Stories from Sunday, September 10, 1995

There was a time half a century ago when public education in this country organized on the principle of "separate but equal." It was, of course, legal fiction. "Separate," yes, but "equal" no. The Supreme Court ended the fiction in 1954. Segregated school districts began to be dismantled "with all deliberate speed." In some areas, black children were often bused into theretofore all-white schools and white children were sometimes bused into previously all-black schools...

This week saw senators and representatives return to Washington following their annual August break. Most, like Rep. Bill Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, used at least some of the time for traveling around the districts or states they represent, holding town meetings, speaking to service clubs and the like. ...

TV Guide has increased it price. The National Enquirer has shaved a half-inch trim from its publication. Money and Martha Stewart Living magazines have jumped their advertising rates. Students are paying more for their notebooks. Newspaper publishers are realizing more costs for newsprint...

The Southeast Missourian has announced an increase in subscription and newsstand rates, effective Oct. 1. "Newspapers across the country are experiencing huge price increases in newsprint," said Mark Kneer, director of circulation/marketing. "The Southeast Missourian is no exception."...

The Jackson High School Marching Chiefs Majorettes and the Jackson Freshman Marching Band attended the Marching Auxiliraries Camp at Southeast Missouri State University in late July and earned several awards. The high school and freshman front lines won the All-American Majorette Team Award and also received invitations to perform at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando or the Aloha Bowl in Hawaii...

Fiesta de Musica is about children performing and these children put in long hours of rehearsal to get ready for events. Many people have never heard of Fiesta de Musica, says Becky Fulgham, director of the the Music Academy at Southeast Missouri State University, but she hopes that will change as people come to understand what a unique program it is...

Liberty School is slowly beginning to show its age, with part of the roof gone, holes in the walls and a portion of the floor gone. Elroy Kinder points to some of the damage that has been done to the outside of the Liberty School. Kinder attended Liberty from 1939 until 1941...

Pamela Whiteside is finally going to meet her close friend of 15 years. Whiteside, a 24-year-old Jackson native, and Deanne Norton, of Maine, have considered themselves close friends for 15 years though they have never met. Their friendship began when they were in the fifth grade, while Whiteside was attending West Lane Elementary and Norton going to school in Maine...

The graduating class from 1960 to 1970 are invited to attend the 60s reunion on Nov. 24 at the Holiday Inn Convention Center. A social hour will begin at 6:30 p.m. and a welcoming of all the attendees begins at 7:30. At 8 p.m, the sound system begins and those in attendance are encouraged to "mingle" and catch up with those they haven't seen in a while...

NOTE: The following information pertains to a story in last week's Signal on the German Evangelical Church of Dutchtown. The historic, well kept cemetery of the German Evangelical Church of Dutchtown, founded in 1836, is maintained by a cemetery association organized in 1909, incorporated in Jefferson City in 1910 and revitalized in 1953...

Since embarking on what became a series of more than two dozen columns on Missouri's education reforms last February, I've lost count of the times I have been out in public and approached by worried readers. Invariably, someone says, "What can we do" to stem the tide of Outcome Based Education in our state? With nothing less than the ruination of public schools at stake, it is a good question. ...

If you previously thought there was too much money in politics, just wait till you read this. As the old vaudeville line goes, "You ain't seen nothin' yet!" An analysis just completed by two advocacy groups graphically illustrates the pervasiveness of cold, hard cash in Missouri's political system, threatening not only to corrupt our representative democracy but to destroy the power of the voting public to determine the future course of government. ...

The Arts Council of Southeast Missouri is seeking artists interested in being considered for school programs, summer classes, commissioned works, gallery shows, guest performances and other opportunities, to be included in a regional Artists Registry compiled and distributed by the Arts Council...

GRAND TOWER, Ill. -- William "Bill" Parker, 67, of East Cape Girardeau, formerly of Grand Tower, died Friday, Sept. 8, 1995. He was born at Grand Tower on March 24, 1928, son of Clyde Everett Parker and Lura Mae Glover Parker. He married Marge Qualls on April 22, 1952, at Grand Tower. She survives...

ADVANCE -- Archie E. Cantrell, 76, of Advance died Saturday, Sept. 9, 1995, at his home. He was born Feb. 11, 1919, in Leora. Funeral arrangements are incomplete and will be announced later by Morgan Funeral Home of Dexter.

WOLF LAKE, Ill. -- The Rev. George Pitts, 81, of Wolf Lake died Friday, Sept. 8, 1995, at his residence. He was born June 4, 1914, in Union County, son of William and Della Thomas Pitts. He married Freda Wilson in Anna on June 26, 1932. She preceded him in death on March 29, 1977. He married Anna Walton in Cape Girardeau on Jan. 19, 1980. She survives...

LOWNDES -- Lawrence O. Altenthal, 71, of Lowndes died Saturday, Sept. 9, 1995, at his daughter's home near Jackson. He was born April 22, 1924, at Cape Girardeau, son of Alvin and Mollie Williams Altenthal. He married Leona Nagel on March 18, 1945. She preceded him in death on Feb. 21, 1988...

CHARLESTON -- Billy Edward "Bill" Kirk, 67, of rural Charleston died Friday, Sept. 8, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born Sept. 29, 1927, in Advance, son of Edward and Ella Schatte Kirk. He was a self-employed mechanic and was a member of the United Methodist Church in Charleston...

CHARLESTON -- Robert Lyn Poley, 24, of Sikeston died Friday, Sept. 8, 1995, at the Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. He was born Aug. 22, 1971, in Fairbury, Neb., son of Melvin Lee and Dorothy May Hubbard Poley. The parents survive. Poley was a member of the House of Prayer General Baptist Church at Grant. He was employed at Jay's Fried Chicken in Sikeston...

PERRYVILLE -- Gilbert A. Pingel, 78, died Friday, Sept. 8, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau, He was born July 26, 1917, in Biehle, son of William Pingel and Dora Schemel Pingel. He married Irma Thiret Oct. 2, 1937, at Perryville. She survives...

Lloyd "Pete" Probst, 85, of 1551 Price Drive died Saturday, Sept. 9, 1995, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Oct. 16, 1909, to Steven and Elizabeth Seabaugh Probst in Cape Girardeau. He married Frieda Stovall on Dec. 5, 1921, in Cape Girardeau. She preceded him in death Dec. 9, 1987...

ANNA, Ill. -- Gladys Mae Harris, 80, of Anna died Friday, Sept. 8, 1995, at the City Care Center here. She was born Feb. 14, 1915, to John and Mary Williams Jackson in Dunklin County in Missouri. She married Dennis T. Harris on Sept. 20, 1929, in Green County in Arkansas. He preceded her in death Dec. 25, 1993...

Leonard Clyde Duley, 79, of Cape Girardeau died Friday, Sept. 8, 1995, at the Lutheran Nursing Home in Cape Girardeau. He was born Jan. 16, 1916, at Barlow, Ky., son of Lynn Clarence Duley and May Temple Duley. He married Ruth M. Archer on Jan. 27, 1934, at Gideon, Mo. She survives...

MARBLE HILL -- Service for Frank H. Yount will be at 2 p.m. today at the Liley Funeral Home Chapel, with the Revs. George Land and Jim Simmons officiating. Burial will be at Liberty Cemetery near Marquand. Yount, 67, of Marble Hill died Friday, Sept. 8, 1995, at his home...

Have you ever had a Bad Hair Day combined with a Bad Car Day and a Bad Lawnmower Day? Last Saturday was a Triple Whammy Day for me. It all started when I walked outside in the morning and beheld a wondrous day with a delightfully cool temperature of 90 instead 100. ...

"Everybody grab some steel. When I give the word, dig in and push." When Ed Welker, a National Guard sergeant from Perryville gave the "heave" command, more than 35 men responded, and an 80-foot-long section of bridge moved slowly, on rollers, across Cape LaCroix Creek...

Today Gates open at 11 a.m., free admission, parking $2. Astro Amusements open, $10 bands, noon to 6. Pet Parade, grandstand, 1 p.m. Horse show, 1:30 p.m., grandstand. Monday Exhibit Hall opens at 9 a.m., free gate admission until 1 p.m. Admission for adults and children over age 12, $2; parking $2...

Since YELL for newspapers was conceived in 1991, Schnucks and manager Dennis Marchi have supported the effort to improve literacy in the community by selling YELL newspapers. That support again was exhibited Saturday when Marchi, along with the other 160 employees of Schnucks in Cape Girardeau, wore T-shirts touting support for the store and the fifth year of YELL, which stands for Youth, Education, Literacy and Learning...

Cape Girardeau has a history of losing and almost losing historic buildings to the federal headache ball. The city's federal building history runs through one razed mansion, detours through the U.S. Supreme Court and Common Pleas Courthouse, and winds up at the box-like building that replaced a marble and granite edifice one editorialist called "almost majestic."...

A proposed residential development at Sprigg and Bertling could provide affordable housing that Cape Girardeau needs, says Mayor Al Spradling III. "There is no question there is a need for it," Spradling said. "There has been a hue and cry for housing."...

Not In My Back Yard. That's the sentiment of property owners near a planned 28-acre development at the southeast corner of Sprigg and Bertling. DeHarder Real Estate of Satellite Beach, Fla., has submitted a preliminary plat that calls for building 59 rental homes on the tract...

THE CITY needs to fix the holes in the streets coming in from the south to the Post Office. A lot of people use the south entrance, and there are holes you could almost lose a wheel in. I THINK many parents who complain about their children going to school in classrooms that aren't air conditioned are more concerned about the fact that they have to make babysitting arrangements when they aren't in school a full day...

Huge quantities of hazardous materials travel through Southeast Missouri every day. They move by truck or train, or they sit stored in warehouses, factories and tanks. Nobody thinks much about them. Then something goes wrong. The most recent problem was in January after a Burlington Northern train derailed near Highway 61 just south of Ste. Genevieve. About 20,000 gallons of a motor oil-acetone mix was dumped along the track, and officials closed the highway for several miles...

BENTON -- Although his father used to order queen bees through the mail, Benton Postmaster Jordan "Gus" Robert never imagined he'd be delivering them. And delivering a swarm of bees to a local beekeeper was just one of the many unusual things Robert has done while working for the U.S. Postal Service...

Van H. Puls, president and chief executive of Capital Bancorporation Inc. of Cape Girardeau, may lose his job under the proposed buyout by Union Planters Corp. of Memphis, Tenn. But, he will receive $375,000 and health insurance for three years and the use of an automobile for two years...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Here is the weekly fishing report from the Missouri Department of Conservation: RIVERS: Castor (above Zalma): Clear, low; bass good on artificial lures and topwater lures; all other species slow. Current: Clear, 1' below normal; all species slow to fair on artificial and natural bait...

If you think you would like to try duck hunting but cold weather is not exactly your "cup of tea," the Missouri Department of Conservation may have just what you're looking for. The nine-day special teal season started yesterday and runs through September 17...

JEFFERSON CITY -- When summer winds down, Missourians once again heed the call of the great outdoors. After weeks of sitting in front of air-conditioners, slurping soda pop and watching TV, the promise of falling temperatures and humidity inspires us to dust off our backpacks, squirrel rifles and fishing poles...

Now I divide and transplant the iris, working slowly in the September sunshine to hug the dreamy day to my heart. Long strands of floating spider webs catch in my hair and across my face -- Lilliputians trying to tie me down. I plunge my trowel into the ground and then do it again to be sure I'm deep enough for the rhyzomes and roots and still stronger than a Lilliputian...

A statue of Abraham Lincoln is on display inside the Thebes Courthouse. A mural inside the courthouse depicts scenes when the courthouse was in use. Zelma Caldwell, left, and Blanch Prater are two members of the Thebes Historical Association who give tours of the courthouse...

Several blood drives are scheduled in Cape Girardeau this week. Southeast Missouri State University will sponsor a drive Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the University Center from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Saturday, the Pipefitters Local 562 will sponsor a blood drive from 8 a.m. to noon at the corner of Broadway and Caruthers...

SCOTT CITY -- An open discussion with local historian Edison Shrum will highlight tonight's meeting of the Lutheran Heritage Society. The group will gather at 6 p.m. at the Scott City Park on Ruth Street. Those attending are asked to bring a sack snack. Drinks and desserts will be provided...