Stories from Sunday, July 30, 1995

MORLEY -- Louise Matthews, 80, of Morley died Saturday, July 29, 1995, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at Amick-Burnett Funeral Home in Oran.

Before any murals are painted on the Cape Girardeau floodwall, some thought needs to be given to the image the city wants to project to the world, not just "here is something to look at in Cape Girardeau." Any community that wants to grow needs to project the image of caring, sharing and values not only for today, but of the past and for the future...

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said Aug. 11 is the last day Missouri residents can file applications for most disaster programs. "Anyone who wishes to apply for the Individual and Family Grant program and-or disaster housing assistance must do so on or before the deadline," said Warren Pugh, federal coordinating officer. "Applications for Small Business Administration loans must be returned to the SBA by Aug. 11 to qualify."...

JACKSON -- The Jackson Municipal Band will perform its last weekly summer concert at 8 p.m. Thursday in the city park. Special guests are Mr. and Mrs. Bob King. King is known as one of the premier old-style country fiddlers. For many years, he and his wife, Geneva, traveled across the Midwest performing in a country band. Although they are retired, they still perform for picnics, dances and King competes in country fiddling contests...

Teachers from seven area school districts will attend an in-service workshop at 9 a.m. Monday, Aug. 21, at the Drury Lodge in Cape Girardeau. Charlie Spoonhour, a coach from St. Louis University, will address the group. Districts included are: Chaffee, Scott City, Oran, Delta, Kelso C-7, Nell Holcomb and Scott County Central...

Joan and Lee Flor owned the Banner-Press for nearly 20 years. They are standing outside their home in Marble Hill. Flor also enjoys gardening and has several beautiful gardens in her back yard. Joan and Lee spend many evenings relaxing among the various flowers...

Magic will be in the air in Jackson City Park as children and young adults gather to celebrate a successful summer of reading on Tuesday, Aug. 1. Riverside Regional Library's "Party in the Park" will feature a magic show and puppets by Mr. and Mrs. Bob Lancaster, face painting by Della Bollinger, a clown and helium balloons as well as refreshments...

Steven G. Milz Navy Fireman Apprentice Steven G. Milz, son of Glenda F. Milz of 205 Elliot, Chaffee, recently departed for a six-month overseas deployment aboard the amphibious assault ship USS New Orleans -- the lead ship of the USS New Orleans Amphibious Ready Group (ARG)...

These baby ostriches are new to the world -- they hatched Wednesday. If kept as breeders (and pets) they will be named after English royalty, an idea of Winnie Essmyer. Traci Essmyer, manager of her family's ostrich breeding operation, checks the condition of an ostrich egg in an incubator. Eggs are kept in the incubator for about 42 days at 97.5 degrees...

This is the marker for Ed O'Kelley in Patton Cemetery, who is actually buried in a pauper's grave in Oklahoma City, Okla. There were attempts to find his actual grave, but they were unsucessful. Late last year the Signal did a story on Jesse James and how he is, by way of the man who murdered his murderer, a part of Patton's history...

A year ago in this space, I was sharply critical of Attorney General Jay Nixon. After prefacing these remarks by saying I like the guy personally, I related that I had written something favorable about him back in 1988 when he first ran for statewide office. ...

What philosophical view do the following individuals and groups share in common: Bernard Goetz, William Kunstler, the Branch Davidians, the John Birch Society, the National Rifle Association, the CATO Institute, the Montana Militia, Judge David Bazelon, the Ku Klux Klan, O.J. Simpson, Terry Nichols, the Aryan Nation and John Peter Zenger?...

"It's all about money," the late uncrowned king and long-time mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley, said in an uncharacteristic moment of honesty. Former congressman and retired chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Tony Coelho, summed it up another way: "The process buys you out."...

"Whose side are you on?" -- Sen. Steve Ehlmann, R-St. Charles, in a July 18 letter to Robert Bartman, Missouri's commissioner of elementary and secondary education. Sen. Steve Ehlmann's blunt question to Robert Bartman is one to which countless Missourians would like an answer. ...

The same man who shoveled manure out of a barn-turned-factory in 1945 led his company to $7 million in profits last year. Vernon Kasten, president of Ceramo Company Inc. of Jackson, shared stories from his shoveling days at a Saturday picnic commemorating 50 years in business. Kasten, along with state Reps. Mary Kasten and David Schwab, Sen. Peter Kinder and other dignitaries, addressed the company's 125 employees and others in Cape County Park...

Pet owners in America spend about $900 million a year on flea control products. Figure it up, that's almost $2.5 million a day. Well, actually, it is $2,438,353.44 a day. Either way, that's a lot of cash. It could be worse. A veterinarian at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine at Urbana, says fleas can also transmit human and animal disease known as "flea bite dermatitis," and some pets can develop a severe skin problem in which they lose their hair and develop bacterial infections.. ...

KENNETT -- The Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric Cooperative experienced a very good 1994. That was the message of officials of the rural electric to its members at its recent 57th annual membership meeting. Cooperative president Caleb Davis Jr. told the several hundred people at the meeting that the utility had nearly 100 new members last year. The utility now has 5,613 consumers...

Carolyn Peer-Hammonds, 39, 1829 Weissinger, died Friday, July 28, 1995, at St. Francis Medical Center. She was born July 11, 1956, in LaGrange, Ark., daughter of Turner and Eula Noel Peer Sr. She and Jerry Hammonds were married May 11, 1985, in Cape Girardeau...

PERRYVILLE -- Wallace J. "Jamie" Brewer, 24, of McHenry County, Ill., formerly of Perryville, died Friday, July 28, 1995, in McHenry County due to a boating accident. He was born July 27, 1971, in Perryville, the son of Gary Brewer of Perryville and Helen Weinkein Naeger of Anchorage, Alaska...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Kathryn "Katie" Layell, 94, of East Prairie died Friday, July 28, 1995, at the Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born Jan. 26, 1901, in Wyatt, daughter of William and Ivory Keen Milliner. She was married to Sam Layell, who preceded her in death by 1972...

Radio and TV talk show hosts have been talking recently about how the founding fathers of this country were so smart and insightful. Their reasoning for this opinion is how well the documents they produced during the forming of our country have stood the test of time...

DEXTER -- Verlon Hogan, 77, of Gray Ridge, died at her home Saturday, July 29, 1995. She was born April 7, 1918, in Perry County, Ark., the daughter of J. H. and Nancy Jane Lee Meese. She married Joe Hogan at Lepanto, Ark., on April 10, 1936. He preceded her in death on July 26, 1995...

The All American Dance Team (above): From left, Kiley Jo Bollinger, Lesley Jenkins, Amanda Puckett, Erin Prince, Renee Harper and Erika King. Below, the team exhibits are numerous awards: From left, front row: Kiley Jo Bollinger, co-captain; Renee Harper, captain; middle row: Lesley Jenkins, Keisha Clardy and Alexis Reese, back row: amanda Martin, Jamie Seabaugh, Amanda Puckett, Erika King and Erin Prince...

JACKSON -- Lillie Kraemer Farrow, 98, of Jackson died Saturday, July 29, 1995, at Deal Nursing Home in Jackson. She was born Sept. 15, 1896, in Egypt Mills, the daughter of John and Louise Froemsdorf Kraemer. She married John Farrow on Jan. 3, 1917, at Egypt Mills, and he preceded her in death Nov. 29, 1980...

GODFREY, Ill. -- Michael L. Fisher Jr., 70, of Godfrey died Friday, July 28, 1995, at his home. He was born Jan. 14, 1925, in Greene County, Ill., the son of Michael L. and Lizzie Johnston Fisher Sr. He married Betty Bess on Sept. 3, 1947, in Piggott, Ark...

MURPHYSBORO, Ill. -- Alice Neace, 77, of Murphysboro died Saturday, July 29, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Arrangements are incomplete at the Pettitt Funeral Home in Murphysboro.

When it comes to fighting for the city's air-traffic control tower, Cape Girardeau Regional Airport Manager Greg Chenoweth leaves nothing to chance. "Based on the documentation and research we've put together, it would be hard for the FAA to turn us down," Chenoweth said...

METROPOLIS, Ill. -- Players International Inc. has purchased a new riverboat for its operation at Lake Charles, La., and may move the Louisiana boat to its Metropolis site. "We're weighing possibilities of running two boats here," said Pat Rogers, general manager of the Metropolis operation...

Lady Luck Gaming Corporation reported net revenue of $34.8 million during the first quarter of 1995. That's the good news for the company, which owns and operates casinos in Iowa, Mississippi and Colorado and recently filed a request for a gambling license at Scott City...

MIKE ROYKO has been around the block many times and tells it like he sees it with a sense of humor and a bit of satire, which makes some of today's happenings much easier to accept and digest. My vote goes to Mike Royko. BRUCHER STREET is a gravel street in Cape Girardeau. ...

The sun was hot Saturday, but nothing shone as brightly as the Harris family's smiles. Anthony and Diane Harris and their five children, ages 4 to 15, stood on the porch of their new home at 1833 Dumais Drive, surrounded by people from Target and Habitat for Humanity. Cape Girardeau's newest department store joined with Habitat to build the family's home, along with 40 others to be completed nationwide this year under the program...

The difference between summer sauger and summer sausage? They're both good to eat, but summer sausage won't bite you. Despite a set of needle-sharp teeth that makes lip-landing a painful error, sauger are back in area waters in force after a period of near-banishment. This member of the perch family, a kissing cousin of the walleye, was a major game fish species hereabouts until the species fell upon hard times during the drought years of the mid- to late 1980s...

RIVERS: Black (upper): Clear, 3' above normal; smallmouth bass good on little black jigs; all other fishing slow. Castor (above Zalma): Clear, low; sunfish good on crickets and ultralight crankbaits; catfish good on worms; black bass good on live bait and topwater lures...

Several skydivers tried to straighten the cords of a square canopy last weekend following a wave of jumps from 4,500 feet. "Go. Dot. Arch. One-thousand. Two-thousand. Three-thousand. Four-thousand. Five-thousand. Check canopy," say the students from the SEMO Skydiving Club based at the Mississippi County Airport...

Due to a somewhat scarcity of books when I was learning to read, I read a lot of advertising. Anyone remember the little girl sitting beside a fireplace, eating Post Toasties? I fell in love with that little girl and what was said about Post Toasties. ...