Stories from Thursday, July 24, 2003

NEW MADRID -- Amanda Andrews and William John Dailey were united in marriage in a 2 p.m. ceremony Dec. 28, 2002, at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church before Monsignor Michael Swalina. Scriptures were read by Harriette Myers, aunt of the bride, and Nicholas Andrews, brother of the bride...

CHAFFEE - The Sikeston Senior American Legion Post 114 baseball team saw its season come to an end on Wednesday night with an 11-8 loss to Chaffee in the District 14 Legion Tournament at Harmon Field. Chaffee (19-13) scored seven of its 11 runs in the seventh and eighth innings to pull out the victory...

SIKESTON - Doug and Emily Causey Moore have announced the engagement of their daughter, Julie LeeAnne Causey, to Bobby Howell Aycock, son of Bobby and Doris Aycock of Parma. The future bride is a 1995 graduate of New Madrid County Central High School. ...

Garcia SIKESTON - Carlos Garcia and Candace Bramlett are the parents of their fourth child, second daughter, born at 11:47 a.m. June 26, 2003, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. Carla Garcia weighed 7 pounds, 8 ounces and was 19-inches long. Bramlett, daughter of Michael and Debra Duncan, is employed by Food Giant...

CINCINNATI -- Robert and Deanna Hicks of Conran, formerly of Cincinnati and Detroit, Mich., have announced the engagement of their son, Darrin Pikey Hicks, to Nicole Rovito, both of Cincinnati. The future bride is attending Kentucky State University, where she is majoring in criminal law. She is a management trainer for Delta Airlines at Greater Cincinnati International Airport...

SIKESTON -- In 2001, following the events of Sept. 11, Sandy Bloemer of Sikeston sat down and began writing a song focusing on prayer for the nation. She didn't finish it then. Instead, she filed it away under her piano bench. A little over a year passed, and soon the war with Iraq started. After watching war coverage on the news, Bloemer decided she was ready to finish her song...

CAPE GIRARDEAU - A Sikeston man will spend the next five years in prison on charges of drug-related criminal activity. Omawale Malachi Sims, 29, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to 60 months in prison when he appeared before U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey. Sims was convicted of three felony counts of distribution of five grams or more of cocaine base...

SIKESTON - Missouri Delta Medical Center has a new camera, but this one is not for taking pictures of people's outsides, but their insides. "The Philips/ADAC Skylight Gamma Camera is the latest in technology and is in a class of its own," according to Sharon Urhahn, MDMC's marketing director...

SIKESTON - Gary Lee McClain, 59, died at 9:10 a.m. July 22, 2003, at his home. Born May 16, 1944, in Mississippi County, son of the late J.C. and Lillian Earline Delk McClain, he lived in Mississippi and Scott counties most of his life. A 1963 graduate of Thomas W. ...

MORGANTON, N.C. - Audrey McWaters Newman, 90, died July 22, 2003, at the Grace Heights Nursing Home in Morganton. Born Nov. 11, 1912, in Canalou, Mo., she was the daughter of the late William and Carrie Robison McWaters. Her husband, Aymon M. Newman, preceded her in death on April 30, 1979...

SIKESTON -- John Ell Burton, 57, died at 5 a.m. July 23, 2003, at his home. Born June 8, 1946, in Snow Lake, Ark., son of the late Louie and Ruby Edwards Burton, he worked in factory general labor and lived most of his life in Sikeston. A U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War, he was a member of Henry Meldrum American Legion Post 114...

BELLA VISTA, Ark. - Betty Idris Thompson Sterrett, 70, died July 23, 2003, at her home. Born May 23, 1933, in Binger, Okla., daughter of the late Willie Birdie and Iris Hightower Thompson, she was a member of the Presbyterian Church of Bella Vista. Her husband, Robert M. Sterrett, survives of the home...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Anna M. Perry "Granny" Little, 79, died July 18, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Born Jan. 26, 1924, in Lilbourn, daughter of the late Buster and Irene Butler Perry, she was a retired school teacher and postal worker and had lived in Cape Girardeau since 1983. She was a member of the New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church...

DEXTER - Christine Knight, 85, died July 22, 2003, at Missouri Southern Healthcare. Born Dec. 21, 1917, in Stoddard County, daughter of the late Hershel and Bessie DeJournett Knight, she had worked in the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. She was preceded in death by two brothers, Ezra Knight and Doyle Knight; and two sisters, Clone Conner and Myrtle Knight...

DEXTER - Lacy Walker Cooper, 93, formerly of Bernie, died July 22, 2003, at the Crowley Ridge Care Center. Born July 26, 1909, in Ethridge, Tenn., daughter of the late William and Mary Carolyn Berry Hill, she was of the Southern Baptist belief. On Sept. 8, 1930, in Piggott, Ark., she married Alva "Stubbie" Walker who preceded her in death on March 20, 1965. She later married Leonard Cooper, who died on Dec. 15, 1970...

SIKESTON - Pvt. Bill Shain Jr. writes that he is now located in Salt Lake City, Utah, and will soon begin college. EAST PRAIRIE - Voters of the East Prairie School District decided overwhelmingly in favor of a reorganization plan for lower Mississippi County, with a vote of 437 for the plan to 37 against it...

I read on the July 16 front page where the war in Iraq has cost the Pentagon $48 billion. I think that should have said the Iraq has cost United States taxpayers $48 billion. I also think if George Bush had told the truth about the reasons for the war, citizens in the U.S. might have gone along with him. But since he lied about WMD, I think it's going to cost him the next election...