Stories from Friday, February 23, 1996

PERRYVILLE -- The Western antics of the Riders in the Sky trio will hit Southeast Missouri next month. The trio will perform a routine mixed with acoustic music and comedy at the Immanuel Lutheran School March 3 and the following day at the Fellowship General Baptist Church in Poplar Bluff. Both shows begin at 7:30 p.m...

Cape Girardeau County sales tax figures for February dipped 13 percent below the same month last year, flattening total revenue figures for 1996. The county's half-cent sales tax brought in $190,998 this month, significantly lower than the $220,206 received in February 1995...

Run, Updike, run -- from the monster in the mail trapped in a padded and openless envelope. It has been a solid two weeks since I notified the Southern Illinois University Press in Carbondale that its hermetically sealed package was awaiting explicit opening instructions. No reply...

THE CITY of Jackson better do something about the middle school out on B Highway. Someone's going to get killed out there the way those women park those cars on the sides of the road. They stop, and traffic's tied up from Broadridge on down. Someone's going to be hurt. They better change their delivery and pickup policy...

JACKSON -- John Jordan announced Thursday that he wants to be Cape Girardeau County sheriff at the turn of the century. Jordan was elected a year ago to fill Norman Copeland's unexpired term. Copeland retired more than two years before his term expired...

The Cape Girardeau County Republican Women's club will meet March 1 at 11:45 a.m. for a luncheon meeting at the Holiday Inn in Cape Girardeau. Final plans will be made for the Lincoln Days banquet, which will be held March 9 at 6 p.m. at the A.C. Brase Arena Building in Cape Girardeau. The keynote speaker at the banquet is Ken Hamblin, nationally syndicated radio talk show host...

Retired state Rep. Opal Parks of Caruthersville has provided $50,000 to endow a scholarship for Pemiscot County students attending Southeast Missouri State University. The John and Opal Parks Endowed Scholarship will be awarded to an incoming Southeast Missouri State University freshman from Pemiscot County, who is in the top 15 percent of his graduating class and has financial need. ...

Cape Friends of Old Time Music and Dance will offer an evening of square and contra dancing from 7-10 p.m. Saturday on the main floor of University Center, on the corner of Henderson and Normal streets. Area musicians will perform, and all dances may be learned with a minimum of instruction from the caller. People of all ages are invited...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Funeral service for Josephine E. Brown of Jonesboro will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at Salem Lutheran Church, with Pastor Dennis Cooley officiating. Burial will be in Jonesboro Cemetery. Friends may call at Hileman and Parr Funeral Home from 5-9 p.m. today, and at the church Saturday from 11 a.m. to service time...

Daughter to Bill and Gretchen LaRae Dorris of Thebes, Ill., Southeast Missouri Hospital, 8:45 a.m. Friday, Feb. 16, 1996. Name, Ashton Maree. Weight, 8 pounds 8 ounces. Second daughter. Mrs. Dorris is the former Gretchen Rendleman, daughter of Gary and Sherry Rendleman of Wolf Lake, Ill. She is a surgical technician at St. Francis Medical Center. Dorris is the son of William and Rhonda Dorris of Waterloo, Ill. He is employed at Shade Tree Co. and Missouri Fence Co...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Bobbie Joe Collie, 65, Jonesboro Route 1, died Thursday, Feb. 22, 1996, in Union County Hospital. He was born Jan. 2, 1931, in Union County, son of Reubin and Emma Mallory Collie. Collie was a truck driver, and member of Veterans of Foreign Wars...

MARBLE HILL -- Private funeral service was held for Maurice A. "Dick" Walters of Marble Hill. Liley Funeral Home at Marble Hill was in charge of arrangements. Walters, 86, died Thursday, Feb. 22, 1996, at Heartland Care Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Aug. 22, 1909, in Glen Riddle, Pa., son of George and Catherine Riggens Walters. He and Bess Andrews were married in 1947 in Nebraska. She died in 1985...

ANNA, Ill. -- Haskell "Sally" Maddox, 75, of Anna, died Thursday, Feb. 22, 1996, at her home. She was born March 6, 1920, in Pulaski County, daughter of Albert and Sadie Wiard Goodman. She and Jack P. Maddox were married May 14, 1938, in Jackson, Mo...

ANNA, Ill. -- Ida H. Calhoun, 85, of Carbondale, died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 1996, at the Abbey in Carbondale. She was born Oct. 1, 1910, in Modoc, daughter of James and Mae Davitz Calhoun. She married Harry H. Calhoun, who died April 6, 1964. Formerly of Union County, she was a member of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Anna...

Confirmation: You read it here. It was most interesting to read a letter to the editor, written by a teacher and published Wednesday, which took me to task, but which confirmed what I had previously written about a disturbing trend in education, to wit: "invented" or creative spelling...

Another step toward the development of a riverboat gambling casino in Cape Girardeau has been taken with the reaching of an agreement between the city and Boyd Gaming Corp., the casino developer previously selected to operate here. It has taken a while to put together the pact, the time appears to have been well spent. The city's expectations regarding street, sewer and other improvements to accommodate the influx of visitors -- if and when the riverboat opens -- are clearly spelled out...

Meanwhile, the "river" in "riverboat gambling" has run into more slack water, thanks to the Missouri Gaming Commission's virtually omnipotent authority to change rules in midstream. While the Aztar casino at Caruthersville is the only riverboat in the state that is still required to make excursions while gamblers are on board, the commission has authorized Aztar to install dockside gambling so passengers waiting to get on the boat can while away there time doing exactly the same thing as the riverboat gamblers.. ...

Eventually, Cape Girardeau public schools' long-range planning process will lead to taxpayers' pockets. The questions remain - when, how much and what for. The Board of Education is moving into the next phase of strategic planning as the Board of Education with a study session March 4 at 6 p.m. at the Vocational-Technical School. There they will decide how best to compile facts gathered by the Vision Planning Committee into the long-range plan...