Stories from Monday, October 21, 1996

Wicker's, a new restaurant named for a noted Southeast Missouri barbecue sauce manufactured in the Bootheel, has opened at Caruthersville. The new restaurant, which has indoor seating for 54 and outdoor deck seating for 50, is at 100 Riverside Drive near the river wall overlooking the Mississippi River...

A variety of Missouri wines is available in Cape Girardeau, including this collection at Schnucks. The great wines may come from France, but some 2,500 miles and an ocean away, Missouri is showing the wine market that some pretty good wines also come from the U.S. Heartland...

Express Cycle is in a new location. The dealership for Kawasaki Motorcycles and ArticCat Watercraft ATVS, opened recently at 1407 N. Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau. "We have more showroom space and service areas," said Todd Rowland, owner of the business, which was founded five years ago at 300 N. Kingshighway...

Factory Card Outlet will officially open in Cape Girardeau Nov. 7, with a four-day grand opening activities. The company, which features greeting and other cards, party supplies and other items, is located at 242 Siemers in Cape West Business Park. Factory Card Outlet, headquartered in Bensenville, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, has 115 stores in 13 states...

Staples Inc., which has almost 500 office supply and equipment stores in 25 states, will enter the Cape Girardeau market Oct. 29, and will feature grand opening ceremonies the following week. Staples will be at 294 Siemers Drive in Cape West Business Park and will serve as an anchor store for a strip shopping center, which includes Shoe Carnival, a 12,000 square feet store, which opened last weekend; Factory Card outlet, which has 10,000 square feet and will open Nov. ...

Mid-American Distributing of Cape Girardeau is new distributor for Orbex Inc. in Missouri and parts of adjoining states. Orbex is a manufacturer of Aladdin Blades for rotary lawn mower and edgers, among other products.

A new maintenance technology degree will soon become available in the Cape Girardeau area. The Southeast Missouri Regional Training Group and three educational facilities in the area -- Mineral Area College at Park Hills, Southeast Missouri State University, and the Cape Girardeau Vocational-Technical School -- have teamed to provide training for a new "Associate of Applied Science in Industrial Maintenance Technology" degree...

East Perry Lumber Co. of Frohna is joining other lumber companies in observing National Hardwood Day Friday. The hardwood products industry employs 1.5 million people, with an annual payroll of $31 billion. "For every tree used to make a hardwood product, we grow nearly twice that amount to replace it each year," said Natalie Petzoldt-Naeger of the East Perry Lumber Co. "The future of the hardwoods industry depends on healthy forests."...

The West Cape Girardeau Merchants meeting will be held Tuesday at Dumplin's Restaurants at 5:30 p.m.

The Downtown Merchants Association meeting will be held at Port Cape Girardeau Restaurant Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.

Missouri's unemployment rate for September was 3.6 percent, tying with May 1979 for the lowest rate in the current labor force data series dating back to 1978. The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations also said Thursday that 101,500 were unemployed in Missouri last month, compared to 122,000 without work in August...

Town & Country Grocers managers and corporate supervisors from a four-state area attended a companywide managers seminar recently at the Country Mart in Jackson. AWG Springfield Retail specialists Bill Wilkins and Harold Golden were guest speakers at the 140th meeting of the Town & Country group, headquartered at Fredericktown. The company has more than 1,500 employees...

Sears, Roebuck and Co. earnings jumped 22.4 percent in the third quarter, largely on the strength of increased credit revenues, the company said recently. Sears reported third-quarter income of $279 million, or 68 cents a share, up from $228 million, or 56 cents a share, in the same period last year. For the first nine months of 1996, Sears earned $704 million, or $1.71 a share, up 23.5 percent from $570 million, or $1.40 a share, for the first three quarters of 1995...

Boatmen's Bancshares Inc. reported third-quarter earnings increased 14 percent to $153 million, or 96 cents a common share before the impact of merger-related expenses and the one-time assessment to recapitalize the Savings Association Savings Fund...

Mary Emmenderfer Smith has joined Ford & Sons Funeral Home and Cape County Memorial Park Cemetery & Mausoleum as a pre-need specialist. Smith has several years experience in public relations and communications. Smith, a native of Cape Girardeau, was previously director of Metro Business College for 18 years...

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Federico Pena visited St. Louis and Belleville, Ill., last week to announce $50 million in mass transit grants to the Metrolink light rail system. The funds will be used to start construction of a 17-mile extension of Metrolink from East St. Louis, Ill., to Belleville Area College, and for the purchase of light rail cars...

During the quarter, the bank incurred a one-time charge of $1,267,000 in connection with the recapitalization of the SAIF Fund, which reduced earnings per share by 2.2 cents. For the nine months ended Sept. 30, earnings amounted to $87.1 million, up $7.7 million from the $79.4 million during the first nine months of 1995. Per share earnings for the nine-month period was $2.38, up from the $2.10 of last year...

Ford Motor Co. said last week its third-quarter earnings nearly doubled on the strength of its U.S. operations. Ford earned $686 million, or 57 cents a share, compared with $357 million, or 28 cents a share, for the same period of 1995. Sales rose 8 percent to $34 billion, compared with $31.4 billion a year ago...

Capital building, selecting stocks for profit, selecting a broker, IRAs, 401K and other financial planning investments will be discussed during a personal investing workshop at Shawnee Community College. The two-hour session will be held in the college's River Room from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday...

Those who resist detention by police may be violating a city law soon, depending on a Cape Girardeau City Council vote tonight. An amendment that would make it illegal to resist or interfere with a lawful detention or lawful stop made it through the first round of council approval. It is up for a final vote...

GORDONVILLE -- The Union troops had their chance, but when they decided to fight they were overwhelmed. "We had cannons, we had cavalry, I took the chance and you can see what happened," Maj. Mark Westhoff of the 9th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry said after Sunday's re-enactment skirmish in Gordonville. "A lot of guys died because we took a chance."...

A long-range plan over a year in the making will be officially presented to the Cape Girardeau Board of Education tonight. The meeting starts at 6 p.m. at Central High Junior High. Board members say they want community feedback about the plan before officially adopting it...

Julie called the other morning, very early. "I keep having these weird dreams," she said. And before I could ask about the dreams, she started asking hard questions. Julie is dying of cancer; all of the questions she asks these days are the kind I can't answer. I'm not sure anyone can...

One of these days America will hold an election and no one will come. This may be nothing but journalistic hyperbole, but consider these facts from a survey conducted recently by the Washington Post, Harvard University and the Kaiser Family Foundation:...

The revelation that Missouri is second only to California in the manufacture and use of the illegal drug methamphetamine sounds an alarm that something must be done, and done quickly. Law enforcement authorities say the drug -- called speed, crank, crystal or meth among those who make and use it -- has become the illicit drug of choice in the area among whites in their 20s and 30s. ...

The Cape Girardeau City Council is expected to decide tonight whether to require sidewalks in all future subdivisions built within a mile of schools or school property. The issue is being addressed in conjunction with the rezoning of Forest Hills Subdivision. It is close to school property, and Councilman Melvin Gateley, a retired educator, proposed the sidewalks because children who live within a mile of their school aren't transported by school buses. Many of them walk...

To the editor: Wanted: Someone to take over God's job. Must be able to rewrite the Bible. No conscience needed. That sounds like an ad that several people are trying to apply for today, even President Clinton. Does he and others truly believe they can decide who lives and who dies? Whatever happened to "Thou shall not kill"?...

This week the Southeast Missourian asked, "How do you feel about negative campaign ads?" Reuben Edwards, Cape Girardeau "All of them are going to say negative things about each other anyway. You've got to go with the person who is going to do the best job because you are going to hear negative things about whoever is running regardless."...

HOWARDVILLE -- Governor Mel Carnahan will kick off today's tour of several Southeast Missouri communities in New Madrid County, visiting the Howardville Multipurpose Center at 9 a.m. Carnahan has been in the area several times this campaign, promoting other candidates and announcing new state programs...

ANNA, Ill. -- Mark Ford, 35, of Anna died Sunday, Oct. 20, 1996, at his home. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at the Crain Funeral Home in Anna.

PERRYVILLE -- Lucy M. Gibbar, 83, of Perryville died Saturday, Oct. 19, 1996, at the Perry County Nursing Home. She was born July 15, 1913, in Belgique, to John and Lela Layton Modde. She married Jerome J. Gibbar on Oct. 10, 1936. He died Aug. 28, 1970...

ANNA, Ill. -- Dorothy Frances Gardner Armstrong, 58, of Anna died Saturday, Oct. 19, 1996, at her home. She was born Dec. 30, 1937, to Lewis and Anna Marie Ditter Gardner. She was married to Martin D. Armstrong in Union County on Sept. 15, 1975. He died Feb. 6, 1990...

BLUE EYE -- Kenneth R.V. Hoelscher Sr., 59, of Blue Eye, formerly of St. Charles County, died Saturday, Oct. 19, 1996, at his home. He was born Aug. 9, 1937, in St. Louis, the son of Ewald and Helen Leimkuehler Hoelscher. He was a self-employed accountant for 20 years in Blue Eye and a former member of the Fraternal Order of the Eagles in Sikeston...

Helen Marie Haupt, 85, of Cape Girardeau died Sunday, Oct. 20, 1996, at the Lutheran Home. Arrangements are incomplete with Ford & Sons Sprigg Street Chapel.

CAIRO, Ill. -- Jeff Berryhill, 82, of Cairo died Sunday, Oct. 20, 1996, at the Charleston Manor. He was born June 15, 1914, in Tupelo, Miss., the son of Jeff Davis and Nancy Elizabeth Chiffin Berryhill. He was married to Earlene Berryhill, who died in 1949...

Cape Girardeau City Council Monday, Oct. 21, 7:30 p.m. Appearances -- Appearances before the council on items listed on the agenda. -- Appearances before the council on items not listed on the agenda. Consent Ordinances -- Amend the city code by enacting a new article relating to campaign signs...

PORTAGEVILLE -- Dulcie Combs McCrate, 81, of Portageville died Saturday, Oct. 19, 1996, at her home. Friends may call after 6 p.m. today at the DeLisle Funeral Home in Portageville. Funeral services will be 10 a.m. Tuesday at the First United Methodist Church with the Rev. Ed Rhodes officiating. Burial will be in the Portageville Cemetery...