Stories from Sunday, August 31, 1997

Why are some Americans, including some of our neighbors in the poor counties of the southern Missouri Ozarks, seemingly so ready to believe in wild conspiracy theories about the United Nations and plans to confiscate their lands to set up a world government? Why do so many Americans fear their government, especially so in the wake of the disasters and dozens of corpses at Waco, Tx. ...

Senior Sara Culbertson had no trouble in her first match of the year against Chaffee's Amanda Ford. Culbertson should help the Lady Indians in their quest for a district championship. Senior Lynn Casteel led the Lady Indians last year. She'll need a repeat performance again this year to help the Lady Indians improve on their 7-4 record from last year...

Senior outside fullback Zane McClard moves the ball down field as senior mid-fielder Brandon Blattel moves in to intercept. Senior mid-fielder James Skaggs and senior outside fullback Eric Rhodes race for the ball at practice. Jackson opens their season on Tuesday at home against Cape Central...

covering week of Aug. 25-30 25 years ago, 1972 Dr. Frank A. Wiley, superintendent of Jackson R-2 School District, reports that district's total enrollment stands at 2,775; there are 719 pupils in Jackson Senior High; 667 in Russell Hawkins Junior High, and 1,389 in elementary grades; he says enrollment is substantially same as last year with increase of just six pupils...

Just a few years ago, anyone asking who was in charge of the health systems in the state of Missouri would have been told with total confidence that such care was being provided by private physicians, a network composed primarily of publicly owned hospitals and the state's mental health agency...

It's still August, and Paris glitters even though Parisians are away on vacation. Berlin, despite the devastation of war, is reinventing itself as one of the colossal cities of the world. London, along with many other venerable cities in Great Britain, exudes rebirth and renewal...

Repairing America's fraying entitlement, Social Security, is said to be on President Clinton's agenda. With three years to go before he leaves office, Clinton is said to be interested in making fundamental reform a lasting legacy of his administration. Against all prior experience with this most devious of leaders, let us hope that it is so...

Attorney General Jay Nixon raised lots of eyebrows recently with news that he had given enormous raises to his chief of staff, Chuck Hatfield. The Kansas City Star reported earlier this summer that Nixon has increased Hatfield's salary 89 percent since 1994 to his current annual pay of $85,056. ...

With children back in school and the arrival of the first Monday in September, tomorrow must be Labor Day. Football is here, and all too soon we will be raking the falling leaves of autumn. We join with our friends and neighbors in the trade union movement and with all Americans in celebrating this tribute to all who toil for an honest living...

By now most everyone has returned to school for a new term. I just love this time of year. Every time the big yellow bus comes to pick up the kids for the first time I get nostalgic. I remember the day we put our first child on the bus for the first time...

Chess and shopping have little in common, but they have been thrown together this weekend as the Southeast Missouri Chess Club conducts a small tournament and demonstration in West Park Mall. Exhibition matches demonstrating different forms of chess were held Saturday and will continue today. John Elfrink, event organizer, said players will be holding blind matches, competing against groups of players and working in team matches...

Federal officials are expanding their role in the war on methampetamine in Missouri. According to some calculations, Missouri has the most meth labs of any state in the country, surpassing California in that category. The Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force busted about one-third of the total meth labs discovered in the United States in 1995 and part of 1996, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Ferrell...

Several Southeast Missouri lawmakers say they will vote to override Gov. Mel Carnahan's veto of a bill that outlaws partial-birth abortions. But some of the region's Democratic lawmakers believe the bill is flawed. Still, they said they likely would vote to override their own governor because the legislation is popular with voters...

CAIRO, Ill. -- There are many positive reasons for having integrated schools, but graduates of Cairo's all-black Sumner High School believe that segregated schools had some advantages that today's students are missing. "Today's students learn earlier how to interact with different cultures and society but they lose some of that black heritage that comes from an all-black environment and from having black teachers," said Laura Dent, a 1964 Sumner graduate who lives in Marion. ...

I'm ready to celebrate. Our family survived the first day of kindergarten. Joni and I were excited on that first day of school last week. Our oldest daughter, Becca, was a little less excited. She didn't like the fact that I brought along the camera and made her pose for pictures in her kindergarten class...

Diners have an opportunity to sample the culinary delicacies of restaurants and caterers in the Cape Girardeau area and then bid on packages of food and entertainment during the first Chefs' Auction Sept. 20. The auction will benefit the March of Dimes. Money is generated through admission fees, raffles and the auction...

PERRYVILLE -- The city of Perryville has been awarded a $200,000 loan to help expand the Perry County Women's Crisis Center. "Domestic violence is a persistent problem that damages families, communities and the heart of honesty and trust that individuals have in one another," U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson said in announcing the loan on Friday...

Sikeston native James Wilder, a former All-Pro running back with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, will join forces with several other former National Football League stars to give something back to the community in which he grew up. Wilder and former Dallas Cowboys running back Ron Springs have put together the `James Wilder Celebrity Sports Weekend' Sept. 12-15...

On a miserable night for football, Southeast Missouri State University's Indians had quite a bit of fun Saturday. Intent on wiping out the memory of last year's disappointing 3-8 record, the Indians shook off two rain and lightning delays totaling an hour and 15 minutes to turn in a strong season-opening performance...

Cape Central scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to rally past St. Louis Notre Dame 2-1 and claim third place in the Cor Jesu Tournament Saturday. After losing 11-7 to eventual tournament champion Cor Jesu in Friday's opener, Central bounced back with an 8-1 win over Rosary and 14-4 triumph over Lindbergh...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Southeast Missouri's volleyball team improved to 3-1 on the season with a pair of victories Saturday in the Southwest Missouri State Volleyball Tournament held at the Hammons Center. Southeast defeated the host in four sets, 8-15, 15-12, 15-7, 15-10, and then swept Western Illinois 16-14, 15-6, 15-7...

September is a month that has been eagerly awaited by Missouri bird hunters. Mourning dove hunting season opens tomorrow, Sept. 1. Less than two weeks later, Sept. 13, Missouri's special teal season will open. Both dove and teal provide hunters with "early" hunting opportunities. They also allow hunters to "sharpen up" their shooting skills on the small, fast-flying targets...

The area's high school volleyball teams have been well-represented in state tournaments in the last seven years by many of the small schools. In 1990, Zalma won the Class 1A title and three years later Leopold matched the feat. Woodland then took the 2A crown the next year, 1994...

JONESBORO, Ark. -- L.J. Neal, 76, of Jonesboro died Friday, Aug. 29, 1997, at St. Bernards Regional Medical Center. He was born July 1, 1921, in Cape Girardeau. He had lived most of his life in Jonesboro and was retired from National Life and Accident Insurance Co. of Nashville, Tenn.. He was an Army veteran of World War II...

DEXTER -- Funeral service was conducted Saturday for Elmer Leroy Yoder, 91, of Dexter. The Rev. Tim Russell officiated at the funeral, held at the Rainey Funeral Chapel in Dexter. He died Friday, Aug. 29, 1997, at the Dexter Nursing Center. He was born Feb. 24, 1906, at Mitchell, Kan., son of Oliver D. and Mary Frances Boone Yoder...

DUDLEY -- Rick L. McCarty, 53, of Dudley died Friday, Aug. 29, 1997, at Lucy Lee Hospital in Poplar Bluff. He was born June 18, 1944, in Lansing, Mich., son of Stanley and Elaine McCarty. He married Louis Bryant on June 19, 1997, in Dudley. She survives...

Edward "Jake" Segraves, 70, 506 North St., died Friday, Aug. 29, 1997, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. He was born March 16, 1927, at Biggers, Ark., son of Daily and Lillian Ingram Segraves. He married Shirley Cargle on Nov. 1, 1952, at Piggott, Ark. She died on Aug. 12, 1982...

DEXTER -- Jessie Imogene "Jean" Taylor, 71, of Dexter died Friday, Aug. 29, 1997, at Dexter Memorial Hospital. She was born Aug. 7, 1926, at Antione, Ark., daughter of Park and Fannie Lee Edwards Taylor. She was a member of the First Baptist Church in Dexter and owned Jean's Beauty Shop for 15 years...

Hadley S. "Sandy" Fornkohl, 53, of Cape Girardeau died Friday, Aug. 29, 1997, at the Heartland Care and Rehab Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Dec. 14, 1943, at Cape Girardeau, son of Hadley E. and Vera Sander Fornkohl. He graduated from Cape Girardeau Central High School in 1961. He worked for Missouri Barge Line and was a maintenance man for the Trail of Tears State Park for a time...

CHARLESTON -- Henry F. Barborek, 67, of Charleston died Friday, Aug. 29, 1997, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Dec. 13, 1929, at Russellville, Ark., son of Henry W. and Julia Prohoskie Barborek. He had lived in Charleston most of his life. He worked for the Missouri Department of Transportation for 20 years and then was employed for Girardeau Contractors for 13 years until his retirement in 1992...

HEMET, Calif. -- Velma Greer Mitchell, 72, of Hemet died Thursday, Aug. 21, 1997. Funeral service was held in Westminster, Calif., last Monday. She was buried in Westminster. She was born July 24, 1925, near Sikeston, daughter of Albert and Nora Greer...

FRUITLAND -- Two people were hospitalized Friday night from injuries in a two-vehicle accident on Interstate 55 two miles south of Fruitland. The Missouri State Highway Patrol said Kelly Reuther, 20, of St. Charles was driving a 1995 Ford Bronco north on I-55 when she lost control of the vehicle. The vehicle crossed the median and entered the southbound lanes, striking a 1984 Oldsmobile driven by James Shawley, 45, of Auxvasse...

MATTHEWS -- Hershel McWaters, 62, of Matthews died Saturday, Aug. 30, 1997, at the Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. He was born April 20, 1935 in Charter Oak, son of W.L. and Nora Colson McWaters. He had retired as a construction worker from Owens Oil Co. in Illinois...

Lynwood Baptist Church is so crowded it has moved Sunday school classes into the gymnasium of a nearby elementary school. The Rev. Milton Ryan often delivers Mass to a packed house at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church. The Cornerstone Church has outgrown its quarters in a former grocery store...

Jean Bell Mosley's new autobiography, "For Most of the Century," is only available in serialized form in the Southeast Missourian. Return each week for her continuing story. The first scary thing was the aurora borealis. It happened one clear night, turning the whole sky red, silhouetting Simms and Little Stono Mountains. ...

JACKSON -- The descendants of jacob, Christian and Peter Friedrich held a family reunion last Sunday at Emanuel United Church of Chirst. Sharon King was recognized for writing the Friedrich genealogy. "Our Story," a play by Bonnie Ludwig, included music by Cherry Hinderberger, Larry Friedrich and Joe Mayfield...

The September edition of "Behind the Badge," a television program produced by the Cape Girardeau Police Department, includes a feature about the 911 Emergency Communications Center and discussions of traffic safety and patrol-car equipment. It will air at noon Sept. 5, at 7 p.m. on Sept. 19 and at 8 p.m. on Sept. 16 on Cape Girardeau's public access station Channel 5...