Stories from Thursday, April 4, 2002

EAST PRAIRIE - Wet weather has created conditions that are just right for one of Missouri's most unusual frogs, the Eastern spadefoot. The spadefoot spends most of its time burrowing through sandy soil and only emerges after heavy rainstorms that produce more than three inches of precipitation. "The recent storms, with heavy rain have been ideal for Eastern spadefoot," said natural history biologist Janeen Laatsch,...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Virginia Davis Young and David Scott Newton exchanged wedding vows during an afternoon ceremony Oct. 6, 2001, at The Navy Chapel in Washington with the Rev. William E. Hartgen Jr. of Washington officiating. He was assisted by the Rev. Thomas R. Geers of Sikeston, Mo...

SIKESTON - Dan and Evelyn Limbaugh will be guests of honor for a golden wedding anniversary celebration from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday in the fellowship hall of the Old Bethel Baptist Church on Highway 449 north of Sikeston. All relatives and friends are invited to attend...

CHAFFEE -- Chaffee's Ashley Graham pulled through in the fifth inning of Wednesday's 5-4 victory over Delta. With two outs and runners on second and third, Graham pounded a double to score the tying and winning runs for the Lady Red Devils. Chaffee improves to 3-0 on the year...

DEXTER - The Dexter Bearcats broke the .500 mark as they added a win and moved to 2-1 on the season following a 9-8 win over SEMO Conference rival Notre Dame. Josh Lilly started on the mound for Dexter. He lasted four innings before giving up seven runs on seven hits...

SIKESTON -- Sikeston's golf team won its fourth dual of the season Thursday, toppling Notre Dame at the Bootheel Golf Club 165-175. Sikeston's Jonathan Spence was the medalist, firing a three-over-par 39. He was followed by Tanner Fritz at 40, E.C. Atchison at 43 and Matt Bain at 43...

CAPE GIRARDEAU - Jamie and Sandy Dodd of Cape Girardeau have announced the engagement of their daughter, Amy Nichole Dodd, to Michael Lee Chambers, son of DeVonda Casey of Cape Girardeau and Paul Mott of Sikeston. Dodd graduated in 2001 from Shawnee Community College in Ullin, Ill...

SIKESTON - The Sikeston boys and girls track and field teams swept a dual meet with Dexter on Wednesday on a cold, windy day at Sikeston Public Schools Stadium. Sikeston's boys took first place in all 18 events en route to a 123-14 victory. The Lady Bulldogs also dominated Dexter, winning 97-34...

POPLAR BLUFF -- The top high school basketball players in Southeast Missouri will take the Black River Coliseum court on Saturday, for the 2002 Three Rivers Booster Club All-Star Game. The girls game will start at 5 p.m., followed by the boys game at 7 p.m. At halftime of each game will be a 3-point contest. A slam dunk competition will be between the two games...

SIKESTON - Michelle D. Skelton is the mother of her first child, a son, born at 3:20 p.m. March 7, 2002, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. Corbin Dewayne Skelton weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces and was 19-inches long. Grandparents are Jeannie McLemore and Vernon Skelton...

With planting season looming on the horizon, many area farmers have been taking advantage of the weather to prepare their fields. Weather permitting, many farmers will plant their fields later this month.

SIKESTON - Della Hubbard put out a call for help two years ago. She asked the community to drop off their aluminum cans and the money received for recycling them would be donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Residents heard her loud and clear. To date about $5,000 has been raised and the cans are still coming to the drop-off spot, a trailer at Inside Lane on Highway 61 N...

SIKESTON - Catherine M. Willis, 71, died at 12:01 a.m. April 2, 2002, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Born June 4, 1930, in Rolla, daughter of the late James R. and Alice Collier Tyler Sr., she had lived in Sikeston for the past 51 years. A member of the Garden Club in Sikeston, she served as an election judge for Scott County for more than 30 years and attended Providence Missionary Baptist Church in Puxico...

SIKESTON - Dorothy Chadd, 88, died April 2, 2002, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. Born Aug. 1, 1913, in Sikeston, daughter of the late Sam and Anna Lands Gross, she was of the Baptist belief. She had owned and operated the Donut Shop and was a nurse aide at Sikeston Health Care until retiring...

DEXTER - Jack D. Kirkman, 57, died April 3, 2002, at his home. Born Nov. 2, 1944, at Dexter, son of Ruth Sprinkle of Bloomfield and the late Ivan Kirkman, he had been a landscape architect and was of the Pentecostal belief. On Aug. 3, 1974, at Arnold, he married Brenda K. Simmons who survives of the home...

PORTAGEVILLE - Lameta Kingston, 74, died April 4, 2002, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Arrangements are incomplete at DeLisle Funeral Home.

PADUCAH, Ky. - Areaba Berry Holt, 78, formerly of Charleston, Mo., died April 2, 2002, at the Life Care Center in LaCenter. Born July 6, 1923, in Charleston, she was the daughter of the late Lennie Boyd and Clara Lee George Berry. She lived in Charleston most of her life before moving to Paducah in 1992, where she was a member of the Olivet Baptist Church...

EAST PRAIRIE - Carolyn Charlene Sweet, 59, died at 8:40 p.m. April 3, 2002, at the Bertrand Nursing Center. Born May 16, 1942, in New Madrid County, daughter of the late Leslie Filmore and Mollie Mae Conyers Keene Sr., she lived in Mississippi and New Madrid counties all her life. She had been employed by the Brown Shoe Company and was of the Baptist belief...

ST. LOUIS - Gina Engler, 85, formerly of Sikeston, died March 31, 2002, at the Delmar Gardens West Nursing Home in Chesterfield. Born April 5, 1916, in Tipper County, Miss., daughter of the late Rasin Malden and Ruth Dollar Alsup, she was a licensed practical nurse...

The spotlight will fall on the Sikeston Area Higher Education Center Saturday when school officials there host a dinner and auction to raise funds for student scholarships. The 6 p.m. dinner at the Ramada Inn will feature guest speaker Charles Stamp Jr., a former Sikeston resident who returns to address the gathering...

We had a very heavy rain Monday night and expected the ditch to be flooded Tuesday morning. But now it's Wednesday morning and my ditch is still flooded. It's time to clean out this ditch and let it flow so it can only be flooded one day instead of two days. What can we do to get this thing cleaned out?...

SIKESTON - Fabick Brothers Equipment Company of Sikeston received the second new car to be issued under rationing regulations, a report for the past two weeks from county headquarters in Benton showed today. SIKESTON - Eight girls at Sikeston High School have been chosen to attend Missouri Girls State at Stephens College in Columbia June 17-23: Linda Byrd, Melinda Bucher, Marilyn Conrad, Janet Gray, Sue Hopper, Karen Stephenson, Margaret Watson and Elizabeth Wilkins...