Stories from Sunday, August 21, 1994

Rebecca S. (Becky) Simonton, 53, 510 S. Middle, died Friday Aug. 19, 1994 at Southeast Missouri Hospital. She was born Sept. 21, 1940 in Caruthersville, the daughter of Clifford M. and Cecile Medlin Christian. On Sept. 21, 1974, she and Ray Simonton were married in Blytheville, Ark...

Kay Kerstner Sneed sits at a marble table that used to be in the soda fountain part of the drug store her family owned for many years. Kids would stick their gum underneath it. The soda glasses on the table date to the 1950s. It was "the hangout." Of the several businesses that have occupied the 94-year-old Hoffman building in downtown Jackson, none stayed there longer than Kerstner's Rexall Drug Store, and only Kerstner's introduced the colorful slice of Americana known as the soda fountain...

Ernst Hoffman stands on the porch of his Jackson home where he was born. The tree was a sapling when his father built the Hoffman building downtown in 1898. In four short years the two-story, red brick building at 110 High St. in downtown Jackson will turn 100 years old, and Ernst Hoffman, whose father had the building built in 1898, thinks it might be cause for celebration...

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I have accepted the kind of invitation of the Southeast Missourian to offer a rebuttal to the absurd bit of arrogance in the Aug. 7 Opinion section by John D. Cozad. Cozad laments the absence of reasoned principled debate, like that between Jefferson (who predicted that freeing the slaves would ruin the country) and Hamilton (who insisted that the right to vote should depend entirely upon how much property a white man owned). ...

I have just finished reading excerpts from John Cozad's speech delivered to the First Friday breakfast meeting. While Cozad makes many interesting observations -- especially regarding the correlation of age and education to unemployment and poverty -- his subsequent development of these (and other statements) were, in my opinion, not always well reasoned or placed within an adequate historical context...

It was very discouraging to read the long article in your Aug. 7 paper claiming affirmative action is immoral, excerpts of a talk to Cape Girardeau's Chamber of Commerce by Kansas City attorney John Cozad. No one disputes some abuses have occurred with this program, just as there always are with any government program, (or any program by private business). ...

When John C. Cozad, a Kansas City lawyer and former University of Missouri regent and Missouri Highway and Transportation commission member, spoke to a Chamber of Commerce meeting recently, he generated considerable response with his thoughts on affirmative action. ...

As evidenced by the responses on today's Perspectives page, John C. Cozad struck a nerve when he spoke at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast recently about affirmative action. In his talk, Cozad said he believes affirmative action is immoral and based on a lie. He said it is immoral because it judges people by their color, and the lie is that the marketplace discriminates...

Every business has its lingo. Newspapers are no exception. Frequently I hear someone talking about the technical aspects of a job or business, and I start to think I am listening to a foreign language. Folks who work for newspapers do the same thing. Years and years ago there was a television show, one of the pre-payola quiz shows, that required contestants to guess someone's occupation based on listening to the person talk about his or her job...

To the editor: Your guest writer, Paul J. Allee, used a lot of space to blast conservatives and defend liberals throughout history. His constant assertions that conservatives "move to the left" needs to be looked at a little closer. Only "firebrand liberals declaring the status quo was no longer tolerable" signed the Declaration of Independence? If I remember my history correctly, the colonists revolted because of punitive taxation. ...

To the editor: For several years, the Congress has been considering legislation that would create our 52nd national park -- the Mojave National Park in California's fragile desert. The Mojave is to the desert what Yellowstone is to the Northern Rockies and what the Great Smokies are to the Appalachians. All are natural gems that Americans should protect for posterity...

To the editor: The Little River Drainage District article in Thursday's paper is about the second largest land reclamation project in the world, second only to Holland's reclaiming is land from the sea. Neglected in the story was that residents of Cape Girardeau played a major part in its creation. Maj. James Francis Brooks, a Civil War veteran and my grandfather, was responsible for designing and construction of miles of the ditch that flows into the Mississippi river...

J. Michelle Wren of Jackson has been named to receive a St. Francis Medical Center Auxiliary Healthcare Scholarship. A student in the associate nursing degree program at Shawnee Community College, Wren is among 10 area residents pursuing health-related careers who have been named to receive scholarships from the auxiliary. Each scholarship is worth $1,000...

When a Jackson Indians team takes the field or court this year -- no matter the sport -- they'll have an ally as important as the home field advantage and a cheering crowd. After an absence of several years, Jackson school teams again have their own booster club in the Jackson Tribal Council, now in its fourth year of operation...

Riverside Regional Library will have its August Storytimes at 9:30 a.m. Monday and Tuesday. The theme of the presentations is "Back to School." Several books will be read to those participating and a video, "The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners," will be shown, and colosheets will be given out...

JONESBOR0 -- Kevin Spring, 31, of Route 1, Wolf Lake, Ill., died Thursday Aug. 18, 1994 in Union County. He was born March 24, 1963 in Anna, the son of Ralph Eugene and Mary Louise West Spring. He was employed by Randy Meyers at Wolf Lake and was a member of the Galilee Baptist Church...

TAMMS, Ill. -- Vernal Lynn Nave, 67, of Tamms, Ill., died Friday, Aug. 19, 1994 at the St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Nave was born in Saline County, Ill., on Sept. 18, 1926. He was the son of the late Vernal F. Nave and Christa White Nave. He was a retired case worker with the state of Illinois public aid office in Mt. Vernon, Ill. He was preceded in death by his father in 1990 and his mother in 1993...

ANNA -- Eva Mae Miller, 82, of Buncombe, died Thursday, Aug. 18, 1994 at Southeast Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born Jan. 4, 1912 in Carterville, Ill., the daughter of Thomas and Martha Smith. On Oct. 29, 1929 she married Everett Franklin Miller, who preceded her in death on March 22, 1982...

SIKESTON -- Ferl McIntyre, 80, formerly of Route 1 Bell City and a resident of the Sikeston Convalescent Center, died Saturday Aug. 20, 1994 following an extended illness. He was born Sept. 17, 1913 in Kennett, the son of Marvin and Della McNeil McIntyre. On Oct. 12, 1935 he married Elnora Eastabrook, who survives and lives in Morehouse...

To the editor: The Fambro family would, first of all, like to apologize to anyone who read the article printed in the paper Aug. 12 and was offended because they felt we were putting ourselves above others and were being materialistic. Our intentions when allowing the press into our home for an interview wasn't for this purpose...

Dale Schmidt of Gordonville poses with Mushroom, ne of a number of German shorthaired pointers he and his father have bred over the years. With Mushroom firmly pointing a bobwhite quail, Schmidt walks in to flush the bird. Field trial dogs such as Mushroom are judged on all areas of hunting including finding birds, pointing and retrieving...

Women on the faculty at Southeast Missouri State University make less than their male counterparts on average, and there are fewer of them. But university officials say the school is working toward gender equity, both in terms of numbers and salary...

Women who are principals of Cape Girardeau elementary schools are making less than their male counterparts. But Larry Dew, director of business affairs for the school district, says experience is the reason. There are two women who are principals. Barbara Blanchard, Washington School principal, makes $48,570. Barbara Kohlfeld, May Greene School principal, makes $46,777...

Mark Pelts, a member of the Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents since 1991, is resigning. His six-year term doesn't expire until 1997. Pelts, 39, is a lawyer in Kennett. He said he will continue to serve on the board until Gov. Mel Carnahan appoints his replacement. But he said he wants off the board as soon as possible...

JACKSON -- Like many rural Cape Girardeau County residents, Eugenia Dyan Ramsey has had to change her rural-route and box-number address to a street or road name and number to comply with 911 regulations. "I thought it was important to get it done on time," said Ramsey. "It wasn't that big of a problem; actually, it made my address a lot shorter than it was before."...

As sure as most squirrels cut hickory nuts, most hunters cut their teeth on squirrels. Any time I idly sniff a freshly fired shotgun shell, I'm apt to get flashbacks to a humid riverbottom woods. Mosquitoes drone, hovering just out of range of my repellent. The air is thick and heavy, sweetly rotten with the aroma of the duff and dirt of forest floor...

It was an average night at the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's department for Cheryl Welch, the 911 dispatcher on duty. All of a sudden her red light brightened, and she knew a call was coming through. Before she finished answering "Cape County 911, what's your emergency?" she had the caller's address on her computer screen...

The first little ragtag end-of-summer things begin to mar the green expanse of lawn. A few tired leaves let go and flutter to the ground to curl up in the afternoon sun. Old, stubborn, sweet gum balls that defied all the winds of spring and summer finally surrender to gravity and after a rain they appear to be large brown marbles, abandoned by unseen players seeking shelter...

The Depressive and Manic Depressive Association will meet Monday at St. Francis Medical Center. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in Conference Room B of the Education Department. Registered pharmacist Ben Talley will speak on "New Medications Update."...

ADVANCE -- The Advance Knights of Columbus will sponsor a Miss Labor Day competition for girls from the area. The contest will take place Sept. 3 at 7:30 p.m. at Lawrence Umfleet Jr. Park in Advance. Contestants must be 14 on or before the date of the contest...

Keith "Bill" Tolliver of Cape Girardeau has been named a Melvin Jones Fellow by Lions Clubs International Foundation. Named for the founder of Lions Clubs International, the Melvin Jones fellowship is the foundation's highest honor. It is a recognition of a commitment to humanitarian service...