Stories from Monday, August 15, 1994

The annual reunion of the Joseph and Ernestine Ruehling Kranawetter family was held July 30 and 31 in Jacob, Ill. Events the first day included lunch and dinner at a restaurant in Neunert, Ill.; tour of Fountain Bluff Cemetery and areas where family members lived, and vesper service at Christ Lutheran Church in Neunert...

JEFFERSON CITY -- The current state budget has been in operation less than two months, but fiscal officials here already are working on next year's appropriations plans that undoubtedly will call for another 12 months of record spending. For some time now the state's budgeting process has been a year-round task, sometimes with fiscal officers closely following as many as three budget years at the same time...

Tonia Lane felt an aura of good fortune long before her raffle ticket number was called at Arena Park Sunday afternoon. "I feel like I've been a winner the entire weekend," said Lane, who participated in the first River Heritage Regional Black Family Reunion from start to finish. "This is just an excellent way to bring people and their culture a little closer. I loved every bit of this event. I'm looking forward to participating in next year's reunion."...

A tome that contains 1,400 pages of complex health-care reform is more than U.S. Sens. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., and Mitch McConnell, R.-Ky., can stomach. Neither Bond nor McConnell will endorse the Clinton-Mitchell health-care reform package, because they said it gives too much power to Washington while it takes decision-making away from the American public...

The Southeast Missourian asked people what they thought about the first Woodstock event when it was held 25 years ago. Myrt Goodman: "My feelings about Woodstock were more or less what my parents were saying about it, that it was not necessarily all good. At the time, it was not something I would be allowed to go to. I realize now that it was more of a rebellion of the younger people. For the college students I was around, it was just right on, but I don't think it really caught on that much."...

Cape Girardeau City Council Meeting Monday, August 15 Public Hearings Request of Robert F. Jr. and Kathleen O. O'Grady for a special use permit for storage of vending machine inventory at 2026 Robin Hood Circle in an R-1, single family residential district...

DELTA -- Students may register this week at Delta public schools. At the high school, registration will be held from 9 a.m. to noon in the principal's office. Students will receive a class schedule and be assigned a locker. Seniors should register Monday, juniors on Tuesday, sophomores on Wednesday, freshmen on Thursday, and seventh- and eighth-graders on Friday...

"The Writing Life: Families" will be the theme of the fall section of The Great Books Program when it resumes at Southeast Missouri State University in September. The fall program will begin with an organizational meeting Sept. 1, during which books will be distributed and registration will be held...

The first-ever River Heritage Regional Black Family Reunion has come and gone, and organizers of the event are claiming success. Over three days there were events that were both serious and fun. At times more than 2,000 people were gathered in Arena Park to share a sense of community and pride...

Fifteen percent of Missouri's registered voters, representing eight percent of the state's population, recently went to the polls to approve new public bonded indebtedness of more than $450,000,000 in principal and interest, to be repaid by money the state treasury will collect in the future...

To the editor: Joshua Kezer isn't a killer. He was a young man 17 years of age, 350 miles away, in the early hours of Nov. 8, 1992, when a young woman's life was taken that devastated a family with grief and outraged a community. The newspaper reported that the state's attorney said there was scant evidence...

MOUNDS, Ill. -- Irene Russell, 83, of Mounds died Sunday, Aug. 14, 1994, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born Jan. 14, 1911, in Johnson County, the daughter of David and Sarah Elizabeth Ward Jackson. She was married to Virgil Clifton Russell, who preceded her in death on May 14, 1974...

HAYWOOD CITY -- Ossie Williams, 71, of Haywood City died Saturday, Aug. 13, 1994, at Incarnate Word Hospital in St. Louis. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at the Amick-Burnett Funeral Home in Oran.

Elva L. Englehart, 92, of 2010 Thilenius died Saturday, Aug. 13, 1994, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born July 7, 1902, at Bloomfield, the daughter of William H. and Sarah Bidewell Hobbes. On June 1, 1951, she married Fred Englehart, who survives of Cape Girardeau...

SIKESTION -- William J. "Bud" Edwards, 69, died Saturday, Aug. 13, in the Missouri Delta Medical Center. Edwards was a resident of the Sikeston Convalescent Center. He was born Nov. 19, 1924, in Kentucky. He was the son of the late Jolly B. and Della Wilmurth Edwards. William Edwards was Baptist...

Funeral service for Alvina A. Jones of Cape Girardeau will be at 9 a.m. today at St. Mary's Cathedral in Cape Girardeau. She died Friday, Aug. 12, 1994, at the Fountainbleau Lodge. She was 81. The time of the funeral reported in Sunday's Southeast Missourian was incorrect...

DONGOLA, Ill. -- Theodore Penrod, 88, of Dongola died Saturday, Aug. 13, 1994, at Hillview Nursing Home in Vienna. He was born Aug. 12, 1906, near Dongola, the son of Henry A. and Ruth Canupp Penrod. On Dec. 8, 1928, he married Hazel Troutman, who survives. He was a member of the Friendship Baptist Church...

When Steve McPheeters of AmeriFirst Bank decided to plan a complete advertising campaign, he began with the newspaper, television and radio. But he needed something more, something that would be a bold reminder of the bank's services. That is when he turned to billboard advertising...

POPLAR BLUFF -- An $8 million investment in the Poplar Bluff Industrial Park by Briggs & Stratton and Japan-based Starting Industrial will bring up to 60 manufacturing jobs in October. "We are taking advantage of the design expertise of Starting Industrial and Briggs & Stratton's manufacturing experience," said Chris Kurz, the president of the new company, Starting USA Corp., a joint venture between the two...

A fast-growing national chain of steak restaurants is expanding to Cape Girardeau, and a new office building is also under construction nearby. Ryan's Steak House, a chain based in Greer, S.C., is building a 10,000-square-foot restaurant immediately south of the Drury Lodge, at I-55 and Route K, said Drury Southwest Inc. spokesman Larry Westrich...

Marion Flori of Cape Girardeau joined the sales staff of Orscheln Farm and Home Supply Inc., 338 Christine. Flori, who was at Sanders Hardware, is a native of Cape Girardeau. He begins at Orscheln today. Orscheln carries farm, home and auto supplies and clothing. It has been in business for 30 years...

Florsheim Factory Outlet has moved From Plaza Way Shopping Center to West Park Village. The move was made to be closer to Interstate 55 and to benefit from increased traffic. The store is 400 square feet larger than the other one. The new space has allowed the store to include a Bargain Back Room, where shoes are offered at reduced prices...

A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength of Aid Association for Lutherans with an A-double-plus superior rating. The rating is the highest assigned by Best under a letter-rating system implemented by the rating agency in 1992. AAL has received Best's highest rating since the fraternal benefit society began receiving ratings from Best...