STUDENT DIES WITH DIPLOMA IN HAND; UNIVERSITY FAXES DEGREE TO HOSPITAL

Southeast Missouri State University student Melissa Compton died early Thursday in a St. Louis hospital, only hours after receiving the diploma she so desperately wanted.

The 22-year-old Eureka woman, who majored in elementary education, died at 1:15 a.m. Thursday in Barnes Hospital, her life cut short by a brain tumor diagnosed only a few weeks earlier.

Compton's former teachers and officials of Southeast's College of Education expressed shock and sadness.

"It really has been a shock to everybody," said Beverly Petch, of the college's elementary and special education faculty.

"I have just been haunted by it," said Sandra Renegar, another of Compton's education teachers.

Compton, who graduated from Pacific High School, enrolled at Southeast in the fall of 1989. She was slated to graduate last Saturday. She had done her student teaching this spring in a second-grade classroom in the Lindbergh School District.

University officials said a diploma was faxed to a hospitalized Compton around 1 p.m. Wednesday.

"We were trying to get her the diploma because that seemed to be important to her and her family," said Lenore Bierbaum, dean of the College of Education.

"We were just so frightened it wouldn't get there in time," she said.

Bierbaum said the request for the diploma was received late Wednesday morning. There was no time to deliver the diploma in person, she said.

As it was, Compton reportedly slipped into a coma only 20 to 30 minutes after the diploma was put in her hands, Bierbaum said.

"We were all just kind of stunned," Bierbaum said Thursday afternoon. "It's a sad thing when you lose a 22-year-old, talented student."

Bierbaum said this isn't the first time she has had to deal with such tragedy.

As a Southeast faculty member in the early 1980s, Bierbaum had to cope with the death of one of her students, a Dexter woman who just short of graduation died of breast cancer.

"They buried her in her cap and gown, with the diploma," Bierbaum recalled.

As to Compton, Renegar recalled she was a cheerful person. "She was one of those super positive kids, who always saw the glass as half full, not half empty."

Compton previously had been president of the Council for Exceptional Children at Southeast, a group of students majoring in teaching children with learning disabilities.

"Everybody who knew Missy just thought the world of her," said Renegar.

"I found out April 30 that she was ill," said Renegar. "I guess she had some paralysis."

Petch said Compton was "always cheerful and on the go" and would have made "a fantastic teacher."

"She was just really a dynamic person," said Petch.

Compton was in Petch's techniques of teaching class last semester. "I always see students the last semester before they go out to student teach and they are really excited, and you really get to know them," explained Petch.

Funeral arrangements are being handled by Schrader Funeral Home, 14960 Manchester Road, in Ballwin. Visitation will be held from 2-9 p.m. Sunday. Funeral service will be held Monday at 10 a.m. at the funeral chapel.