Stories from Friday, March 28, 2003

Huang SIKESTON - Donna Zheng and DaQing Huang are the parents of their third daughter, born March 1, 2003, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. Angel Huang weighed 6 pounds, 14 ounces and was 18 1/2-inches long. Mrs. Huang is the daughter of Yiming Zheng and Yuying Huang...

Aidan Marshall folds T-shirts that will be donated to Scott County Central High School students for the MAP test. The shirts were donated by the Sikeston Rotary Club and will given to the students Monday.

SIKESTON - The Sikeston tennis team will open its season tomorrow at the Farmington Tournament. The two-time defending district champion Bulldogs will be looking to get off to a good start this season after losing its top two players from last year in Stephen Pobst and Adam Hahs...

POPLAR BLUFF -- The top coach in Southeast Missouri will be given the first-ever Lennies McFerren Award tomorrow night at the B.A. Sports All-Star Extravaganza in Poplar Bluff. Event organizer Brad Aycock came up with the idea of naming the trophy after the legendary coach...

POPLAR BLUFF -- Sikeston golfers are still struggling to get into the swing of the 2003 season. The Bulldogs lost another match on Thursday afternoon, falling 157-162 to Poplar Bluff. One bright spot for Sikeston was junior Matt Bain, who earned low medalist honors with a one-over par 36...

SIKESTON -- For at least two hours Sunday, political views and personal feelings will be set aside as a variety of people from the community come together to sing and pray for American troops during a community hymn sing. "Sunday will be a chance to bring all religions, all races and all classes of people together to devote time to worship God and pray for our country and troops," said Harry Howard, originator of the idea to have a hymn sing...

SIKESTON - There will be more to look forward to than top-notch country music entertainers, the Sikeston Jaycees told the Sikeston Area Chamber of Commerce. The 2003 Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo will bring back some of rodeo fans' favorites and are making some changes designed to improve the event, said Rob Clay, rodeo general chairman, to a packed house at Thursday's monthly SACC meeting...

SIKESTON - The Sikeston track and field team opened the season with sweep on both the boys and girls side in a triangular meet with New Madrid County Central and Malden on Thursday at SPS Stadium. Sikeston's boys scored 84 points. Malden took second with 65 points while NMCC followed up with 31 points...

CHARLESTON - With spring here and blacktopping weather right around the corner, road maintenance was the chief topic for Mississippi County commissioners during their regular meeting Thursday. Presiding Commissioner Jim Blumenberg asked the district commissioners to get an estimate of how many miles of blacktop work will be needed in their half of the county. ...

MATTHEWS - Julia G. "Judy" Bledsoe, 64, died at 5 p.m. March 27, 2003, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Born Nov. 5, 1938, in Matthews, daughter of the late Clyde Aaron and Helen Lee Ida Pobst Osteen, she was a member of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church. She was a bus driver for the New Madrid County R-1 School District for 30 years and was also a floral designer for Helen's Florist for 30 years...

SIKESTON -- Coy G. McDowell, 76, died March 27, 2003, at his residence. Born May 11, 1926, in Morehouse, son of the late Walter and Ruby Burns McDowell, he was a self-employed painter and drywall hanger. He served in the U.S. Army 24th Infantry during World War II and was of the Pentecostal belief...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Lura Lee Cook Mills, 81, died March 26, 2003, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Born May 26, 1921, at Bernie, daughter of the late Jess Lee and Annie Neeley Cook, she was a retired school teacher and had taught at St. Louis Public Schools and Bernie Public Schools. A member of the Bethany General Baptist Church of Campbell, she was also a founder of the Three Rivers Community College Library in Poplar, where she had worked until her retirement...

DEXTER - Nova Jean Jones, 78, died March 28, 2003, at Cypress Point Health Care in Dexter. Born Sept. 20, 1924, in Republic, daughter of the late Enoch and Lena Shaw Pedigo, she was a lifelong resident of Dexter, where she was a charter member of the Faith Fellowship Church. She worked for the Dexter Hospital for many years and also for the Dexter Police Department before retiring...

MOREHOUSE - Mary Elizabeth Hays, 76, died March 28, 2003, at Sells Rest Home in Matthews. Arrangements are incomplete at Ponder Funeral Home in Sikeston.

SIKESTON - Mildred Bernice Johnson, 83, died at 1:15 a.m. March 28, 2003, at the Clearview Nursing Center. Born July 4, 1919, in Hornbeak, Tenn., daughter of the late Samuel Calvin and Lottie Kimbell Weaks, she was a member of the Vanduser Baptist Church...

When people go to a buffet line and it's one set price, people ask for a go box or have a little plastic bag, knowing full well that you cannot take food from the food bar home. Sometimes people who eat out will buy one food bar and then share. Two people cannot buy from the food bar as one meal. ...

SIKESTON - Kelly Barrett is now an agent for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., taking the place left vacant when Garwood Sharp was recently promoted to assistant manager and transferred to the Poplar Bluff office. SIKESTON - Bernard L. Kincy, teacher of science and math in the Sikeston Senior High School has been selected as a participant in the 1963 Summer Institute for physics, chemistry and mathematics teachers at the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy. ...