Stories from Thursday, November 5, 1992

Dear Editor: A recent letter stated that "community leaders once again let our city slide into obscurity and the people of Cape Girardeau missed a marvelous opportunity last weekend during Operation Steel Cure II." I am proud to report the fact that community leaders and citizens throughout the City and County of Cape Girardeau were very much involved in Steel Cure II. ...

Some fans shower their idols with flowers. Paul Poundstone's bring Pop Tarts. They know she considers them "a fine taste treat." It's a throwaway line delivered with a twist of self-indulgence and steeped in American popular culture. It's important to remember, she says, that one of 16 Americans lives in a trailer park...

Gary Miller, a professor of music at Southeast Missouri State University, will present a faculty pipe organ recital Nov. 10 at the First Presbyterian Church of Cape Girardeau, 235 Broadway. The concert is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. The first half of the program will be devoted to masterworks of the Baroque period, including compositions by Dieterich Buxtehude and J.S. Bach...

James Sifferman has been invited to perform at the Horowitz Steinway Festival at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, on Nov. 17. Sifferman is an associate professor of music at Southeast Missouri State University. Sifferman will be playing the Steinway piano presented to Vladimir Horowitz in 1938. Horowitz toured with the piano and played it throughout his career...

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Pro Arte, the world's oldest continuously existing string quartet, will perform Nov. 13 at Shryock Auditorium on the Southern Illinois University campus. Pro Arte was first formed in 1912 by a group of Belgian musicians. The group was invited to become artists-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin in 1940 when Germany invaded Belgium...

DUTCHTOWN -- Midget racers will debut at the Motorsport Raceway 1993 Season Preview Saturday. The facility, located just south of Cape Girardeau at the Dutchtown exit off Interstate 55, has undergone a year-long renovation. The clay-dirt oval has been widened and enlarged, and a guard rail and steel mesh fence have been added to make it possible to race modified midget cars...

David Murphy, executive director of the Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation, will be the speaker Monday when the Historical Association of Greater Cape Girardeau holds it's November general membership meeting. Murphy will talk about the foundation's attempts to buy Old St. Vincent's Seminary for use as a civil war museum...

Local adoption agencies are accepting applications for the "Adoption: Issues and Insights" conference Nov. 12-13. The conference will be held at Centenary Methodist Church Nov. 12 and at the Show Me Center Nov. 13. Registration will be accepted through Friday...

MOUND CITY, Ill. -- Two incumbents were losers in closely contested races in Pulaski County Tuesday. Ned J. Gunn, a Republican challenger for county commissioner, had to wait until the final precinct was counted before claiming victory over incumbent Democrat Sam Johnson...

Change. That's what the American public wanted, and come January, that's what will happen. In many cases, the election nationally reflected an "out with the old, in with the new" mentality. The new faces, and even those who won re-election, campaigned on a platform of change...

Bill Weber is a professor of economics at Southeast Missouri State University. In a recent issue of Fortune magazine author Daniel Seligman writes that "Rule No.1 in thinking about environmental problems is that there are no `solutions', only tradeoffs. We want a maximum of economic growth and a minimum of environmental damage. Some environmentalists would argue that economic growth is the major problem facing the environment...

Nearly 4,000 school children will see the classic story of Charlotte the spider who saves Wilbur the pig's life brought to the stage Monday. "Charlotte's Web" will be performed at the Show Me Center Monday at 9:30 and again at 11:30 a.m. The first performance is sold out, but seats are available for the second show...

JACKSON -- Voters in Cape Girardeau County rolled out in record numbers Tuesday, smashing a turnout record set eight years ago. The 28,886 Cape County voters were 3,584 more than the record number that turned out in 1984, when Ronald Reagan won a second term in the White House and John Ashcroft captured his first term as governor...

Some professors at Southeast Missouri State University don't think a columnist for the campus newspaper has done his homework on the subject of homosexuality. The columnist, Michael Session, a proud-to-be-politically-incorrect graduate student, has responded by calling them "homosexual apologists."...

Sarah Froemsdorf knows first-hand the agony faced by crime victims and their families. Tuesday's election, however, helped ease some of that pain; Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment strengthening crime victims' rights...

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri is taking a message of healthy lifestyles on the road. The insurance carrier has established a mobile health program that will visit companies, schools, shopping centers and community events to help people better manage their health...

JEFFERSON CITY - Democrats and Republicans in the Missouri House and Senate will be meeting to select officers for the 1993 session of the General Assembly over the next few days. This morning House Democrats and Senate Republicans plan to caucus. Senate Democrats will also meet this week and House Republicans are planning a caucus Tuesday...

MARBLE HILL - A record-breaking 76 percent voter turnout kept Bollinger County officials busy hand-counting thousands of paper ballots well into the pre-dawn hours Wednesday morning. When the final ballot count was tabulated, Sheriff Dan Mesey and 2nd District Commissioner Junior Cook had won narrow victories, but County Assessor Sarah Anderson was defeated in her re-election bid...

Three music students from Southeast Missouri State University received top honors at the Missouri Music Teacher Association State Convention in Columbia Oct. 29-31. Susan Ho received first place collegiate honors in piano, freshman/sophomore divison. Ho is the first recipient of the Margaret Woods Allen Piano Scholarship at Southeast. She played selections by Chopin, Beethoven, and Prokofiev...

The Cape Girardeau Christian Business Men's Committee will hold it's monthly luncheon Nov. 20 at noon at the Show Me Center. Commercial pilot William F. "Fritz" Klumpp is the featured speaker. As a captain for Delta Airlines, Klumpp is serving as senior flight instructor and line captain on the B-757/767 aircraft...

A bake sale today at the Cape Girardeau Senior Center will help raise money for the center's new building. The sale will be held from 9 a.m. to noon. Homemade cakes, pies, breads, cupcakes, and some sugar-free items will be sold. The Senior Center borrowed $400,000 for construction of the new building at 921 N. Clark Street...

The Mississippi Valley Home Educators will meet Nov. 12 from 3-5 p.m. at Cape Bible Chapel at Kage and Mt. Auburn roads. The theme for the meeting is Indian culture and the program will be about Indians of Southern Illinois and Missouri. The field trip for Nov. 20 will be announced at the meeting and will include a tour of an Indian cultural center...

Ruth Ann Brockmeier Orr, a teacher at Washington Elementary School in Cape Girardeau has been honored by Who's Who Among America's Teachers. Orr was among 65,000 teachers from grades kindergarten through 12 who were selected by one or more former students who themselves were listed in either Who's Who Among American High School Students or The National Dean's List...

SIKESTON -- Cecil F. Godwin, 92, of Sikeston, died Wednesday, Nov. 4, 1992, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. He was born Jan. 12, 1900, in Waverly, Tenn., son of John Thomas and Elzie O. Fields Godwin. He and Myrtle M. Belver were married Sept. 2, 1917, at Malden. She died Feb. 19, 1983...

CHAFFEE -- Charles John Liberty, 55, Chaffee Route 1, died Wednesday, Nov. 4, 1992, at St. Francis Medical Center. He was born Sept. 12, 1937, at Stamford, Conn., son of Floyd Merten and Anna M. Decaro Liberty. He married Janet Joanne Cox March, 2, 1979, in Pomona, Calif...

Daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Alan Schlichting of Perryville, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 1:08 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, 1992. Name, Kirstin Ruth. Weight, 7 pounds 7 ounces. First child. Mrs. Schlichting is the former Tracey Conrad, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lynn Conrad of Perryville. She is a first grade teacher at Perry County School District 32. Schlichting is a salesman at Cape GMC Pontiac, and is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Barney Schlichting of Wittenberg...

CHAFFEE -- Marie Gertrude Batts, 95, of Chaffee, died Tuesday, Nov. 3, 1992, at Jackson Manor in Jackson. She was born Jan. 1, 1897, at James Island, S.C., son of Robert and Marie Gertrude Gillican Oswald. She and Riley C. Batts were married March 12, 1922. He died Nov. 29, 1978...

Assistant City Manager Al Stoverink will be guest speaker at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's First Friday Coffee. The session will be held Friday at the Drury Inn, starting at 7:30 a.m. Stoverink will give an update on the city. The chamber announced that the annual Chamber Transportation Dinner, scheduled for tonight, has been postponed until Dec. 3...

The Notre Dame High School concert choir and mixed chorus will present its annual fall concert Sunday at Old St. Vincent Church at 3 p.m. The Dexter High School concert choir will perform as Notre Dame's guest. The concert is free and open to the public. Old St. Vincent is located at the corner of Main and William...