Stories from Tuesday, July 21, 1998

The Sabres, a local under-14 girls select soccer team, are no longer sending off box tops to Kellogg's. Instead, they're shipping off 17 players and two coaches to Orlando, Fla., on July 29. In what started as an innocent, mad-dash collection of 25 box tops to enter the Kellogg's sponsored tournament, has turned into a memorable experience for the team...

The Giant City Nature Trail winds through towering rock formations and shows off an abundance of wild plants. Deer are a common sight for visitors to Giant City State Park. The park is off Highway 51 south of Carbondale near the town of Makanda. Alto Pass off Highway 127 makes a nice stop along the way. The town has wineries, antiques and a hiking trail along bluffs overlooking the valleys of Southern Illinois...

Last week we talked about the spoken word. This week we'll take a look at the written word. Hundreds of sites for people who collect autographs can be found on the Internet. You can also find practical information, like addresses for sports and entertainment celebrities...

Several area students were named to the deans' lists or honor rolls at the University of Missouri-Columbia for the winter 1998 semester. The following students earned academic honors. BOLLINGER COUNTY: Leopold: Melissa Engelen. Marble Hill: Earl Tipton, Jeffrey Turner...

Horrid heat and humidity rule the Southeast Missouri weather forecast this week. The same hot-weather system that is baking Texas and Oklahoma has spread into the Mississippi River Valley, said Paul Witsaman, meteorologist with the National Weather Service at Paducah, Ky...

PATTON -- A Park Hills man and his three young children were injured when the vehicle in which they were riding ran of Highway 72 early Sunday. Driver John F. Ramo, 33, and his children, Sean, 7, Sarah, 2, and Brandon, 4, were all injured in the accident, which occurred at 4:30 a.m., said the Missouri Highway Patrol. The children reside in Birmingham, Ala...

It seems that Jerry Springer is at it again. After a hiatus from the expletive-filled slugouts among guests on his popular daytime talk show, the fights are back. Some people are so upset the fights have returned that they are staging a boycott. Again...

I WOULD like to know who can tell me who I would need to call to start getting things changed for children's safety as far as supposedly accidental deaths go. I just read an article about a judge in Marion, Ill., who threw the charges out of court about four children who died in a trailer, and I am furious. ...

Under the law the General Assembly passed this year to try to extricate Missouri from the St. Louis desegregation case, a major burden falls on taxpayers in the City of St. Louis. A portion of additional state funding for St. Louis schools is contingent upon St. ...

A left-wing group called Missourians for Tax justice wants the state to exempt food purchases from local sales taxes and replace the lost revenue with an income-tax increase. The proposal would effect a net tax increase. We nominate this as the silliest idea since some of the same folks two years ago proposed that Missouri adopt the nation's highest minimum wage...

To the editor: Initially, my family and I were in favor of the southernmost route proposed (by the Missouri Department of Transportation for Highway 34-72 traffic from west of Jackson to Cape Girardeau) as a way to effectively draw heavy traffic from the west, southwest and northwest. ...

To the editor: In 1976, I cast my first vote in a Democratic primary in New Madrid. For my vote I was paid $5, handed to me with a sample ballot by the driver who delivered me to the polling place. This was nothing unusual. To most of us growing up in that area, it was simply accepted as the way elections were run. ...

Southwestern Bell Telephone says telephone slamming complaints in Missouri have dropped in the past three months. Slamming is the deceptive and illegal practice in which a consumer or business local or long-distance telephone service provider is switched without the customer's permission...

BLOOMFIELD -- Presiding commissioner and township committeeman and committeewoman will be the only contested local races when Stoddard County voters go to the polls for the Aug. 4 primary election. On the Democratic ticket, incumbent Norman Moore is running for re-election against three opponents who want his seat as Stoddard County presiding commissioner. The challengers are Pete Snider, Bob Blair and Jerry D. Moore...

The Cape Girardeau Municipal Band will perform at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Capaha Park band shell. Special entertainer will be Steve Schaffner. Celebrity guest conductor will be Kevin Govero. The band is scheduled to perform "Field of Color March," "Light Cavalry Overture," "Horns a Hunting," "Instant Concert," "Manhattan Beach March," "Cable at Night," and selections from "The Wiz."...

The city of Cape Girardeau will implement a new computer program to help estimate, and staff members hope, reduce, earthquake losses. The City Council Monday night approved agreements with the State Emergency Management Agency to purchase HAZUS, and with Southeast Missouri State University's Center for Earthquake Studies to implement the software...

JACKSON -- The first phase of a project intended to extend East Main Street to Interstate 55 can now proceed, City Administrator Steve Wilson said Monday. "The hard part's over." That was the acquisition of easements between Oak Hill Road and Shawnee, a distance of about 2,000 feet...

Chaffee, the hottest American Legion baseball team in Southeast Missouri entering the District 14 Tournament, kept up its sizzling ways Monday. Taking advantage of a 16-hit attack, third-seeded Chaffee downed sixth-seeded Van Buren 11-5 during an opening-round game at Capaha Field...

Jackson's American Legion baseball team entered Monday's opening of the District 14 Tournament as the last seed after having gone 0-12 during regular-season district play. But the Indians didn't appear to be lacking for confidence. "We've played a lot of people close during the season and I told them to just hang in there," said Jackson coach Robert White in describing his pre-game talk. "I told them that, as the last seed, we had nothing to lose."...

Kim Anderson defeated Mary Bey 6-1, 2-6, 6-1 Sunday to win the women's open title of the first annual Coca-Cola Classic Tennis Tournament Classic held in Jackson. The finals of the men's open and men's A divisions had previously been reported.

At 2-years-old, Eric Hayes started "messing" with his dad's golf clubs. When Eric, the son of Rocky and Ann Hayes of Cape Girardeau, was three he started making trips with his dad to the golf course. At four, he was a regular golf partner. Now just five-years-old, Eric is coming off a sixth-place finish out of 50 golfers ages 3-5 during the Pepsi Little People's Golf Championships in Quincy, Ill. this past June...

PUXICO -- Funeral for Donald Reiter of Puxico will be held at 10 a.m. today at Watkins and Sons Funeral Home in Puxico. The Revs. Don Bates and Wiley McGhee will officiate, with burial in Puxico Cemetery. Reiter, 80, died Sunday, July 19, 1998, at Lucy Lee Hospital in Poplar Bluff...

WOLF LAKE, Ill. -- Funeral for Wesley Alan Davis of Wolf Lake will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Hileman and Parr Funeral Home in Jonesboro. The Rev. Raymond Oxford will officiate, with burial in St. John's Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home after 5 p.m. today...

BLOOMFIELD -- Grace Tessens, 85, of Bloomfield died Sunday, July 19, 1998, at her home. She was born Feb. 11, 1913, in Hackleburg, Ala., daughter of Zachary Taylor and Lore Rena Mays Burleson. She and Lawrence Tessens were married Dec. 23, 1944, in Detroit, Mich. He died Feb. 2, 1985...

SIKESTON -- Funeral for Ozell "Ode" Dye of Fredericktown will be held at 11 a.m. today at Ponder Funeral Home. the Rev. Kelly Grubbs will officiate, with burial in Garden of Memories Cemetery. Dye, 87, died Sunday, July 19, 1998, at his home. He was born Nov. 27, 1910, at Holcomb, son of William and Lula Easary Dye. He and Zola Boone were married May 10, 1932. She died Feb. 20, 1973. He later married Eva Davis May 7, 1974. She died Feb. 19, 1998...

SIKESTON -- Marjorie L. Alsup, 76, of Sikeston died Sunday, July 19, 1998, at Sells Rest Home in Matthews. She was born Nov. 13, 1921, at Morley, daughter of Edward T. and Zella Payton Lee. She and Roy W. Alsup were married Aug. 29, 1940, in Sikeston. He died Jan. 13, 1994...

DEXTER -- Margaret Sitz, 79, of Fulton, Ky., died Monday, July 20, 1998, at Western Baptist Hospital in Paducah, Ky. She was born Jan. 17, 1919, at Aid, daughter of Emerson A. and Irene Ross Patterson. She and Bert Sitze were married March 14, 1936, at Essex. He died Feb. 7, 1995...

Ollie Myrtle Wills, 97, of Cape Girardeau died Sunday, July 19, 1998, at Fountainbleau Lodge. She was born Oct. 17, 1900, in Carroll County, Tenn., daughter of John Gray and Sarah Emma Durden Pinkston. She and Lester Henry "Fuzzy" Wills were married Nov. 27, 1919, at Fornfelt. He died Nov. 16, 1978...

Rose C. Weber, 83, of Chillicothe died Sunday, July 19, 1998, at Hedrick Medical Center. She was born March 16, 1915, at New Wells, daughter of August G. and Christine Lindner Reisenbichler. She and Elmer Weber were married June 10, 1934, in St. Louis. He died Aug. 24, 1973...

Daughter to Todd A. and LeeAnn M. Grayson of Jackson, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 11:28 a.m. Monday, July 13, 1998. Name, Olivia Ann. Weight, 4 pounds 12 ounces. Mrs. Grayson is the former Lee Ann John, daughter of David and Shirley John of St. Joseph. Mr. and Mrs. Grayson are employed at Procter & Gamble. He is the son of Bob and Barb Grayson of Wildwood...

JACKSON -- Funeral for Stacy Preston Sims of Jackson will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at First Presbyterian Church in Cape Girardeau. The Rev. Paul Currie will officiate, with burial in Memorial Park in Cape Girardeau. Friends may call at Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel in Cape Girardeau from 4-9 p.m. today...