Stories from Monday, October 28, 2002

Jessie E. Redd Sr., Senator Maida Harrington-Coleman and Matt Marshall speak before for the Business Research Institute Annual Banquet Saturday. The banquet recognized the success of the BRI in the community revitalization.

SIKESTON - It's out with the old and in with the new at the Sikeston Sports Complex. Sikeston City Council members approved bids during Monday's special briefing session which will replace the 27 year-old concession stand in the middle of the complex's north quadrant for the Babe Ruth fields...

Members of the Communitywide Clean-up load a truck with tree branches Saturday. The clean-up was part of the Make-A-Difference Day with over 50 volunteers cleaning up 32 different proprieties in Sikeston.

SIKESTON - The F.X. Schumacher Jr. family will move Saturday from a duplex at 520 Sikes Avenue to a duplex at 310 W. Gladys Street, owned by J.S. Wallace. SIKESTON - Miss Margaret Beth Gimlin, 17-year-old senior, was crowned the 1962 Sikeston High School Homecoming Queen last night at the Homecoming Dance in the senior high cafetorium. ...

I'm calling about the SpeakOut comment "Dress for fun." I am the one who put the article in the paper for "Dress for the occasion." I really don't care if you work in the night club because it makes no difference if they wear a muscle shirt or not. ...

SCOTT CITY - Robert Teddy Smith, 71, died Oct. 27, 2002, at his home. Born March 13, 1931, in Birch Tree, son of the late Robert Oslo and Edith Howard Smith, he was an over-the-road truck driver for Elfrink Lines of Cape Girardeau before retiring. He was also a U.S. Army veteran of the Korean War, member of Teamsters Union Local 574 in Cape Girardeau and was of the Church of Christ belief...

EAST PRAIRIE - The Rev. Billy A. Hunt, 65, died at 5:45 p.m. Oct. 27, 2002, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Arrangements are incomplete at McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston.

DEXTER - Pallbearers at services conducted Saturday at Watkins and Sons Funeral Home for Margariette Ellen Persfull, 66, who died Oct. 22, 2002, were: Norman McRoberts, Carrol Duckworth, James Tucker, Lester Barnett, Jason Josupaip and Ryan Lee.

ORAN - Cecil Myra Halford, 84, died Oct. 26, 2002, at her home. Born Feb. 15, 1918, at Commerce, daughter of the late Robert and Viola Mansker Brotherton, she was a member of the Bell City United Methodist Church. On Dec. 4, 1936, in New Madrid County, she married Waymon Halford who preceded her in death on Oct. 22, 1996...

BLOOMFIELD - William Richard and Heather Blair Dowdy are the parents of their first child, a daughter, born at 3:18 p.m. Sept. 26, 2002, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Ryleigh Nicole Dowdy weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces and was 20-inches long...

Rachel Hopson, a member of Girl Scout Brownie Troop 3, paints a window during the Sikeston Elks Lodge and the Sikeston Area Chamber of Commerce's "Halloween Window Painting Contest." Eight different youth groups painted windows downtown Saturday...

SIKESTON - Every year suicide takes the lives of an estimated 30,000 Americans or 83 per day. It's a desperate act that leaves an unimaginable emptiness in the hearts of their family and friends. "As a mother, nothing helps," remarked Debi Oliver, whose son, Daric took his own life almost 11 years ago...

DEXTER - Gertrude Elledge Metz, 71, died Oct. 26, 2002, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Born Jan. 15, 1931, in Dexter, daughter of the late Arthur J. and Ada Meek McDaniel, she lived in Dexter most of her life where she retired from Elder Manufacturing and was a member of the Second General Baptist Church...

SCOTT CITY - Steve Wayne Speakman, 43, died at 12:20 p.m. Oct. 26, 2002, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Born Sept. 24, 1959, in Dallas, Texas, son of the late William Lonnie and Ruby Lucille McKinney Speakman II, he graduated from Stage One Hair School and had been employed as a hair stylist...

DEXTER - Wava L. Roper, 87, died Oct. 27, 2002, at Missouri Southern Healthcare. Born March 3, 1915, near Bloomfield, daughter of the late Marshal Joseph and Margaret Pope Cox, she was a graduate of Dexter High School. She retired as a store clerk for Hurlus Cox Grocery and was a member of the Second General Baptist Church...

PORTAGEVILLE - Joe A. Moore, 89, died Oct. 26, 2002, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Born May 31, 1913, in Tiptonville, Tenn., son of the late Joe and Effie Robinson Moore, he was a member of the First Baptist Church in Portageville. He was chief of police at Portageville from 1945 until retiring in 1989 after serving in that position for 44 years. ...

One day while out on a leisurely drive somewhere on the outskirts of Jefferson City, my car gave its usual "thump, thump" as I slowed to a stop sign. On this time, there was a third thump. "That's odd," I thought, as I watched my left rear wheel pass me and hurtle itself through the stop sign with obvious disregard for traffic laws. ...