Stories from Friday, June 26, 1998

To the editor: I was on the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission from February 1992 through December 1997. In that period of time and since, you have repeatedly mischaracterized the status of the Missouri Highway and Transportation 15-year plan...

To the editor: I was sorry to read in Speak Out that Riverfest did not meet with the expectations of some people. Instead, they said it appeared disappointing and a displeasure. Very much time, planning and hard work went into Riverfest, to say the least. I applaud all who made Riverfest such a delight and a festival people look forward to each year...

The Shawnee Community School District, headquartered at Wolf Lake in Southern Illinois, is a relatively small district compared to the Cape Girardeau School District. Shawnee serves some 550 students with a budget of $3.2 million. But regardless of the size of a district, keeping track of expenses and income is a constant battle. ...

For five years, the SEMO District Fair board has been working to attract one of the country's biggest musical entertainers to Cape Girardeau to perform on the fair's main stage at Arena Park. Their efforts have finally paid off with the announcement that Willie Nelson will headline this year's fair entertainment...

I JUST read in the 75-years-ago column about a band being given ice cream from I. Ben Miller's drug store. That brought back memories about going to Cape about once a year in our secondhand red Maxwell and getting a special treat of an ice cream cone at I. Ben Miller's. We felt we were on top of the world...

Andy Stallings, left, an instructor at the Universal Health & Fitness bicycle Spinning class, encouraged his class to pedal harder during a workout. Eric Gooden, owner of Cape Bicycle & Fitness, says a lot of people turn to bicycles for fitness because they remember cycling being fun as children...

History could be holding up progress on a grant to renovate substandard housing in Cape Girardeau. City officials are waiting for clearance from the state's historic preservation office before funding on the Jefferson-Shawnee Parkway Neighborhood Improvement Project can be released...

There are nearly one million Americans who have already lost some degree of sight to an eye injury and many of these have occurred in the work place. The vast majority of eye injuries are preventable with the use of proper safety eye wear. Injury to the cornea, the clear protective "window" of the eye, is the most common eye injury. ...

Although games of chance are controversial in Missouri, they provide a portion of funding for education that enhances general revenue appropriations of the Missouri General Assembly. Lawmakers established agencies this decade to govern riverboat casinos, lottery sales and bingo. State law earmarks nearly all state proceeds from gambling for educational programs...

SIKESTON -- He didn't scream for a Klondike Cone, but after donning a hair net and white lab coat, Gov. Mel Carnahan grabbed a cone off the production line and licked it for the cameras at the dedication of the new Good Humor-Breyer's Sikeston North Plant...

The new director of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau will take office July 20. Terri Clark-Bauer, 46, of Nashville, Tenn., has been named CVB director. She replaces Mary Miller, who resigned in March. City manager Mike Miller announced Clark-Bauer's hiring in a press conference Thursday afternoon at City Hall...

Cape Girardeau Zonta Club members sold Amelia Earhart commemorative postcards with special cancellation by the Cape Girardeau post office for pilots in the Air Race Classic. Earhart was a member of the first Zonta Club, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary...

WOLF LAKE, Ill. -- Monday is "Zip Code Day" at Wolf Lake. That's the day the Wolf Lake postal zip code, 62998, will match the date of 6-29-98. "This is a special day for the community," said the postmaster, Charles R. "Ricky" Jones. "It can't happen again for 100 years."...

In the world of nature, blackberry briers ought to be able to defend themselves, but they hire three-leafed thugs for safety. Last fall there was what appears to be a brush pile between our driveway and our neighbor's yard. Being the proud owner of a 6-horsepower chipper-shredder -- its only match in the he-man world of gasoline-powered toys is a really big chain saw -- I offered to clean up the brush pile and turn it into mulch. The neighbor agreed...

For the last seven years, Kelly High baseball coach Mike Scott has watched recent graduate Denver Stuckey develop into possibly the best all-around athlete in Southeast Missouri. The loss of Stuckey's considerable athletic skills to Southeast Missouri State University's baseball program next year, might be a little more than Scott can take...

The Cape White Sox saw their record fall to .500 Thursday with a seven-inning loss to Paducah at Capaha Field in Sr. Babe Ruth action. Paducah won the intended nine-inning game 17-7. Chuck Brown suffered the loss for the White Sox, who fell to 8-8. Brown had two hits and Jeff Thiele belted an inside-the-park home run as the White Sox had nine hits overall...

WAUKEGAN, Ill. -- Bethel E. Hurley, 85, of Waukegan, formerly of Bertrand and Sikeston, died Thursday, June 25, 1998, at Crown Manor Nursing Center in Zion, Ill., after an extended illness. She was born Sept. 6, 1912, at East Prairie, daughter of George W. and Aura Belle Hubbard Russell...

BERNIE -- Funeral for Martha Elizabeth Goad of Bernie will be held at 2 p.m. today at Rainey Funeral Chapel in Bernie. The Rev. Kenneth Shelton will officiate, with burial in Sycamore Grove Cemetery in rural Dexter. Goad, 80, died Wednesday, June 24, 1998, at the home of a son in Sikeston...

Leona Jones, 74, of Cape Girardeau died Thursday, June 25, 1998, at St. Anthony Hospital in St. Louis. Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

CANALOU -- Charles D. McConnaughhay, 71, of Gladewater, Texas, died Wednesday, June 24, 1998, at his home. He was born Jan. 17, 1927, in Canalou, son of Henry A. and Grace Hinkle McConnaughhay. He married the former Lorene Sullivan. McConnaughhay retired from East Texas Motor Freight in 1982. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II...

CHARLESTON -- Elnora Batts, 92, of Charleston died Sunday, June 21, 1998, at Charleston Manor Nursing Center. She was born Dec. 28, 1905, in Mt. Olive, Miss. She married David Batts, who preceded her in death. Batts had lived in Missouri since 1936. She was a member of Mercy Seat Baptist Church...

Son to Randall Phares and Deborah Ann Wright of Farmer City, Ill., Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, Ill., 6:36 a.m. Sunday, June 7, 1998. Name, Jacob Wilson. Weight, 8 pounds 1 ounce. Second child, first son. Mrs. Wright is the former Deborah Heisserer, daughter of Ken and Judy Heisserer of Scott City. She is a teacher at Heyworth Elementary School in Heyworth, Ill. Wright is the son of Ruby Wright of Farmer City. He is a machinist at Vesivius in Champaign, Ill...

Memorial service for Shirleen D. Byers will be Sunday, June 28, 1998 at 2:00 p.m. at Ford & Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel with the Rev. John Gregory officiating. Friends may call after 1:00 p.m. Sunday.