Stories from Sunday, November 16, 1997

To the editor: Recently your editorial stated that the St. Louis MetroLink rail system was literally given to St. Louis by the federal government. A very large part, yes, so they would begin it. Not all. Taxes and funds from the people were and still are used. It does not support itself...

Fuller receives promotion John C. Fuller has been promoted in the U.S. Army to the rank of sergeant. Fuller is a heavy equipment operator assigned to the 5th Engineer Battalion at Fort Leonard Wood, in Waynesville. He is the son of Celia McNew of Wappapello and Charles E. Fuller of Colorado Springs, Colo...

25 years ago, 1972 Forty-two children aboard Jackson R-2 District school bus escaped injury when bus and car collided east of Jackson on Highway 61 Thursday morning; also uninjured were bus driver, Amos Davis, 64, and driver of car, Donald J. Brown, 18, both of Jackson...

Southeast Missouri State University will offer a review course for area high school juniors and seniors preparing to take the American College Testing Assessment (ACT) Exam. Review sessions are conducted by Southeast faculty and staff and area high school teachers, and will be held from 6-9 p.m. in Dempster Hall on the Southeast campus. Four sessions are available, one for each area of the ACT assessment...

Last Saturday evening I couldn't get the computer in our home to work properly. I am not a real good computer person. So I can get very frustrated when it doesn't just do what I want it to do when I turn it on. My family always try to calm me down by saying: "Dad, now don't get so stressed out on these little things." Eventually they worked out all the computer bugs that would have taken me hours to try to figure out in the book...

Gianetta Baker of East Cape Girardeau, Ill., earned the Salvation Army's highest award in the Sunbeam Program. Baker received the Commissioner's Sunbeam Award Friday during a Court of Honor at the Salvation Army from Rita Summit, divisional guard director from St. Louis. A number of youths received awards...

Channel-surfing late one evening earlier this year, I came across a C-SPAN broadcast of a speech House Speaker Newt Gingrich was delivering. He was discussing the dramatic reductions in our military that have occurred since the Gulf War. As Gingrich the historian is wont to do, he cited a rather obscure book by an historian whose name escapes me. However, the title was, when coupled with Gingrich's compelling explanation of it, unforgettable: "First Battles."...

In a statement that left little room for doubt, retired Gen. Colin Powell once again has taken himself out of presidential politics. Speaking this past week in Des Moines, the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff emphatically declared he wouldn't be a candidate in 2000...

Three of the more senior Democrats are not seeking re-election after four terms in the U.S. Senate. Had the three decided to attempt to stay on, chances are that at least two would have been elected: Dale Bumpers, D-Ark., and Wendell Ford, D-Ky. John Glenn, D-Ohio, would have faced an uphill battle...

A surprise dustup over the issue of nationally standardized student testing became one of the interesting controversies that marked the congressional session now grinding to a close. President Bill Clinton strongly favored the notion, even pledging to veto any measure that didn't contain his cherished national testing scheme. Principled critics arose, among which notably included the Missouri State Teachers Association, a commonsense, mainstream organization of educators...

To the editor: Every once in awhile, something comes up that reminds a person of his ancestral heritage, and I wonder if the same incident might perhaps remind someone else of the same. Let me explain. Several years ago Cape Girardeau names two of the city parks. ...

To the editor: Congratulations to the students and teachers at Central High School for a very moving and impressive Veterans Day program. As I sat in the auditorium and the speakers began telling about the wars from the Civil War to the soldiers serving in Desert Storm, my mind was full of personal memories...

The Cape Girardeau School District is experiencing its busiest period in recent memory. A $14 million bond issue was successfully passed earlier in the year to finance upgrading, construction and expansion of district facilities. Conceptual drawings are being sketched, principals have been chosen and in some cases, dirt is being moved and foundations are being laid...

Less than a century ago Native Americans could not legally live in Missouri. "They couldn't hunt here, they couldn't fish here," said Michael "Grizzley" Seabaugh, whose grandfather was a full-blooded Cherokee. "In fact, they couldn't legally live here," said Seabaugh...

Like the other three local boys who will appear in the upcoming production of the "Nutcracker," Jeff Koeller didn't have to try out. He was drafted. No boys showed up at auditions last September when Allen Fields, artistic director of the Minnesota Ballet, came to Cape Girardeau to cast the "Nutcracker." Fortunately, a few of the girls who were cast had willing brothers...

Justin Nesahkluah has been dancing at Indian powwows more than 14 years. But he learned to dance long before entering Native American dance circles. Nesahkluah, a Kiowa-Apache, is a men's fancer dancer, who specializes in the hoop dance. "I'm comfortable with 13 hoops," said Nesahkluah, who was in full dance regalia at the Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Purchase Powwow, held Saturday at the Student Recreation Center on Southeast Missouri University campus...

It's tough being a parent. There's no operating manual or road map to raising good kids. You can't learn it in the classroom. Instead, you learn parenting skills on the run while you're hustling your kids off to school and day care, stocking up on diapers at the grocery store or making a mad dash through the toy store with your kids in tow...

Every Memorial Day in her childhood, Louise Duncan recalls, families brought basket dinners and hiked from Highway 74 up the hill to Shady Grove Cemetery. There, men, women and children spent the day cleaning around the graves. "It was a big day," the 66-year-old Duncan says. "Even after the old building completely fell down there was still a frame where we used to spread the dinner."...

Performing on stage has always been magical for Rebecca Neeley. At 2 she was dancing in the aisles at her sister's recital. The year she graduated from Cape Central High School, she was Cape Girardeau County Junior Miss and first runner-up to Missouri's Junior Miss...

Well, tonight the Gary Garner era of Southeast Missouri State University basketball officially begins. The two exhibition games over the past week, wins over Dream Builders Monday night and Albacomp of Hungary Friday night, were nice warmups as Garner began introducing his style of coaching and play to area fans...

Ready or not, it's time to start playing basketball games that count. That's the situation Southeast Missouri State University's Indians find themselves in today as they prepare to meet Big 12 Conference member Colorado in the season opener for both teams...

MOREHEAD, Ky. -- It's now official. Southeast Missouri State University's regular-season domination of Ohio Valley Conference volleyball lives on for at least another season. Despite losing many of their key players from a year ago, the Otahkians wrapped up their fifth consecutive OVC regular-season championship Saturday by rolling past host Morehead State 15-5, 15-8, 15-3...

Southeast coach John Mumford embraced his daughter jenna after Saturday's emotional come-from-behind win over SIU. There have been plenty of rocky times during this Southeast Missouri State University football season but the road got a whole lot smoother Saturday afternoon...

For most people, competing in the Olympics is about as realistic a goal as becoming president of the United States. The odds of either happening are extremely long. Cape Girardeau's Erin Vogt has no dreams of becoming this country's first female president. But she does have her sights set on swimming in the 2000 Olympics. And by all accounts, that's not as long a shot as one might imagine...

Southeast Missouri State University's football team shuffled its quarterbacks Saturday and the end result was a season-high 490 yards worth of offense during an impressive 28-17 come-from-behind win over Southern Illinois. Starting quarterback Justin Martini did not practice all that much during the week because of a shoulder problem so Jeff Shaw got the starting nod for Saturday's game at Houck Stadium...

Perhaps the best thing about Saturday night's season opener for Southeast Missouri State University's women's basketball team is that it only counts as one game. That fact may or may not make Otahkian coach Ed Arnzen feel any better about his squad's disappointing 71-56 loss to Wisconsin-Milwaukee in front of 716 fans at the Show Me Center...

When you think of parrots what do you think of? Do you picture a tropical rain forest with lush vegetation? Perhaps you think of the brightly colored birds on display at the zoo or in pet shops. You may even recall sounds of a talking bird. Whatever images your mind may generate, I doubt you think of Missouri. That is because we are about 90-100 years too late. For this reason it may be difficult to envision a tropical bird flocking over all of the state...

SIKESTON -- Evelyn Rosetta Ross Patterson, 62, died Friday, Nov. 14, 1997, at her home in Sikeston. She was born in Parma, Sept. 16, 1935, daughter of Elmer L. and Ruby Jordan Ross. She was a nurse for Dr. A.P. Sargent. She was a member of the Trinity Gospel Church...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Geneva L. Finley Bush, 73, of Kansas City, formerly of East Prairie, died Friday, Nov. 14, 1997, in Shawnee Mission Hospital at Shawnee Mission, Kan. She was born Sept. 20, 1924, daughter of Clarence and Pearl Groves George. She married Cedric Finley in April 1943. He died in May 1967. She married Willie A. Bush Feb. 29, 1968. He survives...

Erna Militzer, 84, of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, Nov. 15, 1997, at the Lutheran Home. She was born Oct. 16, 1913, at Wittenberg, daughter of Theodore and Dora Lueders Militzer. She was owner and operator of Erna's Beauty Salon in Cape Girardeau for 50 years, before retiring in 1981...

ANNA, Ill. -- Dr. H. Russell Casper, 79, of Anna died Friday, Nov. 14, 1997, at the Illinois Veterans Home in Anna. He was born June 3, 1918, in Anna, son of Howard Henry and Cecil Lula Boswell Casper. He married Rosella Kirkwood on Sept. 25, 1945, in Great Lakes, Ill. She survives...

William H. Frye, 69, of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, Nov. 15, 1997, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. He was born July 15, 1928, in Cape Girardeau, son of J. Grant and Emma Brucker Frye. He married Patricia P. Karraker at Marble Hill on April 13, 1982. She survives...

TAMMS, Ill. -- Albert H. Davis, 53, of Tamms died Saturday, Nov. 15, 1997, at the St. Francis Medical Center. He was born Oct. 29, 1944, in Cairo, the son of Warren H. Davis and Edna M. Reed Davis. He was a former employee with the Illinois Mineral Specialty Minerals in Elco for 14 years...

Kenneth Copeland Stewart, 57, of Sesser, Ill., and formerly of Tamms died Saturday, Nov. 15, 1997, in Sesser. He was born May 12, 1940, in Kentucky, the son of Zollie Raymond Stewart and Helen Florence Berry Stewart. He served in the armed forces. Survivors include his mother of Sesser; a daughter, Lisa J. Whitis of Sesser; a son, Jerry Reed of Cairo; three sisters, Florence Haynes of Ullin, Georgia Olsen and Barbara Atchison of Sesser; and two grandchildren...

The Grace United Methodist Women's mission group meetings will be held Tuesday at the church. At 9:30 a.m., Charline Caldwell's Group and Betty Statler's Group will meet. Patsy Palmer will present the program for the Caldwell group, with Rosalie Francis and Caldlwell co-hostesses. Opal Collins will present the program for the Statler Group, with Inez Morrison and Lois Hahs as co-hostesses...

Norval "John" Dunn, 76, of Crystal City and formerly of New Wells died Saturday, Nov. 15, 1997, at the Crystal Oaks Nursing Home. He was born Feb, 21, 1921, at Neely's Landing, the son of Curtis and Ida Ramsey Dunn. He married Elsie Perr on Feb. 17, 1948. She died June 14, 1997...

DUTCHTOWN -- Ercie Mae Tucker, 89, of Dutchtown died Saturday, Nov. 15, 1997, at Beverly Health and Rehabilitation Center in Cape Girardeau. Arrangements are incomplete at Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Scott City.

Clifford M. Heaps, 87, of Pevely and a native of Perry County, died Friday, Nov. 14, 1997. He was born March 9, 1910, in Perry County to James and Carrie Coffey Heaps. He married Lena B. Wade in September 1966. He was a member of Whitewater Christian Church and the Merchant Marines...

Bryan Lambuth has been playing around pool tables since he was 4 years old, but he didn't begin playing the game of pool competitively until a few years ago. Lambuth now plays weekly as part of the "Wizards" team in the SEMO Recreational Leagues. Pool, once known as a "hustler's" bar sport, is now one of the most popular sports in America. About 5,000 people in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois play on teams in the recreational leagues, said Rick Brown, who coordinates the SEMO leagues...

Jean Bell Mosley's new autobiography, "For Most of the Century," is only available in serialized form in the Southeast Missourian. Return each week for her continuing story. Visiting town and city cousins, accustomed to the sound of motors running, squeak of tires and brakes, factory whistles, and voices seemingly everywhere, must have thought it very quiet on the farm, but we had our own symphony of sounds. ...