Stories from Monday, March 25, 1996

Steve Ketelsen, who joined Southeast Missouri Bank, 111 S. Broadview, as a vice president in 1991, has been elected president of the bank by its Board of Directors. Ketelsen, who has been serving as senior vice president and chief lending officer, has more than 20 years experience in the banking industry...

Union Planters Corp., an $11.3 billion-asset Memphis-based bank-holding company that recently completed acquisition of Capital Bancorporation Inc. of Cape Girardeau, has announced an agreement to acquire the outstanding stock of Leader Corp. Acquisition of Leader, the $3.1 billion-asset parent company of Leader Federal Bank, would create Tennessee's largest bank-holding company...

AT&T Corp., under fire for its generous executive salaries at a time it was announcing layoffs of 30,000 employees, said fewer workers will be fired. The nation's No. 1 long-distance carrier said it will now lay off 18,000 workers as part of a plan to trim 40,000 jobs over the next two years as it splits into three companies...

First National Bank has reached an all-time high of $300 million in assets. First National is ranked the fourth-largest independent bank among more than 400 banks in Missouri, said Troy L. Wilson, CEO. "Being locally owned and operated is a big plus for our customers," said Wilson. "With all of our decisions being made locally, we can respond quickly and with greater flexibility."...

Washington School fifth-grade teacher Michelle Burnett viewed math test with Floyd Amos, center, and Kody Neighbors. JCPenney merchandising assistant Amy Massey, left, rang up a sale for Judy Hammontree in the young men's department of JCPenney. As many as 1,000 workers head for the mines each work day in Missouri...

Mercantile Bancorporation Inc., headquartered in St. Louis, has announced plans to expand its presence in northwestern Illinois via a merger with Today's Bancorp Inc. headquartered in Freeport, Ill. Today's Bancorp operates two banks with 12 branches in the Illinois communities of Rockford, Freeport, Galena and E. Dubuque and in other smaller communities...

Dr. William Atchley, interim president of Southeast Missouri State University, will be guest speaker at the West End Merchants meeting Tuesday. The 5:30 p.m. meeting will be held at H.R. Dumplin's Restaurant.

"The Changing Role of Today's Office Personnel" will be the topic of a workshop at Drury Lodge Wednesday. Anita Reed of Anita Reed Seminars of Dallas will be guest speaker for the 9 a.m.-to-4 p.m., workshop sponsored by the Professional Secretaries International Girardot Chapter...

Ryder Truck Rental held an open house celebration and ribbon-cutting at its new home at 2010 Southern Expressway Friday.

The nation's factories regained their footing in February after stumbling through much of 1995. Output increased by the largest amount in more than eight years and without fueling inflation. The Federal Reserve reported that output at U.S. factories, mines and utilities shot up one-half percent, the steepest gain since it jumped 1.3 percent in October 1987, and the third advance in the last four months...

If you like to ask prospective employees all sorts of trick questions or try to intimidate them, you won't find out what really matters - can this person do the job? Nicholas Corcodilos, an executive search consultant interviewed in Working Woman magazine, says a job interview should not be about a candidate's most challenging experience or greatest accomplishments...

Prudy Selsor, personnel assistant in St. Francis Medical Center's human resources department, has been named the hospital's Employee of the Year. Selsor was selected from among 12 employees who had been named employees of the month during 1995. Selsor, of Jackson, joined St. ...

Crescent Moon Indoor Advertising opened recently. The new business places full-color, framed advertising inside business establishments. William W. Keesee II and Krista K. Keesee are owners of the new business. Additional information is available by calling 335-5273...

Natural Health Organic Foods will open in Cape Girardeau next month. The new store specializes in all types of natural and organic foods and will have a full line of vitamins and supplements. Tentative opening date for the 2,000-square-foot store is April 8 in West Park Village, in the 2500 block of William Street...

Dona Flora Co. is expanding. The company, now with a new name, Dona Flora Garden and Florist Shop, 1444 Independence, provides a full-service garden center with garden and lawn-care products, bedding plants and perennials, grown at a greenhouse facility on County Road 621...

Manufacturing and industry are Missouri giants. Some 8,485 facilities provide employment to 461,632 employees statewide, with Cape Girardeau County ranking 11th among Missouri's 114 counties in manufacturing facilities. The 132 Cape County plants provide employment to more than 7,000 people, with more than a third of them at two plants: Lee Rowan Co. at Jackson and Procter and Gamble Paper Products north of Cape Girardeau...

Parking structures, student housing around Wildwood, new academic buildings -- they are all components of a long-term plan for upgrading the Southeast Missouri State University campus. Scheme D, the master-plan option recently presented to the university's Board of Regents by consultants Mackey Mitchell Zahner, calls for maintaining a compact campus while allowing for expansion, creating quadrangles and greens to link the campus with pedestrian-scaled open space, limiting vehicular traffic and improving student safety.. ...

Most arguments about medications are kept in conference rooms and doctors' offices, where physicians debate the value of this pill over that. Ritalin is dragging everyone into the fray. Tagged "Kiddie Prozac" by critics, the drug has parents, teachers and doctors taking sides. Some call it is a godsend, allowing children to concentrate and make better grades; others label it a quick fix for lazy teachers and parents seeking a solution to behavior problems...

Like most moms, Priscilla Owens wanted the best of everything for her only son. She and her husband, Mark, believed a $250-a-month parochial school and day care would be best for their child, a somewhat sheltered 5-year-old whose friends would be attending there. The working couple cut some extras, saved their money, and put Shawn in kindergarten...

Life, as someone before me probably said, is a song cue. Even when I don't want it to be. The other day I was on hold and it took me a minute to identify the Muzak as "Wichita Lineman." You know, Glen Campbell, guitar ... "I am a lineman for the county, and I work the main roads, searchin' in the sun for another overload. ..."...

Although no official public warning has yet been sounded by the Center for Disease Control, America increasingly appears to be suffering from an acute illness which scientists still haven't determined is terminal. The alternative diagnosis is that our illness is merely highly communicable, in which case there is still hope for us if only medical science can come up with an antidote. Judging from the extensive severity of the epidemic, a cure can't come too soon...

With little fanfare and recognition, Mid-America Teen Challenge continues to change the lives of wayward young men. Tucked away in the hills of northern Cape Girardeau County, there is nothing pretentious or particularly impressive about the center, except its success rate...

Officials at the University of Missouri-Rolla are confident they provide an excellent education. So confident, in fact, that they are willing to provide a guarantee of sorts. Starting this fall, incoming freshmen are being offered the UMR Promise: Do your part, and you will get a good job offer within six months of graduation. If not, you will get up to one more year of schooling for free...

MARBLE HILL -- L.V. Bollinger, 70, of Marble Hill died Saturday, March 23, 1996, at St. Francis Medical Center. He was born Oct. 29, 1925, at Mayfield, son of John H. Bollinger and Gertrude Mayfield Bollinger. Bollinger served in the Merchant Marines and then in the U.S. ...

MOUNDS, ILL. -- Harry Lesley Roe, 84, of Mounds died Saturday, March 23, 1996. He was born May 22, 1911, son of James Melvin and Maude Deets Roe. He was a member of the Mounds Assembly of God Church and worked as a millwright until his retirement. Survivors include his wife, Myda Roe of Mounds; three daughters, Barbara Maffiola and Patricia May Rossa, both of Chicago, and Gail Marie Stone of Wood Dale, Ill.; a son, Fred Roe of Schaumburg, Ill.; a sister, Gertrude Good of Dayton, Tenn.; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.. ...

Homer Edward Millikan, 90, of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, March 23, 1996, at the Lutheran Home. He was born May 6, 1905, at Marion, Ky., son of William W. and Eva Asbridge Millikan. He and Martha Sue Waller were married June 14, 1936, at Illmo. He owned a Buick dealership and had worked as an automobile salesman in Cape Girardeau since the 1930s. He also worked at Millikan Motor Co. He retired in 1986...

BERTRAND -- Leota Mae Layne, 86, died Sunday, March 24, 1996, at her home. She was born March 11, 1910, at Bertrand, daughter of Thomas Forrest and Clara Jane Finley Baker. She married Raymond Clay Layne Dec. 24, 1930. He died March 26, 1987. Layne lived in Bertrand her entire life. She was a charter member of the Cornerstone General Baptist Church and held services in her home until the building was constructed...

CHAFFEE -- Larry Estelle Bass, 44, of Chaffee died Sunday, March 24, 1996, at St. Francis Medical Center. He was born March 5, 1952, at Cairo, Ill., son of Luke Estelle "Tony" Bass and Roberta Abney Bass. He and Glenda F. Kinder were married Nov. 19, 1983...

ANNA, Ill. -- Ray Leon Plott, 79, of Anna died Saturday, March 23, 1996, at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Marion. He was born March 31, 1916, in Union County, Ill., son of Cyrus and Rosa Azalee McCommons Plott. He and Betty Groves were married...

MORLEY -- Richard Lee Taylor, 47, died Sunday, March 24, 1996, at his home. He was born Nov. 12, 1947, at Dexter, son of C.B. Taylor Sr. and Hazel Lee Hensley Taylor. He and Linda Mae Boley were married June 12, 1971. Taylor was employed by Triangle Power Inc. in Sikeston. He served in the U.S. Marines during the Vietnam War. He was a member of the Church of Christ...

The Oran Police Department received its first fax machine last week as a gift from the Country CB'ers of Chaffee. The fax machine was originally donated to the Scott County Sheriff's Department, but the purchase of a new copy machine with faxing capabilities made it obsolete and it was sent the Oran Police Department...

Although the native American Mississippian people may have embraced Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto with open arms, Dr. Jeffrey Mitchem doesn't. "You can make the argument of de Soto contact," Mitchem said. "I don't think we'll ever know unless we find something that says `I was here.' But I can guarantee the site was occupied."...

WOLF LAKE, Ill. -- Anna L. Walton Pitts, 81, of Wolf Lake died Saturday, March 23, 1996, at St. Francis Medical Center. She was born Oct. 4, 1914, at Golconda, daughter of Samuel and Ollie Gowins. She and Lloyd Walton were married in 1932 at St. Louis. He died. She later married George Pitts in 1980 at Cape Girardeau. He died Sept. 8, 1995...

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education wants to answer questions about school district finances but needs to know the questions. School officials have asked that people submit questions about any aspect of school finances -- spending or budgeting -- so answers can be provided at a study session April 8...

This week the Southeast Missourian asked, "How do you feel about schools requiring students to wear school uniforms?" Dallas Bradley, Cape Girardeau "I don't think they should have to. I think they should be entitled to wear what they want to wear."...