Stories from Sunday, November 28, 1993

SIKESTON -- Margaret Heeb, 93, of Sikeston, formerly of Chaffee, died Saturday, Nov. 27, 1993, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced later by Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel.

A letter I received this week in my capacity as state senator hit me like a blow to the solar plexus. I believe it's of sufficient importance to share with readers, and with my colleagues in the General Assembly. Dear Mr. Kinder: I am writing ... to bring some important facts to your attention. ...

One of the great art museums of the world is the National Portrait Gallery in London. In its grand hall hang the colossal portraits of the great British figures you would well expect to be there -- Winston Churchill, the Duke of Wellington, Queen Victoria, and others. But wait a minute; who are these two men, John Bright and Richard Cobden, just a few feet away from Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone? Why are they here in this place of historic sanctification?...

Missouri voters have said they want riverboat gambling. Cape Girardeau voters have said the same thing, as have the voters in a number of other cities and counties around the state. If the people speak to this issue, we're satisfied. But we believe many people who supported the idea of riverboat gambling did so with the idea that the enterprise would live up to that description. ...

CHARLESTON -- Earnie Rex Rister, 67, of Charleston, died Friday, Nov. 26, 1993, at his home of an apparent heart attack. He was born July 28, 1926 in Blodgett, son of Ernie and Edna Moore Rister. He was a retired truck driver and had lived in Charleston most of his life...

Maisie A. Foster, 56, of 758 Woodbine, died Friday, Nov. 26, 1993, at St. Francis Medical Center. She was born Oct. 2, 1937 in Thebes, Ill., the daughter of John Logan and Milbry Dyer Thompson. On June 10, 1953, she married John H. Foster in Corinth, Miss. He survives of the home...

SCOTT CITY -- Walter Thompson, 84, of Scott City died Saturday, Nov. 27, 1993, at his home. He was born Oct. 17, 1909 in Allenville, son of Fred and Lulu Myrtle Harmon Thompson. He was a retired truck driver and a member of the Allenville Baptist Church...

DONGOLA, Ill. -- Elmer B. Jacobs, 69, of Dongola, formerly of Murphysboro and Elmhurst, Ill., died Saturday, Nov. 27, 1993, at his home. He was born July 23, 1924 in Murphysboro, the son of Elmer B. and Clara M. Betz Jacobs. On Aug. 21, 1948, he married Sylvia Dietz, who survives of Dongola...

MARBLE HILL -- Delmar C. Crites, 93, of Marble Hill, died Saturday, Nov. 27, 1993, at Bond Nursing Care Center in Marble Hill. He was born at Sedgewickville, Feb. 22, 1900, son of Christian and Matilda Seabaugh Crites. He was a retired farmer. He was a member of the Harmony Congregational Methodist Church...

MARBLE HILL -- Ruby E. Shanks, 87, of Marble Hill died Saturday, Nov. 27, 1993, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Baker's Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements, which will be announced later.

SIKESTON -- B. B. Wagner, 77, of Route 1, Bertrand, died Saturday, Nov. 27, 1993, at the Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Nunnelee Funeral Chapel is in charge of arrangements, which will be announced later.

After 25 years as chairman of the English department at Southeast Missouri State University, Henry Sessoms is stepping down at the end of this semester. But Sessoms -- only the third person in the history of the institution to head the English department -- isn't leaving the university. Sessoms says he'll continue to teach English courses and direct the school's student and faculty exchange in the Missouri London Program...

Christmas for the Elderly has begun its ninth year providing holiday gifts for needy elderly individuals in the community. In the coming weeks, some of the neediest cases will be featured in the newspaper along with a wish list of gifts that could make life a little easier or a little happier for these people...

A toy for each child at Christmas -- a simple goal for Toybox, a tremendous community undertaking kicking off its 19th year. Toybox is a joint project of the Southeast Missourian newspaper and the Cape Girardeau Jaycees to provide Christmas gifts to needy children...

A blaze Friday that destroyed the Hobbs Chapel United Methodist Church may have been arson, a fire official said Saturday. "It is of suspicious origin," said Jim Hanks, chief of the East County Fire Department. He said an investigation by a state fire marshal indicates there's "a strong possibility" of arson...

Charles Lincoln likes to feed the birds. "They call me the bird man here," says Lincoln, a Bollinger County native who is a resident at the Missouri Veterans Home near the intersection of Highway 61 and Interstate 55. "I've been feeding the birds since I came here almost three years ago."...

Patricia V. Craige is no stranger to Cape Girardeau and the Southeast Missouri Kennel Club. "I was here last year," said Craige, of Carmel, Calif. "They put on a good dog show here." Craige and her female Norwegian Elkhound -- Ch Vin-Melca's Marketta -- was just one of more than 850 entries in the 70th SEMO Kennel Dog Show held Saturday at Arena Park in Cape Girardeau...

MOUND CITY, Ill. -- A 92-year-old woman died and two Mound City firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation during a fire at a two-story residential frame building on South First Street here Thanksgiving night. The cause of the fire was not determined said a Mound City Fire Department spokesman. Although arson is not suspected, the spokesman added that a fire marshal would investigate the fatal fire...

"Seize the day" (carpa diem) is an admonition expressed in many pieces of literature as well as countless times by speakers. Maybe not in the exact words, but with the same meaning such as poet Robert Herrick's lines, "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. Old Time is still a-flying; and the same flowers that smiles today, tomorrow will be dying."...

Charles F. Thrower, a member of VFW Post 3838, in Cape Girardeau has been appointed to serve as a member of the organization's National Community Activities, by George R. Cramer, commander-in-chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States...