Stories from Thursday, December 26, 1991

PORTAGEVILLE -- Lona May Flowers, 79, of Portageville Route 1, died Wednesday, Dec. 25, 1991, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born Sept. 28, 1912 in Center Ridge, Ark., the daughter of George and Ellen Baker Bartlett. On May 10, 1928, she married Arlie I. Flowers in Center Ridge, Ark. He survives...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Looking at a series of small-to-moderate earthquakes that have hit the Los Angeles area over the past four years, scientists believe they see a pattern that may indicate that "the big one" is in store for L.A. in the foreseeable future...

Gretchen F. Fornkahl of Cape Girardeau is one of two University of Missouri-Rolla students to receive a scholarship from the National Science Scholars program in 1991. The National Science Scholars Program was established in 1989 by President George Bush to recognize student excellence and achievement in science...

Postal officials have reminded postal patrons that letters mailed after 6 p.m. at the Cape Girardeau Post Office will be processed the next day. "This is really not a new practice," said Don Knoth, superintendent of postal operations at the local post office. "We have just been making some exceptions in the past."...

The Federal Reserve last week took another step toward setting the economy back on course, lowering its discount rate by a full percentage point. The interest rate the nation's central bank now charges to loan money to financial institutions is 3.5 percent, a 27-year low. ...

Daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Scott Goodman of Indianapolis, Ind., Monday, Nov. 18, 1991. Name, Margaret Louise. Weight, 8 pounds 8 ounces. Mrs. Goodman is the former Teri Austin, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Doug Austin of Edmond, Okla., formerly of Cape Girardeau. Goodman is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Al Hitt of Cape Girardeau...

WHITEWATER -- Robert Don Burden, 65, of Whitewater, died Tuesday, Dec. 24, 1991, at his home. He was born Dec. 11, 1926, in Wabaseka, Ark., son of Charles and Eva Yeager Burden. He and Lawanda Aaron were married June 4, 1949. Burden was a retired electrician with IBEW. He moved to this area in 1968 from West Memphis, Ark...

ANNA, Ill. - Lillian May Hartline, 61, of Anna, died Monday, Dec. 23, 1991, at Cape Girardeau Nursing Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo. She was born Sept. 3, 1930, in Union County, daughter of Robert and Viola Burns Reynolds. She married Junior Hartline in Osceola, Ark., on May 1, 1948. He died Dec. 3, 1981...

SCOTT CITY -- Helen Marie Weaver, 73, of Scott City died Monday, Dec. 23, 1991, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born May 14, 1918, at Americus, the daughter of August and Rosella Struttman Grotewiel. On Nov. 27, 1946, she married Charles Lee Weaver, who preceded her in death Nov. 13, 1987...

JACKSON -- Robert M. Buerkle, 73, the senior law partner in the law office of Buerkle, Beeson and Ludwig in Jackson, died Wednesday, Dec. 25, 1991, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Funeral arrangements at McCombs Funeral Home in Jackson are incomplete...

GLEN ALLEN -- Ethel M.J. Dixon, 82, of rural Glen Allen died Monday, Dec. 23, 1991, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born July 28, 1909, in Bollinger County, the daughter of Daniel Forrest and Emily Caroline Zimmerman Bollinger. On July 20, 1928, she married Robert Dixon, who preceded her in death Sept. 5, 1990...

OLIVE BRANCH, Ill. -- Maurice M. Browning, 61, of Olive Branch died Monday, Dec. 23, 1991, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born Feb. 24, 1930, at Olive Branch, the son of the late Arlie and Eva Gettings Browning. On Dec. 25, 1948, he married Rita Lee Isom, who survives of the home...

SCOTT CITY -- Charles Ray "Bud" Cassout, 56, of Scott City died Wednesday, Dec. 25, 1991, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Jan. 16, 1935, at Fornfelt, the son of the late Walter Cassout and Helen Brooks, who survives of Cape Girardeau. On Jan. 6, 1968, he married Sharon Wengert, who survives of the home...

JACKSON -- Earl Masters of Route 2, Jackson died Wednesday, Dec. 25, 1991, at the Jackson Manor Nursing Home. Funeral arrangements at Cracraft-Miller Funeral Home in Jackson are incomplete.

The Salvation Army's Tree of Lights campaign will be extended to the end of the year, assuming Christmas Eve totals don't push the annual fund-raising effort over its $100,000 goal. Salvation Army Capt. Elmer Trapp said that as of Monday the campaign had raised $90,000. "We won't really know an accurate picture of what was collected Tuesday and what might still come in the mail until later this week," said Trapp...

Shoppers will be back in the stores today exchanging Christmas gifts and bargain hunting during what has become a traditional after-Christmas shopping spree. With the last-minute gift-buying blitz of Christmas Eve barely a memory, retailers gear up for another big day today...

Rush Limbaugh III blithely anticipates his trips home as a welcome refuge from the public attention he's become accustomed to since launching a nationally syndicated radio talk show in 1988. Despite the program's meteoric growth, to many local residents who know him personally the name Rusty Limbaugh likely invokes thoughts of a pudgy, freckled Babe Ruth leaguer who had a pretty fair curve ball...

BETTIE HEISE Occupation: Cafeteria manager at Alma Schrader Elementary School. The best part of my job is: "Working with people. I feel like we are a family here at Alma Schrader. I have worked here for 30 years." The book I'd recommend is: "Anything by Janet Dailey."...

SCOTT CITY -- Scott City Collector Aleene Warden says she's braced for the late December-early January rush to pay city taxes. Scott City residents began lining up at city hall early this week, signalling the onset of the peak tax-paying season. "I probably collect 50 percent of the taxes during the last week of December," said Warden, who has been city collector for eight years. "Between now and the end of the year it's going to be crazy."...

JACKSON -- When traffic signals were installed this month at the intersection of East Jackson Boulevard, Donna Drive and the Wal Mart parking lot in Jackson, the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department apparently overlooked placing left-turn-yield-on-green signs on Donna Drive and the parking lot exit...

David Ritter, a Southeast Missouri State University assistant professor of chemistry, has received a $39,176 Cottrell College Science Award from the Research Corporation, a foundation for the advancement of science and technology. An award recipient must present a project that explores new areas of experimental research. Ritter has developed a new theory whereby multiply-charged ions in a metal compound can be vaporized. Previous research has included only a single-charged ion...

A team of Notre Dame High School students placed third in the state in a stock market competition. The team also placed first in the district. Approximately 400 teams in the state participated in the contest. Economics teacher Wayne Nenninger said students competed to see which team could obtain the highest rate of return from the stock market for a period of three months. Each team had an imaginary $100,000 to invest...

The Cape Girardeau community blood drive will be held Monday at the Holiday Inn Convention Center from 2-7 p.m. The date of the monthly drive has been changed due to the New Year's holiday. The drive is sponsored by the Red Cross Blood Services Committee...

Warranty deeds issued at the office of Janet Robert, Cape Girardeau County Recorder of Deeds: A & A of Cape Girardeau to James W. Sellers III and Tammy S. Sellers; Douglas M. and Freda J. James to Clarence R. and Delia R. Dittmer; William K. and Betty Morris to John M. and Lisa N. Malone...

Donna Grossheider enjoys working with children because they are "honest and open" individuals. "They want to explore and be involved," she said. "Children still have dreams of doing something great. They are unique, interested and creative." Grossheider is the resource room teacher for the gifted in grades K-8 at Thomas W. Kelly Elementary School at Benton...

Three Southeast Missouri State University students have been nominated as Harry S. Truman Scholars for 1992 and are entered as candidates in the national Truman Scholarship competition. The students are Kelly Kenser and Michele Moon, both of Cape Girardeau, and Tricia Sparn of Collinsville, Ill...

PERRYVILLE -- Perry County Memorial Hospital will sponsor an open house on Sunday, Jan. 5 to celebrate the completion of their new "Precious Care Maternity and Newborn Unit." The open house with tours for the public will begin at 1 p.m. Refreshments will be served...

IN A RECENT comic, Frank and Ernest were shown standing before Gorbechev, the president of the Soviet Union, telling him, "We are here from the U.S. to teach you about the free market." This would be comical, if not pathetic in the sense that we are sending over academics, intellectuals, bureaucrats, all socialistic people who have never owned a business, run a business or met a payroll. ...