JUDGE LEADS JAYCEES DOWN MEMORY LANE

Missouri Supreme Court Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr. led attendees of the annual Cape Girardeau Jaycees Distinguished Service Award banquet on an abbreviated stroll down memory lane Monday night.

Limbaugh, who received the Distinguished Service Award in 1984, was asked to speak at the banquet by last year's honoree and close personal friend Bob Neff, owner of Ford Groves.

"I was asked why I asked Stephen Limbaugh Jr. to speak tonight," Neff told the audience composed of past DSA winners and current Jaycee officers.

"I decided it was because I couldn't get Rush (Limbaugh, the radio personality) to come, so we settled for (Stephen)," Neff quipped, much to the audience's delight.

Before allowing Limbaugh to take his place at the podium, Neff insisted everyone sing "Happy Birthday" to the judge, who celebrated his 41st birthday Monday.

During his 20-minute speech, Limbaugh praised and joked about several past members of the Jaycees, many of whom were in attendance at Monday night's event.

"The first big Jaycee project I worked on after joining in the early spring of 1978 was the Jaycee Haunted House," Limbaugh reminisced. "Being new, I had to do the grunt work."

Limbaugh described his job in the haunted house: Wearing a grisly-looking fake hand over his own, he stood behind a wall grabbing at people's ankles through a small opening near the floor.

At the end of the three-day event, Limbaugh said, he was sore, tired and his hand was swollen from people stepping on it.

"In my appointment to the Supreme Court, I neglected to tell the governor that I was once an ankle-grabber for the Jaycees," he joked.

Limbaugh told the audience he refined two fundamental concepts as a member of the Cape Girardeau Jaycees: Leadership and civic-mindedness.

"A prerequisite-requisite to leadership is a firm recognition that each one of us has a life of value and dignity," Limbaugh said. "I firmly believe that the recognition of the worth of all people should be judged by performance and character; not inherent gifts and personal background."

Limbaugh said the recognition of each individual contribution within the ranks of the Jaycees amazed him. In the first few meetings he attended, he remembered being bored to tears with the president's naming of each individual who contributed something that month.

"But then one day they called my name and I thought, `What a neat thing to do,'" Limbaugh said. "It wasn't until then that I understood why they did it."

Limbaugh credits the Jaycees with providing an environment for refining qualities of personal integrity, leadership and self-worth.

"I always believed that I had the propensity to be civic-minded, but I never acted on it until I had the privilege to join the Jaycees," Limbaugh said.

The judge also said he feels the two key ingredients of humanity are pronounced senses of empathy and altruism.

"Each one of us has empathy and altruism," Limbaugh said. "Those qualities in any person may themselves be sparks of divinity."

Limbaugh was born in Cape Girardeau in 1952, the son of Anne and Stephen Limbaugh Sr. After graduating from law school at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, he joined the family law firm, Limbaugh, Limbaugh and Russell.

Limbaugh served as the Cape Girardeau County Prosecutor from 1979-1982. He then returned to the family law firm, then Limbaugh, Limbaugh, Russell and Syler.

In 1987 he was elected a circuit judge in the 32nd Judicial Circuit, where he served until his appointment by then-Gov. John Ashcroft to the Missouri Supreme Court in August 1992.

Limbaugh has been a member of several civic organizations, including the Youth Service Council, the Cape Girardeau chapter of the United Way and the Boy Scouts of America.

The recipient of Monday's Distinguished Service Award was KFVS-TV anchorwoman Mary-Ann Maloney.

"I'm very proud to get this award," Maloney told the audience.

The Jaycees Boss of the Year award was given to Randy Sparkman of the Health Services Corporation of America.