Stories from Monday, March 11, 1996

Jay Bond of Edgewater Glass Co. etched a floral design onto glass. Wade Mansker of Edgewater Glass Co. watched a mirror sheet proceed through the edging machine. It can be used for windows, showers, doors, room dividers, table tops, bookshelves, car windshields, soda bottles, decorative items by the thousands, even building construction...

Builders have ignored bad weather to boost new home construction in Cape Girardeau during the first two months of the year. The city's Division of Inspection Services said last week that new home construction was off to a better start this year than in 1995, when only 11 starts were reported during the first quarter...

BENTON -- When most 4-year-olds were watching Bugs Bunny, Wayne Petitt was watching Richard Nixon's re-election campaign ads. In 1976, at age 8, he firmly believed Jimmy Carter should be elected president. By 1988, when his father ran for the Scott County Commission, Petitt was hooked. ...

Advance band director Bob Moses. ADVANCE -- Bob Moses doesn't recruit players, and no one warms the bench because everyone gets to play. But Moses isn't a full-time coach -- he's the band director for the Advance High School Marching Hornets. Besides, coaches and band directors aren't supposed to get along even though they have the same "team" philosophy. But they do get along at Advance High School, Moses said, adding that he also coaches softball...

Carl Gross remembers when old St. Francis hospital was in operation and the surrounding area was a rock-solid neighborhood. "When we first moved here, this was a real nice neighborhood," said the 76-year-old Gross. That was 40 years ago. Gross and his wife live in a white frame house at 321 S. Ellis in the shadow of the now vacant and vandalized old St. Francis hospital...

Ours is a shallow and materialistic society, and we'd be much better off if we gave away all of our possessions and nurtured our spiritual selves instead. I say that because I've been stuffing everything into boxes and then dragging it all back out for the past couple of weeks, and my spiritual self is the only thing I haven't had to wrap in tissue paper for the trip...

I WAS just sitting here reading the Sunday paper again and I'm still upset about this girl who turned in a drug carrier at the Jackson School and how she's been humiliated and suffered all kinds of repercussions. Here they're taught to do the right thing, which she did, and evidently the only way they would know that she turned them in is the principal gave her name. ...

Because today's hectic living seldom affords the luxury of sober contemplation, much less personal research to learn facts first-hand, most of the decisions reached by voters in past elections rarely get a second look. The excuse offered for this inattention is understandable: we're so concerned with what's happening at the moment that we have no time to look around to see what mistakes might have been made in the past...

The story of Lindsay Siebert, a 13-year-old seventh-grade student at Jackson, affected many people in different ways. Lindsay was in the school hallway one day when a fellow student showed her and a friend a bag of what he believed was marijuana. Lindsay did what she thought was right: She told the principal, and the boy was suspended for a few days...

Once again, Southeast Missourians have shown their propensity for helping those in need. The Easter Seals Celebration '96 telethon and the annual American Cancer Society Gala combined raised more than $130,000 this month. Donations for the 10-hour Easter Seals telethon, which aired on KBSI-23, topped $71,000 this year. ...

JACKSON -- Herbert F. Wickham, 88, died Saturday, March 9, 1996, at the Deal Nursing Home in Jackson. He was born March 24, 1907, in Cape Girardeau, the son of Herbert and Kate Pair Wickham. He married Julia Muriel Hagan in 1930. She preceded him in death...

MILLERSVILLE -- Paul E. "Bud" Seabaugh, 64, of Millersville died Saturday, March 9, 1996, from injuries received in a car accident near Sedgewickville. He was born June 8, 1931, in Perryville, the son of Harley and Elsie Statler Seabaugh. He married Vernell Fellows on June 24, 1950...

SIKESTON -- Edith E. Sparks, 75, of Sikeston died Friday, March 8, 1996, at her home. She was born Sept. 19, 1920, at Lakeview, Ill., to John Wesley Crain and Flora Dean Kappler Crain. On Aug 23, 1943, at New Madrid, she married Samuel H. "Slim" Sparks. He died Nov. 17, 1986...

DELTA -- Thelma B. Fowler, 83, of Delta died Saturday, March 9, 1996, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born July 28, 1912, at Dongola to A.B. Watson and Lillie Anderson. On Aug. 27, 1929, at Advance she married Virgil D. Fowler. He died March 9, 1994...

SIKESTON -- Angela Ann Cento, 32, of Sikeston, formerly of Laguna Beach, Calif., died Sunday, March 10, 1996, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born April 25, 1963, at Pontiac, Mich., to Dr. Donald P. Cento Sr. and Harriet Shrader Cento...

ADVANCE -- Kathy R. Bond, 27, of Advance died Sunday, March 10, 1996, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born June 23, 1968, at Dexter to Malta Stepp and Maxine Cox. She married Don Bond on Nov. 23, 1989. She was a line worker for Havco Wood Products in Scott City...

EAST PRAIRIE -- George Thomas Poley, 94, of East Prairie died Saturday, March 9, 1996, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. He was born Feb. 18, 1902, in Hickman, Ky., to Ed and Minnie Porter Poley. On Oct. 4, 1930, he married Lucy Mae Coffer...

JACKSON -- Joe Cooper Randol, 79, of Jackson died Sunday, March 10, 1996, at his home. He was born Nov. 16, 1916, in Cape Girardeau County, to Luke and Clara Shrock Randol. He married Madeline Senn on Dec. 9, 1943. Randol was a member of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and the Altenthal-Journs American Legion Post 158 in Jackson. He was an Army veteran of World War II and had been employed by MFA in Jackson for many years before retiring in 1982...

Viola Amanda Reed of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, March 9, 1996, at her home. She was born April 6, 1914, in Gordonville to Ervin and Emilie Franck Vogelsang. She was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church, the Lutheran Women's Missionary League, the VFW Post 3838 Auxiliary, the St. Francis Medical Center Auxiliary and the Friends of St. Francis. She taught Sunday school at Trinity Lutheran and was a musician at the VFW post...

ORAN -- Wanda Estalee Johns, 61, of Oran died Friday, March 8, 1996, from injuries received in an accident. She was born Jan. 5, 1935, in Watts, Ark., daughter of Blain and Junia Otta Barnes Rains. She married Earl Johns on Dec. 27, 1952. Johns was a retired sewing machine operator for the Oran Hat Factory and also worked as an Avon salesperson. She was a former member of the Oran Park Board...

SCOTT CITY -- Frank Short, 86, of Scott City died Sunday, March 10, 1996, at his home. Arrangements are incomplete at the Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Scott City.

SIKESTON -- There will be Miss Winter pageants for a variety of age groups Saturday at the Sikeston High School Field House. The pageants are sponsored by the Sikeston Chamber of Commerce and the Miss Winter Pageant Board of Directors. There are four categories for girls ages newborn to 5 years. ...

Richard Kline admits that his chances of winning the Missouri 8th Congressional District Republican Primary are "slim to none." So why even bother to take on a powerhouse incumbent like Rep. Bill Emerson? "This is not exactly a reason, but no person should ever go on a ballot without an opponent," Kline said...

A study by the Missouri Highway Patrol found more criminals were working as real estate agents than any other professionals licensed by the Division of Professional Registration. The Southeast Missourian asked, "What do you think of the Missouri Real Estate Commission's proposal to require real estate agents to be fingerprinted as a condition of holding a license?"...

Unique Tan & Bar opened recently at 502 W. Main in Jackson. The new business features VIP Gold tanning beds, equipped with CD players and air conditioning. The new shop, owned by Kevin and Nique Sawyer, also carries a variety of skin-care products, including lotions and moisturizers, and swim and sports wear...

AmeriSpec Inc., a national home inspection network with more than 260 franchise offices throughout the United States and Canada, has been acquired by American Home Shield, a Memphis-based home warranty company, and subsidiary of the $4.4 billion ServiceMaster L.P...

JetPark, a new parking area near Lambert Field in St. Louis, provides 1,500 more parking spaces for air travelers who want to leave their cars while on trips. Located on the south side of Interstate 70, the new Druco Inc. facility provides relief to the growing demand at the metropolitan airport...

The Wright Group of Fredericktown captured Best of Show at the annual ADDY Awards banquet held last week at the Show Me Center. Five of the Wright Group's entries were among 66 award winners chosen by the Advertising Federation of Southeast Missouri. The Best of Show award was for a brochure, "Barging South France," produced by Jonathan Wright, creative director of the Wright Group...

Nancy Kohl has joined the sales staff of Century 21 Dutch Realty, 528 E. Jackson Blvd. at Jackson. Kohl has experience in real estate and real estate lending. She previoulsy worked in real estate at Mexico. She also worked as a loan serving representative with Boatmen's Bank of Mid-Missouri and later, as a real estate loan secretary/processor at Commerce Bank in Cape Girardeau...

Spartech Corp. announced record sales and earnings for the first quarter. Bradley B. Buechler, Spartech president and chief executive officer, reported quarterly sales for the first three months of fiscal 1996 at $87.5 million, up 10 percent from the 79.3 million during the same quarter a year ago...

Southeast Discount Golf, 1900 N. Kingshighway, has obtained the Northeastern Distributorship for Hireko Golf Co. Hireko is one of the largest distributors of golf equipment supplies in the U.S. Southeast Golf is one of only three distributorships in the nation...

Chicago's O'Hare and the Memphis International were the world's busiest airports last year. Airports Council International reports that O'Hare handled 67,254,586 passengers in 1995, up 1.2 percent from the year before. And Memphis, home of Federal Express, topped the cargo-handling category with 1,712,066 metric tons moved, a 3.5 percent increase. A metric ton is 2,205 pounds...

Almost 200 people attended the Missouri Rice Council's annual meeting at Dexter. John Saunders, director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture, was guest speaker. Also attending the meeting were Curtis Leonhardt, Vincent Zortman and Chuck Wilson of the USA Rice Council...

January construction activity in Missouri was down 22 percent from January 1995. Totals for the month were reported at $360,787,000, compared to the $462,907,000 during the same month a year ago, according to the F.W. Dodge Division of McGraw-Hill, an authority on the construction market. Dodge, which issues monthly totals in its Dodge Report, also publishes Sweet's Catalog Files...

Missouri University Extension and McDonald's Restaurants have teamed up to provide some fun and educational family activities for dine-in customers at McDonald's. Families who eat-in at McDonald's at Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Charleston, Sikeston, Poplar Bluff, Hayti and Kennett will find helpful parenting information in their trayliners...