Stories from Friday, July 11, 1997

To the editor: The Moral Majority has finally been heard in the halls of Congress. Recently, several members of Congress took a stand against the National Endowment for the Arts' unwise use of our tax dollars to support pornographic, anti-Christian, anti-American, anti-family works of "art." We have helped to spark a movement to eliminate taxpayer funding of the NEA by supporting our Christian lobbyists in Washington...

To the editor: Retired folks must often find an answer to the query, "What, if anything of significance, are you doing now that you have retired?" I have sometimes turned the question back to the interrogator, substituting for "have retired" the phrase "are still working." In the last year I have had time and energy to read many things that I could not have read while I was still teaching, but rarely do I read a popular modern novel. ...

Meanwhile, at least one resident of Mississippi County believes the prospects for a prison at Charleston lends weight to the argument that the old county courthouse, which was the victim of an arsonist earlier this year, should be restored instead of destroyed and replaced...

There are still several hurdles to cross, but folks in Charleston who have been working hard to get the Mississippi County seat selected as the site for a new state prison are elated. A legislative committee this week picked Charleston as a finalist for one of two prisons to be built in Missouri...

A Wednesday night meeting resulted in the addition of program content indicators to the 6-month-old television ratings system, but neither opponents nor supporters are jumping for joy over the new symbols. The revamped list of content-based indicators are set to join existing age-based indicators by Oct. ...

JACKSON -- The honor system hasn't been enough to ensure the safety of deputies at the Cape Girardeau County Jail, especially after a violent escape attempt in February. So Sheriff John Jordan had a steel-bar cage installed to replace the honor system -- a thin yellow line -- that served to keep inmates away from a potential exit...

Two state senators have asked Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon to appoint independent counsel or a special assistant attorney general to defend the constitutionality of a law denying family planning money for Planned Parenthood. Sens. Steve Ehlmann, R-St. Charles, and John Schneider, D-Florissant, made the request in a letter Thursday to Nixon...

TAMMS, Ill. -- Tony Smith's regular youth baseball season in Tamms is over for the summer, but his television season is just beginning. Tony, 8, the one-armed son of Jim and Paula Smith of Olive Branch, will be featured on "Inside Edition" on WPSD-TV at 4 p.m. today...

Farm life can be hard work, but there are rewards too -- if you don't count milking every morning and every night. The other day I passed a field where hay was being baled. The baled hay was being loaded by some strong men onto a wagon. The fellow on the wagon obviously had a system -- and a good one -- for keeping the large load in place. Another fellow in the field tossed bales onto the wagon. And a third fellow drove the tractor that pulled the wagon...

It's been two years since the host Kohlfeld Capahas last won the National Baseball Congress state title. But the 22-2 Capahas look poised to take that title back from two-time defending champion O.B. Clark of St. Louis this weekend as the five-team, double-elimination tournament begins tonight at Capaha Field...

PERRYVILLE -- Cape Legion Ford & Sons broke open a tight game with an eight-run seventh inning and defeated Perryville 12-1 Thursday night via the 10-run rule. Cape Legion (26-12) took a 4-1 lead into the seventh inning. Jeff Lappe delivered the big blow in the outburst with a bases-loaded triple. An errant throw on the play also allowed Lappe to score...

Former Cape Girardeau resident Barbara (Miesner) Stephan recently repeated as the California Senior Women's Amateur state champion. Stephen fired rounds of 77, 77 and 76 at par-70 Carmel Valley Ranch, winning by two strokes. Stephan is a 1960 graduate of Cape Central...

Perryville's Celeste Ramsey, a three-time 3A Missouri state champion, is among seven recruits signed by the Southeast Missouri Women's track program. Ramsey won the 3A cross country title along with the state mile and 3,200 championships her senior year. She will also run cross country at Southeast...

Herman Goodwin, 84, of Morehouse, died Thursday, July 10, 1997, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. He was born July 7, 1913, in Canalou, the son of Ester Edward and Della Hobbs Goodwin. On June 6, 1933, he married Juanita Lucille Jordan at Bloomfield. She died June 1, 1997...

BENTON -- Denis Joseph LeGrand, 58, of Benton died Thursday, July 10, 1997, at his home. He was born Jan. 21, 1939, in Benton, the son of Denis Frank and Anita Dirnberger LeGrand. On Nov. 27, 1965, he married Patricia Bisher in Chaffee. He was a lifelong resident of Benton, a farmer and owned LeGrand Farm Co...

Funeral service for Monte Lee Grant of Norman, Okla., will be held at 2 p.m. today at Memorial Presbyterian Church in Norman. Dr. Jim Burns will officiate, with burial in IOOF Cemetery at Norman. Mayes Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Grant, 41, died Tuesday, July 8, 1997, at Norman Regional Hospital, following a sudden illness...

Son to Don Nanney and Linda Marie Wells of Marble Hill, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 12:54 p.m. Thursday, June 26, 1997. Name, Darren Andrew. Weight, 7 pounds 2 ounces. Fourth child, second son. Miss Wells is the daughter of Nadine C. Wells of Glen Allen, and the late Murphy L. Wells. Nanney is the son of Lee Nanney of Marble Hill, and the late Elsie Nanney. He is a carpenter with Lincoln and McBride Paint and Aluminum Co...

Marian Clymer and her husband have lived on Bevin Drive for 34 years, and they are tired of the dust. Bevin Drive is one of the Cape Girardeau's gravel residential streets. Some time this summer, the city plans to pave seven of them with four inches of asphalt...

ALTON, Ill. -- William R. "Bill" Klein, 70, of Alton died Tuesday, July 8, 1997, at his home. He was born Aug. 8, 1926, in Cairo, the son of George J. and Doris Bucher Klein. He worked as a field auditor for the Internal Revenue Service from 1957 to 1960, then accepted a position as a systems analyst at the Olin Corp. in Alton. He retired in May 1990. While retired, he worked part-time at the former Sears Paint and Hardware store in Alton...

Interior walls of a new 98,000-square-foot, $12-million-plus medical office building are being erected 100 feet east of the St. Francis Medical Center's emergency room entrance, and the office building should be completed in January. Richard Essner, St. Francis environmental engineer service director, said the construction is on schedule...