Stories from Monday, February 19, 2001

A northeast Arkansas businessman is looking into establishing a rice storage and drying facility at Blytheville, Ark. Lewis Lammers of Dell, Ark., says he is in negotiations with a number of rice processing companies concerning a new facility. Lammers said there is grown need in the area for rice-drying and processing plants...

Associated Industries of Missouri will present a workers' compensation discussion session at the Drury Lodge in Cape Girardeau March 7. AIM will present a mock trial of a workers' compensation case. More information and reservations are available by calling Annette Wallace at (573) 634-2246...

Recognize the name Lucille Wood Smith? How about Frances Octavia Smith? OK, so you knew her as Dale Evans. But as a youngster attending school in Osceola, Ark., she was a Smith -- Lucille or Octavia. Though she is best remembered as America's favorite cowgirl, Dale Evans spent her high school years in a small Arkansas town near the Mississippi River...

There is no surefire formula for starting a new business. Consider some facts: In the Cape Girardeau area, as many as 1,500 new businesses have opened over the past decade. On the reverse side, about 1,200 businesses have closed during the same period of time...

May Department Stores Co.'s fourth-quarter earnings rose 1 percent from a year ago as total sales from its Lord & Taylor, Hecht's and Filene's stores rose 5 percent. The results met Wall Street expectations. May, based in St. Louis, earned $518 million, or $1.59 per share, in the quarter ending Feb. 3. That's compared to earnings of $513, or $1.45 per share, a year ago. Sales were $4.95 billion, compared to sales of $4.69 billion in the fourth quarter a year ago...

New claims for state unemployment benefits declined last week for the first time in four weeks but were still in a range indicating that the corporate appetite for workers has diminished. The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell by 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 352,000 for the work week ending Feb. 10, the Labor Department reported Thursday. It was the first decline since Jan. 13, when claims dropped by 40,000...

Gina L. Landewe has completed certification exams and has been designated as a certified hand therapist. Landewe, a graduate of Washington University with a bachelor of science degree in occupational therapy, has eight years of experience in occupational therapy...

Mike Shain, a native of Sikeston, of KFVS-12 news, will be guest speaker at the New Madrid Chamber of Commerce Saturday. Shain started in broadcasting at KSIM Radio in Sikeston in 1956. He joined the news staff at KFVS TV in 1972. Three awards will be presented at the banquet at 6:30 p.m. at Rebecca Sharp Catering in New Madrid. The Business of the Year, Man or Woman of the Year and Community Services awards will be presented...

Joseph D. Martin has received his registration to practice land surveying in Missouri. Martin, who has formed a new company, Martin Professional Land Surveying, received his registration from the Missouri Board for Architects, Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors...

Bill Beard has been named manager of Air Evac Aviation (AEA) operation at Cape Girardeau. Beard replaced Col. Wayne Anders, who resigned as AEA manager, to return to flying a Lear Jet. Other new appointments at the local office AEA, which provides a helicopter ambulance service to the Cape Girardeau area, include Roy Sale, maintenance and service manger for AEA fixed wing and helicopter maintenance; Victoria Moses, office manager; Mike Proffer, new line manager; and Vicki Gray Winchester in the accounts receivable position.. ...

Investor Warren Buffett has bought a major stake in H&R Block Inc., making him the second-largest shareholder of the tax preparation giant. Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in Omaha, Neb., disclosed the ownership in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday. His 7,697,500 shares 8.43 percent of H&R Block are second only to the 8,056,448 owned by the Fidelity family of mutual funds...

Gov. Bob Holden will be speaker for the 55th annual Kennett Chamber of Commerce banquet, to be held March 19, at the American Legion Building, starting at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available for $17.50 at the Kennett Chamber. The public is invited to attend...

Steven C. Droke of Hornersville, Mo., Allen Williams, a ginner with Cardwell Coop Gin at Cardwell, Mo., and David Blakemore,a ginner with B&B Cotton Company in Campbell, Mo., have been elected to leadership positions in the national Cotton Council of America (NCCA), headquartered at Memphis, Tenn...

Sherry Orr and Karen B. Wynn have joined A/O Employment Services Inc., a non-profit organization in Cape Girardeau, as program managers. Orr, a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University with a bachelor of science in psychology, worked three years with Community Counseling Center, where she was involved in initial and ongoing assessment, development of individual treatment plans, monitoring, evaluation and crises intervention...

KELSO, Mo. -- Its tall, majestic steeple can be seen from nearby Interstate 55, but St. Augustine Catholic Church in Kelso, Mo., may soon be recognized as a national treasure. The Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation will nominate the church to be named to the National Register of Historic Places within a few weeks. The council approved an application recognizing the 112-year-old church's architecture during a meeting Friday in Jefferson City, Mo...

Charles Hankins hardly needed the floor seat he had for Sunday's World Wrestling Federation show at the Show Me Center. He was on his feet, cheering, chanting and booing nearly the entire show. And when wrestlers Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle jumped from the ring during their match to take their battle all the way at the southeast corner of the center, Hankins ran right behind them to get a good look and cheer on Jericho...

Franklin Elementary School opened in 1927, the year Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic Ocean. The school on the city's western frontier was bounded by a farm to the north and not much else. "Kids from the whole neighborhood could look out and see nothing but fields," says Morton Estes, a first-grader in 1927 and now a resident at the Lutheran Home's Saxony Village...

OXFORD, Miss. -- For the third time this season, Southeast Missouri State University's baseball team was able to rally for a victory during its final at-bat. And Sunday's 5-2 win over host Mississippi in the second game of a doubleheader allowed the Indians to salvage a split of the twin bill and earn one triumph in the three-game weekend series...

Seven new members were recently inducted into the Notre Dame High School Sports Hall of Fame. The inductees, who were welcomed along with previous inductees during the final boys basketball game of the regular season on Feb. 6, are Mark Beussink, Bill Bohnert, Danny Dohogne, Wayne Nenninger, Ronnie Ressel, Kim (Cooper) Hunter and Jerry Grim...

A. Burton Cardin, 74, of Cape Girardeau, died Sunday, Feb. 18, 2001, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born Dec. 15, 1926, in Vanduser, Mo., son of Alphas Henry and Mayme Lockhart Cardin. He and Lola Dillender were married May 28, 1949, in Piggott, Ark...

SCOTT CITY, Mo. -- James David "J.D." Simmons, 76, of Scott City died Saturday, Feb. 17, 2001, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born May 20, 1924, in Benton, Mo., son of Thomas Marion and Mina Edith Jacobs Simmons. He and Joy Jean Johnson Sander were married Nov. 17, 1958, in Commerce, Mo...

Edna H. Thomas, 83, of Cape Girardeau, died Sunday, Feb. 18, 2001. Arrangements are incomplete at Ford and Sons Funeral Home on Mount Auburn Road.

Helen Parker, 88, of Anna, Ill., died Sunday, Feb. 18, 2001, at her home. Arrangements are incomplete at Lutz and Rendleman Funeral Home in Anna.

Gracie M. Phillips, 87, of Cape Girardeau, died Saturday, Feb. 17, 2001, at the Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau. She was born Sept. 3, 1913, in Bear Springs, Tenn., daughter of Robert Black and Mary Howell Black. She married Charles Croy, then Sidney Phillips. Both preceded her in death...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Louie C. Kelley, 95, of Jonesboro died Saturday, Feb. 17, 2001, at the Union County Nursing Home in Anna, Ill. He was born Sept. 30, 1905, in Jonesboro, son of Edward J. and Augusta B. Winn Kelley. He and Armita Brown were married July 31, 1927, in Marion, Ill. They were married 73 years...

Bobby G. Wilkinson, 66, of Cape Girardeau, died Saturday, Feb. 17, 2001, at his home. He was born Sept. 30, 1934, in Cape Girardeau, son of Elba Marion and Daisy Victoria Dorsey Wilkinson. He and Doris Jean Moore were married April 28, 1956, in Cape Girardeau...

POMONA, Ill. -- Janice I. Rendleman, 49, of Pomona died Saturday, Feb. 17, 2001, at her home. She was born Feb. 21, 1951, in Anna, Ill., daughter of Aubrey and Lydia Berry Hickam. She and Ronald D. Rendleman were married May 29, 1971, in Alto Pass, Ill...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Dorothy L. Gentry, 80, of Sikeston died Saturday, Feb. 17, 2001, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. She was born June 4, 1920, in Blytheville, Ark., daughter of Hershel Vernon and Nora Jones Mullis. She and William H. "Bill" Gentry were married Sept. 26, 1942, in Blytheville. He died Feb. 5, 1995...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Mary A. Mowry, 85, of Perryville died Sunday, Feb. 18, 2001, at Perry Oaks Manor in Perryville. She was born Feb. 17, 1916, in Perry County in Missouri, daughter of Thomas and Mary Whistler Taylor. She and Alvin A. Mowry were married June 28, 1947. He died March 17, 1992...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Frederick E. "Ted" Meyer, 91, of Jonesboro died Saturday, Feb. 17, 2001, at Jonesboro Health Care Center. He was born Nov. 4, 1909, in Jonesboro, son of Fred and Nora Shy Meyer. He and Helen Stacy were married April 20, 1933, in Elizabethtown, Ill. She died Jan. 28, 2000...

SCOTT CITY, Mo. -- Amy Jane Mancillas, 67, of Scott City died Saturday, Feb. 17, 2001, at her home. She was born May 16, 1933, in Tupelo, Miss., daughter of Marcus and Odel Russell Smith. Survivors include two sons, J.R. Mancillas and Joe Mancillas, both of Dekalb, Ill.; three daughters, Becky Westrich of Scott City, Jewell Hoffard of Sac City, Iowa, and Jennifer Knight of Marshalltown, Iowa; a brother, Butch Smith of Hattiesburg, Miss.; nine grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren...

Three Rivers Community College basketball coach Gene Bess has done something no other junior-college basketball coach has done: He has won 880 basketball games. Bess, 65, recently accomplished the feat when the Raiders defeated State Fair Community College at Sedalia, Mo., by a score of 81-52. That put Bess' record at 880-213...

After considering a number of possibilities, the Missouri Department of Transportation now has decided to turn Highway 34-72 through Jackson, also known as West Jackson Boulevard, into a four-lane divided highway with a limited number of intersections at which crossovers, left turns and U-turns would be allowed...

KENNETT, Mo. -- One of the most remarkable, but least remembered, truths about life in America is the lightning-like change in what can be called the National Crisis Agenda. A bare few weeks ago, the nation was torn by the ballot-counting fiasco in Florida, a period during which we not only didn't know who had won the presidency, but whether the next moment would produce still another dramatic event that would throw our nation into a second War Between the States...

I NOTICE U.S. Sen. Christopher Bond has been bellyaching about the voting in Missouri. The voting in Missouri was nothing to compare with what happened in Florida. Why doesn't he check on how Bush stole the presidency? I AM very disappointed in the actresses who were nominated for the Oscars, because I noticed Helen Hunt wasn't there. ...

To the editor: I am a very angry person. This nation has been put through a long campaign to select its leadership. George W. Bush was elected by the U.S. Supreme Court. I'm angry at the way in which Republicans tried every way possible to stop any accurate vote count in Florida and the way in which hundreds of black citizens of Florida were not allowed to vote. Many found their names had disappeared from voting lists...