Stories from Sunday, July 11, 1993

SCOTT CITY -- Elsie Mae Mason, 82, of Kennett, formerly of Scott City, died Friday, July 9, 1993, at the Kennett Health Care Center in Kennett. She was born Nov. 6, 1910 at Arbor, Mo., daughter of Roy Lee Smith and Dollie Augusta Poinsett Smith. She was married to Frank E. Mason. He preceded her in death...

Maybe the flood doing so much damage to towns and crops along the Mississippi River is simply God's way of voting against riverboat gambling. --- Some St. Louisans are complaining because they'll have to walk across tracks at some stations along the route of the new Metro Link. What do they expect for $351 million?...

We are told that the "logjam" on international trade has been broken. The presidents and prime ministers of the G-7 countries have agreed to a wide range of tariff reductions on manufactured goods. Cautious good news if all the nations really mean it...

Cognitive dissonance. How's that for a fourteen-dollar, out-of-town phrase, a "gift" to the language from psychologists? Roughly, it refers to that condition of mind in which a person simultaneously thinks two thoughts that are incompatible, or which flatly contradict each other...

The decision by federal law enforcement authorities to force an end to the standoff in Waco, Texas, earlier this year was "well thought out," an FBI official said Friday. Jim Nelson, special agent in charge of the St. Louis division of the FBI, voiced that comment during a visit to Cape Girardeau...

The flood of 1993 will go down in the record books as the highest stage yet for the Mississippi River. A river crest of 47 feet is forecast July 20, and continuing rains north could push that crest even higher. The Cape Girardeau County Commission met in emergency session Friday and laid down the rules: A curfew took effect in flood ravaged areas of the county Saturday night. ...

ANNA, Ill. -- A four-county support group will announce four potential Southern Illinois locations for a proposed super-maximum security prison this week. The Union County Economic Development Corporation's regional prison project committee will announce the proposed sites during a special conference, to be held at Shawnee Community College Tuesday, starting at 9 a.m...

Son to Mr. and Mrs. David Cooper of Bloomfield, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 12:05 a.m. Friday, July 2, 1993. Name, Austin Luke. Weight, 7 pounds 11 ounces. First child. Mrs. Cooper is the former Monti Morris, daughter of Robert and Gloria Morris of Oran. She is an EMT with Stoddard County Ambulance District. Cooper is a paramedic and manager of Stoddard County Ambulance District. He is the son of Terry and Evelyn Cooper of Doniphan...

MARBLE HILL -- Funeral service for Roger Dale McCulley of Marble Hill will be held at 3 p.m. today at Liley Funeral Chapel here. The Rev. David Griesemer will officiate, with burial in Union Hill Cemetery near Zalma. Friends may call at the funeral home after 1 p.m...

PERRYVILLE -- Ledia Marie Feltz, 82, of Perryville, died Thursday, July 8, 1993, at Cedar Gate Nursing Home in Poplar Bluff. She was born Dec. 10, 1910, in Sterling, Colo., daughter of David and Elizabeth Spreier. She and Floyd C. Feltz were married June 9, 1934. He died June 10, 1984...

MARBLE HILL -- William "Pete" Long, 81, of Route 1, Marble Hill died Saturday, July 10, 1993, at Cape LaCroix Nursing Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born June 22, 1912, at Brownwood, the son of Bird and Gertie Eaker Long. He was a retired carpenter and a veteran of World War II, where he served in the U.S. Army...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Charles L. Weakley, 70, of East Prairie died Saturday, July 10, 1993, at his home. He was born Nov. 27, 1922, at Mississippi County, the son of John Walter and Nora Thomas Dameworth Weakley. On June 15, 1940, he married Mary Virginia Ledbetter, who preceded him in death Oct. 11, 1988...

SIKESTON -- F.X. Schumacher, 78, of Sikeston, died Thursday, July 8, 1993, in the emergency room at Missouri Delta Medical Center. He was born April 2, 1915, at Marston, son of F.X. and Ruth Cleveland Hodges Schumacher Sr. He and Alma Jean Morgan were married May 20, 1936, at Caruthersville...

SIKESTON -- Ines Long, 87, formerly of Sikeston, died Friday, July 9, 1993, at Baptist Hospital in Arkadelphia, Ark. She was born Oct. 30, 1905, in Astoria, daughter of William and Louisa Hutsell. She and Hosea Long were married Dec. 21, 1926. He died in May 1964...

MARBLE HILL -- The. Rev. Hersel McCormick, 84, of Marble Hill died Friday, July 9, 1993 at St. Francis Medical Center. He was born March 26, 1909 at Hahn, Mo. to William M. and Sarah Yount McCormick. He married Maude Shanks on Dec. 27, 1929. She preceded him in death Oct. 3, 1977. On Feb. 3, 1979, he married Myrtle Null Wiseman. She survives...

Calvin Bird, director of the Cape Civic Center, is thankful the Senior Nutrition Center was able late last month to move into a new facility on Clark Street. He just wishes the movers would have cleaned up after themselves. For about seven years, the Senior Nutrition Center had rented the Civic Center, with senior citizens using the building during week days and the civic center serving primarily Cape Girardeau's disadvantaged youth evenings and weekends...

Fifty Southeast Missouri school districts will ask voters Oct. 5 to waive a property tax rollback in an effort to retain local tax money. Without the waivers, an estimated $12.5 million would be taken from the Southeast Missouri schools and redistributed to schools with higher tax levies, said Robert Buchanan, Sikeston superintendent...

COMMERCE -- Jeff Hopper's home is reachable only by boat. The floor of the house sits 9 feet above the ground, but already the muddy water is within a few feet of the floor. Hopper's house is one of several in the tiny Scott County town that stand surrounded by the murky, relentless flood waters of the Mississippi River. About 65 families live in Commerce...

The relentless flood waters of the rain-swollen Mississippi River continued to take their toll Saturday in Southeast Missouri from Ste. Genevieve to Commerce. Forecasts call for a record crest at Cape Girardeau of 47 feet on July 20. The stage Saturday reached 42.7 feet...

THEBES, Ill. -- John Reaves pulled off his rubber knee boots, stepped out of his metal fishing boat and surveyed his surroundings. With his house on stilts, surrounded by muddy swirling water, Reaves' domain would seem more appropriate in the deep bayous of Southern Louisiana than the quiet river hamlet of Thebes in Southern Illinois...

ULLIN, Ill. -- U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy will be keynote speaker at a Democrat coalition jamboree on tap at Shawnee Community College July 24. Espy's address will highlight a day of speeches by state, county and national office holders and Democratic candidates for statewide elections, including those seeking the governor's office in 1994...

The Southeast Missourian published an "extra" on the flooding Saturday. It marked the first extra produced by the newspaper in nearly two decades. More than 5,000 copies containing information about the curfew and rising waters was distributed without charge to homes in potential flood areas as well as to the Salvation Army, and some Cape Girardeau stores...

Sandbaggers and residents affected by flood waters in Cape Girardeau need to take precautions against infections in contaminated water. John Taylor, a registered nurse in the Southeast Missouri Hospital's emergency room, said flood water with untreated sewage might carry any number of viruses...

To those who are now in the flood area, it may seem audacious of me to write a paean of praise for summer rain. Nevertheless, to sit under a roofed open porch and watch the sweet summer rain come down the hill, cross the creek, and arrive at the back steps is a pleasant occasion, especially if the preceding hours have been hot and muggy...

Hot, humid weather arrived with the month of July. As the temperatures have soared, watering has become necessary to keep the growth active. Plants can show stress in a very short time in spite of the very wet spring and the abundance of rainfall in our area...

The American Red Cross announced three upcoming blood drives will be held in the area. On July 15, a drive will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the conference room of Boatmen's Bank, 2 South Mount Auburn Road. On July 15, a drive will be held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the fellowship hall of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 1904 W. Cape Rock Drive...

JACKSON -- Warranty deeds issued at the office of Janet Robert, Cape Girardeau County recorder of deeds: Deborah A. Crader to the Deborah A. Crader Trust; M. Sue and James R. McHaney to Mary Savoy; Kent E. and Wanda L. Hoffmeister to Walter and Doris Lage...

Maps of proposed Cape Girardeau voting wards are available at City Hall. City Planner Kent Bratton said 18-inch by 24-inch maps are available for $1 each and larger, 36-inch by 48-inch maps cost $10 each. The maps are in two colors, with a red overlay showing the proposed ward boundaries...