Stories from Sunday, January 8, 1995

ANNA, Ill. -- Velma Henderson Miller, 79, of Anna, Ill., died Saturday, Jan. 7, 1995, at the Union County Hospital in Anna. She was born July 1, 1915, in Union County, daughter of Nenivie and Mary Elizabeth Lentz Karraker. She married Chris Henderson, who preceded her in death Jan. 6, 1985. She latter married Jim Miller, who preceded her in death in 1993...

Upon her appointment last month, there was warm praise in many quarters, including this very editorial column, for Rebecca Cook's ascension as Missouri's secretary of state. Pride in a local woman who made good was central to the praise offered here. Like many others in this area, we puffed up pretty large as a good citizen and neighbor assumed the vital duties of one of Missouri's six constitutional offices of state government...

The Cape Girardeau Elks Lodge recently named its students of the month. Joshua Glueck, 17, was selected from Notre Dame High School. The son of Tony and Carol Glueck of Cape Girardeau, he is a senior and is active in soccer, basketball, Notre Dame Student Council and several other activities. He is listed on the school's B Honor Roll and plans to pursue a college degree in marketing...

Kurre has received two regional Emmy Awards for news coverage. Variety is spice of Gina Kurre's life. In her career as a television news reporter, the Jackson native has seen what happens when one man rises to power and has witnessed what occurs when other men lose theirs. She has earned two regional Emmy Awards for her television reporting and producing...

OFF THE COAST OF HAITI -- Navy Airman Steven Cook, son of Marion and Barbara Cook of Whitewater is one of 6,000 Navy and about 2,000 Marine Corps members patrolling the waters just miles off the coast of Haiti. Cook is an aviation ordnanceman on board USS Wasp. Wasp, homeported in Norfolk, Va., is the largest amphibious assault ship in the world...

Oak Ridge instructor Rahe Wise prepares her EXCELS students for a view of video footage the group shot several weeks ago. A group of Oak Ridge students are doing their best to preserve a non-renewable resource -- history. Students in the EXCELS gifted program for grades seven through 12 at Oak Ridge High School are piecing together the history of the Oak Ridge School District by videotaping visits to a few of the 13 one-room schoolhouses which combined during the 1950s to form the district. ...

Small horses inhabit stalls in one of Bill Voelker's miniature barns. The gates on the stalls lock, and there's hay in the loft. The roof is made with 4,000 shake shingles. The buildings that comprise Bill Voelker's village are on display at West End Grocery in Frohna. There are over a dozen structures in the intricate collection...

I WOULD like to make a comment on the mayor having the power to override the judge. Splendid idea. We have one caller that says that the mayor has a private law practice and it could be conflict of interest. I notice what was said about Judge Calvin having a private law practice besides being a judge. ...

It was just four short years ago that elite Russian troops stormed the television tower in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. The assault was intended to silence the demands from the Baltic states for independence. Five days later, the same elite troops hit the Interior MInistry in Riga, Latvia, for the same purpose -- to clamps down on the clamor for independence...

"Civilization is the making of civil persons." --John Ruskin, British historian Even with the windows rolled up, we can't escape the diatribes of the uncivil who live among us in today's America. We have become the collective victims of a growing incivility that threatens to supplant the courteous, kind, ever forgiving America that once was. Angry words, crude obscenities, inconsiderate acts, mindless libel, vulgar innuendoes have become today's rule, rather than exception...

Connie Chung, CBS television new anchor, has been pretty well thrashed for her handling of her interview last week with Newt Gingrich's mother. Even Dan Rather, Chung's on-air partner, stepped into the fray to assure America that Chung is a professional and has the highest ethical standards...

Marriage licenses Cape Girardeau County Collin Dana Monahan, 20, and Crystal Davina Atkins, 20; Keith Clinton Myers, 27, and Margaret Lillian Cordia, 19; Mark Douglas Grimm, 32, and Julie Ann Adams, 25. Brian Jerry Collins, 21, and Jacquelyn Lee Layton, 18; Jimmie Dale Johnson, 49, and Mary Alice Basse, 45; Steven Mack Burrus, 37, and Barbara Ann Kern, 48...

ANNA, Ill. -- Opal Moore Farmer, 83, of Anna died Thursday, Jan. 5, 1995, at her home. She was born March 12, 1911, in Johnson County in Illinois, the daughter of Herb L. and Ida Isom Miller. She was a member of the West Eden Methodist Church at Cypress and attended the Anna Church of the Nazarene...

CHAFFEE -- Raymond C. Nunnally, 70, of Chaffee died Jan. 7, 1995, at the Chaffee Nursing Center. He was born May 4, 1924, in Eaton, Ark., son of James Asrow and Miriam Ola Grimes Nunnally. He was a retired foreman at the Florsheim Shoe Factory in Cape Girardeau...

LEOPOLD -- Basil A. Barks, 79, of Leopold died Friday, Jan. 6, 1995, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born July 10, 1915, at Scopus, the son of Edwards and Sarah Stevens Barks. On Aug. 14, 1936, he married the former Fern Grindstaff. She died Nov. 16, 1986...

Irene W. Frayser, 77, of Cape Girardeau, formerly of Wyatt, died Friday, Jan. 6, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born Jan. 27, 1917, at Wyatt, the daughter of William B. and Laura Duty Stroud. On Nov. 26, 1932, she married Eugene C. Frayser, who preceded her in death...

Syvilla M. Hobbs, 86, of 522 S. Middle St. in Cape Girardeau died Thursday, Jan. 5, 1995, at Memorial Medical Center in Jacksonville, Fla. She was born March 23, 1908, in Egypt Mills, the daughter of Fred and Anna Niedling Brockmire. She was married to Marion Hobbs, who survives in Cape Girardeau...

Scout is my long, lean and lanky granddog who lives in balmy Mobile with his owner Sharla and her two roommates. Sharla, Angela and Brook, all recent Auburn graduates, are trying to make their mark in the world, and Scout is only trying to see the world. The three girls and one dog live in a little house surrounded by live oak trees dripping with Spanish moss and camellia trees decorated with variegated candy cane blossoms in mid-winter...

Daughter to D. Todd and Tracy Allen, 3007 Wisteria, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 10:12 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 29, 1994. Name, Elizabeth Sarah. Weight, 8 pounds 8 ounces. First child. Mrs. Allen is the former Tracy Eaker, daughter of Dewayne Eaker and Velma Eaker of Anna, Ill. She is a salesclerk and Todd is a delivery driver for The Mail Box. He is the son of Bobby Allen and Sherry Allen of Nashville, Tenn...

LIBERTY -- Blake Matthew Urhahn, 3-week-old son of Bradley and Leslee Urhahn of Liberty, died Thursday Jan. 5, 1995, at the family home. In addition to his parents, other survivors include paternal grandparents, Gilbert and Elvira Urhahn of Jackson; maternal grandparents, Lee and Joyce Blake of Kansas City; a paternal great-grandmother, Magdalen Urhahn of Cape Girardeau; and maternal great-grandmothers, Lucille Blake of Gregory, S.D., and Thelma Schultz, Scottsdale, Ariz...

Life at one of the nation's prestigious military academies is a rigorous test of academic and physical skill. But it is a test well worth meeting, say local students enrolled in two of the four U.S. academies. Five Cape Girardeau and Jackson students are among those who have passed the crucial "plebe" (first) year and are making the grades with Uncle Sam as their dean. All received liberty to spend the holidays at home and agreed to share their viewpoint of academia military-style...

Four years ago, Mississippi became one of the first two states in the Midwest to reach for the golden ring of legalized riverboat gambling. Mississippi has grabbed the ring dozens of times so far, granting 35 gambling licenses since the first boat opened in August of 1991. There is no limit on the number of licenses that can be granted...

In an effort to reduce burgeoning class sizes in schools on Cape Girardeau's north and west ends, a group of parents and educators will begin meeting this week to draw new boundary lines for the city's elementary schools. The redistricting committee, led by school board members Bob Fox and Steve Wright, meets Tuesday. The Board of Education meets Monday at 5 p.m., and discussion of redistricting is on the agenda...

The decision to enter a military academy is not made overnight. Only after an extensive application and review process capped by a congressional nomination do a lucky 1,000 to 1,200 students know they made the cut. As many as 15,000 students submit academy applications each year, said Kacky Garner of Congressman Bill Emerson's office...

After a weeklong extension, the Salvation Army's Tree of Lights campaign reached its goal. The campaign raised $125,469 during the holiday season, said chairwoman Carol Keeler. The money, which is about one-third of the agency's budget, will be used to assist individuals during the new year...

Three recent graduates of the Missouri State Highway Patrol have ties to the area or are moving into the area to assume their new duties as patrol road officers. Stacey Sims graduated from Caruthersville High School in 1985 and Southeast Missouri State University in 1992. He worked for the Pemiscot and Cape Girardeau county sheriff's departments before his appointment to the patrol in July...

A pair of important establishments left out of recent stories about popular Cape Girardeau hangouts were the Pizza King restaurant and the Last Chance bar, at the southwest corner of Broadway and Pacific. The two were jointly operated by brothers George and John Wulfers for 17 years through the 1940s and 1950s, then by George Wulfers and family for 10 more years until the business was sold in 1972...

A business seminar based on biblical principles will be held Jan. 13 and 14 at the Holiday Inn in Cape Girardeau. "Business by the Book" is aimed at making business decisions easier for owners, managers and other professional leaders. The seminar is sponsored by the Christian Business Men's Committee of Cape Girardeau, which also sponsors the annual Mayor's Prayer Breakfast...

The American Red Cross has named January "National Volunteer Blood Donor Month" to thank the thousands of blood donors. Each year, more than 270,000 pints of blood are donated in the Missouri-Illinois region. About 10 percent of those pints are given by first-time donors...

JACKSON -- Jeanette Bollinger, a board member of the Jackson School District, has achieved certification in the Missouri School Boards Association's Certified Board Member Program. The CBM Program established by state association is designed to equip school board members with the knowledge and skills they need to function as effective education leaders in their communities...

JEFFERSON CITY -- Mark Richardson sat in his second-floor Capitol office Thursday morning, coolly pondering the possibilities. Richardson was cautiously optimistic a fragile coalition he helped assemble would make him the first Republican in Missouri history to serve as speaker of a House with a majority of Democrats...

Go fishing now? Kidding, right? Not exactly. If this seems about the least likely time of the year for fishing, consider the sauger. The sauger, a member of the perch family and first cousin of the walleye, observe spring a little early -- in winter, that is. The cold weather period is the time when this glassy-eyed, toothy torpedo clusters in large numbers for procreation purposes. By about April, when other fish are tuning up for romance, sauger already are finished and scattered...

ST. LOUIS -- The death of a peregrine falcon found in St. Louis recently illustrates the difficulties that face this federally endangered bird. But the survival of another falcon found in Portage Des Sioux, Mo., demonstrates the species' tenacity, and its progress toward recovery...

Many residents of rural Cape Girardeau County have recently noticed a growth in the local coyote population, evidenced by increasing reports of evening howling by the creatures. While numbers are up significantly -- not just in Cape Girardeau County but statewide -- with all the racket the animals make those who reside in coyote territory may feel like they're surrounded...

I am five days into my 100-day contract with myself. It will, running concurrently with another 100-day contract, end April 13th. So far, all is going well. The basement has been swept and hot water hosed, the inside of the windows Windexed. I reduced the budget for this by doing the work myself. ...

Jay Grim shows the interior of his Beetle. To understand why the Volkswagen Beetle will probably never become an endangered species one must get to know the volks who drive them. "There are a lot of human characteristics to this car," Jay Grim said while casting a pensive glance at his 1963 Volkswagen Beetle. "You can change the metal hood over the front lights to make the eyes either look friendly or mean."...

Campbell High School FFA will sponsor a series of pageants Saturday, Feb. 4 at the school gymnasium. Contestants, ranging in age from 1 to 19, may compete in the pageant, which begins at 1 p.m. Entry fees for the various divisions are: $10 for Baby Miss and Tiny Miss Winterfest; $15 for Little Miss, Young Miss and Pre-Teen Miss Winterfest; and $20 for Junior and Miss Winterfest...