Stories from Wednesday, January 12, 2005

SPRINGFIELD - Harriet Lancaster Whitham, 64, formerly of East Prairie, died at 1:02 p.m. Jan. 11, 2005 at the Cox South Hospital in Springfield. Funeral arrangements, which are incomplete, are under the direction of the Shelby Funeral Home of East Prairie...

DEXTER - Mary Jo Richmond, 75, died Jan. 11, 2005, at the St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Born Aug. 31, 1929, in Akron, Ohio, to the late Dotson and Verna Cooper Scruggs, she was a member of the First Baptist Church in Dexter. A former teacher with the Dexter Public School System, she served two terms as president of the Dexter Community Teachers Association and was past president of the Southeast Missouri Classroom Teachers Association, past president of the Southeast Missouri District Guidance Association, past secretary/treasurer of the Missouri State Guidance Association, past member of the Legislative and Resolution Committee of the Missouri State Teachers Association, a former committee member of the University of Missouri Alumni Association and a member of the Stoddard County Retired Teachers Association.. ...

EAST PRAIRIE - Bertha May Love Smith Treadwell, 84, of East Prairie died at 7:30 a.m. Jan. 11, 2004, at the East Prairie Nursing Center. Born Dec. 30, 1920, in Kentucky to the late Charlie and Pearl Love, she lived most of her life in Mississippi County where she owned and operated a store near the Windyville community near East Prairie. ...

IDALIA -- Delma Obards, 85, died Jan. 9, 2005, at Poplar Bluff. Born June 20, 1919, in Idalia, she spent all her life in the Idalia and Bloomfield communities. She was a member of St. Joe General Baptist Church in Idalia. On Oct. 10, 1945, she married Cecil Obards who preceded her in death on Feb. 10, 1991...

TRUMANN, Ark. - Patricia Marie Carter, 71, died Jan. 11, 2005, at Northeast Arkansas Hospital at Jonesboro, Ark. Born March 18, 1933, in Anna, Ill., to the late James and Anna Lane Roe, she was a homemaker and a resident of Trumann. On Aug. 29, 1953, at Alton, Ill., she married Virgil Lee Carter, who preceded her in death on Aug. 14, 1992...

SIKESTON -- Mattie Auvine Lynxwiler, 84, died Jan. 10, 2005, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Born Dec. 4, 1920, in Loretta, Tenn., daughter of the late James C. and Donie Ezell Littrell, she moved to the Southeast Missouri area with her family in her early years. ...

GRAVOIS MILLS -- Betty Christine Campbell, 77, died at 6:20 p.m. Jan. 10, 2005, at her home. Born March 1, 1927, in Essex, daughter of the late Jim and Lottie Grace Brannon, she had worked as a waitress and cook for many years and was a member of the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary and the Eagles Club...

SIKESTON - As the popular song suggests: 'Girls just wanna have fun." And Red Hat Society members definitely believe in having fun. "It all started as a result of a few women deciding to greet middle age with humor," said Nancy Wymer, queen mother of The Flaming Dames chapter in Sikeston. "We believe silliness is the comedy relief of life and since we are all in it together, we join red-gloved hands and go for the gusto together."...

SIKESTON -- The Sikeston R-6 Board of Education is inching closer to placing a bond issue on the April ballot. At Tuesday's regular meeting the Board voted in favor of hiring Gilmore and Bell PC of St. Louis to provide bond counsel services for the district...

MORLEY -- Kelly broke open a close game with a hot-shooting second half to trip Scott County Central 78-67 in a Scott-Mississippi Conference matchup on Tuesday. The blistering Hawks (9-4, 1-0) scorched the net at a 70 percent pace in the fourth quarter -- 65 percent in the second half...

CHARLESTON - Ashton Farmer and Jamarcus Williams combined for 44 of Charleston's 66 points and led the Bluejays to a 66-58 victory over the New Madrid Central Eagles Tuesday night. The Charleston Bluejays (10-7) built up a 53-34 third quarter lead over the visitors, but an Eagle rally in the final eight minutes pulled the visitors to within eight at the end of the contest...

DEXTER - Dexter tuned up for its much anticipated rematch with Portageville with a 66-31 win over the Bloomfield Wildcats at home Tuesday night. Dexter will host the Portageville Bulldogs this Thursday night for a rare high school basketball triple-header. The varsity Lady Bearcats will take the court at 5 p.m. against the Lady Bulldogs with a boys junior varsity game to follow and the varsity boys will take the court for the night cap...

RISCO -- Risco's fourth-quarter dry spell led to a 49-35 Clarkton win in a Tri-County Conference game on Tuesday. Trailing only 32-29 with five and a half minutes left, Risco managed only three points the rest of the way. "We had good effort; we just didn't put the ball in the hole in the fourth quarter," said Risco coach Brandon Blankenship...

MINER - The Miner Police Department will not get new security cameras yet. After considering the purchase of new cameras for several months, the Miner Board of Aldermen decided during its regular meeting Tuesday not to spend the city's money. Board members suggested other law enforcement agencies will have to radio in to let Miner police know they are at the outside doors, and other visitors will go in through the lobby...

BENTON - Four burglary suspects are in the Scott County Jail following an early morning chase Tuesday. The Scott County Sheriff's Department received information of a residential burglary on Route NN early Tuesday. According to Lt. Jerry Bledsoe with the sheriff's department, a neighbor interrupted the burglary and began following the suspects...

BENTON - The low bid from Kinder Signs and Design Co. in Sikeston for new striping on Scott County Sheriff's Department patrol cars was approved by county commissioners during their regular meeting Tuesday. Kinder's original bid was $9 less than the next lowest bid, according to Sheriff Rick Walter, but was lowered by the vendor to $230 after reducing the design's overall size slightly...

SIKESTON - The flooding of the intersection of Greer and Maple streets that occurred at approximately 4 a.m. Monday was caused by a broken 12-inch-diameter water main. The break in the main was located on Maple Street just south of the Maple Street/Malone Avenue intersection. The cause of the break is unknown...

FREDERICKTOWN - After two lopsided losses coming out of Christmas break, the Sikeston Bulldogs were needing to get on the winning track. They got the big win they needed as they defeated Fredericktown on the road 56-42 to improve to 5-5 on the season...

MOREHOUSE - Mr. and Mrs. J.L. Place of this town sold their grocery store to Stanford Hamilton of Catron. --- MATTHEWS - The 116th General Hospital, England: Wounded in the right forearm and left thigh by shrapnel from a German mortar shell near Vire, France, Pfc. J.B. Lomas, 26, an infantryman, is now convalescing at a hospital in England. He has been awarded the Purple Heart...

I have worked in Sikeston restaurants for a very long time. It has troubled me for a long time that not once I have seen the health department give an inspection, not to mention I never received a hepatitis A shot during my employment. The truth is that I will not eat anything from a restaurant because I see the hygiene practices and the lack of sanitary cleaning on a every day basis. ...

Can you guess what the President is planning when he gins up a phony crisis, when he uses distorted or misleading numbers, when he claims we must act now before it's too late, or when he embraces the advice he wants to hear and ignores the rest? Sounds like the run up for war with Iraq, doesn't it? Well, Iraq is an old crisis now and Social Security has passed into the President's cross hairs. ...

So now the cat is at last out of the bag. CBS this week finally acknowledged that their hatchet-job of President Bush just prior to the election was sloppy and inaccurate. A lengthy report that examined the "60 Minutes" story and the following brouhaha said the news network suffered "myopic zeal" in beating the other news outlets to the top story of the day...

CARUTHERSVILLE -- All the hype leading up to the game between the Portageville Bulldogs and the Caruthersville Tigers was justified Tuesday night at Parkinson Gymnasium. Both teams came in sporting impressive 10-1 records, both are very similar in talent, and both are well coached -- something had to give...