Stories from Friday, January 24, 2020

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CASTLE PINES, Colo. —Jerry Spradling, 82, loving and dedicated husband and father, of Castle Pines, Colorado, died peacefully at home on Dec. 31, 2019. He was born May 19, 1937, also at home, in Kewanee, Missouri, to Berniece Laura (Barry) Spradling and James Hughston Spradling...

SIKESTON — Phillip E. (Gene) Schearf, son of the late Philp Ludwig and Myrtle Amelia Stoffregen Schearf, was born on Sept. 28, 1925, in Delta, Missouri, and departed this life on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020, at his residence in Sikeston, Missouri, at the age of 94 years...

“I always wanted to be a teacher,” a smiling Rosemary Walker observes. “From the time I was a little girl, I wanted to teach, and when I look back over my career in business education, my greatest pleasure came from watching the students in my secretarial practice class move on to good jobs, or to take their skills with them to college.”...

MINER, Mo. — Let the races begin. With the closing of filing for city office on Tuesday, voters in several communities will have choices to make on April 7 about who will represent them. Miner has five candidates seeking election as mayor. Incumbent Bill James will be on the ballot along with Frank Tatum, Don Foster, Justin Cashmer and Peggy Holman...

Three Rivers College in Sikeston welcomed its first class this month to its new Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN) program. TRC took over the program, which used to reside with the Sikeston Career and Technology Center, over the summer when the State Board of Nursing approved the transfer...

MINER — Students at the Miner Baptist Church are running lines and working out the kinks for their upcoming presentation of “Catacombs,” a story of faith, persecution and survival in three acts. Presented in the form of a winter dinner theatre, Parable, the youth performing arts team of Miner Baptist Church, “Catacombs” will be performed at 6 p.m. Feb. 13-16 in Studio One on the church campus...

LaFORGE, Mo. —Joe Shanks, 90, died Jan. 21, 2020, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Born March 26, 1929, in LaForge, son of the late Welton and Maude Brooks Shanks, he was a veteran of the United States Army and served as a medic during the Korean War...

MARSTON, Mo. — Linda K. Stevens, 57, died Jan. 23, 2020, in Marston. Born July 16, 1962, Portageville, Mo., daughter of the late Louise Howell Stevens and James Elmer Stevens, she was of the Pentecostal belief and a 1980 graduated of New Madrid County Central High School...

ESSEX, Mo. — An Essex native recently opened the town’s first public library with hopes of also opening residents’ minds to a vast collection of books and rural history. Located at 110 N. Cypress St., next to the town’s post office, the Essex Public Library officially opened Dec. 14, 2019, and currently, it is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays...