Stories from Sunday, December 4, 1994

EAST PRAIRIE -- Katie Elizabeth Wilson, 69, of rural East Prairie died Friday, Dec. 2, 1994, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born April 22, 1925, in New Madrid County, the daughter of Charlie and Ida Boldt Wilson. She had lived in Mississippi County most of her life, where she was a member of the First Christian Church in East Prairie. She was a retired office manager for Missouri Utilities and Union Electric in East Prairie...

The Opera Workshop's dinner theater presentation Saturday night, "Make Your Own Kind of Music," lived up to its billing. The cast of students and assistant professor Louisa Panou-Takahashi served up a potpourri of classic opera, musical theater, Greek folk music and pop songs along with the roast turkey on the menu...

DONIPHAN -- A 16-year-old Doniphan girl was killed Friday night in a one-vehicle accident. Christina Tomasino was ejected from the pickup she was driving and died at the scene. Three passengers in the pickup were injured when the pickup ran off the right side of the road, crossed back over to the left, struck a tree and overturned, coming to rest on its top...

The Hosps' realistic train diorama includes a number of homes, business and factories, along with over 60 railcars and locamotives. Hosp hopes to eventually personalize his scene to the interests of his family. the concrete plant in the background reflects the career of one of the Hosps' relatives, who works at Lone Star Cement...

Members of the Young Doers 4-H Club met Nov. 15 at the Riverside Regional Library. Twelve membrs were present along with five leaders. Jessica Winkler presided with pledges led by Erin Prince and Tara Parenteau. The groups elected a new slate of officers for the 1994-95 year. ...

Orchard Grove Elementary Parent Teacher Organization president Wendy Hayes says her organization gives parents the perfect opportunity to become involved in the education of their children. "I guess when people ask me about PTO, I like for them to see that it's a real positive organization of parents working with teachers and the school," she said. ...

To the editor: On Nov. 21 members of the Bollinger County Democrat Central Committee effectively thumbed its collective nose at everyone when it voted not to recommend Judge Bill Hopkins to fill the vacancy as Bollinger County prosecuting attorney. The committee endorsed an unknown lawyer from Cape Girardeau County whose qualifications and resume have yet to be verified. ...

Missouri Department of Insurance officials are taking steps to continue to bring skyrocketing costs of workers' compensation to businesses under control. By the end of the year, Director Jay Angoff will decide what the rate increase will be for companies in the state's assigned risk pool, and a decision will likely be made on whether to contract with a new administrator for the pool...

There is nothing Mrs. J, 65, can do about the deterioration of her bones. Due to the advanced stages of arthritis and poor circulation in her legs, she has known for some time she would have to live with this condition. She also suffers from chronic emphysema and has a broken ankle. With medication, she copes with such medical difficulties...

Being home for the holidays is a custom some Cape Girardeau children will be denied this year. Two girls, 11 and 10, will be spend Christmas with their mother in the Cape Girardeau Safe House for Women. Not only have they been separated from their home, the girls have no toys at the Safe House and must invent ways to amuse themselves...

A founding director of a policy center for postsecondary education will visit Southeast Missouri State University Friday and Saturday to help university leaders in their strategic planning process and to deliver the fall commencement address. Robert Zemsky, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Research on Higher Education, will deliver the commencement talk at 2 p.m. in the Show Me Center...

As a single mother of two, Teresa Hale recently faced an uphill battle. How would she repay the nearly $10,000 in student loans? Hale, a senior at Southeast Missouri State University, considered military service for the educational benefits it offered...

ORAN -- A scholarship fund has been established in memory of former Oran resident Darron Jansen. Jansen, 23, died Nov. 21 following an accident at a construction sight near the intersection of Kingshighway and Independence in Cape Girardeau. He lived in Kelso with his wife, Michelle Rukstad Jansen, at the time of his death...

Since 1926 the state of Missouri has used the National Council on Compensation Insurance to recommend premiums and classifications for companies in the state's assigned risk pool for workers' compensation. NCCI is an insurance industry rating consortium based in Florida, which is used by 30 states to set its workers' comp rates. Ten other states use the company for some information...

A "band" of angels bought in Germany play a variety of instruments. They are finely detailed and colorful. This angel has movement and sound. It leans left to right as "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" wafts across the room. Heavenly angels adorn the home of Betty Davis of Jackson, and these angels are made of everything from porcelain to macaroni to chicken wire...

For 50 years, since the closing days of World War II, one truism has prevailed everywhere among the most enlightened leaders of the free world: the overriding importance of pursuing a freer and more open system of international trade and commerce. This is no abstraction. The importance of this lesson is brutally grounded in the painful and enormously costly lessons these visionary leaders drew from the 1930s and 1940s...

The holiday season is in full swing and another fiscal year is drawing to a close. The city council is working hard on the proposed 1995 budget for the city of Jackson. We hope to have a budget ready to approve by late December or early January. I can assure you that the 1995 budget will be balanced and keep the financial integrity of Jackson intact...

COBDEN, Ill. -- William T. "Bill" Middleton, 57, of Minooka and formerly of Cobden died Thursday, Dec. 1, 1994, at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Joliet. He was born Aug. 14, 1937, at Charleston, Mo., the son of Charles L. and Ruby Boitnott Middleton. He was married to Joyce Mowery, who survives at Minooka...

SCOTT CITY -- Hulin "Lester" Martin, 91, of rural Scott City died Saturday, Dec. 3, 1994, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born April 19, 1903, in Paris, Tenn., the son of James and Ida Wright Martin. On Dec. 2, 1928, he married Emma Miriam Goddard in St. Louis. She survives of the home...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Mena H. Kessler, 92, of Cairo, died Friday, Dec. 2, 1994, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Feb. 24, 1902, in Cape Girardeau County, the daughter of Charley and Nora Belle Foster Deimund. On July 3, 1924, she married Arthur John Kessler in Cairo. He preceded her in death in 1960...

PERRYVILLE -- Edgar J. Brown, 96, of Perryville died Friday, Dec. 2, 1994, at the Perry County Nursing Home in Perryville. He was born Nov. 2, 1898, in Perry County, the son of Frank L. and Mary Blechle Brown. On May 18, 1943, he married Frieda E. Sutterer, who preceded him in death on Oct. 11, 1988...

Johnny Lee Smith, 61, of 415 William St. died Saturday, Dec. 3, 1994, at the Heartland Care Rehabilitation Center in Cape Girardeau. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at the Ford and Sons Funeral Homes in Cape Girardeau.

PATTON -- Lena Brotherton Miinch, 71, died Saturday, Dec. 3, 1994, at her home near Patton. She was born March 26, 1923, the daughter of the late Early Lee and Effie Mae Shoemake Hahn. On June 27, 1940, she married J.B. Brotherton, who preceded her in death on March 3, 1992. On July 21, 1994, she married Lowell Miinch, who survives...

TAMMS, Ill. -- Funeral service for Florence Lucille Franklin, 89, of Tamms will be at 1:30 p.m. today at the Alexander Freewill Baptist Church near Olive Branch, Ill. The Rev. Henry Potter will officiate, and burial will be in St. John's Cemetery near Dongola...

ADVANCE -- Raymond D. Sturgeon, 76, of Advance died Saturday, Dec. 3, 1994, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at the Baker Funeral Home in Marble Hill.

Daughter to Tommy and Tina McCulley of Sikeston, Missouri Delta Medical Center, 2:48 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, 1994. Name, Brooke Lyn. Weight, 9 pounds 2 ounces. First child. Mrs. McCulley is the former Tina Atchley, daughter of Gary and Linda Atchley of Sikeston. She is a licensed practical nurse at Country Woods Care Facility in Festus. McCulley is employed at Wiethop Truck Sales, and is the son of Lucille McCulley of Scott City...

Bosnia-Herzegovina is a testament to the failure of the peace-making capacity of the Western world. No one ever claimed that the United Nations was perfect. The United Nations has certainly failed to accomplish many of its assigned tasks through the years...

It is decision time for replacing "Far Side." As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Gary Larson, creator of "Far Side," is retiring. He is probably much too young to retire, but he wants to end the daily and Sunday comic panel before it gets stale. Some readers may be happy to see "Far Side" end. Its humor is on the warped side, but there are many readers who like a different humor perspective...

Just about every political column since Nov. 8 has started out with the words, "With Democrats in disarray and the party's prospects never dimmer..." The one exception to this was provided by Missouri's most famous weekly newspaper, The Unterrified Democrat, which simply headlined its election story with the words, "We're Toast."...

Beavers were probably the most hunted animals in North America from the 1600s through the 1800s. The pioneers and Indians ate beaver meat and traded furs for things they needed. Trading companies shipped beaver fur throughout the world to be made into coats or hats...

Two Cape Girardeau dancers will continue a tradition for the Academy of Dancearts when they perform with the State Ballet of Missouri in the Nutcracker at the Fox Theater in St. Louis. Whitney Pingel, 9, will dance the part of a party guest. Christina Veneziano, 11, will dance the part of a toy soldier...

Students at Cape Girardeau Central High School are being sent to the principal's office at twice as often this year as last. So far this school year, 864 discipline referrals have been logged at the principal's office. Last year, for the same time period, 494 referrals had been made...

Rush Limbaugh III is getting all the attention around here. The Chamber of Commerce is putting up billboards and scheduling bus tours past the barbershop where he once polished shoes, no less. But he's far from the only Cape Girardean, present or former, who is or was famous for something -- or ought to be...

The world has Southeast Missouri State University graduates to thank for large-screen TV, egg-shaped hosiery containers, defense of the Free World, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and the governor of Missouri. No, Cape Girardeau can't claim all Southeast Missouri State University graduates as native sons and daughters, but they have brought the city glory as well...

The white frame house in the 1000 block of South Pacific had been a junk-and-trash-filled eyesore for months. But after a neighbor filed a formal complaint under Cape Girardeau's new property maintenance code, the owner cleaned it up. The complaint is one of only seven the city has received since the code was enacted two weeks ago...

On one of the busiest days for Christmas tree sales, many area shoppers took their time Saturday before deciding which one they wanted for the holidays. "I picked out three different trees, left, and when I came back they were already sold to someone else," Mary Meyer, who was surveying trees at the Kinder Christmas Tree lot, said. "The next one I see that I like I'm going to take."...

JEFFERSON CITY -- Angela Turner-Quinn of Cape Girardeau was honored recently as the co-recipient of the Adult Peer Educator of the Year Award. She was recognized for the honor by Gov. Mel Carnahan at a capitol ceremony during which the governor proclaimed Nov. 27-Dec. 4 as STD/HIV/AIDS Awareness Week...

I feel like a miniature person entering a bonsai forest when I walk under the dome of these trees. Each trunk, limb and branch arches out in its chosen direction, creating multi-layers of arches from the crown down to the ones touching the ground. The trees grow on the edge of a six-foot bank...

Having dunked myself in river and lake water in winter months, I can attest that the experience is much more than refreshing. When a body with a temperature of some 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit abruptly is introduced into liquid that is perhaps 50 or 60 degrees cooler, the difference will curl your eyelashes. The sensation makes you whoop loudly and say things your grandmother would not imagine are even in your vocabulary...

Continuing Canada Geese (Middle & South Zones) closes Today Pheasants (Southeast Zone) closes Dec. 12 Deer (muzzleloader) closes Dec. 31 Deer (archery) closes Dec. 31 Turkey (archery) closes Dec. 31 Ducks & Coots (South Zone) closes Jan. 3...

MILLER CITY, Ill. -- There are grim reminders of what happened to the fruits of Greg Patton's labor inside the Patton Hunting Club. There is the framed picture of his sprawling home and spacious swimming pool, once adjacent to the 1,000-acre farm. Next to the picture is a box of snapshots of the same home being swallowed by the Flood of 1993...

1994 reaches for maturity. The trees have gone bald. Some of their twigs have fallen off in the restless wind. One searches for color in the landscape. A few rose hips add little red freckles here and there in the hedgerow. Small blue seeds decorate the old cedars. ...

Weber TV and Appliance in Cape Girardeau is sponsoring a gift tree for the children at Cottonwood Residential Treatment Center. The tree will have ornaments representing each child who is at Cottonwood. Individuals are encouraged to pick an ornament containing a wish list and help the children at Cottonwood have a happy holiday by purchasing a gift on the list...

A workshop titled "Music, Movement and Much, Much More" will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at Trinity Lutheran Day Care, 55 N. Pacific. Pam Dumey will share simple songs and movement activities for children that can be taught by the non-music teacher. No special instruments are required, but some teacher-created instruments may be used...

Yule logs, an ancient Christmas custom, have been part of the holiday tradition at Christ Episcopal Church in Cape Girardeau for over two decades. Members at the church make the logs and sell them as the congregation's one fund raiser. Carolyn Thomasson, a member of the church, said the tradition comes from England. People would come together and burn logs in a bonfire to greet the holiday season, celebrate the birth of Christ, and bring luck for the new year...

Auditions for the Cape Community Theatre's production of "Life With Father" will be held Dec. 10 and 11. Roles are available for eight men and eight women. Children are also needed. The play will be performed Feb. 3, 4 and 5. For information about the auditions, call the SEMO Council on the Arts at 334-9233...