Stories from Thursday, February 20, 2003

BRANSON -- Jacqueline L. Gooch and Dr. Robert E. Gardner were married July 19, 2002, at Stonegate Chapel in Branson. The Rev. Cyndy Renshaw performed the ceremony. Parents of the bride are Evelyn Pinnell of Sikeston and the late Bill Pinnell. The bride was escorted by her son, James D. Gooch Jr. of Sikeston. Stacie L. Gooch of San Diego, Calif., was maid of honor...

SIKESTON - Crystal Davis and Nathan Winfield are the parents of their first child, a son, born at 7:29 p.m. Feb. 1, 2003, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. Nathan Dwayne Winfield Jr. weighed 6 pounds, 9 ounces and was 19 1/4-inches long. Maternal grandparents are Gwender Davis and Lennies and Willie Mae McFerren...

SIKESTON -- Patrick and Joyce Stephenson have announced the engagement of their daughter, Heather Marie Sloan, to Andrew Roy VanVickle, son of Roy and Patricia VanVickle of Matthews. A 2002 graduate of Sikeston High School, where she was a member of the Drama Club and Red Peppers, the future bride is employed by Sells Rest Home in Matthews...

Gerald Howard with the Sikeston Elks Lodge gives each one of the seniors on the Sikeston High School basketball team a basketball as part of the special night. The seniors went out in style beating Oran, 67-45.

SIKESTON -- Although the atmosphere is a lot friendlier and the comments aren't as harsh, Rosanne Elsey can't help but recall memories of her childhood when she participates in the Sikeston Optimist Club's annual Monopoly Game Tournament. The oldest of eight children, Elsey and her siblings were always playing games growing up, especially Monopoly, she said...

SIKESTON - The Sikeston Bulldogs basketball team crept closer to .500 with a 67-45 victory against Oran in a makeup game on Wednesday at the Field House on Senior Night. The Bulldogs have now won six of their last eight games to improve to 11-12 on the season...

MINER - An investigation at a business owned by a member of the Miner Board of Aldermen has turned up stolen auto parts. Officials with the Missouri State Highway Patrol's Division of Drug and Crime Control along with the Department of Revenue, the National Insurance Crime Bureau and the New Madrid County Sheriff's Department began a dealer compliance inspection at 2:05 p.m. Tuesday at Brock Salvage, located south of Sikeston on County Highway 807. The business is owned by Tom Brock...

SIKESTON - Lee Lawrence, who has served two terms as city councilman from Ward Three, isn't deterred by the cold weather from thinking ahead until April 6 when another city election will be held. He announced his candidacy for re-election to a third term in the office. Lawrence was the first to offer for office in the election...

I'm complaining about the Veterans Administration hospital. You go in there and have to wait three and four hours to see a doctor, then you can't understand him. They're taking everybody now - it should be fixed now like it used to be - combat only. ...

JACKSON -- Roger and Ruth Lane have announced the engagement of their daughter, Amanda Jane, to Clifford Garett Dugan, son of Cliff and Christie Dugan of Weldon Spring. The future bride graduated in 1998 from Jackson Public Schools. A 2002 graduate of Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, she is a sixth grade teacher for Cape Girardeau Public Schools...

If you want to know just how far professional boxing has deteriorated just look to this Saturday's Mike Tyson fight in Memphis. Tyson is scheduled to fight a French heavyweight whose name now escapes me. But that doesn't really matter. What puzzles me is why 10,000 people have already purchased high-priced tickets to the Tyson circus...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Charles R. Bethune Jr., 69, died Feb. 1, 2003, in Jacksonville. Born June 12, 1933, in Sikeston, Mo., son of Hazel Bethune of Charleston and the late Charles R. Bethune Sr., he attended schools in Sikeston and graduated from Sikeston High School. ...

FESTUS - Charles W. Billington, 79, formerly of Lilbourn, died Feb. 18, 2003, at Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Crystal City. Born Dec. 29, 1923, in Lilbourn, son of the late Samuel Elmer and Edna Mae Sheridan Billington, he was a watch repairman before retiring. He was a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II...

GREENBRIER - Nellie Marie Conrad, 93, died Feb. 18, 2003, at the Advance Nursing Center. Born Oct. 21, 1909, in Greenbrier, daughter of the late Charles and Ella Sullivan Storz, she was a member of the Greenbrier Assembly of God Church. On Feb. 8, 1928, she married Columbus Conrad who preceded her in death on Oct. 6, 1988...

PORTAGEVILLE - Lorene H. Noffel, 90, died Feb. 19, 2003, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Born Oct. 2, 1912, she was the daughter of the late Lamia and John Hamra. She was united in marriage on Aug. 16, 1931, to Shawie Noffel in Caruthersville. ...

BORGER, Texas - Lois Marie Haas Harvey, 82, formerly of Sikeston, Mo., died Feb. 18, 2003, in Amarillo. Born July 1, 1920, in Sikeston, daughter of the late J. Otto and Lena Smith Hass, she lived in Borger since 1978. She had taught school at Hugoton, Kan.; Dumas, Texas; and Beaver, Okla., before retiring and was a member of Chapter CS of PEO Sisterhood and the First United Methodist Church...

DEXTER - Harrison Manley, 73, formerly of Sikeston and Cape Girardeau, died Feb. 19, 2003, in the St. Joe Manor at Bonne Terre. Arrangements are incomplete at Rainey-Mathis Funeral Home in Dexter.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Louise Boston, 93, formerly of Sikeston, Mo., died at 3:30 p.m. Feb. 19, 2003, at the Baptist Hospital in Little Rock. Born Aug. 22, 1909, in Murray, Ky., she was the daughter of the late Herman and Zadie Wells Bridges. She was co-owner and operator of Boston's Grocery and Boston's Dairy Cream in Sikeston, where she was also a member of Hunter Memorial First Presbyterian Church...

BERNIE - Fredia Irene Lasater Blevins, 95, died Feb. 17, 2003, in Little Rock, Ark. Born Feb. 6, 1908, in Beaver Creek Township, Ill., she was a lifelong resident of Bernie and member of the White Oak General Baptist Church in rural Bernie. On Nov. 25, 1926, in Liberty Township, she married Wilbur J. Blevins who preceded her in death...

DEXTER - Pallbearers at services conducted today at Watkins and Sons Funeral Home for Frosty Santos, 20, who died Feb. 16, 2003, were: Terry Duncan, Johnny Horn, Chris Brown, Antonio Rizo, Alex Oliva and Bill Sanders.