was announced Tuesday at a special school board meeting. Fitch will begin his duties July 1. He replaces former superintendent Robert Ackley, who was relieved of his duties in February...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The Cape Girardeau Board of Education renamed Hawthorn Elementary School for its retiring principal, Charles C. Clippard. The announcement was made at Tuesday night's school board meeting, which was held at what now becomes known as Charles C. Clippard Elementary School...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education has awarded Southeast Missouri State University a $25,435 grant for a project to aid teachers in providing science and math instruction to exceptional students. The federally-funded grant, part of the Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Education Grant Program, will be used to develop "Project S'Math: Science, Math and the Handicapped." The grant runs through June 30, 1992...

JACKSON -- The Jackson R-2 Board of Education will decide later this month whether to proceed with construction of a new student transportation center near the Orchard Elementary School. Superintendent Wayne Maupin told the board Tuesday night the district has the special-use permit to build the facility to park, maintain, and secure the district's fleet of school buses. ...

WILLIAM E. BUSCH Occupation: Resident Manager, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pet peeve: "Not having enough time to do all the things I have planned." The best part of my life has been: "The last 30 years that my wife, Cecile, daughter Stacy and I have been involved in raising and showing Beagles and showing training dogs."...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Enrollment projections in Cape Girardeau elementary schools for next year show a potential for large classes at some schools, reported Richard Bollwerk, director of elementary education. The Cape Girardeau Board of Education heard a report on possible trouble spots at its Tuesday meeting...

CAPE GIRARDEAU - Sharon P. Slinkard, 39, of 1113 North Fountain, died Tuesday, April 9, 1991 at St. Francis Medical Center. Her husband, Mike L. Slinkard, survives. Visitation is set for Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Sprigg Street chapel of Ford & Sons Funeral Home. Funeral service will be at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the chapel...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Funeral service for Mrs. Helen Anna Weiss, 1801 Thilenius, will be held at 11 a.m. today at Trinity Lutheran Church. The Rev. David Dissen will officiate, with burial in Lorimier Cemetery. Ford and Sons Sprigg Street Chapel is in charge of arrangements...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Funeral service for Mrs. Virginia S. (Virgie) Phillips, Cape Girardeau Route 1, will be held at 1:30 p.m. Thursday at Hanover Lutheran Church. The Rev. Jeffrey Sippy will officiate, with burial in Memorial Park. Friends may call at Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel from 4-8 p.m. today...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Graveside service for Ernest Hezekiah Stovall of St. Louis will be held at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at Memorial Park. The Rev. C.E. Fleshman will officiate. Friends may call at Hoffmeister Funeral Home in St. Louis from 4-9 p.m. today. Stovall, 83 years old, died Saturday, April 6, 1991, in a St. Louis nursing home...

GALE, Ill. -- Funeral service for Mrs. Etta Lou Calvert of Royalton will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Vantrease Funeral Home in Royalton. Burial will be at 1:30 p.m. in Rose Hill Cemetery at Thebes. Friends may call at the funeral home from 6-9 p.m. Thursday...

SIKESTON -- Bertha Pauline Holland, 76 years old, of Sikeston, died at 1:25 a.m. Tuesday, April 9, 1991, at Miner Nursing Center. She was born Aug. 17, 1914, in Omaha, Texas, daughter of James Monroe and Lenora Lunsford Dyer. On April 26, 1931, she married Henry Clifton Holland at Athens, Ala. He survives...

ZALMA - Anita L. Wallace, of Sawyerville, Ill., died Tuesday, April 9, 1991 at St. John's Hospital in Springfield, Ill. She was married to Curtis Wallace, formerly of the Zalma area. He survives. She was born in Litchfield May 2, 1949, the daughter of Richard and Arlene Palmer Hopper. They survive in Beneld, Ill...

MILLERSVILLE -- Bernice Rosa Hahn, 87, of Millersville, died Friday, March 8, 1991, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born July 1, 1903 at Milersville to Robert Henry Jenkins and Polly Ann Welker Jenkins. On Sept 9, 1923, she married Roy Hahn. He proceeded her in death on June 13, 1975...

ORAN -- Emma Pirtle of Rt. 2, Oran, died Tuesday afternoon at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was 63. Funeral arrangements are incomplete. Arrangements are being handled by Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Chaffee.

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Funeral service for Wilbert John (Bill) Lohmeier, Cape Girardeau Route 1, will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at Ford and Sons Sprigg Street Chapel. The Rev. Carl Richardson will officiate, with burial in Memorial Park. Friends may call at the funeral home from 4-8 p.m. today...

OLMSTED, Ill. -- Alice Mae Davis Redcloud Myers of Olmsted died Tuesday, April 9, 1991, at her home. She was 44 years old. Crain Funeral Home in Tamms is in charge of arrangements.

EAST PRAIRIE -- Funeral service for John Zook of Cuba Route 2, formerly of East Prairie, will be held at 11 a.m. today at Shelby Funeral Chapel here. Burial will be in Dogwood Cemetery. Zook, 79 years old, died Sunday, April 7, 1991, at Missouri Baptist Hospital in Sullivan...

COLUMBIA -- Interest in the Missouri Century Farm program is still strong. "We're extending the program another year," said Roger Mitchell, University of Missouri-Columbia College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. A total of 4,385 farms have been recognized as "Century Farms" since the program was inaugurated in 1986...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Missouri frmers are boosting corn plantings this spring and cutting back on soybeans, according to the latest data received here this week from the Missouri Department of Agriculture. Soybean acreeage in Missouri is projected at 4 millon faor 1991, down about five percent from a year ago. Meanwhile, show-me stae farmers exect to plant 2.5 million acres of corn this year, 400,000 more than in 1990...

COLUMBIA -- The March inventory of Missouri hogs and pigs was estimated at 2.7 million head, up six percent from March of 1990, but down four percent from December of last year. Six states had inventories larger than Missouri Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Nebraska and North Carolina...

SPRINGFIELD -- The last date that applications can be accepted for crop insurance on 1991 spring-planted crops in Illinois is Monday. Crops which may be insured area canning beans, corn, grain sorghum, green peas, hybrid seed corn, oats, popcorn, soybeans, canning sweet corn and tomatoes...

PORTAGEVILLE -- Dates have been established for a number of 1991 Agriculture Field Days, including the Delta Center here. The first field day activity in the state will be held at the Agronomy Research Center at Columbia, June 5. The Portageville event will be held Sept. 5. Details will be announced later...

Some time has passed since language experts decried the unnecessary use of "situation", but the habit is still alive and well. On a talk show last week, the host explained how to act "if someone has verbally abused you in a management situation." His advice was a response to a lady's complaint that her employer and his secretary abused her verbally at every turn. Wouldn't it have been simpler for the host to have retained the lady's terminology?...

BENTON - Luitgard Ramsey grew up in Germany. However, it wasn't a direct route to Thomas W. Kelly High School at Benton where she teaches French and Spanish for grades 7 through 12. She has taught there for the last eight years. "After high school, I studied in England and France," Ramsey said. "While studying in France, I met my husband."...