Stories from Thursday, August 25, 1994

To the editor: "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." These are the inalienable rights decreed in the Declaration of Independence. Sen. Kinder (Southeast Missourian, Aug. 16) might like other words to be present in their place, but other words are not present. ...

Last week President Clinton signed a bill that will makes the Social Security Administration an independent agency. For many Americans -- well, let's face it This may have been one you didn't exactly follow from the edge of your seat. The proposal has been around for more than a decade and had earlier passed the House three times, only to die in the Senate on each occasion. ...

BENTON -- Cape Girardeau obstetrician, Dr. Michael J. Jessup, was injured Tuesday in a traffic accident on Interstate 55 six miles north of Sikeston. Jessup was a patient Wednesday at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau, where his condition was listed as good...

FREDERICKTOWN -- Eight years ago Don Weiland moved to Fredericktown with thoughts of retiring or at least slowing down. Four years ago Jim Graham, a longtime resident of Madison County, a cattle farmer and active Republican, decided to challenge veteran Democratic state Rep. Frank Ellis. Graham was successful, and in 1992 was re-elected without opposition...

Money for the Shawnee and Osage park development projects in Cape Girardeau are still a long way from the capital campaign goal of $600,000. But Jay Knudtson, vice president of the board of directors for the campaign, said there are still corporate sponsors that have yet to specify how much they will pledge...

Cape Girardeau's two hospitals are divided over the merits of merging. Southeast Missouri Hospital officials favor such a move, while those at St. Francis Medical Center oppose it. "We would do it tomorrow," said Charles Hutson, president of Southeast Hospital's Board of Trustees...

Earl T. Shinhoster, newly-appointed interim executive director of the NAACP, will speak at St. James AME Church in Cape Girardeau Friday at 7:30 p.m. Shinhoster was named to head the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People after Benjamin Chavis Jr. was fired on Saturday by the organization's board of directors...

Would a merger of Cape Girardeau's two hospitals violate federal antitrust laws? Supporters say it wouldn't, while opponents contend otherwise. Those who support such a merger here, including officials of Southeast Missouri Hospital, say such mergers have been allowed in other two-hospital cities...

When Paulette Stone tripped on a bulging envelope, she picked it up and tossed it in her car, intending to discard it later. But when she looked inside the Capital Bank envelope, she discovered it was full of money -- $1,520 to be exact. A search revealed no clue to the owner. But Stone, who works at the Missouri Veterans Home, launched a search...

August 25, 1994 Dear Pat, We took Inga and Christian, our friends' 3- and 2-year olds, to see "The Lion King." Wonder how much of it they got. Afterward, Inga told her parents about the big fire and Christian made roaring noises. On the way home, DC wondered aloud about when children begin to comprehend sorrow. About the same time they begin to feel love, I suggested...

Merger appears to be good medicine in St. Louis. Barnes and Jewish hospitals, along with Christian Health Services, which has hospitals in the St. Louis suburbs, merged in 1993 to form BJC Health System. The group recently added Missouri Baptist and St. Louis Children's Hospital to the system...

Funeral service for Ray W. Clark, 386 Country Club Drive, will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at Ford and Sons Sprigg Street Chapel. The Rev. William L. Burke will officiate, with burial in Lorimier Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home from 4-8 p.m. today...

Carroll, 60, died Tuesday, Aug. 23, 1994, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born Aug. 9, 1934, in Chaffee, son of Tony and Ida Ehrhart Carroll. He and Stella Marie Sanders were married Feb. 5, 1955. Carroll was retired from Cape River Grain in Cape Girardeau...

PERRYVILLE -- LeRoy F. Henson, 78, of Perryville, died Tuesday, Aug. 23, 1994, at University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor. He was born July 1, 1916, in Flat River, son of Tolbert and Louise Kirn Henson. He and Helen Mecker were married May 3, 1942...

Leona May Fornkohl, 58, of Cape Girardeau, died Tuesday, Aug. 23, 1994, at Frederick Street Manor. Ford and Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Billy G. Ford, 65, of Deltona, Fla., died Saturday, Aug. 20, 1994, at his home, following a lengthy illness. He was born Oct. 10, 1928, in Cape Girardeau, son of Raymond and Ella McCormick Ford. He and Ida Mae Diebold were married in 1949. Ford moved to Florida from Overland. He retired from McDonnell Douglas Aircraft in St. Louis, where he was general foreman 33 years...

Graveside service for Elizabeth Jane Reed of San Diego, Calif., will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Memorial Park. The Rev. Charles Dreyer will officiate. There is no visitation. Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel is in charge of arrangements. Reed, 94, died Saturday, April 30, 1994, in a San Diego hospital...

Daughter to Stanley and Tammy Lueders of Jackson, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 3:30 p.m. Sunday, July 31, 1994. Name, Brianna Danielle. Weight, 9 pounds 10 ounces. First child. Mrs. Lueders is the former Tammy Aufdenberg, daughter of Walter and Ruth Aufdenberg of Jackson. She is a technician at Procter & Gamble. Lueders is a driver with Moorman Manufacturing Co., and is the son of Sonny and Mahela Lueders of Frohna...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Jean F. Mohundro, 72, of Cairo, died Tuesday, Aug. 23, 1994, at her home. She was born Sept. 17, 1921, in Cairo, daughter of Frank and Pearl Renfrow Dillow. She married Clyde E. Mohundro, who died in 1987. Mohundro was a member of St. Patrick's Catholic Church and Daughters of Isabella...

Paintings by Dan Addington can be seen in the Southeast Missouri State University Art Gallery Aug. 29 to Sept. 30. Anyone interested in meeting the artist may do so during the opening reception Monday, Aug. 29, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. The gallery is located in the University Museum and Circle Drive at the campus...

A new law placing bingo under the Missouri Gaming Commission doesn't bother workers involved in some of the Cape Girardeau area games. They like the new law, which reduces the amount of paperwork they have to do to account for the receipts and taxes from bingo games...

Members of The Southland Band include, from left: kneeling - Mike Mason, Scott City; and Roy Chasteen, Chafrfee; and standing - Tom Green, Cairo, Ill.; John Jenkins, Sikeston; and Mike Green, Cairo, Ill. Members of the country band Shenandoah can identify with the cause of Tamms Jam 1994...

The Bob Kuban Brass band will perform at a benefit dance Sept. 10 at Bavarian Halle north of Jackson. Proceeds will help fund a scholarship established to honor longtime Puxico band director Harold Lichtenegger. The scholarship will benefit students pursing degrees in music education at Southeast Missouri State University...

The Southeast Missouri State University Choral Union began its fall rehearsal schedule on Tuesday for a late November performance of John Rutter's New Magnificat. The Choral Union is open to anyone interested in singing in a choir and draws it membership from the community and church choir singers. The union also draws from university students, faculty and staff...

An "Offering of Musical Nectar" will take place Aug. 28 at the Bandshell in Capaha Park from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Local bands will present various types of music ranging from alternative, rock, grunge, and various original tunes. Performing at this free concert will be local bands such as Brave Little Toaster, Papa Aborigine, Human Zoo and Bob Camp with Fred Friction...

Although crews and equipment are still scattered about the building, Nell Holcomb School should open Monday as scheduled. "Several parents have called us about the start date," said David Fuemmeler, superintendent. "We are wrapping things up, and we will be able to operate for school."...

"The buck stops here." Louie Hirschowitz is a firm believer in Harry S. Truman's immortal words. In fact, that quote is attached to the dashboard of the van he drives every morning to Oran City Hall -- every morning except weekends and Jewish holidays...

BENTON, Ill. -- Federal regulators have agreed to halt the removal of lead-contaminated topsoil from a 55-block area in Granite City pending a hearing. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is directing the soil scraping because of elevated lead levels in the blood of 16 percent of the area's children. The project is part of a $30 million Superfund cleanup of the area...

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Due to a scheduling conflict, the SIU Arena concert featuring Marty Stuart, Tammy Wynette and Sammy Kershaw has been rescheduled for Nov. 17. Stuart, Wynette and Kershaw were scheduled to perform at SIU Sept. 8 at 7:30 p.m. The concert is rescheduled for Nov. 17, with only Wynette and Kershaw performing. Stuart, who had a scheduling conflict with Sept. 8, will be at Paducah, Ky., Sept. 17...

KASKASKIA, Ill. -- Members of the Roman Catholic church on Kaskaskia Island apparently have saved their flood-stricken parish by finding a priest to say weekly Masses. Bishop Wilton Gregory of the Belleville Diocese had told members of the Immaculate Conception Church after last summer's floods that there weren't enough people to justify assigning a priest there...

Cape Girardeau County Circuit Judge John W. Grimm was among a group of 17 attorneys elected recently to the council of the Young Lawyers' Section of the Missouri Bar Association. Grimm was re-elected to a term. Also chosen to the Young Lawyers' Section council from Southeast Missouri was W. Edward Reeves of Caruthersville. Re-elected to the bar association's board of governors was James R. Robison of Sikeston...

Cape Girardeau will celebrate Smokey Bear's 50th birthday Friday from 9 a.m. to noon at the North County Park on North Kingshighway. Festivities will begin with Smokey Bear's arrival on a fire truck followed by an official birthday cake-cutting ceremony and presentation of a special Smokey Bear birthday card...

The SEMO District Fair will hold a beauty pageant Sept. 15 for competitors 7 and older. The pageant will be held in the R&R Tent beginning at 7:30 p.m. Age divisions: -- 7-9 years old, Little Miss SEMO Fair. -- 10-13 years old, Preteen Miss SEMO Fair...

Kenny G will be at the Show Me Center Oct. 13, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the concert go on sale Monday at 9 a.m. Tickets will be available at the Show Me Center box office; Capital Bank branches in Jackson, Perryville, Sikeston and Poplar Bluff; Disc Jockey Records in Cape Girardeau, Carbondale and Paducah; and Schnucks. Tickets also will be available 24 hours daily by calling (314) 651-5000...

JACKSON -- Donna Lichtenegger of Jackson was re-elected chairman of the 157th District Republican Committee last week. Ed Schilling of Jackson was elected vice chairman. The two will serve as members of the 27th Senatorial District and 8th Congressional District Republican committees...

The Friends of Cape Girardeau Public Library will hold its annual book sale Sept. 9-11 in the Hirsch Community Room of the library at 711 N. Clark. The sale is scheduled Sept. 9 from 6-8 p.m.; Sept. 10 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sept. 11 from noon to 3 p.m. A preview will be available for all members of the Friends organization Sept. 9 from 5-6 p.m. Proceeds benefit the library and provide money for the summer reading program...

Barry Bernhardt, director of Southeast Missouri State University's marching band, will direct the halftime show of Sunday's Kickoff Classic football game. The televised game between West Virginia University and the University of Nebraska will mark the start of the college football season. The game will be played in Giant Stadium in Newark, N.J., airing at 1 p.m. CST on ABC...