Stories from Tuesday, October 12, 2004

TALLAPOOSA -- Breanna Mae Miller and David White Thomas have announced their engagement. The future bride is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alton Miller of Tallapoosa and granddaughter of Clarence Miller of Wardell and the late Mrs. Clarence Miller and Mr. and Mrs. Clifton Pickard. She graduated from Arkansas State University with a bachelor's degree in exercise science and is a certified personal trainer at the Trim Gym in Jonesboro, Ark...

MOREHOUSE -- The children of Mr. and Mrs. C.L. McCoy will honor their parents with a golden anniversary reception from 1 to 3 p.m. Oct. 23 at the White House in Morehouse when the guests of honor will renew their wedding vows. McCoy and the former Christine Murphy were married Oct. 26, 1954, at Hernando, Miss...

DEERFIELD -- Keri Elizabeth Baber and Douglas Wilson Cook were married Sept. 5, 2004, at the Deerfield Lodge. Fred Poston performed the ceremony. Parents of the bride are Margaret Baber of Cape Girardeau and David and Marsha Baber of Scott City and the bridegroom is the son of Glen and Mary Ellen Cook of Cape Girardeau...

If liberal elected officeholders appoint liberal activists judges, you get decisions that run against the wishes of the vast majority of voters. But the fact is that is exactly what is happening in Missouri right now with the most liberal State Supreme Court in our state's history. By the way, the definition as "most liberal" comes not from me but from a top elected state official who just happens to be a Democrat...

I am calling about Mike Jensen's comment about President Carter. I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat, but Mike needs to get his priorities straight and sit back and look at himself. After President Carter got out of office, he went to help build homes and help the poor. I can't say that Michael Jensen has done that at all. He needs to look in the mirror and say, "Have I said the right thing."...

SIKESTON -- As thousands of spectators fill Busch Stadium in St. Louis Wednesday for the first game of the National League Championship Series, a majority of them will be clad in Cardinal red from head to toe. Just ask Brian Dowdy of Sikeston. Dowdy attended the opening game of the National League Division Championship Series last week in St. ...

SIKESTON - Dracula fans - old and new - should expect some surprises out of the Sikeston Little Theatre's production of Bram Stoker's play. Those who have seen the Hollywood films "Bram Stoker's Dracula" with Keanu Reeves and the even more recent "Van Helsing" should enter the Albritton-Mayer Center for the Arts theater knowing that this is the "old school" version of Dracula without the action-adventure focus, special effects or other elements favored by the movie industry...

ORAN - Miss Frances Ellen DePriest, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James R. DePriest of Oran, was recently sworn in as a member of the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps at Jewish Hospital, St. Louis. SALCEDO - Mr. and Mrs. Archie Jones of near Salcedo are parents of twins, a daughter and a son, born last Thursday. They have been given the names of Jeanette and Jimmy...

SIKESTON - The Sikeston soccer team evened its record at 8-8-1 with a 9-1 whipping of Fredericktown at the Sikeston Recreational Complex on a wet and cold Monday night. It was a more complete performance by the Bulldogs after slipping past Fredericktown 2-0 earlier this season...

SIKESTON -- Last month started the beginning of white-tail deer rutting season. That means more deer movement in and around highways in Scott County and surrounding counties. Southeast Missouri is no stranger to deer vehicle accidents. To protect yourself when driving always be on guard, scan the area on either side of the road ahead, slow down if you see deer, keep your guard up after deer cross the road because other deer may follow, reschedule travel to reduce time on the road near dawn or dusk.. ...

BENTON -- A theft that occurred Monday at Boomland in Benton is currently being investigated by local law enforcement officials. According to the Scott County Sheriff's Department, Boomland employees reported two black males came into Boomland around 4 or 5 p.m., stole about 50-60 cartons of cigarettes and fled from the scene by vehicle...

PORTAGEVILLE - Harold Eugene Worth Sr., 62, died Sept. 30, 2004, at the Abbey Nursing Home in St. Petersburg, Fla. Born April 30, 1942, at Clines Island, son of the late Vallee Brook and Julie Bell Retting Worth, he was a boilermaker in ship building for many years. He was a U.S. Navy veteran of the Vietnam War...

SIKESTON -- Pallbearers for services conducted at 2 p.m. today at Nunnelee Funeral Chapel for Aura Harper, 95, who died Oct. 7, 2004, at Blytheville, Ark., will be members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and AMVETS Posts: Charles Meunier, Mike Watson, Gerald Rogers, Fred Dock, Lloyd "Beans" Evans and Gerald Yeargain...

SIKESTON -- Alfred Merrill Burton, 63, died at 7:45 p.m. Oct. 11, 2004, at the Sikeston Convalescent Center. Born Sept. 17, 1941, in Elaine, Ark., son of the late Louie and Ruby Burton, he had worked as a road construction heavy equipment operator, a farmer and a handyman for Otis Morris. He was a member of Shady Acres Church of Christ in Sikeston...

PUXICO - Harrel L. Page, 85, died Oct. 12, 2004, at the Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center in Poplar Bluff. Born May 2, 1919, in Stoddard County to the late Albert Sidney Johnson and Maggie Mae Eason Page, he had lived his entire life in the Puxico area where he was a retired livestock farmer...

SIKESTON - Pallbearers at services conducted at 10:30 a.m. today at Nunnelee Funeral Chapel for Lorene Crider, 90, who died Oct. 9, 2004, were her grandsons: David A. Crider, Kevin L. Crider, James Crider, Douglas Crider, Dennis Crider and Stacey Landers...

EAST PRAIRIE - Warren C. Wilson, 82, died Oct. 12, 2004, at his residence in East Prairie. Shelby Funeral Home in East Prairie is in charge of arrangements which are incomplete.

SAPULPA, Okla. - Robert Leeman Carrow, 71, formerly of Morley, Mo., died at 4:45 p.m. Oct. 10, 2004, at his home. Born Dec. 25, 1932, in St. Louis, Mo., to the late Robert William and Ethelene Hodge, he had worked as a construction worker and painter before becoming a minister. He served as a minister of the Apostolic Truth Tabernacle in Joplin, Mo., for 20 years before retiring and was a member of the United Pentecostal Church International...

WASHINGTON, Ill. - Carl Dean Becker, 65, died at 2:47 p.m. Oct. 7, 2004, at the OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria. Born Jan. 27, 1939, son of Artrue Lloyd Becker of Sikeston, Mo., and the late Ora Elizabeth Jordon Becker, he was a welder in Building LL for the Caterpillar Tractor Company for more than 30 years. He was a member of UAW Local 974, Peoria Harley Hogs and A.B.A.T.E...