Stories from Monday, February 26, 2001

The Johnson Insurance Group Inc. in Cape Girardeau has been named "Advantage Agent for 2001 by the Farmers Alliance Companies. To qualify as an Advantage Agent, an agency must exhibit superior professionalism and profitability over five consecutive, said Ken Johnson, of the local agency...

Move over Poo-Chi, here comes I-Cybie. Poo-Chi, a robotic pet placed on the market by Hasbro's Tiger Electronics last spring, was a tail-moving, barking family pet. Poo-Chi could be activated by touch or light. Now, before I even had an opportunity to watch Poo-Chi in action, along comes I-Cybie...

Richard M. Gross of Gordonville has been accepted by the National Registry of Who's Who as a life member. The National Registry of Who's Who is a nationally distributed biographical publications for professional businessmen. Gross works with Jackson Machine & Manufacturing...

Becky Stull, Susan Dubs and Beverly Blaney, travel and cruise consultants at Elite Travel Inc., 354 S. Silver Springs Road, recently attended inspection tours and training sessions. Blaney attended familiarization and inspection tour in Punta Canta of the Dominican Republic. She participated in inspection tours of the resorts on the island...

Mike Metzger of Cape Girardeau was featured in a recent article in ID Magazine, a national publication for managers and sales representatives in the food service industry. Metzger has worked as an account manager with Allen Foods Inc., of St. Louis, since 1990. He was the company's "Rookie of the Year" his first year, and has received a number of sales honors since...

Wilma Dooley of Jackson, a Mary Kay Sales director, has earned the use of a new Pontiac Gram AM career car, in recognition of outstanding sales performance. Dooley, who has been with Mary Kay Cosmetics 21 years, recently received the keys to her 12th career car...

S & W Productions of Paducah, Ky., was a Telly Award winner during the recent National Telly Awards competition. The award was for a video produced by S & W for Dr. Shanon Kirchhoff, of The Brace Place in Cape Girardeau titled "A Smile That Lasts A Lifetime."...

Dr. Shanon Kirchhoff, a Cape Girardeau dentist, recently attended a training session for Missouri's Emergency Response Identification Team held at Jefferson City. More than 40 dentists spent two days in forensic training, conducted by Dr. Michael Bowers, a forensic dentist and senior crime scene analyst from Ventura...

Alex Rutledge, a game caller from Birch Tree, Mo., will present a turkey calling seminar at Buchheits's of Jackson at 6 p.m. March 7. Rutledge, who will be at the Jackson store from 5 to 9 p.m., has called many types of game animals, including turkey, deer and even predators...

Troy Hughes of Cape Girardeau, Stephen Bubanovich of Poplar Bluff and Christopher Lambert of Sikeston were among 120 newly Missouri registered professional engineers invited to last weekend's certificate-presentation ceremony hosted by the Missouri Society of Professional Engineers (MSPE) and the Missouri Board of Architects, Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors (MOAPELS)...

LinkAmerica has purchased the stock of Dannie Gilder, Inc. (DGI), DG and Co., Inc. (DGC) and DGI Equipment Leasing, headquartered in Cape Girardeau. LinkAmerica, headquartered in Tulsa, Okla., is transportation holding company service shipping through a network of locally operated transportation companies...

Not all businesses have a business plan. Perhaps they should. Business plans are a guide to a business. It organizes, on paper, ideas as to why you are in business, who your customers and competition are, strengths and weaknesses and your plans for the future...

The Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission will hold its monthly meeting Tuesday at commission offices at 1 West St. Joseph St., in Perryville, at 2 p.m. Randal Friend of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development will discuss his agency's Community Facility Loan Program...

A job fair will be held at the Dexter Elks Lodge March 6 from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The job fair is sponsored by Stoddard County Interagency Council and Spirals Job Training. Additional information is available by calling 1 (800) 474-2372.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, managed to cross the $2 billion earnings mark for the first time despite what executives described as a "challenging environment." The fourth-quarter results beat Wall Street expectations. For the three months ended Jan. ...

Marion, Ill., has been accepted into the organizational phase of the Illinois Main Street Program. Marion, located along Interstate 57 near the Route 13 intersection in Southern Illinois, joins a number of Illinois communities -- including Carbondale and Murphysboro -- in the Main Street Program...

Schnucks Markets Inc. is offering not-for-profit groups -- schools, churches, and organizations -- an opportunity to raise funds. The non-profit groups purchase gift certificates from Schnucks Markets at a 5 percent discount. The group then sells the certificates to members who use the certificates as cash at the store...

Neil Nesslage joined the trailer-dwelling crowd in 1995 and found he couldn't beat the negative stereotype associated with it. So the trailer owner became a trailer trasher. Proud of the manufactured home he bought, Nesslage, 27, said he was shocked by the raised eyebrows and wisecracks he heard from people who teased him about being trailer trash...

On April 19, the ballerinas Maya Thickenthighya, Iona Trailer, Ida Nevasayneva, Fifi Barkova and other members of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo will perform some of the world's best-known classical ballets at Southeast Missouri State University. The main difference between these classically trained dancers and the ballerinas of the Joffrey Ballet or the American Ballet Theatre is that the Trocks, as they are known, are all men...

A man was arrested Sunday night after a fight in a Lorimier Street apartment turned into a stabbing, police said. At 10 p.m., four people involved in the incident were being treated at Southeast Missouri Hospital, and officers were trying to sort out details, according to Sgt. Kevin Orr of the Cape Girardeau Police Department, who added that a fifth person may have been involved...

Downstate counties will share in the latest Illinois First funding for projects in Southern Illinois. Gov. George H. Ryan has announced that $3.7 million has been released in Illinois First funds for a number of projects in Southern Illinois, including funds to install sidewalks to a senior citizen assisted-living facility in Ullin and a $10,000 grant repair the porch of the historic Thebes Courthouse...

After living in the 1100 block of Cousin Street for a year, watching drugs being sold in front of her house, Jodi Treece said she has had enough. "How do I explain to my children when they ask me what these people are doing on our street?" said Treece, a mother of children ages 5, 3 and 9 months...

CHARLESTON, Ill. -- Host Eastern Illinois reclaimed the men's title while Austin Peay captured its first women's crown during the 2001 Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships, held Friday and Saturday at the Lantz Fieldhouse. The Panthers held off a strong challenge from Southeast Missouri State University but easily outdistanced the field, piling up 212 points to record their fourth OVC crown in five years. Eastern Illinois won six individual events and both relay races...

Southeast Missouri State University men's basketball coach Gary Garner ended his post-game radio show Saturday night not yet knowing for sure who the Indians would be playing in the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. But just a few minutes later, when word came that Austin Peay was being blown out by Tennessee State in the late going, Garner had a pretty good idea that the Indians would travel to Clarksville, Tenn., for Tuesday night's start of the OVC tournament...

MOBILE, Ala. -- Rain and nationally ranked South Alabama both got the better of Southeast Missouri State University's baseball team Sunday afternoon. South Alabama, rated No. 23 in the nation, posted a 6-1 victory in a contest that was shortened to five innings by rain...

Cape Girardeau Central High School graduate Jay Meystedt tied for sixth in the high jump at the Big 12 Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships, held over the weekend in Lincoln, Neb. Meystedt, who competes for the University of Missouri, cleared 6 feet 9 1/2 inches. The winning height was 7-3 3/4...

DONGOLA, Ill. -- Doyle Vincent, 83, of Dongola died Sunday, Feb. 25, 2001, at Union County Hospital in Anna, Ill. He was born Nov. 13, 1917, in Anna, son of Ernest E. and Zula McCommons Vincent. He and Gladys Campbell were married Feb. 19, 1938. Vincent was a member of the First Baptist Church in Dongola. He was retired from the Florsheim Shoe Co...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Violet Earline Shelby, 78, of Sikeston died Sunday, Feb. 25, 2001, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. She was born April 8, 1922, in Sikeston, daughter of Walter "Dick" and Ethel Duke Nelson. She and Cecil R. Shelby were married July 12, 1941, in New Madrid, Mo...

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- Betty Cutliph Rister, 73, of Charleston died Saturday, Feb. 24, 2001, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. She was born Nov. 2, 1927, in Cape Girardeau daughter of F.T. and Grace Rowe Cutliph. She and Earnie Rex Rister were married Dec. 29, 1954, at Hernando, Miss., and he died Nov. 26, 1993...

Crulus N. Mayfield, 90, of Morley, Mo., died Saturday, Feb. 24, 2001, at Fountainbleau Lodge in Cape Girardeau. He was born Jan. 16, 1911, in Patton, Mo., son of Coy N. and Carrie Green Mayfield. He and Burnice Smith were married May 25, 1935, in Morley, and she died March 19, 2000...

Barbara Snyder, 61, of Cape Girardeau, died Sunday, Feb. 25, 2001, at her home. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at Ford and Sons Funeral Home.

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Lillie Katherine Cook, 94, of Chaffee died Sunday, Feb. 25, 2001, at the Advance Nursing Center at Advance, Mo. She was born May 13, 1906, at Millersville, Mo., daughter of Robert and Polly Ann Welker Jenkins. She and Luster Cook were married Dec. 22, 1931, at Bloomfield, Mo. He preceded her in death...

Blanche M. Smith, 93, of Farmington, Mo., died Friday, Feb. 23, 2001, at Community Manor in Farmington. She was born Oct. 2, 1907, in Mine La Motte, Mo., daughter of Joseph and Mary M. Lanie Spray LaBrot. She and William Delbert Smith were married March 5, 1934, in Farmington, and he preceded her in death...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Richard Franklin Mowell, 96, of Cairo died Sunday, Feb. 25, 2001, at his home. He was born Dec. 2, 1904, in Weitaug, Ill., son of John and Sarah Braggs Mowell. He and Marianne Vaudreuil were married Nov. 6, 1941, in St. Louis, and the two resided in Cairo for the remainder of his life...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- William C. Braddy Sr., 68, of Perryville died Friday, Feb. 23, 2001, at Perry County Memorial Hospital. He was born Aug. 27, 1932, in Holcomb, Mo., son of William and Mittie Hipps Braddy. He and Betty Jean Stokes were married March 6, 1964, in St. Louis. She died Feb. 12, 2000...

IN ILLINOIS they're starting to crack down on the handicapped stickers. I think this is something Missouri is way past due on. People get one of those tags to hang on their mirror when there isn't a thing wrong with them. They carry a handicap person with them occasionally so they get to park there all the time...

Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, whose office gets an average of 150 complaints a month about misuse of disability plates and placards, hopes to do something to cut down on the number of abuses. Illinois has issued more than 500,000 placards that disabled people can hang on their rearview mirrors to park in spots reserved for the disabled, but not all the people using them have disabilities. ...

The long-discussed improvement of Highway 34 from Jackson, Mo., west to the U.S. 60 intersection near Van Buren, Mo., could come about over the next several years now that the Missouri Department of Transportation is putting together a preliminary plan for the costly project...

To the editor: While I regret the sinking of the Japanese fishing boat, Ehime Maru, I am amazed at the demands of any Japanese who would demand an apology for the accident. To my knowledge, there has been no Japanese apology for the cowardly attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Note that the Japanese action was a careful, deliberate, peacetime attack, not an accident...

To the editor: Many thanks go out to the wonderful people who helped make the 2000 Area Wide United Way campaign such a huge success. As the campaign chairman, it was my duty and pleasure to put together what I felt was one of the best campaign cabinets to date: John Thompson, Doug Watson, Melvin Gateley, Dan Muser, Larry Dunger, Janet Esicar, Laurel Adkisson, Dr. ...