Stories from Thursday, June 19, 1997

A little over a year ago Vivian Barlow discovered she had a lump in her left breast. The lump was benign, but she has continued an ongoing fight against cancer. From 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. on June 28, the Relay for Life, a team event to fight cancer, will bring the community together to raise funds for cancer research, education, and patient service for those who, like Barlow, battle cancer...

Director Harold Prince says "Show Boat" is not just another American musical, but rather a "love affair with theatre people." In Prince's notes from the musical he has directed for the past two and a half years, he writes that it is the first great contemporary modern musical, the first to "merge the traditional, happy-go-lucky naivete of Broadway musical comedy with serious themes."...

This metal sculpture of a buffalo by Mark Crowder is one of the items from the Lon Maxey Collection. Lon Maxey spent years hunting buffalo. The bounty is now on exhibit at the University Museum. "Where the Buffalo Roam" is a fanciful revue of Maxey's eclectic collection of images and all manner of things buffalo...

CHARLESTON -- Charleston residents were talking a lot Wednesday about getting a state prison. Charleston was selected by the state Joint Committee on Correctional Institutions and Problems as one of four finalists for a $73 million, 1,500-bed maximum-security prison. The prison would provide 365 new jobs and bring a payroll of $9.1 million to the town...

Cape Girardeau Police Chief Rick Hetzel held a stack of incident reports taken over the last 11 months at Peppy's Sports Bar and Dance Club. The Cape Girardeau City Council voted unanimously Monday to place Peppy's Sports Bar and Dance Club on six months probation after police were called to the night club 43 times in 11 months...

Brian Hine believes in miracles. Hine received the St. Francis Medical Center's 1997 Courageous Patient Award during the hospital's seventh annual dinner. More than 1,000 people stood as Hine, 28, an ex-Marine, received the award in the Show Me Center Wednesday night. The former St. Francis patient said in an interview afterward that the hospital staff and pastoral care volunteers are the reason he is alive today...

The Board of Regents expects to vote Friday on a $63.5 million operating budget for fiscal 1998 that includes pay raises of 4 to 4.5 percent for Southeast Missouri State University employees. About 64 percent of the budget or $43.5 million is earmarked for salaries and benefits. The new fiscal year begins July 1...

As the nation's largest Protestant denomination holds its annual convention in Dallas, issues on the convention floor are also being discussed locally. Local members of the Southern Baptist denomination had varying opinions about the convention's decision Wednesday to boycott Walt Disney Co. ...

June 19, 1997 Dear Julie, Once upon a time just after I'd moved to the misty, surf-lathered shore of Northern California, I tried to write a novel. One problem was, it wasn't my idea. I had a new girlfriend who thought a writer should write books. Therefore, for a few weeks I plunked away on an old Underwood manual while she made us avocado and cheese sandwiches...

Is an RV park in Red Star's future? A committee will be formed to explore the possibility of locating an RV park near downtown Cape Girardeau, the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau Advisory Committee decided Wednesday. Walt Wildman, an advisory board member, proposed starting the committee, he said, because there are no RV parks in town. He said land the city acquired in the flood buyout in Red Star would be a good place for it because it is near the river and downtown...

MARQUAND -- An ATV accident in Bollinger County landed an Arnold man in surgery at St. Francis Medical Center Wednesday. According to the Missouri Highway Patrol, Edward Schmaltz told them he was driving an ATV at 2:50 p.m. Wednesday on County Road 860 two miles north of Marquand when he struck a tire and was thrown into an embankment...

Last week, Republican congressional leaders rolled out what they are touting as the largest tax-cut plan since the first Reagan tax bill of 1981. Over five years, chairman Bill Archer of the House Ways and Means Committee says, the GOP plan would cut taxes by $85 million...

The Cape Girardeau area's housing market is strong and, most likely on the heels of recent announcements of industrial expansions, can be expected to strengthen substantially. Figures on home ownership in the city and county are interesting: Fifty-five percent of the families living in the more than 16,000 residential units in Cape Girardeau own their own homes. In the county, the figure is higher: 62.6 percent ownership of the more than 25,000 residential units...

To the editor: A 3 percent reduction of sales tax on food has finally been signed into law. It looks like some of the folks in Jefferson City have gotten serious about tax relief -- or does it? Many news sources have presented this legislation as the culmination of many months of arduous effort on the part of our governor. Will Governor Carnahan go down in history as the great tax reliever? I doubt that he will, if historians consider the rest of the story...

To the editor: Sen. Peter Kinder's letter in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (adapted from a column he wrote for the Southeast Missourian) was very enlightening and beautifully written. Too bad he's not in charge of the Post-Dispatch. Thank you, Senator Kinder, and God bless you...

To the editor: Another legislative session has concluded. Upon return from my lobbying duties in Jefferson City, I continue to marvel at the job Marvin Proffer does for our area. Southeast Missouri State University and the citizens of Cape Girardeau County should be thankful we have such an outstanding person working on our behalf...

To the editor: On the local TV news broadcast recently, the reporter was describing how embryonic cloning may someday be of medical benefit. At one point she demonstrated by snipping an adult Lumbricus terrestris (an earthworm) into exact halves and explained that each would then grow into two complete new worms...

To the editor: We should have canceled our subscription after Scott Moyers' hateful attack on radio, which directly hit family members. Since when does he have the right to attack with such vengeance and no reason. He needs to be on a leash. DIANE MORGAN...

To the editor: It seems that marijuana should not be legalized if we are to get our opinions from Gary Rust instead of forming any of our own. In his column, Mr. Rust uses a skewed survey and one-sided "facts" about marijuana to illustrate his point. I believe the public would have a more informed answer to the question posed if both sides of the marijuana debate have equal time...

To the editor: When I saw a picture of the Citadel on "60 Minutes" recently, I immediately thought what a beautiful building with excellently kept grounds, so invigorating and stately did the building appear. Numerous good thoughts ran through my mind. Seeing the neatly clad cadets of the Citadel marching with such dignity, I was overwhelmed with job and respect...

Area police officers working to educate students about the dangers of drug and alcohol dependency can now pull up to schools in style thanks to JCS/Tel-Link. The company, which sells and services communications products, will donate the use of a 1984 corvette outfitted as a police car to officers working in Drug and Alcohol Resistance Education, or DARE programs throughout the area...

Southeast Missouri State University freshmen Tammy Wenkel and Shauna Birge have qualified to compete in the USA Track & Field Junior National Championships this weekend at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. Wenkel will compete in the 400-meter hurdles while Birge will be in the 100-meters. The top two in each event will qualify for the USA Junior National Team that will compete at the Pan American Junior Championships July 18-19 in Havana, Cuba...

Cape Girardeau's Ford & Sons American Legion baseball team bounced back Wednesday night and kept Jackson winless in the process. Ford & Sons, coming off a 8-2 shellacking at the hands of Ballwin on Monday night, recovered to blow out Jackson in both ends of a doubleheader at Capaha Field...

SCOTT CITY -- An employee of Environmental Services of America, Inc., 3100 Industrial Fuel Drive, suffered from third-degree burns Wednesday after a spark ignited paint by-products. The man's name was not released by hospital officials or management of the chemical processing company Wednesday...

Geneva Emmons came to the Cape Girardeau City Hall Wednesday morning because she fears for her neighborhood and wants to do something about it. She was one of 20 people attending a meeting called by Councilmen Melvin Gateley and Tom Neumeyer to start a group that would work to upgrade the area around May Greene Elementary School...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Mary I. Taylor, 81, of Jonesboro died Wednesday, June 18, 1997, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born March 24, 1916, in Vienna, daughter of Arthur and Sophie Todd Croft. She and Henry C. "Pete" Taylor were married Dec. 24, 1954...

Donald J. Ridings, 59, of Arlington, Va., died Tuesday, June 17, 1997, from complications following spinal surgery. He was formerly of Cape Girardeau. He was born at Arbyrd, son of Gus Hill and Edith Masters Ridings. Ridings received bachelor and master degrees in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, a master's degree in city and regional planning from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and a juris doctorate degree from the University of Louisville in Louisville, Ky...

Ruth Withers, 79, 221 N. Sunset, died Tuesday, June 17, 1997, in Cape Girardeau. She was born Sept. 3, 1917, in Sikeston, daughter of Dr. E.W. and Mabel Shinn Harrelson. She and W.R. "Toad" Withers were married April 3, 1936, in Jonesboro, Ill. He died Oct. 25, 1982...

Sophia C. Vaughn, 80, of Cape Girardeau and formerly of Belleville, Ill., died Wednesday, June 18, 1997, at St. Francis Medical Center. Arrangements are incomplete with Ford and Sons Funeral Home.