Stories from Wednesday, May 22, 2002

SIKESTON - Former Charleston resident, retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Jack Waggener, will be guest speaker for a Memorial Day service at 10:30 a.m. Monday at the Veterans Park. Local veterans from AmVets, American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars will also participate in the event. Maj. Roger Alsup, former commander of Company C in Sikeston, will place the wreath during the ceremony while SFC Steve Alexander of Sikeston will present the colors at the ceremony...

Members of the Sikeston Department of Public Safety battle a late night blaze at the 500 block of Gladys. Officers responded to the abandoned house at approximately 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and spent several hours at the scene trying to extinguish the blaze. The cause of the fire was undetermined at press time....

BENTON - A Sikeston armed robbery case will be heard by jurors in St. Charles County. Stoddard County Associate Circuit Judge Joe Satterfield ordered the case of Troy Fenton, who is charged with the robbery of Super D Drug Store in Sikeston on Oct. 13, 2001, to be tried in St. Charles...

I noticed that Town & Country advertises in a sale bill in Wednesday's Standard Democrat. Has Sikeston ever had a Town & Country in all the years that's gone by in this town? Will the person who repairs clocks please leave the number in SpeakOut? Edgar Kinser (573) 568-4628....

SIKESTON - Mrs. Ellis Alcorn entertained members of the seventh grade with a wiener roast Friday night in honor of the birthday of her son, C.D. SIKESTON - O.T. "Bos" Elder received a service pin from his supervisor, John Brennan, chief switchman, signifying 43 years of employment with Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. Fellow workers helped him celebrate the event with a dinner in his honor. Mr. Elder came to Sikeston on Jan. 1, 1929, and has worked in this area ever since...

BENTON - MOPERM has a new policy for insuring government fleets: All of the cars or none. "We will no longer write just a portion of them," said Jenny Morrison, member services specialist for MOPERM, during Tuesday's Scott County Commission meeting...

I, for one, believe the Cardinals when they say they will move their baseball stadium out of downtown St. Louis. Were I a betting man, I'd put my money on a move to the western suburbs. But it would not be impossible to imagine the Red Birds moving east across the river though that's a long shot given the environment in east St. Louis...

DEXTER - Kenneth W. Griffin, 36, died May 12, 2002, near Zalma. Born March 30, 1966, at Fort Benning, Ga., son of Doris A. Cuevas Griffin of St. Louis and the late Kenneth Lee Griffin, he lived in Dexter most of his life and was a graduate of Dexter High School...

EAST PRAIRIE - Arlene S. Duty, 63, died at 5 p.m. May 21, 2002, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Arrangements are incomplete at McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston.

BENTON - Keith Henry Lee, 53, died May 20, 2002, at his home. Born Sept. 22, 1948, in Wyatt, son of Henry Lenzy Lee of Anniston and the late Jessie Hutson, he owned and operated the KCO Construction Company in Benton for 30 years. He was a member of Unity Baptist Church in Benton...

PORTAGEVILLE - Ethel Bonee, 76, died May 21, 2002, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Born Dec. 21, 1925, in Hardin, Tenn., she was the daughter of the late John E. and Rose Worley Carroll. On June 3, 1942, in Corinth, Miss., she married Gilbert Bonee who survives of the home...

SIKESTON - Pallbearers for services scheduled at 7 p.m. today at Ponder Funeral Home for Donnie G. Chapman, 56, of Vanduser, who died May 20, 2002, will be: Mike Chapman, Jeffrey Chapman, Harold Chapman, Harold Gene Graviett, Jerry Garner and Dale Garner...

DEXTER - Berry Holder, 88, died May 20, 2002, at his home. Born Jan. 21, 1914, in Clarkton, son of the late Oscar Summers and Bertha Pearl Siegers Holder, he lived in Dexter since 1951, where he was manager of Stovall's Department Store for 25 years. He was a member of the First Church of the Nazarene in Dexter, where he had been Sunday school superintendent, choir director, Sunday school teacher and had served on the church board...

SIKESTON -- Henry "Buck" Smith may have retired as a teacher from the Sikeston R-6 School District four years ago, but that doesn't mean he's no longer affiliated with education. In fact, it's just the opposite. In April, Smith was named the Outstanding Missouri Retired Teacher of the Year in the local district, and on May 9, he was nominated for the same honor at the regional level. ...

NEW MADRID - Formal charges are pending against 21 people taken into custody during a countywide round-up of individuals suspected in the distribution of drugs. The New Madrid County Sheriff's Department, Portageville Police Department, SEMO Drug Task Force, Bootheel Drug Task Force and the Missouri State Highway Patrol conducted the sweep through the county beginning early Tuesday. ...

BONNE TERRE - The Sikeston Bulldogs baseball team will attempt to advance one step further in the state playoffs tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. when they travel to take on the North County Raiders in a Class 3A Sectional game. It will be a battle of state-ranked teams as the No. 4 ranked Bulldogs will try to unseat top-ranked North County...

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - Steve and Tara Gilliland are the parents of their second son, born April 27, 2002, in Oklahoma City. Korbin Blake Gilliland weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces. The former Tara Baker, Mrs. Gilliland is the daughter of Ronnie and Betty Baker of Lilbourn, Mo. She is office manager for Vondel Smith Funeral Home in Oklahoma City...