Stories from Thursday, July 20, 1995

You know you're famous when People magazine publishes a story about your hometown that doesn't mention what you're famous for. Along with the celebrity wedding photos that fill the latest issue of People magazine is a three-page color spread about Rush Limbaugh's hometown and its tour of his old haunts...

The Salvation Army, 701 Good Hope, will be serving Meals with Friends next Monday through Friday from 4:30 to 6 p.m. The meals are free. The following menu will be served. Monday -- Turkey pot pie with biscuits, cranberry sauce, jello with fruit. Tuesday -- Sloppy Joe on bun, cole slaw, baked beans and applesauce...

A B-2 Stealth bomber fly-by, former national champion balloonists and the women's world altitude balloon record-holder will be among the attractions at Balloons & Arts Festival '95 to be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday. More than 50 hot-air balloons and balloonists from across the United States, Canada and the U.S. Virgin Islands will participate in the annual festival at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport...

"Jack and Jackie and the Beanstalk," a musical production by the Keyboards and Kindermusik Conservatory, will be performed at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. today. Both 30-minute performances are free at the Bethel Assembly of God, 1855 Perryville Road. Nursing homes and children's groups have been invited to attend the early performance, but the public is welcome at both...

A couple of months ago, Gov. Mel Carnahan traveled to Washington, D.C., there to sharply criticize the Republican Contract With America. That set me to wondering whether he, or anyone, could have won election had the agenda that Mel Carnahan has actually followed been proposed to voters. The Carnahan Contract With Missouri would have read as follows:...

The Goals 2000 program is Missouri's response to the Goals 2000: Educate America Act passed by Congress in 1994. What's especially exciting to me is that this has been a bipartisan effort. These goals began originally as President Bush's six goals for education. President Clinton was very involved with the National Governor's Conference in drafting those goals. Last March, Congress added two other goals bringing the total to eight...

The Goals 2000: Educate America Act is deja vu all over again if history means anything. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been appropriated and spent, but the best we can say about American public education is that it has progressed from good, to bad, to worse; but still the culprit that has contributed to the demise of our system is at the state level...

There are many reasons to normalize relations with Vietnam, some of them good ones. And in this age of political expediency and economic pragmatism, perhaps the bad reasons have lost their significance for many Americans. Normalizing relations would put the United States in a favorable light in an economically burgeoning part of the world by offering help for a sickly Vietnam economy and a road map toward further Asian diplomacy. ...

Not to be outdone by Republicans striving to simplify or, in some cases, dismantle the tax code, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt has offered his own version of tax reform: A flat tax that isn't. Flat that is. The Missouri Democrat's idea would cut the top income-tax rate for three-quarters of taxpayers to 10 percent. ...

Cape Girardeau health officials aren't surprised there have only been 11 heat-related hospital cases amid a heat wave the last 11 days. Cape Girardeau County Health Department Director Charlotte Craig said the high volume of information over the last few years has armed the public with ways to avoid the emergency room...

You know you're famous when People magazine publishes a story about your hometown that doesn't mention what you're famous for. Along with the celebrity wedding photos that fill the latest issue of People magazine is a three-page color spread about Rush Limbaugh's hometown and its tour of his old haunts...

July 20, 1995 Dear C.C., Thanks for your new address. Good choice. Marin County is full of wonders, with Pt. Reyes right at the top. At one time I fantasized about living in Pt. Reyes Station and working for the Pt. Reyes Light. David Mitchell, who edits and publishes the paper, wrote the stories that blew the top off Synanon back at the beginning of the 1980s...

JACKSON -- The phrases tossed about on Wednesday's farm tour wouldn't mean much to city people: "Monsanto has been marketing the flavor-saver tomato overseas for years." "My mutual fund dropped all its Cargill stock." "That heifer had a rupture and we lost her two days ago."...

BENTON -- The Scott County Sheriff's Department received a $19,300 donation for equipment this week. Connie Drury, the wife of officer Wes Drury, presented the check to the county's crime reduction fund. The donation will provide protective gear for the sheriff's department...

OAK RIDGE -- A Jackson resident was injured this week in an accident along Route B. Lisa Motley, 27, of Jackson was injured in the two-vehicle accident. The accident occurred at 5:30 p.m. when Motley attempted to turn left. A vehicle driven by Robert Moore, 54, of Oran collided with Motley's car...

Son to Robert and Sheri Menees of Branson, Skaggs Community Health Center there, 4 p.m. Tuesday, June 27, 1995. Name, Nathaniel Lee. Weight, 7 pounds 6 ounces. First child. Mrs. Menees is the former Sheri Armes, daughter of Rose and Arlen Tunink of Walnut Shade. Menees is employed at Cracker Barrel in Branson. He is the son of Mildred Bolick and Jim Menees of Scott City...

ADVANCE -- Lenvil Pickett, 83, of Advance, died Wednesday, July 19, 1995, at his home. He was born June 6, 1912, at Sank, son of Rosewell and Lou Eaker Pickett. He and Goldie Ladd were married Aug. 22, 1936, at Marble Hill. Pickett was a bus driver with Zalma School District 22 years and had also farmed. He was a member and trustee of Ladd Chapel General Baptist Church...

Bob Swinford, 58, of St. Louis, formerly of Cape Girardeau, died Tuesday, July 4, 1995, at his home. He was born Nov. 30, 1936, in Bell City, son of Luther and Gertie Bass Swinford. He and Wilma L. Dover were married Nov. 23, 1962. Swinford had worked for Yellow Freight Lines in St. Louis six years. He was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force...

BIEHLE -- Doris M. Baer, 51, of Biehle, died Tuesday, July 18, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born Oct. 10, 1943, in Perry County, daughter of Charles and Wilma Sauer Unterreiner. She and James W. Baer were married Aug. 8, 1964...

ANNA, Ill. -- Agnes Coats, 88, of Anna, died Tuesday, July 18, 1995, at City Care Center. She was born Aug. 5, 1906, in Union County, daughter of George Felix and Cora Hardy Barnhart. She and Herbert Coats were married May 12, 1926. He died Feb. 5, 1989...

The Rev. Fred William Mammon, 77, of Gatewood, died Wednesday, July 19, 1995, at Ripely County Memorial Hospital in Doniphan. He was born Sept. 8, 1917, at Egypt Mills. He and Opal Brumley were married Jan. 14, 1942, at Chaffee. She died May 28, 1986. He then married Nick Pulliam Cole June 15, 1987, at Doniphan...

PERRYVILLE -- Helen C. Mecker, 79, of Perryville, died Tuesday, July 18, 1995, at her home. She was born March 15, 1916, in Cape Girardeau County, daughter of Ed and Mary Schabbing Buchheit. She and Elmer Mecker were married Feb. 23, 1938. He died June 15, 1980...

Lydia Dissen, 89, of Racine, Wis., died Tuesday, July 18, 1995, at her home. She was born June 20, 1906, in Elizabeth, Ill., daughter of Pastor Ernst and Emma Roemer Baese. She and Pastor Victor Herman Dissen were married Aug. 11, 1920, in St. Louis. He died April 4, 1967...

Elsie Helen Leinenbach, 87, 1423 Blue Ridge, died Wednesday, July 19, 1995, at St. Francis Medical Center. She was born May 5, 1908, in Evansville, Ind., daughter of John David and Anna Mayer Seidelmeier. She first married Thomas Alexander. She later married L.A. "Beany" Leinenbach in 1930. He died in 1989...

SIKESTON -- Johnie J. Abernathy, 77, of Sikeston died after an extended illness Wednesday, July 19, 1995, at his home. He was born Feb. 24, 1918, at Kennett, son of Henry William and Levadie Mae Hoxworth Abernathy. He married Helen Ruth Fisk on June 16, 1937, at Sikeston...

On Aug. 19, 1994, Jetta Schantz was alone more than 32,000 feet above China Lake, Calif., when both propane burners on her hot air balloon extinguished due to oxygen starvation. The temperature was 45 degrees below zero. Though she was using oxygen, as anyone must above 12,500 feet, she recalls, "I was very dizzy."...