CARUTHERSVILLE -- R.T. Friction, Inc., a manufacturer of automotive brake pads, will locate in Caruthersville late this summer. The company will create 40 new jobs in the Southeast Missouri community.

The city will build a 27,000-square-foot building and lease it to R.T. Friction. The Missouri Department of Economic Development has awarded the company a $390,000 Action Fund loan for the purchase of machinery and equipment. The award for this project is being made under the Community Development Block Grant program.

"Action Fund loans are designed to provide low-cost financing to businesses that create or retain jobs," said David Harrison, director of the Missouri Department of Economic Development. "The state is pleased to play a role in securing 40 invaluable jobs for the citizens of Caruthersville."

R.T. Friction will also be eligible for local and state tax credits because the facility is located within the Caruthersville Enterprise Zone.

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MARBLE HILL Liley Funeral Homes in Marble Hill and Patton has been accepted for membership in the International Order of the Golden Rule.

The Order is comprised of funeral directors from all over the world who are dedicated to keeping in touch with the attitudes of the public.

This is accomplished through regularly scheduled seminars and educational meetings at which attendance is required by all members.

Only one funeral home in a community is selected for membership. For this reason, the Order carefully screens all prospects. The decision is based on recommendations made by families the firm has served and by other professionals in the area.

Dale L. Rollings, executive director of the association, said, "To obtain membership in OGR, all prospects must provide their community with quality funeral service and merchandise at reasonable prices. As a result of the positive response we've received from the Marble Hill area, Liley Funeral Homes has proven its worthiness to be counted among our members."

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ST. LOUIS The board of directors of A.G. Edwards, Inc. has declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of 13 cents per share payable on July 1 to stockholders of record June 5, 1992.

The board also authorized the purchase of up to 1,500,000 shares of the company's own stock from time to time in the open market or otherwise for the purpose of providing the shares so acquired to its employees pursuant to the firm's employee stock plans. The authority covers the 19-month period ending Dec. 31, 1993.

A.G. Edwards, Inc. currently has 45 million shares outstanding. The firm is a holding company whose principal subsidiary is the St. Louis-based brokerage firm of A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc.

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Shoppers at Outdoor Sports Center, 1502 N. Kingshighway, in Cape Girardeau can register to win a newly remodeled house in High Point, N.C.

"Popular Science" is offering the "Win This House" Sweepstakes as part of "Home Remodeling Ideas," a series of two special sections that appear in the May and June issues of "Popular Science."

The magazine purchased a house in High Point, N.C., to illustrate realistic remodeling projects. The house is being given away.

There are also other prizes that will be given away.

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Mark S. Kasten, manager of Rental Land Inc., announced this week that Rental Land has been selected as an authorized Kohler Engine service representative. All types of repair and service work will be performed on any type of Kohler engine.

The service will include original replacement parts and complete warranty repair. Kohler manufactures a full line of four-cycle engines.

Rental Land joins a network of authorized service outlets located across the country. Carl Farrar, service manager for Rental Land, will supervise all Kohler repairs. Rental Land has a complete small engine and electrical tool repair service shop, including safety and inspection equipment.

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Lisa Elfrink, food service director for Cape Girardeau Public Schools, has been appointed to serve as marketing co-chair on the executive board of the Missouri School Food Service Association.

She has been employed for two years with the Cape Girardeau district.

Installation of officers will be held June 15 in St. Louis at the start of the 1992 Missouri School Food Service Association Conference.

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NEW YORK Westvaco Corp., a major manufacturer of paper, packaging and chemicals, reported its second quarter and six-month sales and earnings for the 1992 fiscal period, which ended April 30.

During the second quarter, Westvaco, which has a paper plant at Wickliffe, Ky., achieved sales of $593,422,000, which represented a record for the quarter and exceeded the same quarter in 1991 by 6.4 percent. For the first six months of the fiscal year, Westvaco's sales reached $1,133,216,000, approximately the same as compared to $1,131,257,000 in the first half of 1991.

Second quarter earnings were $40,377,000, or 61 cents per share or common stock, representing a gain over the 55 cents per share earned in the same period last year. Earnings for the first six months of the year totaled $67,481,000, or $1.02 per share.

This compares with 80 cents per share reported in the same period of 1991 which included a special charge of 24 cents per share registered in the first quarter of 1991 to cover the one-time impact of the cost reduction and productivity improvement efforts Westvaco undertook to cope with the growing national recession.