Debbie Montgomery of Cape Girardeau has been named director of operations for Humana's Southeast Missouri region.

She replaces Jeff Anderson, who served as the company's executive director 14 months before accepting a position with the Metropolitan Physicians Alliance of Kansas City.

Montgomery, who has served as Humana's local case manager since April 1995, worked with Anderson and has more than 11 years experience in nursing. She previously worked at St. Francis Medical Center and Southeast Missouri Hospital in medical-surgical units, utilization review and discharge planning.

Humana contracts with more than 100 health-care providers in Southeast Missouri. Headquartered in Louisville, Ky., Humana offers health-care products and services to more than 3.8 million members nationwide through its managed-care networks. The company serves about 230,000 members in Missouri and Kansas.

Debbie Newman of Puxico and Poplar Bluff native Shanna Caputo of Owensboro, Ky., have joined Lucy Lee Home Health Services at Poplar Bluff.

Newman, a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University with a bachelor of science degree in social work, served as administrator of Greenville Health Care in Greenville for six years. She will be the agency's social worker.

Caputo will be assistant director of clinical services in Food and Nutrition Services at Lucy Lee. She served as clinical dietitian at Owensboro Mercy Health Systems the past two years. She is a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University and served one year as an intern at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

Pat Lemons of Brighton, Ill., and Olivia L. Quinn of St. Louis have been named site managers of Alliance Blue Cross Blue Shield's new Cape Girardeau customer center.

Lemons will be responsible for national and custom account departments of the center, and Quinn will be responsible for direct-pay and group-billing units and BlueCHOICE claims and customer service department.

Lemons has been with Alliance Blue Cross Blue Shield for more than 20 years. She attended St. Joseph School of Nursing in Alton, Ill. She plans to move to Cape Girardeau in November.

Quinn, who joined the company in 1988, expects to move to Cape Girardeau this month. She is a graduate of Northeast Missouri State University with a bachelor of science degree in agriculture, and has worked toward a master's degree in business administration at Lindenwood College in St. Louis.

The customer service center is being constructed in Cape West Business Park. It is scheduled for completion by the end the year.

Marcy Abernathy has joined D-J's Beauty Mart, 1020 N. Kingshighway.

Abernathy has more than 13 years of experience in the beauty profession, 10 of them at the JCPenney Salon. She specializes in color.

She has extensive color training with Matrix and Clairol companies and has won a number of hair-color contests. She was also winner of the Golden Scissors award at JCPenney in 1995.

Carl Kagle of Cape Girardeau, a driver examiner with the Missouri Highway Patrol for 37 years, has retired.

A 1955 graduate of the former Illmo-Fornfelt High School, Kagle joined the patrol in June 1959 as a driver examiner.

For the past six years he was a commercial driver's license examiner.

He is a deacon at Cornerstone Church of Cape Girardeau and has been in the mission field building churches. He helped in the building of four churches in Mexico and one in Hawaii.

Merle Wilson of Mounds, Ill., will serve as Americorps' Volunteers in Service to America in Alexander and Pulaski counties Illinois.

Wilson recently completed a VISTA training program in Chicago.

She retired in 1994 after a 24-year career in education at Shawnee Community College near Ullin.

VISTA is a full-time, yearlong volunteer program for people 18 and older. VISTA volunteers implement a variety of programs.

Wilson is working with a new neighborhood watch committee at Mounds and is providing assistance to four Positive Youth Development committees in the area.

LaDonna Viox and Barbara Bender, nurse care managers at First American Home Care in Cape Girardeau, recently qualified to become IV trainers and resource persons for nursing staff at the facility.

Viox, who has been with First American since October 1994, and Bender, who joined the company in July, recently attended a two-day IV trainers workshop at St. Louis.

First American Home Care is a JCAHO-accredited, licensed home-health agency.

Peggy Rainwater of Cape Girardeau has been named Independent Newspaper Delivery Contractor of The Year by The Missouri Association of Circulation Managers.

Newspapers across the state submitted entries based on service and sales performance for their delivery areas.

Rainwater and Richard Hahn were winners of the Southeast Missourian Independent Contractor of the Year awards presented by Mark Kneer, director of circulation for the Southeast Missourian. The awards, presented recently at the statewide conference, qualified them for the state competition.

Rainwater, who has 11 years of delivery experience, was selected the City Zone Contractor of the Year by the Southeast Missourian. She has turned in over 100,000 deliveries during the past 12 months with only 52 errors. In addition, she has delivered more than 4,000 total-market-coverage papers.

Working with her visually impaired partner, Karen Wright, the two arrive at the production plant early in the morning to start their day. As Rainwater drives to the area to begin delivery, Wright rolls the papers and readies them to throw. Wright pitches in by throwing to customers on her side as Rainwater verbally coaches her. After the papers are delivered, Rainwater continues her day with a full-time food-service position at a retirement complex.

Rainwater will receive $100 cash from the Missouri Press Association. Hahn represented the Southeast Missourian in the rural trade zone, serving primarily the Advance and Bell City areas. Hahn, an eight-year veteran, posted an error ratio of only 6 errors for over 75,000 deliveries during the last 12 months.

Hahn drives 58 miles round trip just to pick up his papers, then drives another 107 miles to deliver them.

Dr. Joseph M. Ashley of Fishersville, Va., formerly of Cape Girardeau, recently received two awards from the National Rehabilitation Association.

Ashley, who works in the field of rehabilitation counseling and evaluation, received the W.J. Faulkes Award in recognition of contributions to the increase of knowledge in the field of rehabilitation. He received the award from the NRA during its annual training conference Norfolk, Va., where he also participated in two presentations concerning rehabilitation.

Ashley also received the Patricia Thoben Distinguished Service Award for the Mid-Atlantic region for working to overcome handicaps and contributing to the goals established by the NRA.

Four therapists at St. Francis Medical Center for Health and Rehabilitation have earned certification to conduct ErgoScience work performance evaluations.

Occupational therapist Renelda McClarney and physical therapists Gerry Salter, Dennis Garlock and Tonya Rinda recently completed three-day training courses to qualify for the Physical Work Performance Evaluation designation.

The ErgoScience evaluation system is a test that determines an individual's capabilities for performing physical work.

The St. Francis Center for Health and Rehabilitation is one of 50 rehabilitation facilities in the U.S. and Canada certified to conduct physical work performance evaluations using the ErgoScience system.

Bob Myrick of Cape Girardeau was recently honored by Country Companies Pulaski Agency for 25 years service with the insurance group. Myrick started with Country Companies in 1972.

Myrick serves clients from offices at 1200 N. Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau and 404 S. Blanch in Mounds, Ill.