Stories from Friday, February 22, 2008

Due to icy road conditions on Thursday, the Class 4, District 1 boys championship game between Sikeston and Notre Dame has been rescheduled for Saturday at 6 p.m. The girls semifinals between Dexter and Perryville (6 p.m.) and Notre Dame and Fredericktown (7:30 p.m.) were moved to tonight with the final at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Sikeston is in hopes of having the services of senior Brandon Washington (above) who has been out with an injured ankle...

PORTAGEVILLE -- The Class 3 District 1 basketball tournament will begin Saturday morning in Portageville with a lot of interesting match-ups set to take place in the opening round. Receiving No. 1 seeds were Portageville in the girls bracket, and Charleston in the boys. ...

BERNIE -- A Bernie man was killed as the result of a vehicle collision near Bernie on Thursday night. The Missouri State Highway Patrol report said the incident occurred around 10:55 p.m. Thursday on Country Road 784, one mile south of Bernie. A vehicle driven by Kevin G. ...

SIKESTON -- Slammed with another early icing and the possibility of more on the way, some county courthouses called a snow day Thursday. "We're closed," said Rita Milam, county clerk for Scott County. Milam said she was contacted by Presiding Commissioner Jamie Burger early Thursday to assist in notifying county officials who in turn told their employees to stay home...

Corey Tinnon slides down an icy ramp Thursday afternoon on West Gladys Street. For the second time within a week, southeast Missouri was hit with an ice storm that closed schools and caused accidents.

SIKESTON -- Chili and soup dinners, pancake days, a Mexican dinner, steak dinner and more are all planned to take place in the area within the next few weeks. And all these meals -- as well as the hard work that accompanies them -- are done in an effort to raise money...

ORAN - F.J. Geisner has purchased the Clara Mercer property near the Methodist Church. --- SIKESTON - Billy Swacker and Milly Jean Moll will entertain with a dance at the Swacker home on Park Avenue Saturday night in honor of their 12th birthdays. SIKESTON - The women's committee of the Chamber of Commerce announced today that it would sponsor an annual office workers' seminar March 9 at the Holiday Inn. Registration for the workshop will begin at 9 a.m...

I'm calling to clarify something. Barack Obama is not Islamic. Fox News has been spreading that lie for sometime now. I wouldn't care if he was Islamic though. John Edwards is a multimillionaire lawyer, but he did grow up poor. You don't have to be poor to be compassionate. ...

SIKESTON -- Frank E. Grimm, 84, died Feb. 20, 2008, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. Born April 22, 1923, in St. Joseph, to the late Frank Earl and Pearl Ann Carroll Grimm, he was a member of First Christian Church where he was elder emeritus. A U.S. Air Force veteran of World War II, he was a member of the Henry Meldrum American Legion Post No. 114 in Sikeston. He had worked for Sikeston Board of Municipal Utilities and later for AmerenUE, from which he retired in 1989...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Glenda Faye Johnson, 64, died at 9:34 a.m. Feb. 19, 2008, in the Memorial Medical Center in Springfield, Ill. Born Sept. 30, 1943, in East Prairie, to Hazel Luella Jones Brown of East Prairie and the late Prince Albert Brown, she lived most of her life in East Prairie...

DEXTER -- Darla Jane Dement Varvel, 52, died Feb. 21, 2008, at her home. Born Nov. 13, 1955, in Dexter, to Ethel Marie Bolner of Lake City, Ark., and the late Willis Pearl Dement, she was a lab technician at Kneibert Clinic in Poplar Bluff. On July 5, 1997, in Dexter, she married Ronnie Varvel, who survives of the home...

SIKESTON -- Conda Eugene "Gene" Huggins, 75, died at 3:21 p.m. Feb. 19, 2008, at his home. Born Aug. 26, 1932, in Missouri, he was a lifelong resident of Sikeston. He had worked for the railroad and served in the U.S. Army. He was loved and cherished by many in the community...

CHAFFEE -- Alpha Leona Bechel, 100, of Chaffee, died Feb. 21, 2008, at Jackson Manor in Jackson. She was born Aug. 24, 1907, in Chaffee, daughter of the late Levi John and Elenora Elizabeth Scheeter Bechel. She worked for many years in Louisville, Ky., and retired as a secretary at International Shoe Company in St. Louis. She was a member of St. Ambrose Catholic Church, where she was the first baby baptized and of the Daughters of St. Ambrose...

CHANDLER, Ariz. -- Shelly Ray Crowley, 40, formerly of Sikeston, Mo., died Feb. 21, 2008. Born Feb. 11, 1968, in Sikeston, son of Wilma Meyers Crowley of Sikeston and the late Jerry Crowley, he graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1993 with a degree in criminal justice and psychology. He was a member of the National Guard and an insurance adjuster for Cunningham & Lindsey...

LILBOURN -- Gary Rudd, 54, died Feb. 21, 2008, at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. Born Nov. 22, 1953, in Hayti, to the late Orvil and Wilma Rines Rudd, he worked for Bill LaValle Farms. On Feb. 15, 1992, he married Sarah Nelson, who survives of the home...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Bob M. Merrick, 80, formerly of Mississippi County, died Feb. 22, 2008, at the Missouri Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau. Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced later by McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston.

COLUMBIA -- Mizzou has four very experienced players returning who will make up the three outfield positions. Senior Jacob Priday, a two-time All-Big 12 selection, was relegated mostly to the designated hitter role in 2007 due to injuries, but looks to get more time in the outfield this season. Priday has led the team in home runs in each of his first three years at MU, including last year when he had 13 homers with a .297 batting average...

SIKESTON - Sara and David Avery are the parents of their third child, third son, born at 12:06 p.m. Jan. 18, 2008, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Reid Thomas Avery weighed 8 pounds, 6 ounces, and was 20 inches long. Maternal grandparents are John and Ginger Netteler of Sikeston...