Stories from Tuesday, June 12, 2018

SIKESTON — The Sikeston City Council approved a $15.77 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year at Monday’s City Council meeting. The budget provides a two percent wage increase for city employees and adds two new staff positions — one in code enforcement and one in the parks department. According to Sikeston City Manager Jon Douglass, the budget “maintains healthy reserves and allocates the new capital improvement sales tax in accordance with the City Council’s pledge to voters.”...

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. — Gracie Ernestine Cole Shaw, 83, died June 9, 2018, at the Oak Dale Care Center in Poplar Bluff. Born Sept. 15, 1934, in Bauxite, Ark., daughter of the late James William Cole and Minnie Marie Reasons Cole, she had lived the last few years in Poplar Bluff where she attended the Church of God. She was employed with Rawlings Sporting Goods, Bussman Fuse, International Shoe Company and then the Brown Shoe Co., retiring in 1994. ...

SIKESTON — Judith Ann Pobst, 83, died June 11, 2018, at Sikeston Convalescent Center. Born Nov. 8, 1934, in Sikeston, daughter of the late Grover Cleveland and Mary Magdaline Cantrell Heath, she was a member of Guardian Angel Catholic Church in Oran...

SIKESTON — James L."Jim" Byrd, 61, died June 12, 2018, at Clearview Nursing and Rehabilitation in Sikeston. Born July 7, 1956, in Grayridge, son of the late James Loyd and Virginia Lee Henley Byrd, he was a member of Shady Acres Church of Christ and a farmhand for various area farmers...

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. — Marcia Faye Deal, 76, died June 12, 2018, at Bloomfield Living Center in Bloomfield. Born Sept. 11, 1941, in Advance, daughter of the late Neal and Nadine Goza McGehee, she was of the Baptist belief. She retired from Hunter Acres Caring Center in Sikeston, where she was the activity director...

NEW MADRID, Mo. — Richard Luke "Dick" St. Mary Jr. passed away June 9, 2018, at the New Madrid Living Center in New Madrid at the age of 84 years. He was born Dec. 27, 1933, in New Madrid County to the late Richard Luke and Clara Mitchell St. Mary Sr...

JONESBORO, Ark. — Martin Allen Sparrow, 60, died June 4, 2018, at St. Bernard’s Hospital in Jonesboro. Born Aug. 6, 1957, in Washington Courthouse, Ohio, son of the late Lewis Frederic and Irene Pace Sparrow, he was an auditor for George E. Fern Co. in Cincinnati until his retirement...

CANTON, Miss. — Lonnie Lee Mallory, 70, died June 11, 2018, in Canton. Born Aug. 30, 1947, in Dudley, Mo., son of the late Melvin and Irene Runyon Mallory, he was raised in Dudley and spent 21 years in the U. S. Air Force. He had served in the U.S. Air Force as an electronic warfare technician...

BLODGETT, Mo. — Wayne Douglas Reeves, a former longtime resident of Sikeston, passed away Tuesday, June 12, 2018, at his home in Blodgett at the age of 92. He was the oldest living resident of the City of Blodgett. Wayne was born in Danville, Ark., March 19, 1926, to Myrtle and John Reeves. ...

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. — Stoddard County 911 has become the first agency in Missouri set to roll out new public safety software from Zuercher Technologies to integrate many agencies within the county to one system. Stoddard County 911 Administrator Carol Moreland credited the passing of a 2016 tax behind the upgrade...

CHARLESTON, Mo. — Richard McCullough, 72, died June 12, 2018, at the Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston.Born Sept. 27, 1945, at Cairo, Ill., son of the late Walter Alvin and Audrey Mae Baker McCullough, he had lived in Charleston most of his life. 

SIKESTON — Neal Evans Boyd, 42, died June 10, 2018, at his home in Sikeston. Born Nov. 18, 1975, in Sikeston, son of Michael Boyd Sr. of Sun Valley, Calif., and Esther Rogers Boyd of Sikeston, he was a 1994 graduate of Sikeston Senior High School, and in 2001, he graduated from both Southeast Missouri State University and the University of Missouri at Columbia, and later he was a graduate of the University of Phoenix. ...

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. — Authorities say a highly intoxicated Brick’s Off-Road Park patron died after being severely beaten inside the park Saturday night by the parents of a young boy he was accused of physically striking. Joe Girard of Oak Ridge, Mo., was killed during the eighth annual Trucks Gone Wild event, which ran from Thursday through Sunday at the County Road 484 park...