Stories from Wednesday, January 3, 2007

For the last 20 years I have spent the week after Christmas at local high school basketball tournaments and this year was no different. Only this year, for the first time ever, I began to feel a little old and I liked it. It wasn't just one thing, but several things I saw over the past week that made me glad I wasn't a teenager anymore. ...

CARUTHERSVILLE - A 9-year-old boy is in critical condition after riding a scooter into the path of a truck. At 12:47 p.m. Tuesday, Caruthersville Police responded to a report of an accident on East 16th St. According to a news release from Caruthersville City Marshal Chris Riggs, Myron Middleton, 9, was riding an electric scooter when he pulled into the path of an eastbound pickup driven by Kevin Cooter, 28, of Dyersburg, Tenn...

SIKESTON - Maybe the burglar should have just made a New Year's resolution to give up chocolate. According to Sikeston Department of Public Safety Chief Drew Juden, a Sikeston DPS officer was contacted by a man at Rhodes on North Main around 5 p.m. New Year's Day, stating that he was chasing a person who had broken into his house. Officers responded to the area around New Horizons School where they located and arrested the suspect...

SIKESTON - Wayne Clayton was dismissed from Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau where he had been a surgical patient. SIKESTON - The city council last night agreed to allow a boy to appear in the National School Boy Safety Patrol parade and to present a certificate to Harold Vogel, Civil Defense director...

I have a question. When did retail stores start providing special parking to certain minority groups? You know what I mean. When I go shopping I don't understand why these groups are allowed to park in the emergency zones in front of the stores. Cops just drive by without ticketing them. ...

SIKESTON -- Those wanting to run for city offices have several days to file before the deadline. Filing for April municipal elections began Dec. 12, and while some races are heating up, many remain uncontested. "Sometimes you have contested races early on, and other times it may go to the last day. And sometimes, we don't have any file," New Madrid City Clerk Marian Bock said about filing patterns...

BENTON -- This year's budget process should provide Scott County commissioners with some valuable data related to decisions made in 2006. Preparing the county's operating budget is "one of the first things we work on at the beginning of the new year," Commissioner Dennis Ziegenhorn said during the regular County Commission meeting Tuesday...

Taylor Allen is the Standard Democrat Calendar Girl for January. Allen, the first alternate in the 2006 Miss Sikeston, is the daughter of Gary and Jeanettee Allen. After graduation from Sikeston High School in May, she plans to attend the University of Missouri-Columbia...

PERRYVILLE - Terry Ray Hampton, 55, formerly of Sikeston, died at 2:30 p.m. Dec. 31, 2006, at his home. Born July 4, 1951, at Sikeston, to Joe M. Hampton of Buford and the late Emma Berniece Franks Hampton, he lived most of his life in Sikeston, where, for several years, he was a meat cutter at Stan's Food Mart. For years he had been an active member of Concordia Lutheran Church and just recently had become Catholic and was a member of St. Vincent DePaul Church at Perryville...

PORTAGEVILLE - Nora Frances Maloney, 91, died Jan. 1, 2007, at her home. Born April 16, 1915, in Portageville, to the late W.H. and Louisa Ellen Woods Estes, she was a member of the First Baptist Church in Portageville. On Oct. 30, 1937, in Portageville, she married Earl Bud Maloney, who preceded her in death on Sept. 28, 2005...

BELL CITY - Mary Welker, 79, died Jan. 1, 2007, at her home near Bell City. Born Feb. 5, 1927, to the late William B. and Eartie Hammond Henson, she had lived most of her life near Bell City, where she was a homemaker and a member of the Life Tabernacle Church...

SIKESTON -- Lotha Arthur, 76, died Jan. 3, 2007, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Arrangements are incomplete at Ponder Funeral Home in Sikeston.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - D'Ann Davis, 42, formerly of Sikeston, Mo., died Dec. 30, 2006, at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis. Born Dec. 14, 1964, in Sikeston, to Gearlene Luttrell of Sikeston and Emerson Jackson Jr. of St. Louis, she was a 1983 graduate of Sikeston High School, attended Southeast Missouri State University, where she earned an R.N. ...

CHAFFEE -- Helen Marie Crump, 81, died Jan. 1, 2007, at her home in Chaffee. Born June 25, 1925, at Chaffee, daughter of Fred and Coletta Regina Compas Lux, she was a retired supervisor for the Thorngate LTD in Chaffee. She was a volunteer for the nursing home ombudsman for the Southeast Missouri area and a member of St. Ambrose Catholic Church in Chaffee and Daughters of St. Ambrose...

MOREHOUSE - Pallbearers for services conducted on Tuesday at Watkins and Sons Funeral Home in Morehouse for Alpha Lacy, 92, who died Dec. 29, 2006, were: Denise Townsend, Thea Tabaka, Kena Carpenter, Brandy Hodges, Amy Hodges and Chase Stiltner.

WAPPAPELLO - Pallbearers for graveside services conducted on Tuesday at the Richmann Chapel Cemetery, near Wappapello, for Albert Williams, 80, who died Dec. 30, 2006, were: Robert Williams, James Lambrich, Rick Doolin, Robert Peloquin, George Doolin Jr. and Jason Tomes...

PUXICO -- Larry Joe Whitsel Sr., 55, died Jan. 1, 2007, at John J. Pershing VA Medical Center in Poplar Bluff. Born Jan. 24, 1951, in Sikeston, son of Jean Gunter Whitsel Trout of Puxico and the late Marion Mac Whitsel, he had lived in Missouri most of his life but had also lived in California. A veteran of the U.S. Army and Navy, he was a self-...

EAST PRAIRIE - The East Prairie Eagles basketball team overcame a halftime deficit at home on Tuesday night to defeat the Bloomfield Wildcats, 68-59. Trailing 29-26 at the break, the Eagles retained the services of 6-foot-2 junior Tony Jones in the second half after serving a suspension for unsportsmanlike conduct at the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament...

Ah, we Americans are a fickle lot indeed. I doubt you could get universal agreement in this country on any topic at any time. That is our strength and our weakness perhaps. Here's just the latest example. Just before the holidays, the Associated Press decided to ask the American public who they thought were the biggest villains and the biggest heroes of 2006. ...

Nobody asked me but...my fears were proved correct concerning the Dyersburg Tournament. Sikeston played the best team in the tourney in the first round and the Bulldogs played in front of 20 people, including the ticket guy and janitors. I am sure head coach Gregg Holifield enjoyed playing all three of his games in the tournament at 11:30 a.m. Nothing shouts great atmosphere like a brunch tip off...

MORLEY -- The better teams usually find a way to win, even if it's ugly. That sums up Scott County Central's 76-62 victory over Scott City in a Scott- Mississippi Conference matchup at Ronnie Cookson Gymnasium on Tuesday. "We just didn't look good and I don't think they looked good either," said Scott Central's interim coach Ronnie Cookson. "It might be, being out of school, that makes that happen."...

PORTAGEVILLE - Autumn and Brad Goodman are the parents of their first child, a daughter, born at 6:18 p.m. Nov. 7, 2006, at Saint Francis Medical Center's Family BirthPlace in Cape Girardeau. Bailey Paige Goodman weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces, and was 21.25 inches long...

The Christmas presents have all been unwrapped with the parties and mistletoe only a memory away - you may feel you are given out - yet there are some who keep giving! Long after the season to give has ended there is more than ever a gift that truly keeps on giving. The "gift of life" is the gift that was once again given at our Sikeston Community blood drive on December 29th...