Stories from Friday, April 16, 1993

WYATT -- Graveside service for Thelma R. Floyd of Collierville, Tenn., formerly of Wyatt, will be held at 11 a.m. today at IOOF Cemetery in Charleston. Friends may assemble at McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston at 10:30. Floyd, 86, died Wednesday, April 14, 1993, at Heritage Manor in Collierville...

CHARLESTON -- The 25th annual Dogwood-Azalea Festival and tour will be held in Charleston Saturday and Sunday. Art, cars, dogs and quilts will be featured in shows during the weekend, which will be kicked off with the crowning of the Dogwood-Azalea Queen at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Mississippi County Historical Society Home...

Ken Bullard started his career working as a marine mobile operator for a phone company in St. Louis. From the start, he has been a "natural" in the field of communications. "My family lives in Cape Girardeau; when I left the phone company, I came back here," Bullard said...

State education officials will hold a series of meetings this month with teachers, parents and other interested persons to get their ideas for improving services for Missouri's gifted students. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will be conducting seven meetings around the state this month, including one in Cape Girardeau on April 26 from 7-9 p.m...

The featured guest on "University Conversations" Sunday will be Bert Kellerman of the College of Business Administration at Southeast Missouri State University. The 30-minute program can be seen Sunday evenings on local cable access Channel 5 at 7:30 p.m...

Sales-tax money for the first four months of 1993 are coming in at a pace well ahead of last year. Local officials said they hope it is an indication of things to come and a sign that the area's economy is recovering. The city of Cape Girardeau and Cape Girardeau County both report receipts from their sales taxes running a little more than 7 percent ahead of 1992. Jackson is showing growth of almost 6 percent...

The Southeast Missouri State University Symphonic Wind Ensemble, a band of 41 members, will tour St. Louis area schools Sunday through Wednesday. Schools included on the tour are: Collinsville (Ill.) High School; St. Jacob Junior High School in Troy, Ill.; McCluer North High School in Florissant; Hazelwood Central High School; Eureka High School; Lafayette High School in Ballwin; Horton-Watkins High School in Ladue; and Fox High School in Arnold...

JEFFERSON CITY - Although a House committee has made a number of changes in the Senate version of a workers' compensation reform bill, other amendments are likely to be offered when the bill is debated on the floor next week, state Rep. Mark Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, said...

It will cost more than $6 million to move 2,500 bodies from an old cemetery blocking the path of the new St. Louis rapid transit system. That estimate doesn't include treating taxpayers, stricken upon learning they'll foot the bill. --- Considering how much grief he's endured since being arrested for driving while intoxicated, House Speaker Bob Griffin has set a new record for the longest hangover in history...

Drink up. Water is one commodity most of us take for granted ... unless there's a problem. Thanks to an efficient treatment operation and smooth transition to city ownership, quality water is the order of the day in Cape Girardeau. A year ago voters approved the city's purchase of the water system from Union Electric. ...

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital will sponsor a "Saddle up" Trail Ride on Sunday. It will start at Leemon at 1:30 p.m. Soda will be available and wagons are welcome. There is a $5 donation per horse/wagon. For more information call Lewis McNeely, 334-7218; Bob Morton, 243-3201; or David Ringwald, 243-0250...

Twenty-six area high schools participated in the annual District Vocational Agriculture and Future Farmers of America contests held March 26-27. The contests were sponsored by the Southeast Missouri State University agriculture department in cooperation with area agriculture producers, agri-businesses, the Missouri Department of Conservation, the Soil Conservation Service, and district vocational agriculture instructors...

To the Editor: The Easter editorial which appeared in the Southeast Missourian last Sunday was a gem. Your newspaper should be commended for printing an article of such quality. No generalities were paraded in colorful words and rounded phrases. At an Easter sunrise setting in Forest Park, St. Louis, in the Twenties, a man of the cloth said words to this effect: "We are gathered in the early hour of this happy day to celebrate the resurrection of nature in spring." That was missing the boat...

MARBLE HILL -- Charlotte Helen Prechal, 65, of St. Louis, died Thursday, April 15, 1993, at Bellefontaine Rehabilitation Center in St. Louis. She was born Feb. 13, 1928, at Biehle, daughter of Charles and Viola H. Horrell Prechal. Surviving are numerous cousins, including her guardian, Robert Horrell of Marble Hill...

TILSIT -- Gilbert F. Wilke, 84, of Tilsit, died Wednesday, April 14, 1993, at St. Francis Medical Center. He was born March 8, 1909, in Perry County, son of Ferdinand and Theresa Hildebrand Wilke. Wilke had lived here 50 years, and had worked at Pioneer Orchard a number of years. He was a member of Immanuel Lutheran Church at Tilsit, and Altenthal-Joerns American Legion Post 158 at Jackson. He served with the Military Police during World War II...

Son to Mr. and Mrs. Tom Bertrand of Poplar Bluff, Lucy Lee Hospital there, 11:06 a.m. Thursday, March 25, 1993. Name, Mark Thomas. Weight, 7 pounds 2 ounces. First child. Mrs. Bertrand is the former Cindy Faith, daughter of James and Crystal Faith of Poplar Bluff. She is a bookkeeper at Jim Faith Office Supply. Bertrand is a salesman with the company, and is the son of Frank and Martha Bertrand of Cape Girardeau...

Even in places as far away and seemingly isolated from the problems of Los Angeles as is Cape Girardeau, law enforcement officials say that fallout from the Rodney King ordeal has negatively affected their lives and hindered the way they do their jobs...

Much of Ken Davis' youth was wasted moving from one failure to another as he tried futilely to gain the approval of his peers on their terms. But it wasn't until Davis was able to ignore that "function as value" mentality that he was able to become the successful person he is today...

Lorn and Mary Honey might well view West Park Mall as their own personal exercise track. In the past 7 years, they've walked 7,778 miles over the mall's parquet floor. That's more than twice the distance between the East and West coasts. The Honeys are faithful mall walkers. Almost daily they make the 26-mile trip from their Tamms, Ill., Route 1 home to the Cape Girardeau mall, arriving around 8 or 8:15 a.m. The mall opens at 8 a.m., although most of the stores don't open that early...

Southeast Missouri State University's claim to the space program has been Linda Godwin, an Oak Ridge native and graduate of the university who was chosen as a shuttle astronaut. But Southeast will have a stronger relationship with the space program as a result of the selection of four faculty members from the College of Science and Technology to participate in the NASA-university Joint Venture Program...

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair." That declaration by one of the "witches" certainly describes many of the ambiguities that are part and parcel of Shakespeare's classic tragedy, "Macbeth," which opens tonight at the Forrest H. Rose Theater at Southeast Missouri State University...

A pops concert postponed because of snow earlier in the year will be held at 7:30 tonight at Cape Girardeau Central High School. The concert will include performances by the Central High School jazz band, the chamber and concert choirs and specialty acts...

Rita Fisher's three sons know they had better not mess up in school or they'll have to deal with their mom, the principal. Fisher is principal at Immaculate Conception School in Jackson. But she's resigning at the end of the school year to take a position as principal of St. Vincent de Paul School in Cape Girardeau, the same school that her sons attend...

Coming up: April 17 Wappapello Bassmasters tournament, Lake Wappapello, Chaonia Landing. April 18 Velo Girardeau Bicycle Ride, Jim Davis Memorial ride, 28 miles, meet at Kent Library, 2 p.m. April 24 Annual Missouri Beautification Association Spring Roadside Cleanup, Lake Wappapello...