Stories from Saturday, May 20, 2000

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in." -- Matthew 25:35 Safeya Shardya Anderson was graciously welcomed into the world and to the Helping Hands House as its first guest when her family needed a place to stay near Christmastime...

JACKSON -- Dorothy Heise spends her Thursday mornings stacking canned goods and handing out food to the needy at the Jackson Ministerial Alliance food pantry. "Most of them really need it," she says of those served by the pantry. Fellow volunteer, Mildred Varnum, agrees. "I was raised during the Depression," she points out. "I have a feeling for the people."...

Corea Woods has an uncomplimentary nickname for Cape Girardeau police officer Chris Muench, who arrested her this week. But she still likes him. Muench is trying to get her a job. "He's cool," Woods said. Although Muench is not offering job leads to everyone he arrests, he said it is a help to some...

Just a few years ago, Will Glennon never envisioned that he would head up a national Random Acts of Kindness Foundation and promote kindness as a full-time job. Glennon, who has the nickname of "Dr. Kindness," will speak in Cape Girardeau at 6 tonight. He will lead a kindness rally at the Westfield Shoppingtown West Park in the JCPenney court...

For the next eight months, driving on Broadway will be more difficult than usual. Sections of Cape Girardeau's favorite cruising street between Clark Street and Perry Avenue will be one way only, and for some periods of as long as two weeks single blocks will be closed entirely while construction crews widen the two lanes to four...

SCOTT CITY -- Mayor Tim Porch hopes the Missouri Department of Transportation will cruise ahead with efforts to address the traffic bottleneck at the Interstate 55 interchange at Scott City. But improving the interchange isn't enough, he told MoDOT officials Friday. "We need another way out of town."...

Parents opposed to the Cape Girardeau Board of Education's decision to adjust boundaries between Franklin and Blanchard elementary schools have dropped the argument for now. However, they want to make sure school officials include them in the development of any educational plans created to spend federal money gained at Franklin because of the boundary adjustments...

When my sister was a little girl, we had all the squabbles you could expect in a household of two kids. I was the oldest child, and therefore resented the cute little person who had doting godparents and stole all my thunder since she did everything before I did...

They were there to remember James Froemsdorf. And Timothy Ruopp. And many others. They were there to pay tribute to their own, those in the law enforcement community who died in the line of duty. Friday, in the shadow of the flagpole at the entrance of Cape County Park North, officers from around the area lined up with white roses to honor and respect their fallen peers...

Members of the Community Caring Council on Friday gave approval for the council to move forward with becoming its own hiring agent, a move prompted by the growth of council programs. The Caring Council is made up of representatives from area service agencies and began about 11 years ago to bring those representatives together to share information, said Shirley Ramsey, executive director of the Community Caring Council...

Thirty barges that ran aground when the tow boat pushing them lost power were back on their way down river on Friday. The barges ran aground at approximately Mile 54 on the Mississippi River Wednesday afternoon when the boat M/V Frank Haendiges, owned by American Commercial Barge Lines of Jeffersonville, Ind., lost power as it was pushing the barges southward, according to a spokesman for Cape Girardeau Fleeting, which help pull some of the barges off the bank...

Residents in South Cape Girardeau feel safe and are generally satisfied with police, says a federally sponsored survey. Police and others in law enforcement were encouraged by the results, which were gathered this spring through a cooperative effort by Weed and Seed, police and Southeast Missouri State University...

Richard Kline, Reform Party candidate for governor of Missouri, faces third-degree assault charges, following an incident at the St. Charles County Administrative Building Thursday. Kline, 59, of Gipsy in Bollinger County, was released Thursday evening on bond. He was arrested earlier in the day when St. Charles County assessor Gene Zimmerman said Kline slapped him, following a confrontation about passing out campaign literature in the office areas of the county building...

Southeast Missouri State University demonstrated its bounce-back ability in a big way Friday to set up a rematch in today's championship round of the Ohio Valley Conference baseball tournament. The second-seeded Indians shook off their heartbreaking loss to third-seeded Middle Tennessee early Friday (see related story) to pound fourth-seeded Austin Peay 13-0 and top-seeded Eastern Kentucky 15-5 as they ended the seasons for both squads...

The baseball game that wouldn't end has to be regarded as a classic in anybody's book. Southeast Missouri State University and Middle Tennessee battled through a pair of weather-related delays -- the second of which made the game stretch over into a second day -- before MTSU squeezed out a 3-2, 10-inning victory in the winner's bracket semifinals of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament at Capaha Field...

PERRYVILLE -- Perryville High School saw its third and most successful girls soccer season end with a 1-0 loss to St. Louis Notre Dame in the Class 1A-3A, District 1 soccer championship game Friday at Perryville High School. Notre Dame broke a scoreless deadlock with 13 minutes remaining on a free kick just outside the penalty box. The redirected kick eluded goaltender Amanda Nuyt, who had been impenetrable to that point...

PULASKI, Ill. -- Mary J. Palmisano, 73, of Champaign died Friday, May 19, 2000, at Provena Covenant Medical Center in Champaign. She was born May 5, 1927, in Ullin, daughter of William and Marie Schaeffer Stokes. She and Michael Palmisano were married in 1951...

SIKESTON -- Deneen Couch, 74, of Sikeston died Friday, May 19, 2000, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born May 3, 1926, at Sikeston, son of Clarence and Marian Palmer Couch. He and Oneta Cunningham were married Dec. 18, 1948, in Sikeston...

CHARLESTON -- Duane Kent Eastman, 43, of Charleston died Friday, May 19, 2000, from injuries received in an automobile accident near Charleston. He was born Feb. 18, 1957, in Sikeston, son of Duane Guy and Betty Allen Eastman. Eastman was a graduate of Charleston High School. He was a superintendent with Biokyowa Inc. in Cape Girardeau. He retired as a captain with Missouri National Guard...

Tillman Wills, 85, of Cape Girardeau died Friday, May 19, 2000, at Chateau Girardeau. McCombs Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau is in charge of arrangements.

SIKESTON -- Wallace Watson Jr., 54, of Sikeston died Tuesday, May 16, 2000, at John J. Pershing VA Medical Center in Poplar Bluff. Complete information will follow later.

CHARLESTON -- John Allen Grogan, 34, of Charleston died Friday, May 19, 2000, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. He was born Nov. 4, 1965, in Charleston, son of Jerry Don and Carol Harwell Grogan. He and Susan Pazdera were married Jan. 5, 1991...

KARNAK, Ill. -- Mary Little, 73, of Karnak, died Thursday, May 19, at Western Baptist Hospital in Paducah, Ky. Funeral arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Wilson Funeral Home at Karnak.

DELTA -- Neva Marie Dunning, 86, of Delta died Friday, May 19, 2000, at Chaffee Nursing Center. She was born March 12, 1914, at Chaffee, daughter of Robert and Sava Jane Merideth Shelton. She and Benjamin Elvis Dunning were married Oct. 7, 1933. He died Feb. 7, 1965...

SIKESTON -- Golda Faye Hoots, 63, of Sikeston died Friday, May 19, 2000, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. She was born Oct. 19, 1936, in Saginaw, Mich., daughter of Archie and Hazel Fischer Robart. Hoots was a housekeeper at Shuffit's Nursing Home 15 years. She was a member of House of Prayer General Baptist Church...

ANNA, Ill. -- Nellie Rude, 86, of Hammond, Ind., died Friday, May 19, 2000, at Community Hospital in Munster, Ind. She was born Nov. 28, 1913, at Murphysboro, daughter of Robert Paul and Myrtle Ethel Clutts Burris. She and Fred Rude were married April 4, 1931, at Cobden. He died July 3, 1996...

SIKESTON -- Rose Read, 80, of Sikeston died Friday, May 19, 2000, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. She was born Dec. 16, 1919, at Blodgett, daughter of Meredith and Eva May Withrow. She married James Petty Read, who died Dec. 7, 1994. Read was a member of First Baptist Church...

MOUNDS, Ill. -- Graveside service for Andrew Sproule of Mounds will be held at 9 a.m. Monday at St. Michael's Cemetery in Galena. The Rev. Daniel Tranel will officiate. Friends may call at Crain Funeral Home in Ullin from 4-8 p.m. today. Sproule, 93, died Thursday, May 18, 2000, at Marion Memorial Hospital...

Daughter to Bradley DeWayne and Amanda Sue Watkins of Sikeston, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 3:51 p.m. Saturday, May 13, 2000. Name, Hannah Kayleigh. Weight, 5 pounds 15 ounces. Second daughter. Mrs. Watkins is the former Amanda Yarbro, daughter of Cathy Mouser of Oran. Watkins is the son of Tommy and Janice Watkins of Jackson. He is employed at Alan Wire...

It is a "temporary" tax established in 1898 to finance the Spanish-American War. It produces what is, in the larger scheme of federal budgeteering, a piddling $5 billion annually for the general fund to be spent on any purpose. It is the 3 percent federal excise tax on telephone bills. It should be repealed...

If you listen to Gov. Mel Carnahan and read the liberal editorials at major Missouri newspapers, it was a huge failure of our state lawmakers, during the session just ended, to fail to pass a plan to spend the tobacco money that will be flowing in over 25 years. Bunk...

When you think about it, since scaremongering is the most potent arrow in the Democratic quiver, it is nothing short of amazing that Republicans ever succeeded in enacting welfare reform. I'm completely serious. Everyone knows it took three tries and an impending election to coerce Bill Clinton into finally signing that bill into law. ...

READERS OF Speak Out: I am a divorced father and I have two children and I'd like some advice, anybody that would like to give me some. I'm required to carry insurance on my children and my ex-wife refuses to utilize that insurance and so I end up paying for full-cost health care. From what I understand, the state requires me to carry insurance but the state does not require the mom to use the insurance. So if anybody could give me some advice, I'd appreciate it...

To the editor: Janet Reno handled the Miami Cuban situation superbly. The Miami Cubans disgraced themselves, and the Republicans are again making fools of themselves. President Clinton did his usual marvelous job of moderating it all. Our system of justice was on the international stage, and the entire world was watching every move Janet Reno made. ...

BURFORDVILLE -- A Marble Hill woman was seriously injured Wednesday after the vehicle she was riding in overturned near Burfordville. Beverly Filer, 41, was taken to Southeast Missouri Hospital after the 4:20 p.m. accident on Highway 34, one-tenth mile west of Route U...

SIKESTON -- A robbery at a local hotel early Thursday resulted in the injury of a clerk. According to the Sikeston Department of Public Safety, officers responded to Days Inn located at 1330 South Main at 1:25 a.m. regarding a robbery. Upon arrival at the business, officers were advised that a lone suspect had entered the business and demanded money. During the robbery, the lobby clerk, John McClung, was cut with a knife on his left arm...