Stories from Friday, May 1, 1992

Beginning on April 12, the Post-Dispatch published a series of articles regarding administration of the state's Second Injury Fund, and, more specifically, my office's involvement in the handling of the fund. The obvious general tenor of the articles suggested that I have benefited politically from the manner in which special assistant attorneys general, appointed by my office, defend the fund. That allegation is completely without merit and is in reckless disregard of the truth...

In the American jurisprudence system, great pains are taken to assure that the accused in any criminal proceeding is given fair treatment under the law. That's admirable, of course, but the system is obliged to go farther. In recent years, there has been a growing advocacy to protect the rights of victims, a movement that guards against further exploiting the innocent prey of criminals. ...

The Environmental Protection Agency has emerged as one of the most evil organizations in our country, and that's the plan. EPA bureaucrats, according to at least one spokesman, long for the day when a call from the EPA will instill as much citizen fear as a call from the Internal Revenue Service. ...

Over the course of my education, kindergarten through college, I had dozens of teachers. Some of them I can't remember. A few I can't forget. Wayne Norton was one of the few. And if I had to recall a particular point in time, where what happened then led directly to what I do now, he would be a part of that reminiscence...

ADVANCE -- Jan Morgan, Advance High School yearbook adviser, has been named Missouri Journalism High School Teacher of the Year by the Missouri Interscholastic Press Association and Missouri Journalism Education Association. Morgan, The Advancer yearbook adviser, has been teaching for 21 years, 16 of those years spent teaching journalism...

Students at Cape Girardeau Central High School hope to retain their state-wide title as top high school blood collectors. The Student Council is holding its annual blood drive Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the auditorium. Anyone in the community may give; every pint collected counts toward the goal...

SCOTT CITY -- Westlake Quarry will reopen soon under a new operator. A spokesman for the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis said Thursday the diocese has signed a lease operating agreement with Tower Rock Stone Co. of Ste. Genevieve to operate the limestone rock quarry at Grays Point alongside the Mississippi River...

The $25 activity fee Southeast Missouri State University students now pay each semester helps fund everything from athletics to Student Government. The activity fee was levied for the first time in the fall semester. Prior to that, student activities were funded out of the university's general operations budget. For the 1991-92 year, the fee has generated about $360,000, university officials said...

JACKSON - Rusby Crites was remembered Thursday as an honest politician, a loyal Democrat, devoted public servant, and a friend to all. "His standards of conduct in his own life and in the office he ran here was always the highest," observed Rodney Miller, who succeeded Crites as Cape Girardeau County Clerk in 1979...

MCCLURE, Ill. -- Four people were injured in a head-on collision in McClure Thursday afternoon. Illinois State Police said Nancy Biler, 24, of Chaffee was driving north on Route 3 when she crossed the center line and struck an oncoming car driven by Jackie Gleason, 54, of Cape Girardeau...

CHAFFEE -- Theda M. Bunyard, 71, of Mount Vernon, Mo., formerly of Chaffee, died Wednesday, April 29, 1992, at St. John's Mercy Medical Center in Springfield. She was born at Hayti, April 15, 1921, daughter of William Ray and Agnes Schott Jones. She married Guy Bunyard on Jan. 16, 1943. He survives...

The Chamber of Commerce's First Friday Coffee will be a "Second Friday" coffee this month. The coffee, originally scheduled today, has been delayed a week for a guest appearance by members of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Squadron, which will perform at Municipal Airport May 9-10...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Wanda Ernestine Smith, 60, of East Prairie, died Wednesday, April 29, 1992, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born Jan. 7, 1932, in Missouri, daughter of Leonard and Connie Brantley Smith. She married Albert Smith Sept. 11, 1955. He died June 15, 1985...

JACKSON -- A memorial service for Vincent LeGrand, Jackson Route 1, will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Hanover Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau. The Rev. Jeffrey Sippy will officiate, with committal in Hanover Cemetery. LeGrand, 70, died Thursday, April 23, 1992, at Southeast Missouri Hospital...

BLOOMFIELD -- Wilmoth Jane Johnson, 96, of Bloomfield, died Wednesday, April 29, 1992, at Bloomfield Nursing Center. She was born May 3, 1895, near here, daughter of Lawson and Dollie Crockett Proffer. She married the Rev. S.L. Johnson Aug. 21, 1912. He died in 1963...

JACKSON -- Leona E. Douglas, 56, of Jackson, died Wednesday, April 29, 1992, at Jackson Manor. She was born Jan. 30, 1936, at Sedgewickville, daughter of Charley and Dessie Garland Crites. Douglas moved to Jackson in 1983 from Cape Girardeau. Survivors include a son, Edward Douglas of Chaffee; three daughters, Jean Foster of Chaffee, Pamela Petty of Cape Girardeau, Sandra Glastetter of Kelso; three brothers, Carroll Crites of Cherryville, Kan., Larry and Harold Crites of Cape Girardeau; three sisters, Clara Mills of Fredericktown, Joy McIntyre of Jackson, Norma Mungle of Cape Girardeau, and seven grandchildren.. ...

JACKSON -- Funeral services for Rusby Clinton Crites of Jackson will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at McCombs Funeral Chapel with the Rev. Otto Steinhaus officiating. He will be buried in Russell Heights Cemetery. Friends may call today at the funeral home from noon to 8 p.m...

A lecture on the presidency of John F. Kennedy will be held Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the Program Lounge of the University Center at Southeast Missouri State University. The lecture by James N. Giglio, Southwest Missouri State University professor, was originally scheduled to be held in the University Center Riverboat Room...

The Leukemia Society's Walk-a-Thon will be held Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon at Cape Girardeau County Park North. Chester McCain is chairman of the event and the Town and Country Extension Club is co-chairman. To participate, call McCain at 335-4146 or the club at 243-5570...

A local petition-signing effort to get Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot's name on the ballot in Missouri as an independent, presidential candidate will be held Saturday. The petition effort will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Shelter No. 3 in Cape County North Park, said Hal Brown, a Cape Girardeau physician and one of the local organizers of the petition drive...

Boy Scouts from the Shawnee District of Southeast Missouri will converge on Black Forest, north of Cape Girardeau, today for the annual Spring Jamboree. Registration at Camporee headquarters will be held between 4 and 7:30 p.m. A meeting of adult leaders will be held at 9 tonight...

Southeast Missouri Hospital Thursday launched a $1.7 million capital campaign to fund construction of a new clinical services building at the hospital. The campaign was announced at the Southeast Missouri Hospital Association annual dinner. About 950 association members and guests attended the event, held at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau...