Stories from Saturday, March 3, 2001

It wasn't exactly New Orleans, where jazz bands take to the boulevards and people parade behind them as they play, but the trumpets blared and choir members marched through the church aisles just the same last week in Cape Girardeau. Musicians armed with a trumpet, trombone, clarinet and saxophone led the choir in "When the Saints Go Marching In" to begin services at Centenary United Methodist Church Sunday morning...

St. Louis Cardinals president Mark Lamping traveled south Friday to talk about two of his favorite topics: slugger Mark McGwire and a proposal for a new downtown St. Louis baseball park. He addressed a near-capacity crowd at the Cape Girar-deau Chamber of Commerce's First Friday Coffee at the invitation of state Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau...

Cape Girardeau police say the same burglars may be responsible for several of a rash of break-ins around the city in the past month. Of the 37 burglaries reported since February, the vast majority remain unsolved. Twenty-six were at businesses, the locations ranging from a furniture store to a dentist's office, and police Lt. Carl Kinnison said most of the thefts involve either office equipment or money...

I never thought I would consider private education for my children, but it's been a major topic of conversation in our household for the past two weeks. It all started after I learned our elementary school was holding kindergarten registration this month. All of a sudden, the reality that it was time for Jerry to begin formal schooling dawned on me...

JACKSON, Mo. -- Jackson officials agreed Friday to examine an alternate route through the property of a woman upset over the city's plans to run a water line through the middle of her wooded five-acre parcel. But Pam Owens, who lives outside the city limits, still says the city doesn't have any business on her property...

JACKSON, Mo. -- A 15-year-old girl was beaten and forced to swallow chewing tobacco after her father accused her of stealing his marijuana, Cape Girardeau County investigators said. The Cape Girardeau girl told a detective that while her father abused her, her mother watched and did not intervene, said Rhonda Westrich of the Cape Girar-deau County Sheriff's Department in a probable cause affidavit...

Westminster Presbyterian Church in Cape Girardeau will sponsor a farewell celebration for the Rev. Dr. Miles and Caroline White, who are leaving after 12 years. The service is at 2 p.m. Sunday, with a reception to follow in the McCutchen Fellowship Hall. The public is invited...

The Jackson Lady Indians, one game away from the Class 4A Final Four, will take on the Vashon Wolverines today in a 3:15 p.m. quarterfinal at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Vashon, which plays in the weak Public High League, legitimized its 15-5 record Wednesday with a 36-33 win over highly touted St. Charles (24-4)...

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- Notre Dame is taking its No. 2 seed to sectionals. The Bulldogs, feeling disrespected for earning the second seed despite a 5-0 record against district opponents, including a win over Charleston heading into the seeding meeting, proved that they indeed were the team to beat Friday night...

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- Zip. Snap. Skip. Pop. No, the Notre Dame Lady Bulldogs weren't trying on new clothes and they weren't watching an old Batman episode or trying out a rice cereal. They were passing the ball. And they were making it look easy. Notre Dame, the top-ranked team in Class 2A at 24-3, displayed passing prowess and beautiful ball movement Friday night as it rolled past Charleston 61-31 in the championship game of the District 2 tournament...

To say that the 2001 season opener for her softball team did not go as Southeast Missouri State University coach Lana Richmond had planned would be a big understatement. The Otahkians had a nightmare of a game against Southwest Missouri State Friday afternoon as the six-team Southeast Softball Classic got under way...

FREDERICKTOWN, Mo. -- The St. Vincent High girls basketball team saw its hopes of a district championship dashed Friday night by a strong Viburnum squad. Top-seeded Viburnum coasted past the second-seeded Squaws 59-34 in the finals of the Class 1A, District 3 Tournament...

Daughter to Jeff and Polly Whittle of Winter Springs, Fla., Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando, Fla., 8 a.m. Friday, Feb. 16, 2001. Name, Angela Suzanne. Weight, 8 pounds 3 ounces. Third child, second daughter. Mrs. Whittle is the former Polly Anne Kinder, daughter of Jerry and Polly Kinder of Cape Girardeau. Whittle is the son of Charles and Suzanne Whittle of Oak Ridge, Tenn. He is a patent attorney with Allen, Dyer, Doppelt, Milbrath and Gilchrist, P.A...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Funeral for Charles V. Grammer of Jonesboro will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at Hileman and Parr Funeral Home. The Rev. John Cripps will officiate. Burial will be in Walker Hill Cemetery at Grand Tower, Ill. Friends may call at the funeral home from 5-8 p.m. today...

After punching a narcotics officer early Friday, a 21-year-old Cape Girardeau man was arrested by police. Derek Ray Harper had been stopped in the north 800 block of Kingshighway shortly after midnight on Friday when a police officer noticed him, Cpl. Rick Schmidt said. The patrolman decided to investigate Harper as a possible suspect in numerous burglaries that have occurred over the past month, Schmidt said...

SCOTT CITY, Mo. -- Mae Keesee, 88, of Scott City died Friday, March 2, 2001, at the Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau. She was born Jan. 11, 1913, at Commerce, Mo., daughter of Henry and Hulda Hillemann Sanders. She and Orvel E. Keesee were married Jan. 27, 1934, in St. Louis. He died June 19, 2000...

ADVANCE, Mo. -- Betty LaCroix, 72, of Advance died Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2001, in Muskogee, Okla. She was born Nov. 27, 1928, in Advance, daughter of Luther and Jewell Pickens Jenkins. She and Carl "Sour" LaCroix were married March 18, 1950, in Cape Girardeau...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- The Rev. John Tackaberry, 84, a former chaplain at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, died Thursday, March 1, 2001, at the medical center. He was born March 30, 1916, in St. Louis. He took his vows in 1935 at St. Mary's of The Barrens in Perryville, Mo. He was ordained in 1941 and served as a seminary professor, usually teaching Latin, for the next 39 years in the dioceses of Chicago, Houston, Kansas City, St. Louis, San Antonio and Springfield-Cape Girardeau...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Ora Mae Cotilla, 78, of Cairo died Friday, March 2, 2001, at her home. Barkett Funeral Home in Cairo is in charge of arrangements.

TAMMS, Ill. -- Frieda Powless, 86, of Tamms died Friday, March 2, 2001, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Crain Funeral Home in Tamms is in charge of arrangements.

SCOTT CITY, Mo. -- Ella Barnes, 104, of Long Beach, Calif., died Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2001, in Long Beach. She was born April 3, 1896, in Georgiana, Ala., daughter of George and Jode Kirkpatrick Hohenstine. Survivors include a loving daughter, Frances Dodd of Long Beach; a sister, Rose Alfonso of New Orleans, La.; grandchildren Carl (Sheila) Grose of Scott City, Mo., Toni (Charles) McAleer of Newark, Md.; and a great-grandson, Charles McAleer Jr...

ORIOLE, Mo. -- Loran Donald Jones, 73, of Oriole died Friday, March 2, 2001, at his home. McCombs Funeral Home in Jackson, Mo., is in charge of arrangements.

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Ila May Abernathy, 75, of Marble Hill died Thursday, March 1, 2001, at Elder Care of Marble Hill. She was born Jan. 31, 1926, at Marquand, Mo., daughter of Rhonie N. "Tots" and Edna May Mabuce Hansen. Abernathy was a salesclerk at Chandler Drug Store and a Green Thumb employee at Bollinger County Sheriff's Office, Assessor's Office, City Hall and Woodland School. She attended Marble Hill United Methodist Church. She had lived at Marble Hill 40 years...

To the editor: On behalf of the Cape Girardeau Cable Television Advisory Board, I would like to publicly thank Roy Jones for his dedicated service for the past 10 years. He has been a dedicated member who worked diligently in franchise renegotiations, policy development and usefulness of the cable-access channel. He always worked in the best interest of the subscribers and was a great asset to this board...

To the editor: When I read the article in your paper about a psychic in the area, I thought at first I had picked up a National Enquirer by mistake. The Southeast Missourian does not enhance its credibility when it publishes such stories. Are the claims of psychics really news? What will we see next: reports of leprechauns, flying saucer sightings, haunted house stories?...

Officials of the Cape Girardeau School District -- particularly superintendent Dan Steska -- are getting a reputation, and it's a good one for being forthcoming with the district's taxpayers on issues of importance. The board plans to put a tax-increase proposal on the August ballot, although the exact amount of the request isn't known yet...

A bill that would allow school bond issues to pass by a simple majority instead of the currently required four-sevenths or two-thirds majority is winding its way through the Missouri Legislature. It passed the House of Representatives, but if it doesn't make it through the Senate, the Missouri Parents-Teachers Association has a back-up plan. They'll put the measure before voters through an initiative petition...

OAK RIDGE, Mo. -- "Our Children: Our Future -- Expanding for Excellence" is the theme adopted by supporters of the Oak Ridge School District bond proposal that will be on the April 3 ballot. This theme is an excellent example of the support that has been shown in the Oak Ridge district over the past 130 years...

Sometimes I hate the practice of politics, such as is being employed by the Democratic leadership in its unprincipled opposition to President Bush's tax cut and budget plan. I understand it is possible for there to be principled opposition to Bush's package, so I'm not suggesting it is flawless. There are portions of it that are troubling to some conservatives. But the thrust of the Democratic resistance to the Bush plan is more likely grounded in political concerns...

ONE DOES not need to know the details to realize that the Cape Girardeau Board of Education treated Central High School principal Randall Fidler in a disgusting, shameful, even sordid manner. Fidler is a straight arrow and a straight shooter. It is painfully obvious that a weak-kneed board of education succumbed to pressure from certain segments of the community and wrongfully fired Fidler, who is hard-working, honest and dedicated to his calling. ...

To the editor: I wanted to comment on the recent articles on Baby Dakota, Donna Duncan and Jennifer Schwepker. I see that Baby Dakota's mother was acquitted. Her fate will stand before a bigger jury someday. I'm saddened yet happy that the sweet 5-month-old baby girl is now in heaven and no longer experiencing the hell she didn't even understand here in her short lifetime. God will take care of her now along with 8-year-old Joseph...