Stories from Monday, April 28, 2003

I am writing this as a rebuttal to Mr. Mike Grimes editorial "spin" in last weeks edition of the Mississippi County Times Newspaper as well as the front page and the actions of our elected officials. I don't know if Mr. Grimes is aware of the economic crisis we in Mississippi County are in. But I do know that Mr. Smith has offered this county's unemployed work and at a reasonable wage. I know because I have personally talked to this fellow on the phone and several e-mails...

SIKESTON - Complimentary tickets from the Sikeston Standard will admit Mr. and Mrs. T.A. Martin to the Malone Theater to see "Calling Dr. Gillespie," with Lionel Barrymore and Phillip Dorn. EAST PRAIRIE - The Chamber of Commerce officials and officials of the Prairie Manufacturing Company are formulating a contact agreement for the construction of a new factory building for the Prairie Company. ...

I see where the Miner board elected a former mayor as mayor pro tem. Didn't she up and quit her position as mayor? How can she hold this position too? Regardless of her past actions and performance on Miner's Board of Aldermen, Ward 2 voters put Betty Barnes back on the board in April 2002, and her fellow board members supported Mayor Frank Tatum's recommendation of her for the pro tem position and voted her in - that's how....

POPLAR BLUFF - The Sikeston Bulldog tennis team placed second in the six-team Poplar Bluff Invitational on Saturday. Farmington took first while Dexter followed up behind Sikeston in third place. Sikeston's doubles team of Ryne Vickery and Peter Jones took first place with an 8-2 victory in the semifinals against Dexter's Jake Smith and Derek Roberts, and an 8-2 victory in the finals against Cape Central...

CAPE GIRARDEAU - The Sikeston boys track and field team had a good day at the Cape Relays in Cape Girardeau on Saturday. The Bulldogs had several personal and season records set during the meet, which is designed for individual medals and not team points...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- A Sikeston businessman was named the 2003 "Friend of the University" by the Southeast Missouri University Foundation. Dr. Kenneth W. Dobbins, president of Southeast Missouri State University, presented the award Saturday to Donald C. Bedell, chairman of the board of Health Facilities Management Corporation, at the annual President's Council dinner at the Show Me Center...

ANNISTON -- An East Prairie man who had been missing since Tuesday was found lying dead in a ditch Saturday afternoon. According to Mississippi County Coroner Terry Parker, David Bruce "Butch" Wilson, 51, was riding his four-wheeler on April 22, south of Anniston on Mississippi County Road 334, and evidently flipped the four-wheeler into a ditch...

SIKESTON -- Eight-year-old Lucas Houchin never gave up hope that his drawing would be featured in Highlights for Children magazine. Inspired by the St. Louis Rams winning season in 2001, Lucas, then 7, drew a picture of the team's quarterback Kurt Warner and submitted his drawing to the national children's magazine...

Raithel CHARLESTON - Travis and Margo Raithel are the parents of their second daughter, born at 8:18 a.m. March 21, 2003, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Haylee Nicole Raithel weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces and was 19 1/2-inches long. Mrs. Raithel is the daughter of Evelyn Vanwinkle...

DEXTER - Pallbearers at services conducted Sunday at Watkins and Sons Funeral Home for Wilma Hampton, 85, who died April 24, 2003, were: Vader Stultz, Larry Steimle, Bob Killian, Jerry Forister, Morris Hampton and Alan Killian.

PORTAGEVILLE - Tommy Dale Johnson, 45, died April 26, 2003, at his home. Born Aug. 28, 1957, in Hayti, son of Osker "Bud" Johnson and Nannie Mae Hollingsworth Johnson of Hayward, he worked at the Associated Electric Power Plant in Marston. On Aug. 4, 1978, in Crowder, Miss., he married Cheryl Sue Eads who survives of the home...

SCOTT CITY -- Sadie Velma Davis, 86, died at 5:15 a.m. April 25, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Born Jan. 6, 1917, in Whitewater, she was the daughter of the late Andy and Effie Arizona Young Mance. On Feb. 19, 1937, in Jackson, she married Cletis Davis Sr. who preceded her in death on March 21, 1994...

EAST PRAIRIE - David Bruce "Butch" Wilson, 51, died April 22, 2003. Born July 15, 1951, in Wolf Island, son of Anna Ellen Bailey Wilson of East Prairie and the late David Lindsay Wilson, he was a lifelong resident of East Prairie and of the Baptist belief...

SIKESTON - Winifred Meeks, 68, died April 27, 2003, in San Antonio, Texas. Arrangements are incomplete at Nunnelee Funeral Chapel.

PUXICO - Edward G. Koppman, 74, died April 26, 2003, at the Puxico Nursing Center. Born July 18, 1928, in St. Louis, son of the late Louis and Lura Rollman Koppman, he lived in St. Louis before moving to the Puxico and Wappapello areas in the 1980s. A veteran of the U.S. Army, he retired as a painter from General Motors in St. Louis and was a member of the First Baptist Church in Puxico...

BELL CITY - Mary "Frances" Matheney, 80, died April 26, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Born Aug. 28, 1922, in Pleasant Grove, daughter of the late Oscar and Nancy Elizabeth Bennett Vickens, she was a machine operator for the International Hat Factory in Oran for 25 years and attended the Bell City General Baptist Church...

BERTRAND - Jerry Wayne Jones, 56, died at 9 a.m. April 26, 2003, at his residence. Born Sept. 7, 1946, in Wyatt, son of the late George H. and Sadie Lee Holt Jones, he had lived in Mississippi County his entire life and worked as a farmer, retiring in 1997...

MOREHOUSE - Pallbearers at services conducted today at Watkins and Sons Funeral Home in Morehouse for Milem T. Adkins, 104, who died April 24, 2003, were: Jeff Bryant, Freddie Copeland, Randy Copeland, John Copeland, John Launius and Michael Pickard...