Stories from Wednesday, May 2, 2012

NEW MADRID - Noranda Aluminum Inc. will have an Open House and Family Day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday for employees and retirees. More than 4,000 retired and current employees with their families are expected to attend the event that will feature fair food, carnival games, several inflatable and interactive bounce activities, a photo booth with a green screen, contests and much more. All are provided at no cost...

As May arrives, we are once again greeted by the ever-popular Occupy Wall Street crowd, which is little more than a union-financed political street theater designed to deflect attention away from a stalled economy. The theory behind the OWS gang is to highlight the disparity of income in America. But it takes little work to see the true purpose - which is clearly to rally some odd support for the Obama administration especially in the wake of the Tea Party success...

ATLANTA -- Russell Eugene Kennedy, 38, died April 27, 2012, of injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident in Atlanta. Born June 18, 1973, in Poplar Bluff, Mo., son of Russell Kennedy of Poplar Bluff and the late Martha Kennedy, he was a 1991 graduate of Poplar Bluff High School. ...

PACIFIC -- Jackie Sue Haynes Harmon, 79, formerly of Sikeston, died April 28, 2012, at Pacific. Born July 13, 1932, in Alabama, to the late William H. and Mattie Alma Tidwell Haynes, she was a housewife. On Sept. 30, 1951, at Sikeston, she married William H. "Bill" Harmon who survives of the home...

SIKESTON -- Bob Lambert, 84, died May 1, 2012, at the Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville, Ark. Arrangements are incomplete with Ponder Funeral Home in Sikeston.

SAGINAW, Mich. -- Lucile Thompson Stafford, 79, formerly of Charleston, Mo., died Feb. 11, 2012, in Saginaw. Born in 1932, in Cairo, Ill., to the late David and Dorothy Thompson, she attended Hollins College in Virginia and the University of Missouri before graduating from the University of Maryland as a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. ...

CHARLESTON -- Deborah J. Patton, 57, died May 1, 2012, at her home in Charleston. Arrangements are incomplete at McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston.

LILBOURN -- Pauline Riley, 90, died May 2, 2012, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Arrangements are incomplete at Ponder Funeral Home.

SIKESTON -- The Sikeston Bulldogs tennis team returned home on Tuesday and dropped an 8-1 decision to Dexter. Sikeston's number two player, junior Brandon Goodwin, earned the Bulldogs' lone win, defeating Sam Ward 9-7. Goodwin was Sikeston's lone winner on Monday against Notre Dame, winning a third set tiebreaker over Bryan Brown. Notre Dame won the match 8-1...

NEW MADRID -- After dropping their last seven games, New Madrid County Central got back on a winning note Tuesday against visiting Twin Rivers. Backed by starter Jimmy Ash going 6 1/3 innings, the Eagles got a game-winning hit from Josh Reed to come back from a late Royals rally to win 3-2...

ORAN -- Before he threw his first pitch, Ian Householder already had a sizable lead. Householder struck out 10 in his seven innings of work as Kelly's ace was blessed with a grand slam in the first inning which sparked the Hawks' 6-3 win over the Oran Eagles Tuesday at Oran High School...

NEW MADRID -- The New Madrid County Central softball team improved to 16-1 with a 16-6 win over South Pemiscot Tuesday. The Lady Eagles scored 12 runs in the bottom of the second inning to break open a 3-2 game. Michaela Townsend earned the win, giving up six runs on nine hits while walking none and striking out nine...

BENTON -- As a proposed consolidation of county E-911 services with the city of Sikeston will not come to pass in the immediate future, Scott County officials will soon have to consider what upgrades are needed at the county's Communications Center...

SIKESTON -- The latest exhibit at the Sikeston Depot Museum offers a unique way to blend music and art. "The dictionary defines unique as: 'existing as the only one or as the sole example; having no like or equal," said Sikeston Depot Museum Director Mike Marsh...

SIKESTON -- Those who feel the nation could use a few more prayers may want to join in Thursday's local celebration of the 61st annual National Day of Prayer. The annual event sponsored by the Sikeston Kiwanis Club will begin at 6:30 a.m. Thursday with a citywide breakfast and prayer-led celebration at the First Baptist Church in Sikeston...

The setting sun glints off the horn of Tyler Woolsey, a senior member of the Sikeston High School band. The band presented a dress rehearsal Tuesday evening in their uniforms in preparation for their trip to Kentucky. The band, under the direction of Darren Steelman and Kim Whitehead, will march Thursday in the Pegasus Parade during the Kentucky Derby Festival. The Pegasus Parade is the oldest Kentucky Derby Festival event...

Ernesha Bland, daughter of Ernest and Wanda Bland, is the Standard Democrat's Calendar Girl for May. Bland, fourth runner-up in the 2011 Miss Sikeston Contest, plans to attend the University of Central Missouri and major in health science.