BETTIE KNOLL LEAVES LEGACY OF PUBLIC SERVICE

Cape Girardeau County is losing a treasure as Bettie Knoll, a well-known victims advocate retires.

Knoll, 68, embodies the term "public servant."

She started working in 1983 for free -- first as a concerned housewife who wanted a neighborhood watch program, then as a volunteer victims advocate mailing letters to crime victims explaining their rights.

By 1986, she was a paid employee of the Cape Girardeau Police Department, taking victims under her wing and guiding them through the often intimidating court process.

During the 1993 Mississippi River flooding, she waded door-to-door in affected neighborhoods to see what she could do.

In his speech at a tree-planting ceremony in Knoll's honor, Cape Girardeau County prosecutor Morley Swingle said she lives the quote by Sir Wilfred Grenfell:

"The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on this earth."

No doubt Knoll's replacement, Beth Garoutte, who worked closely with her for a year, learned much during that time and will embrace this important job with the same giving attitude.