Stories from Tuesday, September 8, 1998

William L. Killian of Orthopaedic Associates of Southeast Missouri, P.C., recently attended the 16th annual National Association of Orthopaedic Technician's meeting in Kansas City. Killian, a pedorthist with the Center for Foot and Ankle Care at Orhopaedic Associates, specializes in the manufacture of foot orthoses to alleviate foot problems caused by disease, overuse and injury...

This "Financial Focus" column is prepared by Edward Jones Investments, headquartered in St. Louis. Jones includes branches throughout the nation, including Cape Girardeau and Jackson. The individual retirement account is one of the top choices for retirement planning. That fact was confirmed in a survey by Zurich Kemper Investments...

A downtown Cape Girardeau gymnastics training facility has a new name and a new owner. Tammy Javier, previously of St. Louis, has purchased the Cape Gymnastics Center, 45 N. Main, renaming it the Elite Express Gymnastic Center. The business was purchased from Bill and Sue Hopkins, who operated the downtown facility a number of years...

Auffenberg Chrysler-Plymouth-Dodge will purchase Union County Motors, a Jonesboro, Ill., auto dealership that handles Chrysler, Plymouth and Dodge products, along with Jeep. "They have the same products that we have at Cape Girardeau," said Rex Probis, who will serve as general manager of both stores, in Auffenberg Auto Park and at Jonesboro...

First Discount Travel and World Travel Center have merged operations. First Discount Travel was founded in February 1977 and is owned by Mark and Shari Elfrink and Lloyd and Velma Whitledge. The agency in West Park Mall is a member of the American Society of Travel Agents, Cruise Lines International Association and Airlines Reporting Corp. and International Airlines Travel Agent Network...

Craftsman Office Supply has announced it will start "doing business as" (DBA) U.S. Office Products, Midwest District, Inc. immediately. the move is to identify Craftsman with affiliation with parent company, U.S. Office Products. "We're proud to be a part of the U.S. Office Products Family," said Bob Bohnsack, president of the local company...

Jade Manufacturing Products has started operations in a building at Independence and Broadview in Cape Girardeau. The building at one time housed General Sign Co. The company, which will employ about 10 people, has about 35,000 square feet for manufacturing and warehousing...

Technology and Networking Inc., a computer business, recently moved to 610 Second St. East, in Scott City. The new business, in a 2,000-square-foot building, builds computers, designs networks and Web pages and offers various other computer services...

The Charleston Health Club opened recently at 2751 E. Marshall in Charleston. The new facility, owned by Greg and Sue Huehmann, features a number of fitness training equipment, showers, locker rooms and a tanning bed, and offers club membership packages...

Carpet Direct recently opened at 614 Virginia St. in Sikeston. The new business, which provides floor coverings at discount prices, is owned by John and Connie Fodge.

Moll Printing of Sikeston has purchased Standard Printing Co. of Sikeston. The two companies will be combined into one large operation in Moll Printing's 9,200-square-foot building at 1012 Linn St. in Sikeston. Moll Printing was founded in 1980 by Mike Moll and his wife, Janet, after purchasing Lathum Printing in Sikeston...

A national organization, with local chapters, has changed its name. Professional Secretaries International has become the International Association of Administrative Professionals. The name change was approved and became effective during the association's recent international convention and education forum in Atlanta...

Mercantile Bank will be "breaking new ground" Friday. The special bank ground-breaking ceremony will be held at the site of the new banking facility at Jackson, on East Jackson Boulevard, across from the site of the new Wal-Mart Supercenter, at 3:30 p.m., to be followed by some events for children and adults...

M&W Packaging U.S. Inc. has received the top 1998 Excellence Awards in the Flexible Packaging Gravure category. The awards were presented by Package Printing and Converting Magazine earlier this month during the LabelExpo show at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare Ballroom in Chicago...

A.G. Edwards was ranked No. 1 in the latest stock-pickers study, conducted by Zacks Investment research. Edwards was No. 1 among the nation's top 15 brokerage firm with A.G. Edwards Focus Lit of recommended stocks, reported in the Wall Street Journal...

More than 2,000 visitors attended the Delta Center Field Day at Portageville recently. U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson and eight state legislators attended the annual field day, highlighted by two groundbreaking ceremonies, for the G.W. "Son" Rone Exhibit Hall and the Telecommunications Community Center, which will be constructed. Four agriculture tours were conducted...

The Dana Corp.'s Spicer Axle Division facility of Cape Girardeau was one of 52 Dana plants honored for environmental health and safety recently. The local facility received a flag to fly under the Dana Flag at the plant. The awards, presented at the Dana Technical Resource Park in Ottawa Lake during the plant managers meeting were awarded to facilities that met certain environmental and safety criteria developed by Dana's Environmental Health and Safety Council...

Auto interiors reflect computerization in today's automobile. "Night Vision:" High-tech eyes of the future. Cars have come a long ways from the day when starting the ignition meant turning a crank at the front of the car, leaving many a bruised, and even, broken thumb...

"Overview of Year 2000" is the topic of a seminar to be presented at Southwestern Bell TeleCommunity Center at Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff Friday. Michael Benzen, chief information officer for Missouri State Government, will present the two-hour video conference from 9 to 11 a.m...

Miracle Supply Company Inc., a wholesale plumbing, heating and industrial supply operation, will move into the 14,000-square-foot United Distributing building, near Kingshighway and Independence. Miracle Supply services a number of plumbing and mechanical contractors in Southeast Missouri...

Apple finally is showing profit again with Steve Jobs running the show unofficially. The founder of Apple has a true focus of direction for the company that until lately has lost ground on a daily basis to the Microsoft/Intel (BOLD)(WILTEL)(UNBOLD) juggernaut...

Lively is her name and her life. Marilyn Lively is the mother of six grown children who attained her education degree while the kids were still at home. Once she completed that degree, she maintained her high activity level by becoming a first-grade teacher at St. Vincent de Paul School...

Local school administrators said they aren't surprised by the low results posted by their students in the first mandatory round of state tests last spring. However, they want to see some improvement by next year. The Missouri Assessment Program, or MAP, is the state's new performance-based testing system. ...

A battle is brewing over whether slot machines in Missouri should be allowed on riverboat casinos that sit in artificial basins off the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Voters will decide that question on Nov. 3. Eleven of the state's 16 riverboat casinos operate "boats in moats."...

PERRYVILLE -- Perry County District 32 school officials are weighing space needs against voter concerns as they try to come up with a building plan to suit both. Dr. Rex Miller, superintendent of schools, said district officials plan to ask voters to approve a building funding package in April...

Each Labor Day, people throughout the country go to great lengths to raise money for the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Labor Day Telethon. Just ask Dean Gholson, president of the firefighters' union in Poplar Bluff. Gholson was so disappointed with last year's fund-raising efforts by members of the union he decided to take drastic measures. This year Gholson promised his members if they raised at least $2,000 for the telethon he would shave his head...

Lately, I've been in a writing slump, and I think it's beginning to show in my columns. So to beat that slump, I spent a few hours last week at Kent Library trying to find some inspiration and ideas for column topics. When I began writing this column, I didn't fully consider that it would be published EVERY week. ...

Majority Whip Tom DeLay's suggestion that the U.S. House stay in session until it acts on Kenneth Starr's forthcoming report on President Clinton is a good one. Not until Congress does what it may about Starr's findings will the matter finally be put to rest. Any congressional action, of course, would be based on the special prosecutor's long-awaited report, and Congress should decide whether Clinton's actions warrant impeachment before it goes home for the midterm elections...

To the editor: I am weary of having it supposed, as my rightist brothers claim to suppose, that Mr. Clinton's veracity even entered into the typical U.S. citizen's decision to vote for him. More probably it was a realization of the danger of having the two houses of Congress and the presidency all in the hands of a political party that prostitutes itself so completely and abjectly to Big Business, the Wild-eyed Religion and to the Pentagon. ...

To the editor: I have been researching the chief characteristics of adult children of alcoholics, also known as ACAs, and comparing them with frequent questions which have been brought forth concerning Bill Clinton. The results have certainly given me an insight as to why he has acted the way he has. This is by no means an attempt to excuse him from his actions. Clearly, however, it indicates the need for one to get professional help if he is from a dysfunctional family or an ACA...

The notion that circuit clerks should be appointed rather than elected isn't new, but when the chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court comes to town calling for clerks' appointments, most people take notice. That is what Duane Benton did in Cape Girardeau recently. ...

7:30 p.m. Tuesday City Hall Special meeting Action items Power and Light Committee -- Accept resignation of Alderman Jack Piepenbrok. -- Approve mayor's nomination of acting president of the Board of Aldermen. -- Approve mayor's appointment to fill term of Ward Four alderman...

7:30 p.m. Tuesday Study session 5 p.m. Public hearings -- Vacate city's interest in a 10-foot utility easement between lots 3 and 4, Block 3, in Cape Meadows Subdivision. -- Rezone 238 S. Spanish St. from M-1 light industrial to R-4 multiple family residential for Charles L. and Judith A. Hutson...

After taking much of the weekend off following last Thursday's season-opening win over Truman State, Southeast Missouri State University's football Indians have started preparing for their next opponent. In the second of four consecutive home games to start the 1998 season, the Indians will face Indiana State in a 7 p.m. kickoff Saturday at Houck Stadium...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Southeast Missouri State University volleyball coach Cindy Gannon likes to play the toughest competition possible to help prepare her team for the Ohio Valley Conference season. The Otahkians -- who have won five consecutive OVC regular-season championships -- evidently faced plenty of competition over the weekend...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Larry Jeffries, 63, of Cairo died Monday, Sept. 7, 1998, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Oct. 5, 1934, at Cairo, son of Albert and Myrtle Ray Jeffries. He and Darlene Nye married May 7, 1965, at Cairo. Jeffries was a veteran of the U.S. Army and a member of the AMVETS...

A Jackson man was killed and his brother injured Sunday when the all-terrain vehicle on which they were riding struck a tree four miles east of Pocahontas. Earl Graham, 42, of Jackson was a passenger on the ATV driven by his brother, Roger Graham, 34, of Cape Girardeau...

JACKSON -- Earl D. Graham, 42, of Jackson died Sunday, Sept. 6, 1998, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. He was born Nov. 17, 1955, at Chaffee, son of Otto and Faye Ridings Graham. He and Christine Berkowich were married on Aug. 24, 1991, at Cape Girardeau...

MOREHOUSE -- Naomi Ferrell Love, 81, of Morehouse died Saturday, Sept. 5, 1998, at the Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born Oct. 25, 1916, at Bertrand, daughter of Paul P. and Ora Lee Miles Ferrell. She and Leland E. Love were married on June 7, 1941, at Rockford, Ill. He died Aug. 22, 1995...

SIKESTON -- Evelyn Walters Hyslip, 70, of Sikeston, formerly of Mississippi County, died Saturday, Sept. 5, 1998, at the Clearview Nursing Center. She was born Nov. 14, 1927, in Mississippi County, daughter of Tyrus Henry and Julia Weakley Walters. She and the Rev. Virgil Hyslip were married on May 14, 1947. He died May 11, 1992...

COMMERCE -- Leo Joseph LeDure, 88, of Commerce died Sunday, Sept. 6, 1998, at the Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau. He was born Sept. 6, 1910, at Commerce, son of Nick and Nellie Arnold LeDure. He and Mamie A. Sander were married on Dec. 20, 1933, at Ancell...

Ruth Wilson Owen, 78, of Cape Girardeau, formerly of Advance, died Sunday, Sept. 6, 1998, at Doctor's Hospital in Poplar Bluff. She was born June 23, 1920, at Bell City, daughter of John and Verl Williams Wilson. She and Ralph Owen were married on Jan. 4, 1941, at Cape Girardeau...

MARBLE HILL -- Leoma Elizabeth Cureton of Bay, formerly of Marble Hill, died Monday, Sept. 7, 1998, at St. Mary's Medical Center in Jefferson City. Arrangements are incomplete at Hutchings Funeral Chapel in Marble Hill.

PAINTON -- Harold Joseph Schoen, 61, of Cheraw, S.C., formerly of Painton, died Sunday, Sept. 6, 1998, at his home. He was born in Painton, son of Lawrence Michael and Bertha Viola Kapfer Schoen. He was a U.S. Air Force veteran. He was an employee of Ina Bearing for 23 years and was a second shift lead man...

CHARLESTON -- Ola Stanfill of Charleston died Saturday, Sept. 5, 1998, at the Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was 78. She was born Sept. 29, 1919, in Obion, Tenn., daughter of Sam and Aurora Kendall Tanner. She married Stan Stanfill Aug. 11, 1956. He died May 26, 1985...