Stories from Saturday, September 23, 1995

Funeral service for Minnie Koechig of Cape Girardeau will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel. The Rev. James Caughlin will officiate, with burial in St. James Episcopal Church Cemetery at Tilsit. Friends may call at the funeral home from 4-8 p.m. today...

Since the boards of both libraries announced the merger agreement in early August, much of the debate has centered on the issue of location. The boards have proposed that a $1.5 million combined library be built in the Jackson City Park. Both libraries are located within a stone's throw of each other in downtown Jackson...

The Girl Scout Recycling Project will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at the BFI trailer in the Schnuck's parking lot in Cape Girardeau. Magazines and newspapers should be packed in paper bags. Phone books, junk mail, plastic bags, rubber bands or strings will not be accepted...

Triple jumps, spectacularly colorful costumes, fireworks and boy and girl get each other. What more could anyone want? How about a plastic Aladdin sword or the Queen's magic mirror? "Walt Disney's World on Ice -- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," which opened before a full house Friday night at the Show Me Center, is the perfect combination of artistry and commercialism that has always been Disney's magic formula...

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Sen. Paul Simon says he will seek the involvement of Republicans, Independents and Democrats when he becomes head of a newly formed think tank at Southern Illinois University. The institute's goal, he said this week, "will be public service, not partisan service."...

A trace of fog hugged the valleys east of Jackson as I coaxed my cold-blooded Chrysler through the pitch and swell of the Cape Girardeau County terrain. It would have been much easier, I told myself, to have stayed in bed. After all it was my day off. ...

Drug resistance programs have been a successful component of local school district curriculums for many years. Educators have found that when children learn early about the evils of drugs, peer pressures may be reduced. The same philosophy may work in combating gangs. Youngsters have been an easy target for gangs across the country...

ADVANCE -- Leona M. Tropf, 76, of Advance, died Thursday, Sept. 21, 1995, at her home. She was born March 19, 1919, in Advance, daughter of Frank and Mary Weber Kenkel. She and Howard Tropf were married April 29, 1950, at Advance. She died Oct. 29, 1990...

Lena Ruth McKinney, 83, of Cape Girardeau, died Friday, Sept. 22, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. She was born Oct. 16, 1911, in Olmsted, Ill., daughter of David Arthur and Ona Mae Bagby Butler. She and William McKinney were married April 16, 1929, in Mounds, Ill. He died April 28, 1995...

Ruth L. Nelson, 94, of Cape Girardeau, died Friday, Sept. 22, 1995, at the Lutheran Home. She was born April 22, 1901, at Bourbon, daughter of John and Lucinda Mitchell. She and Edgar A. Nelson were married May 21, 1920, in Cuba, Mo. He died in January 1959...

Dr. Allan Ostar describes hiring a university president as a mating dance: a process of finding and then courting the right person to take the job. Southeast Missouri State University's Board of Regents Friday hired Ostar's firm, Academic Search Consultation Service, to lead its search for a university president...

With few increases in staff, area prosecuting attorneys have handled double the number of cases they did a decade ago. And because of the greater job demands, two prosecutors in Southeast Missouri will resign next month. Gary Stevenson, a 19-year veteran of the St. Francois County prosecuting attorney's office, will leave Oct. 1; Washington County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Akers, who has served seven years, will leave the middle of the month...

Anyone who works in the news media, or even anyone who watches it closely, will tell you the same thing. After awhile, it takes a lot to make you cry. Just when you think things can't get any worse, you find out about a mother who drowns her kids or an old woman who dies alone in a 160-degree apartment. You interview a father whose son was hit by a train and then take photos while rescue workers pry an injured woman out of her wrecked car...

Son to Deke and Shawn Williams, 1206 Jefferson, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 2:38 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 17, 1995. Name, Darius Limmie. Weight, 7 pounds 11 ounces. Fourth child, second son. Mrs. Williams is the former Shawn Wilson, daughter of Norm and Fay Brainer of Benton. Williams is employed at Cracker Barrel. He is the son of Limmie Williams of St. Louis...

ANNA, Ill. -- Three Anna teen-agers were injured -- one seriously -- in a Friday afternoon car accident two miles west of Jonesboro. An Illinois State Police trooper said Mary Jane Crowell, 15, lost control of the car she was driving, it went into a ditch and hit a tree at about 4:30 p.m. She and passenger Lori Zimmerman, 15, were treated for minor injuries and released from Union County Hospital in Anna...

The first "Paw Crawl" walk-a-thon will be held Saturday, Sept. 30, at Arena Park. The fund-raising event is sponsored by the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri. The 1 1/2-mile walk will begin at 10 a.m., with registration at 9 a.m. Canine companions on leashes are welcome if the owner provides proof of up-to-date vaccinations...

The annual Walktoberfest, a special walk-a-thon held by the Missouri affiliate of the American Diabetes Association, is expected to attract more than 300 walkers and raise a projected $10,000 for medical research aimed at finding a cure for diabetes...

A half-day seminar titled "Focus on Alzheimer's disease and the Family" will be held Oct. 7 at the Holiday Inn Convention Center. Registration is from 12:30 to 1 p.m., with the seminar ending about 4. The program is free for family members and non-professional care givers...