Stories from Thursday, August 3, 1995

Jason Shaffer of Southeast played Monostatos in "The Magic Flute." Enrico Marrucci of Rome played Papageno and Jeni Kafka of Cape Girardeau sang the role of Papagena in "The Magic Flute." ROME, Italy -- This is the story of the Operafestival di Roma, a summer music program that took place from June 16 to July 28 in Rome. It was the creation of Dr. Louisa Panou-Takahashi, an assistant professor of music at Southeast Missouri State University, and her Italian partner Maestro Stefano Vignati...

Members of 4-H and FFA will display their beef projects at the second annual Cape County Prospect Steer and Heifer Show Saturday at Flickerwood Arena near Fruitland. Youth will show their animals and attend seminars on showmanship, animal care and grooming. Area businesses have donated awards and monetary prizes toward the show...

A bill that would protect wild horses in the Ozarks won approval Wednesday from the House Resources Committee and now goes before the full U.S. House of Representatives. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Bill Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, said The Wild Horses Protection Act of 1995, or House Resolution 238, would allow a herd of about 25 horses roam free in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways area in Southern Missouri and make the Missouri Wild Horse League the legal caretakers for the animals...

Customer service has a new meaning for tellers at the Capital Bank on Broadway. When a car caught fire Wednesday afternoon at the drive-in window, tellers were quick to provide assistance. Teller Paula Thurman quickly pointed out that her customer's car was on fire...

A Gordonville man died the day following a farm accident Tuesday evening off County Road 213. Russell D. Obermann, 62, of 1342 County Road 213 was injured when he rolled his tractor about 7:40 p.m. near his home. He was flown to St. Francis Medical Center where he died about 9:10 a.m. Wednesday...

The youth groups from St. Vincent De Paul and St. Mary's parishes will present Thornton Wilder's "The Matchmaker" tonight, Friday and Saturday night at St. Mary's gym. Showtime is 8 p.m. each day. The comedy, set in late 19th century New York, tells the story of an overbearing man who wants to control the marriage of his niece while planning his own nuptials...

ADVANCE -- "The Sound of Music" will be presented at 7 p.m. Aug. 10 through 12 at the Advance Elementary School Auditorium. The musical is being sponsored by the Tri-County Arts Association. The cast of 22 includes eight children. All the children are from the Advance area while the adult members of the cast are from Marble Hill, Greenville, Zalma, Chaffee and Advance...

SIKESTON -- More than 130 people are registered for this year's Heartland Writer's Conference, which will attract New York agents and editors, a Hollywood producer and more than 30 published authors. The sixth annual conference begins today and continues through Saturday at the Best Western Coach House Inn. The conference is being held in Sikeston this year for the first time...

"For Mexico," Pastor Moises Mendez told Win Bruhl, "the day will come when even God will have tears in His eyes." "Mexico: Disparate Images," a photographic essay by Bruhl, a former Southeast University art professor, opens Friday at Gallery 100. The photos and journal entries were made between 1991 and 1993 while Bruhl traveled and studied in Mexico on Bush Foundation grants...

The gravel has to go! So proclaimed Cape Girardeau voters who have grown weary of dealing with gravel streets. Fact is they're adamant enough about this issue to register their sentiments via a yes vote at the ballot box Tuesday. "For $10 a front foot, it's worth it to go out and vote on the transportation tax," said Renee Pingel, who lives on Jasmine, one of several streets yet to be paved...

Michael G. Miller calls himself a people person who relies on skills developed as city manager for seven different cities. He said he uses those skills to solve problems and carry out the wishes of the city council. "I like to look at how the city staff is approaching a problem and how it is affecting the people they deal with each day," said Miller, who is one of five candidates for the Cape Girardeau city manager's post...

Corrections Corporation of America will send a proposal packet to Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan Friday, taking another step closer to putting jails under private management in Southeast Missouri. Jordan, along with officials from Mississippi and Scott counties, is interested in the private jail system and perhaps building a regional facility housing inmates from the three counties...

Cape Girardeau city and civic leaders hope the third time is the charm when it comes to passing a half-cent transportation sales tax. Voters will decide the issue Tuesday. The tax plan has changed some, but the tune is still the same as it was nine years ago when voters first rejected such a sales tax...

CHARLESTON -- A Mississippi County man was killed and another injured in a one-vehicle accident Wednesday afternoon. Cedric Rodgers, 26, of Charleston was killed when his vehicle overturned near Charleston. A passenger, Leroy Adkins, 21, also of Charleston was injured when he was thrown from the vehicle...

Aug. 3, 1995 Dear Melina, DC and I went to a neighborhood potluck a few days ago. Everyone there was at some stage of renovating an old house, either finishing up or starting out like us. DC was relieved to hear that a catastrophe every day is a way of life for them as well, or was for the first few years...

Cape Girardeau's first-ever KidCare Photo ID event Sunday nearly coincides with the sixth anniversary of the abduction of Gina Dawn Brooks of Fredericktown. It was Aug. 5, 1989, when 13-year-old Brooks went out and never came home. Years of searching and pleas from relatives yielded no valuable information, and no one knows if she is alive...

Tickets are on sale for the Cape Shrine Club's second annual presentation of the Franzen Brothers Circus. The circus will give five performances: at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25; at 2 and 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26; and at 2 and 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27...

Fans are calling from as far away as California, wanting tickets to see Ricky Van Shelton, Aaron Tippin or Holly Dunn. SEMO District Fair employees fielded calls from across the United States Wednesday, the first day of ticket sales for entertainers performing Sept. 14-16...

Earl Savers, 85, of Jackson died Wednesday, Aug. 2, 1995, at Deal Nursing Home in Jackson. He was born Aug. 14, 1909, in Jackson to John and Emma Lowes Savers. He worked at the International Shoe and Hosiery Mill in Jackson and the former Lenco in Jackson where he retired in 1990. He was also a veteran of World War II...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Bernice V. Oliver, 65, of Cairo, died Monday, July 31, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born July 16, 1930, in Holly Springs, Miss., daughter of Lawrence and Lottie Tucker. She and the Rev. Sylvester Oliver Sr. were married in 1943...

SEDGEWICKVILLE -- Thomas Everett Smith, 81, of Sedgewickville, died Tuesday, Aug. 1, 1995, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Aug. 28, 1913, in Winfield, Ala., son of Harry Walker and Stella Irene Webster Smith. Smith was a member of Carpenters Local 1596 and attended Sedgewickville Lutheran Church. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and received four Bronze Stars...

Gladys Evelyn Haman, 82, 3218 Lakewood, died Tuesday, Aug. 1, 1995, at St. Francis Medical Center. She was born March 18, 1913, at Whitewater, daughter of John M. and Maggie Estes Austin. She first married Paul Kinder Jan. 2, 1932, in Piggott, Ark. She later married Howard L. Haman Feb. 1, 1946, in Cape Girardeau. He died Nov. 16, 1969...

DEXTER -- Walter William Davis, 68, of Dexter, died Tuesday, Aug. 1, 1995, at Dexter Memorial Hospital. He was born Sept. 14, 1926, at Bernie, son of George Washington and Erma Bell Woods Davis. He and Wanda Lee Taylor were married at Morehouse. She died in 1965...

ADVANCE -- Funeral service for Helen M. Presley, Advance Route 1, will be held at 11 a.m. today at Morgan Funeral Chapel, with the Rev. Lewis Hejna officiating. Burial will be in Morgan Memorial Park. Presley, 71, died Tuesday, Aug. 1, 1995, at the home of a daughter near Advance...

Russell D. Obermann, 62, 1342 County Road 213, died Wednesday, Aug. 2, 1995, at St. Francis Medical Center from injuries received in a farm accident on Tuesday. He was born Feb. 22, 1933, at Dutchtown, son of Harry William and Adela Schneider Obermann. He and Marilyn Huffman were married Feb. 15, 1958, at Gordonville...

Daughter to Ray and DeVonne Glastetter, 1235 Sailer Circle, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 12:51 p.m. Wednesday, July 26, 1995. Name, Nicole Rae. Weight, 7 pounds 14 ounces. Second child, first daughter. Mrs. Glastetter is the former DeVonne Ross, daughter of Dave and Deanna Ross of Peetz, Colo. She is employed at AmeriFirst Bank. Glastetter is employed by Annis Construction. He is the son of Clara Glastetter of Benton...

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Speaker Newt Gingrich has written the National Rifle Association promising that `no gun control legislation' will pass the House as long as he is speaker. "... `As long as I am speaker of the House, no gun control legislation will move in committee or on the floor of the House,' Speaker Gingrich wrote in a January 27 letter to Tanya Metaska, the NRA's chief lobbyist."...

Bosnia-Herzegovina covers about half the area of Kentucky, and its population is about equal to Missouri's. In the past three years, the ethnic strife in this tiny land has commanded the attention of the world. What is it about this young nation in southeastern Europe that has world watchers fearing an escalation of a war that might draw in other Balkan nations?...

Private property rights, one of the basic premises our country was founded upon, are being tugged and pulled in opposite directions by two legitimate concerns: (1) the need for fewer federal and state laws and regulations that hamper private businesses and invade private property rights, and (2) the justifiable concern for our environment. ...

To the editor: I feel that I must respond to a statement in the July 27 Speak Out regarding jury duty. For the past year and a half I have served as presiding judge of the 32nd Judicial Circuit which consists of Cape Girardeau, Bollinger and Perry counties. One of the responsibilities of that position is to review the requests of prospective jurors to be excused from jury service...