Stories from Sunday, September 24, 1995

Well-known photographer Paul Lueders, 81, of 1115 Henderson died unexpectedly Saturday, Sept. 23, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. He had been a professional photographer in Cape Girardeau since 1933. He was particularly known for his portraiture, which hangs on the walls of generations of Cape Girardeans...

A man who has shown his love for the arts through the donation of his time is the newest recipient of the Otto Dingeldein Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts. The honoree, John Wiseman, is a longtime musician with the Cape Municipal Band who has been active in the River Heritage Museum, the Community Concert Association and the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri...

Cape Girardeau County Don and Betty Lou Vogel to S. David and Jo Patterson; William and Florence Morrow to Larry and Louise Job; Bent Creek Developers Inc. to the Richard and Diane Stonecipher Trust; First Midwest Bank of Dexter to Martin and Michelle Dewrock...

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) will hold its fall meeting Monday at the Ponderosa Steak House, 45 S. Kingshighway. Bonnie Steppenoff, a professor at the university, will be guest speaker. Her topic will be on the vote for women, the 19th Amendment...

This log barn is thought to have served as slave quarters. Victor Snyder, who is curator along with his wife, Hilda, holds straw that has been made for brooms. Broom making is only one of the demonstrations that will be featured at the Fall Festival, which will be held on Oct. 14...

Ivan Bright feeds his grandson Alex. Bright had to drive 6 hours from Marionville to meet his newly-found family. Marie Bright, left, suffered complications and died after giving birth to Susan. Ivan Bright feeds his new baby girl just before his decision to give her up...

Irma Kasten's younger brother, Norman, was the next to marry when he and Edith Kasten tied the knot in 1935. Melvin Leimer and Margaret (Lang) Leimer married in 1938. Timmie and Vera Leimer married in 1945. Ervin and Ruth (Meyer) Leimer have been married for 55 years...

The Arts Council of Southeast Missouri announced its new members and officers for the 1996 Board of Directors at their Annual Membership meeting last Saturday. The officers will serve a one-year term, and board members will serve terms varying from one to three years...

Meadow Heights High School (MHHS)in Patton was recently host to Ron Cole, singer and performer. On Friday, Sept. 15 Ron Cole visited and entertained students at Meadow Heights, grades fifth through 12. Cole even got some students from the audience to sing along with him. Later that night he performed at a dance in the high school cafeteria for grades 7-12...

This small, hidden community may be just a ghost of yesteryear, as borrowed from the opening sentence in chapter 19 of the book, "Bollinger County: 1851-1976," but the 15th Annual Bessville Festival is a yearly gathering of family and friends who have ties to the historic community...

One hundred and eight members of the 4-H and Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapters located in Jackson and the surrounding area participated in the livestock auction at the SEMO Fair Thursday, Sept. 14. Sixteen lambs auctioned for a total of $2,243.25, 92 barrows brought $22,498.95 and 42 steers sold for $47,917.95 bringing the grand total to $72,660.15...

Sixteen area educators were honored by members of the Southeast Missouri CH.A.D.D. Chapter 483 at a special meeting held recently at the Community Counseling Center. The group is part of a national support organization for children and adults with attention deficit disorders. CH.A.D.D. Coordinator Peggy Pruett, of the Community Caring Council hosted the awards with special moderator, psychologist Joan C. Morningstar, M.S...

This week's departure of Republican state chairman Tom Fowler signals a Missouri GOP chafing to shift into high gear for next year's elections. With a two-thirds vote required for ouster of a sitting state chairman, Tom Fowler almost certainly had the votes he needed to remain as chairman at the Sept. ...

If authors of political columns, such as this one, were perfectly honest with their readers, they would occasionally own up to the fact that unerringly finding fault with some segment of American life, public governance or political institution in the 1990s, day in and day out and month after month, becomes a challenging burden, not to mention a monotonous, virtually useless literary exercise...

What a difference a year and an election make! Think back to 1994. President Bill Clinton and his wife were trying to sell their national health care plan to Congress and the American people. The twofold rationale for their proposal was (a) the equity of making adequate medical treatment a right for all rather than a privilege for many and (b) the need to bring health care costs under control...

Betty Martin, adult services coordinator for the Cape Girardeau Public Library, recently announced plans for three upcoming events at the library. First, at 1 p.m. Saturday, Dr. Bambi Robinson will present a program on Baltimore Album quilts in the Hirsch Community Room. Baltimore Album quilting is a very intricate form of applique quilting that began in 19th century Baltimore...

A key test of the Republican revolution voters endorsed so overwhelmingly last November is the vote on the farm bill that comes up every five years. If GOP members eager to cut welfare programs can't deal with what critics call Republican welfare for farmers, they will be subject to stinging attack from critics who say that nothing has really changed except whose ox gets gored. ...

OLMSTEAD, Ill. -- Patricia Ann Griffith, 40, of Olmstead died Saturday, Sept. 23, 1995, at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. She was born Nov. 8, 1954, in St. Louis to Harry James Nelson and Martha Jean Lewis. She was a member of the Catholic faith and a housekeeper with Shawnee Development Services in Pulaski County...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Blanche Sisk Lacy, 81, died Saturday, Sept. 23, 1995, at Lifecare Center in Jonesboro. She was born Oct. 12, 1913, in Anna, the daughter of Frank and Orpha Penland Sisk. She married the Rev. Floyd Lacy on April 29, 1931, in Anna, and he preceded her in death March 11, 1989...

BLOOMFIELD -- Edith Mildred Mathis, 73, of Bloomfield, died Friday, Sept. 22, 1995, at Dexter Memorial Hospital. She was born Aug. 2, 1922, in Birch Tree, the daughter of Henry and Blanche Lukes Gospel. In 1968, she married Charles Mathis, and he preceded her in death in 1981...

ANNA, Ill. -- Frieda Wright, 92, of Anna, died Friday, Sept. 22, 1995, at her home. She was born March 9, 1903, in Jackson County, the daughter of Louis Almer and Cynthia Elizabeth Henson Whisler. She was married to Waldo Wright, who preceded her in death in 1977...

Viola Blackford Smith, 101, 1450 Good Hope, died Saturday, Sept. 23, 1995, at the Lutheran Home. She was born Nov. 27, 1893, in Cape Girardeau, to David Eli and Anna Nenninger Masterson. She married G.W. Blackford on Dec. 19, 1920, in Cape Girardeau, and he died May 30, 1939. She then married Oliver Carl Smith on Dec. 27, 1946, and he died Oct. 30, 1967...

Effie Mae Willeford, 89, 1340 W. Cape Rock, died Saturday, Sept. 23, 1995, at her home. She was born Nov. 12, 1905, at Thebes, Ill., the daughter of George and Annie Thompson Harvell. She married Ernest Willeford on Aug. 22, 1922, in Cape Girardeau, and he preceded her in death on Oct. 28, 1988...

Wiley Jefferson Macke, 96, of Pocahontas died Saturday, Sept. 22, 1995, at the Missouri Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau. He was born Aug. 28, 1899, in Jackson to William J. and Hittie B. Sachse. He married Esther Rauh on June 12, 1927. He worked as an automobile mechanic...

SIKESTON -- Nina Doris Mize, 82, of Sikeston died Saturday, Sept. 23, 1995, at the Missouri Delta Medical Center. She was born Oct. 2, 1912, at Morley to James Ransom and Lola Elizabeth Lee Mize. She was a homemaker and a member of the Morley Church of God...

"Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer's day. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum."...

Rush H. Limbaugh's hands and face are wrinkled by time. His eyesight is poor. But at 103, the Cape Girardeau lawyer still has a firm grip on life. Limbaugh will turn 104 Wednesday, adding to what is already a life filled with superlatives. He is the oldest practicing lawyer in the nation, according to the Guinness Book of World Records...

Joe Sherinski, otherwise known as KFVS-TV's Mr. GoodGarden, doesn't believe in old wives' tales and woolly worms. It is science that matters to him, pure and simple. Science says a person can't predict spectacular or lousy fall foliage colors based on precipitation. Some plants are predisposed to fall colors and others aren't, Sherinski says. So Southeast Missouri is bound to have red, orange and yellow leaves on at least a few types of trees every year...

A year ago, Arthur Lynn Burchyett turned over his tractor, injuring his spine and leaving him paralyzed. This week, a year after his accident, Burchyett was named to the Wall of Fame at St. Francis Medical Center for his success in rehabilitation. Nine months after the accident, Burchyett, a master mechanic, was back at work in his wheelchair at his shop in the Union County Wildlife Refuge...

All plans are on go for the Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association's new speculative shell building. A groundbreaking ceremony will be held at the building site in the Nash Road Industrial Park at 1 p.m. Monday for the new structure...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Here is the weekly fishing report from the Missouri Department of Conservation: RIVERS: Castor (above Zalma): Clear, low; bass good on artificial lures and topwater lures; all other fishing slow. Current: Clear, 1' below normal; all fishing slow...

As summer gives way to fall, a number of changes take place among the inhabitants of the wildlife community. Decreasing hours of daylight, combined with falling temperatures, means an increase in the daily activities of many species. This increase in movement might be compared to a coin because it has two sides to it...

JEFFERSON CITY -- Missourians have had a busy year reeling in record fish. The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) has certified 12 state fishing records since Jan. 1. Brad Farwell, a 10-year-old Eagle Rock resident, reeled in a 24- pound, 1/4-ounce longnose gar Aug. 17 at Table Rock Lake. The catch broke a state record that had stood since 1979...

A sense of autumn is in the air. I smell it first thing in the still shadowy dawn when I step outside to get the daily paper. I am never satisfied with my attempts to describe this season's defining odor. I've tried, saying it is a distillation of squashed walnut hulls, apple bins, dying grasses and curing herbs. But that still doesn't quite catch the sturdy, satisfying fragrance of autumn, the gathering in, the benediction...

Lisa Sutton, left, and Doug Rowe, employees of Target, helped Marvin Spurlock assemble shelving at the Salvation Army. Beatrice Proffer, left, had her meal delivered to her home by Jill Venezian who volunteered her time on the Day of Caring with the Cape Girardeau Senior Center...

Sandi Gordon will be the guest speaker at the next meeting of the Parkinson's Disease Community Support Group. Gordon, 37, was diagnosed with the disease 10 years ago and is the author of "Parkinson's: A Personal Story of Acceptance." The group will meet Sept. 25 at 6:30 p.m. at the St. Francis Health and Education Center...