Stories from Tuesday, December 3, 1996

Kelly C. Fisher has been named Student of the Month for November by the Cape Girardeau Elk's Lodge 639. She is a senior at Notre Dame High School where she has been involved in SADD, Spanish Club, volleyball, concert choir, National Honor Society and Campus Ministry. She was given the Who's Who Among High School Students Award during the Junior year...

JACKSON -- Kathy Hotop-Raines and her students at Immaculate Conception Catholic School often take a trip through outer space to learn something new. Raines becomes the "Teacher from Outer Space," so that the students, or "earthlings," can teach her something new, like vocabulary words for a reading story...

A half-shaft on a front-wheel-drive vehicle was changed by vo-tech students in auto mechanics class. From left: Derek DeSpain, instructor Ron Schaefer, Tait Phillips and Justin Jones. Matt Glastetter, left, of Chaffee and Ben Schlegel of Cape Girardeau operated a frame straightener in the vo-tech auto body shop...

Weary of all the rushing around of holiday shopping? You might want to sit back and see what the Internet has to offer. The Internet will be busy this holiday season. People are thinking about new computers for Christmas, software, and people are shopping from home via the Internet...

Amy Aufdenberg of Burfordville has been awarded a Regents' Scholarship to attend Southeast Missouri State University for the 1997-1998 academic year. The award covers incidental fees up to 32 hours per academic year for up to four consecutive years. Aufdenberg, who is the daughter of Richard and Judy Aufdenberg, will be a 1997 graduate of Jackson High School. She plans to major in accounting at Southeast...

Review sessions will be conducted by Southeast faculty and staff and area high school teachers beginning tonight to prepare students for the American College Testing Assessment (ACT exam) that will be given Dec. 14. High school juniors and seniors wanting to review may meet tonight from 6 to 9 at Robert A. ...

Seventh-grade students from St. Mary Cathedral School have qualified to participate in the 17th annual Scholastic Talent Search sponsored by Duke University. The talent search selects students who score in the 97th percentile or above in one area of their standardized achievement tests and invites them to take the ACT or SAT college entrance exams as seventh-graders. ...

Central High School will recognize five national merit semifinalists tonight during the varsity basketball game. Seniors Lesley Clarke, Elizabeth Kunz, David Meyr, Beth Shivelbine and Vicki Ventrella and their parents will be introduced by the Renaissance Club during half-time to recognize the students' academic excellence. Gifts will be presented by Wes Wade of Horizon Printing Co...

Trinity Lutheran School was recently awarded a $500 grant from the Aid Association for Lutherans for the 1996-97 school year. The school will use the funds to provide in-service training for faculty. Possible uses for the funds include obtaining consultants, speakers, resource materials and activities that develop teaching strategies. ...

Parents Without Partners Cape SEMO Chapter 519 has scheduled an orientation for prospective new members on Wednesday at the Community Counseling Center, Cape Girardeau. Parents who are divorced, widowed, legally separated or never married, are encouraged to attend...

The Missouri Governor's Council on Disability is sponsoring two contests for high school and college students. The theme for both contests is "Attitude: The Last Barrier for People with Disabilities." The purpose of the Governor's Council Journalism Contest is to reward excellence in journalistic writing and to help young Missourians become aware of the skills and abilities that people with disabilities bring to the job market. ...

Grace Hoover, retired chair of the Department of Human Environmental Studies at Southeast Missouri State University and an avid Southeast supporter, has endowed a Malaysian student scholarship to the University. The scholarship, which will be awarded for the first time next spring, has been named the "Jane Stacy Malaysian Student Scholarship." Stacy has been active, along with Hoover, for many years in support of Malaysian students at Southeast...

The Southeast Missouri Area Agency on Aging quarterly in-service training event for ombudsman volunteers will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday at the Baptist Association Building, 5103 Old Cape Road, Cape Girardeau. The theme for the day will be "Patterns," focusing on how systems have developed to benefit institutionalized older adults and enhance their quality of life...

Notre Dame High School is planning a Christmas concert at 7 p.m. Sunday in the Notre Dame Gymnasium. Both the mixed chorus and band will participate. They will join together for the closing song "Christmas Finale" with audience participation. The Treble Choir and Concert Choir will perform at Old St. Vincent Church at 7 p.m. Dec. 15...

JACKSON -- The last original member of the Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association's Board of Directors was replaced Monday by the Jackson Board of Aldermen. City Administrator Steve Wilson was chosen to take the city's seat on the association board for a one-year term beginning Jan. 1...

After a four-month search for police and fire chiefs, Cape Girardeau city officials filled both positions Monday. Daniel White, fire chief in Springdale, Ark., will take over the Cape Girardeau department on Jan. 2. Richard Hetzel, police chief in Norcross, Ga., starts his job in Cape Girardeau Jan. 13...

Southeast Missouri cotton growers are enjoying a great year. "We're more than 95 percent harvested," said Dr. Bobby Phipps, cotton production specialist at the University of Missouri Delta Research Center at Portageville. "Most farmers have completed the harvest, and we're looking at about 725 pounds an acre."...

Parents of mentally and developmentally disabled children have simple but special requests for Toybox toys this Christmas. They want developmental toys and games to provide their children with fun things that help enhance special skills. Several parents of children with Down's syndrome applied to Toybox this year. The disorder, characterized by moderate to severe mental retardation, also slows physical development...

Mr. and Mrs. H are trying desperately to keep on doing what they do best: depend on each other. She is legally blind and needs him to help her see; he has colon and stomach cancer and needs her help with just about everything else. They live on love and depend on each other for their needs...

A Monday-evening fire in Cape Girardeau destroyed an apartment building and left at least two parents and their children homeless. It started just after 5 p.m. on a back porch of the upper north-end apartment at 3019 Themis. That tenant wasn't home, but people living in the three other units were...

Winners have been announced for the 1996 Christmas Parade held Sunday in Cape Girardeau. Winners, chosen in six categories: -- Spirit, best Christmas theme: First place, Southeast Hospice; second place, Christ Episcopal Church; third place, Younce family; fourth place, Second Baptist Church...

Gov. Mel Carnahan recently appointed a 35-member group called the Total Transportation Commission of Missouri to assess needs for transportation across our state. Chaired by S. Lee Kling of St. Louis, a member of the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission, and co-chaired by Steve Bradford of Hayti, a former commissioner of administration in state government, the commission is holding seven hearings around the state. ...

The Cape Downtown Christmas LIGHT Parade has gotten bigger and better each year, and so have the crowds. The 5 p.m. starting time and approximately one-hour parade with bright lights, music, sounds (motorcycles and all) and candy handouts kept the young kids involved and happy. It helped in making the "Season to be Jolly" as did the strong retail sales over the Thanksgiving weekend...

I have, once again, been asked to conduct an in-depth interview with a famous person. And, once again, I have accepted the challenge, not only because I sometimes grow tired of interviewing current political celebrities but also because, by now, I can almost write their answers before they can even get started. For example:...

ATTENTION CHRISTMAS shoppers: If you plan to use a credit card for your purchases in one of our retail stores in Cape, it would be very helpful to the sales associates and to other customers waiting in line if you could have your credit card ready in your hand for check-out. Thanks very much and have happy holiday shopping...

With women in the military comes the issue of women in combat. Maj. Lillian Pfluke, retired from the Army, was one of the first female graduates of West Point and served honorably for 15 years. She is advocating full parity in combat for women as "equal members of the team." Secretary of the Army Togo West says a valid argument could be made for women in combat but adding that the decision must come from the American people and their elected representatives in Congress...

SCOTT CITY -- The ditches in Scott City have become such a problem that Washington, D.C., is getting involved. Scott City Council member Teresa Crump told the council Monday night that Lloyd Smith of U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson's office has volunteered help in getting the Corp of Engineers to clean the ditches...

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education has selected Boatmen's and A.G. Edwards to serve as the school district's bond underwriters should voters approve bond sales this spring. The two firms offered a combined bid and were among three bidders. The bond underwriter will work with the district to sell bonds if voters approve a $14 million bond sale. ...

The Southeast Missouri Easter Seal Society once again is adding local flavor to a Christmas tree near you. The organization has issued its sixth annual limited edition "Christmas in Southeast Missouri" ornament for collectors and anyone wishing to aid Easter Seal...

Second votes on political signs and smoke detectors didn't mean any major changes for Cape Girardeau residents: Laws applying to both will stand. At an October meeting, the Cape Girardeau City Council voted to ban political signs within 10 feet of any established street. Mayor Al Spradling III later questioned the ban, citing a U.S. Supreme Court case that indicated Cape Girardeau's new law violated First Amendment rights...

GRAND CHAIN, Ill. -- A Mazon, Ill., man was seriously injured early Monday morning when his pickup truck ran off the road near Grand Chain. Kevin Recichert, 21, was driving north on Illinois 37 at 4:27 a.m. whe n his vehicle ran off the road, went into a ditch, became airborne, struck a tree and landed on its roof, throwing Recichert from the vehicle...

GLEN ALLEN -- Two men were killed Monday in Bollinger County in a single-vehicle accident near Glen Allen. Gregory Tanner, 41, of Jackson and Lloyd Mims, 42, of Glen Allen were killed when their vehicle left the road at 1:35 p.m., overturned, struck an embankment, became airborne and struck a tree. The accident occurred as the vehicle, a 1995 Pontiac, was traveling east on Route ZZ 1 1/2 miles west of Glen Allen...

ZALMA -- Funeral service for Harry Froman Sr. will be held at 1 p.m. today at Watkins and Sons Funeral Home in Puxico. The Rev. Lee Roy Hefner will officiate, with burial in Jimmerson Cemetery near McGee. Froman, 88, died Sunday, Dec. 1, 1996, at Advance Nursing Center...

BENTON -- Jimmy Joe Fowler, 36, of Benton died Monday, Dec. 2, 1996, at his home. Arrangements are incomplete with Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Scott City.

Funeral service for Charles O. Green, 910 N. Missouri, will be held at 1 p.m. today at Trinity Lutheran Church. The Rev. David V. Dissen will officiate, with burial in Memorial Park. Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel is in charge of arrangements. Green, 73, died Sunday, Dec. 1, 1996, at Beverly Health and Rehabilitation...

SCOTT CITY -- Graveside service for Angela Hope Morrill of Scott City was held Monday at St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery. The Rev. Pat Wissman officiated. Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel was in charge of arrangements. The infant was stillborn Wednesday, Nov. 27, 1996, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau...

CHARLESTON -- Robert Paul Bruenderman, 81, Charleston Route 2, died Sunday, Dec. 1, 1996, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. He was born July 19, 1915, in Mississippi County, son of Bernard Joseph and Louise Renaud Bruenderman. He and Margaret Wallace were married Oct. 10, 1946...

SIKESTON -- Funeral service for Martha Harty will be held at 11 a.m. today at Ponder Funeral Home in Sikeston. The Rev. Charles E. Buck will officiate, with burial in Old Morley Cemetery at Morley. Harty, 86, died Saturday, Nov. 30, 1996, at Bertrand Nursing Facility...

ALTENBURG -- Clara Sophia Hecht, 95, formerly of Altenburg, died Sunday, Dec. 1, 1996, at Beverly Health and Rehabilitation in Cape Girardeau. She was born Oct. 12, 1901, in Jacob, Ill., daughter of John and Anna Luedemann Weseloh. She and Martin Benjamin Hecht were married Feb. 27, 1922. He died Oct. 22, 1966...

ADVANCE -- William "Jerry" Williams, 67, of Advance, died Sunday, Dec. 1, 1996, at his home. He was born May 11, 1929, son of Adolph and Mary Duncan Williams. Williams retired as a furniture finisher in St. Louis. He served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War...

JACKSON -- Elmer Smith Wolters, 85, of Jackson died Monday, Dec. 2, 1996, at his home. He was born Oct. 9, 1911, in Jackson, son of Charles Franklin and Elma Smith Wolters. He and Norma Savers were married July 31, 1935, in Waterloo, Ill. Wolters operated a taxi service in Jackson 18 years, retiring in the late 1970s. He then owned Wolters Grocery Store...

Daughter to Antonio and Delia Trejo, 624 Boxwood, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 8:54 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, 1996. Name, Briceia Emely. Weight, 5 pounds 3 ounces. First child. Mrs. Trejo is the former Delia Saavedra, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Saavedra of Devine, Texas. Trejo is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Antonio Trejo of Mexico. He is employed at El Torero Mexican Restaurant...

PUXICO -- Funeral service for "Bill" Louise Atchison of Dupo, Ill., will be held at 11 a.m. today at Watkins and Sons Funeral Home in Puxico. The Rev. Martin Sifford will officiate, with burial in Brown Cemetery near Puxico. Atchison, 76, died Saturday, Nov. 30, 1996, at Dexter Memorial Hospital in Dexter...