Stories from Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Nobody asked me but...the spring sports season is upon us and I have some early observations. Sikeston baseball is off to a 5-0 start. The Bulldogs have gotten some stellar play from Scott Droddy and Josh Jackson early in the year. While Blake DeWitt and Jacob Priday are not coming out of the dugout, this season's squad plays fundamentally solid defense and has a deep pitching rotation. ...

SIKESTON - The Sikeston Lady Bulldogs soccer team led 1-0 over the visiting Fredericktown Lady Cats late in the first half on Tuesday before a thunderstorm canceled the contest. With inclement weather looming throughout the first half, Sikeston got on the board 11 minutes into the game on a goal by sophomore Abbi Keefer...

SIKESTON -- The Sikeston Bulldogs jumped out to the early lead and never looked back in a 6-2 victory against SEMO Conference foe Poplar Bluff on Tuesday at VFW Stadium. The game barely got finished before a thunderstorm blew in just mere seconds after the final out...

I often have cases of deja vu. You know, I dream about my wife yelling at me for something I forgot to do and then the next day my wife yells at me for something I forgot to do. It's really weird. I had another case of deja vu last week. It happened when I read a story in our paper about a Sikeston City Council meeting. ...

A POEM ABOUT SOMETHING, OR, NOTHING To Express oneself fully in 250 words or less, Requires more ability than most possess. It's quite an impediment I must confess, to substantiate fully what I profess. Speaking out is just a sounding board when you boil it all down...

NEW MADRID - A New Madrid County Central High School student's portrait of her family's Labrador retrievers earned her top honors in the Eighth District congressional art competition. "Dogs" by Kristin Tollison, a junior at New Madrid County Central High School, was named Best of Show in the competition. The work will be on display at the U.S. Capitol beginning in May...

I know little of the world of high finances but I do enjoy following the ups and downs of the stock market. Like many of you perhaps, I have a tiny amount of money in a retirement account and those limited funds come and go with the changes in the market. So when the market took it on the chin recently, I was not overjoyed...

SIKESTON -- The Sikeston Department of Public Safety has arrested four individuals, clearing three robberies and two shootings while seizing drug paraphernalia in the process. Richard L. McCoy Jr., 25, of Haywood City was arrested in Malden Monday evening by DPS detectives on an outstanding parole warrant...

I was just wanting to know how anyone can afford a dentist when an office call is $217? I just had major back surgery and a spine surgeon office call is just $110. I think that's outrageous. So how do these low-income and senior citizens afford to go to the dentist when a regular dentist, not even a surgeon, charges $217 for an office call? That should be against the law...

MORLEY - Mr. and Mrs. Will Daugherty of Cape Girardeau are redecorating their home. SIKESTON - John E. Harper, 903 Allen Blvd. was elected as president of the Junior Chamber of Commerce during the Tuesday night meeting at the Country Club. He succeeds Judge Jack Sides...

BENTON -- Scott County voters decided not to make the countywide half-cent law enforcement sales tax permanent during Tuesday's municipal election. In a tight race, 1,658 residents voted in favor of the sales tax while 1,923 voted against the measure...

Marilyn Schwaninger, chairperson of the 32nd Annual Bootheel Regional High School Student Art Show, hangs a painting Tuesday in the Sikeston Depot. Over 125 works of art will be on display by students from eight area high schools. The exhibit will run through May 4 at the Depot, and admission is free. The event is sponsored by the Bootheel Regional Art Guild...

NEW MADRID - A battery-operated lantern sat within reach of the ballot- counting machine as storms blew through New Madrid County Tuesday evening. But the only thing turbulent in Tuesday's election was the weather. Low voter turnout - just 2,509 votes cast - made for a smooth election process, according to County Clerk Clement Cravens. As the weather passed over, Cravens and his staff had no problems tallying up the ballots from across the county...

MATTHEWS -- Joel Buchannan, 82, died April 3, 2007, Sells Rest Home in Matthews. Arrangements are incomplete at Ponder Funeral Home in Sikeston.

ORAN - Maybelle Blissett, 80, died March 31, 2007, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Born Dec. 10, 1926, in Tiplersville, Miss., to the late Franklin and Mabrie Thomas Moore, she had lived in Missouri for many years and was a member of Divine Temple Church of God in Oran...

EAST PRAIRIE - Mary Margaret Loflin, 69, died at 2:47 a.m. April 2, 2007, at her home in East Prairie. Born Aug. 3, 1937, at Freedom, Ind., to the late George Parker and Lillie Hunt Hubbard, she lived most of her life in Mississippi County. Survivors include: three daughters and two sons-in-law, Verna and Frankie Turpin of Old Appleton, Debby Flores of Bloomfield, W.Va. ...

SIKESTON - Marvin Lewis Pals, 84, died April 2, 2007, at his home. Born Feb. 13, 1923, in Belmond, Iowa, to the late Lambert and Marie Stadtlander Pals, he was a self-employed farmer and of the Methodist belief. He was first married to Shirley Proger, and she preceded him in death. In September 1988, he married Jean Daniel who survives of the home...

VANDUSER -- Lesley Eskew died April 3, 2007, at home in Vanduser. Arrangements are incomplete at Ponder Funeral Home in Sikeston.

LEWISVILLE, Texas -- Mary Clayton Sullivan, 87, passed away Sunday, April 1, 2007, following a long illness. Mary was born Nov. 24, 1919, in Mississippi County, Mo., to Arthur and Lula Clayton. After graduation from high school, she moved to Cairo, Ill., to attend nursing school. She worked as a registered nurse in the Tuberculosis Sanitarium and at Saint Mary's Hospital in Cairo. Mary retired from nursing to devote her love and attention to her family...

DEXTER - Imogene Leota Williamson, 74, died April 3, 2007, at the Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Born Oct. 1, 1932, in Dexter, to the late Amiel and Ruth Ellen Rebecca Eaton Hunt, she lived all her life in the Dexter area where she had worked at Elders Manufacturing, was a member of the South Pleasant Valley Church and had been a baby sitter for 16 years...

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Pallbearers for services scheduled at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Nunnelee Funeral Chapel for Pretshie Ann "Sissy Ann" Abernathy Ellsworth, 64, formerly of Morley, Mo., who died April 2, 2007, will be: Joseph Ellsworth, Michael Ellsworth, Troy Palmer, Bobby Montgomery, James Lovel and Jimmy Farmer. Honorary pallbearer will be C.J. Ellsworth...

MATTHEWS - Pallbearers for services scheduled at 2 p.m. Thursday at the Nunnelee Funeral Chapel for Charles Leroy Shelby, 87, who died March 31, 2007, will be: Charles Shelby, Chris Shelby, Rick Noon, Jimmy Elrod, Troy Holland, Roy Holland and Logan Caines...

BURFORDVILLE - Lorene Taylor, 88, died at 11:30 p.m. April 1, 2007, at Jackson Manor. Born Dec. 9, 1918, in McComb, Okla., to the late Joseph and Minnie Collins Davis, she was a homemaker. On Feb. 13, 1937, she married Arthur S. Taylor, who preceded her in death on Sept. 18, 1994...

BLOOMFIELD -- Strong winds caused injuries to at least one person and enough damage to close Highway 25 in Stoddard County Tuesday night. According to Missouri State Highway Patrol, at 5:25 p.m., motorist Edwin M. Walker, 23, of Bernie was traveling on Highway 25, three miles north of Bernie when, due to heavy rain and wind, his vehicle was struck by a utility pole. ...

CHARLESTON -- Mayors running for re-election in Mississippi County will keep their seats but not all incumbents did so well during municipal elections Tuesday. With few contested races, the turnout was low as expected, according to County Clerk Junior DeLay, with only 14 percent of registered voters casting ballots...