Stories from Tuesday, September 5, 2006

SIKESTON -- Local high school counselors and administrators said they hoped for higher ACT scores from their graduating classes of 2006, but none of the schools averaged higher than the state and national composite scores. This year the national ACT average jumped to 21.1 from 20.9 in 2005 while the state average stayed the same at 21.6...

Yes Mike, I really don't know how you run your paper, but reporters' jobs is to report and here in your Standard Democrat on August 24th about the school board member having to resign. Well, what the school board member don't realize is that he was breaking the law. ...

SIKESTON - Enrollment in the Sikeston schools for this year is 1,198 compared to 1,204 in 1945. There are 389 students enrolled in high school compared to last year's 367. SIKESTON - Bruce Lewis, general manager of the Associated Natural Gas Company, told the Kiwanis Club Tuesday of the history and operations of the company. He was a guest of Paul Cannon...

Andy Mack of Benton leads the pack in one of the heats of the lawn mower races held Saturday night on the lower ball field in Benton. The event was one of many activities held over the Labor Day weekend during the town's 38th annual Benton Neighbor Days...

EAST PRAIRIE -- A Mississippi County man was charged Monday in the murder of his former brother-in-law. William Robert "Billy Bob" Marcum, 44, of East Prairie was charged with murder in the first degree, assault in the first degree, two counts of armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon for the shooting death of Daniel Gore, 42, of East Prairie, according to Mississippi County Prosecuting Attorney Darren Cann...

CARUTHERSVILLE - A Caruthersville man was arrested after a 16-year-old girl contacted authorities to say she had been kidnapped. At 8:11 p.m. Saturday, Caruthersville Police received a call from the girl, who stated she had been kidnapped from Oklahoma City, Okla., a week earlier. The girl told authorities after the man left the residence on Eighth Street in Caruthersville she was able to find a cell phone to call for help...

DEXTER - Muriel Joy McQuary, 72, died Sept. 3, 2006, at the Missouri Southern Healthcare Facility in Dexter. Born April 9, 1934, near Parma, daughter of Anza Gregory Henderson of Dexter and the late Ray Bennett Henderson, she spent many years in Malden and moved back to Dexter in 1980 where she attended the First United Methodist Church...

SIKESTON - Lillie Ann Davis, 86, died Sept. 4, 2006, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. Born Aug. 9, 1920, in Delmer, Ala., to the late James F. and Lela B. Gaddis Cagle, she was a homemaker and of the Church of Christ belief. In Lilbourn, she married Otto K. Davis, who preceded her in death on May 22, 2006...

MADISON, Ind. - Emma "Curly" Marie Wilson Kriete, 83, died at 4:51 a.m. Sept. 4, 2006, at Angola. Mrs. Kriete entered this life on Sept. 27, 1922, in North Vernon, Ind., the daughter of Emmerson Orvine and Edna Mae McFadden Wilson. She was raised in the North Vernon community moving to Madison in 1941. ...

DIEHLSTADT -- Mary Elizabeth Claycomb, 72, died Sept. 2, 2006, at her home in Diehlstadt. Born June 30, 1934, in Lilbourn, daughter of the late Bill and Eva Copeland Inman, she was a member of Unity Baptist Church in Benton. On June 19, 1954, she married Emmett Claycomb; he survives of the home...

SIKESTON - Doris Vern Burton, 78, died at 4:40 a.m. Sept. 4, 2006, at the Sells Rest Home in Matthews. Born Nov. 29, 1927, in Blytheville, Ark., to the late T.V. and Lena Bradshaw Wilkerson, she resided in Cooter and the state of Florida before moving to Sikeston where she lived for the past 30 years. She was employed in the laundry department at Sikeston Convalescent Center and in the kitchen at Lambert's Cafe and was a member of the Bethel Baptist Church...

CHAFFEE - William Edward "Ed" White, 90, died at 1:15 a.m. Sept. 3, 2006, at Chaffee Nursing Center. Born Jan. 20, 1916, in Chaffee, to William Henry and Virgin Minnie Slinkard White, he had retired from the Florsheim Shoe Company in Chaffee. He was a member of Chaffee VFW Post 3127 and a veteran of the U.S. Army having served as a gunner during World War II earning three Bronze Stars...

SIKESTON -- Pallbearers at services held at 11 a.m. today at Blanchard Funeral Chapel for Evelyn Roach, 84, who died Sept. 1, 2006, were: Mike Tackett, Garland Hughes, Alton Bohannon, Bill Britton, Ferrell Wilson and Tommy Stanley. Burial followed in the Missouri State Veterans Cemetery at Bloomfield...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Daniel Gore, 42, died Sept. 4, 2006, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Arrangements are incomplete at Shelby Funeral Home in East Prairie.

PUXICO -- Alvin L. Scott, 90, died Sept. 2, 2006, at the Puxico Nursing and Rehab Center. Born Jan. 11, 1916, in Puxico, son of the late Calvin and Harriet Wilkerson Scott, he lived most of his life in Puxico where he was a 1933 graduate of Puxico High School and served as a deacon and a member of the Faith Baptist Church. He and his wife had owned and operated various businesses including Navajo Motel and Grocery, Smith and Scott Appliance Store and Scott Florist, from which he retired...

PORTAGEVILLE - Izetta Laverne Ellis, 92, died Sept. 2, 2006, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Born June 1, 1914, in New Madrid County, daughter of the late Augustus "Gus" and Elma Wilcox Meatte, she was a beautician and owner of Izetta's Beauty Shop in Portageville from which she retired...

SIKESTON - The Rev. William Herschell Newman, 87, died at 5:40 p.m. Sept. 2, 2006, at the Missouri Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau. Born July 19, 1919, in New Madrid County to the late Lee and Katie Peterson Newman, he was a farmer and a Baptist minister serving churches in Kennett and Matthews and as a missionary for two years at Cane Creek at Poplar Bluff and Washington County at Potosi for a year. ...