Stories from Friday, July 30, 1993

JACKSON -- Ray W. Mouser, 74, of Jackson, died Thursday, July 29, 1993, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Jan. 26, 1919, at Glen Allen, Mo., son of Andrew Jackson and Susan Sawyer Mouser. He married Alma Birk, Aug. 15, 1943, at Blytheville, Ark...

Grace A. Jones, 87, of St. Louis and formerly of Unity, Ill. died Thursday, July 29, 1993, at the Cape LaCroix Nursing Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Dec. 31, 1906, at Pulaski, Ill., the daughter of Anderson and Adalaid Manwarning Fitzgerald. She was a member of Unity Baptist Church and a retired factory worker...

Son to Mr. and Mrs. Joey McRoy, Sikeston Route 2, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 1:55 p.m. Thursday, July 22, 1993. Name, Cody James. Weight, 7 pounds 2 ounces. Second child, first son. Mrs. McRoy is the former Lisa Scheffer, daughter of Clem and Evelyn Scheffer Jr. of Sikeston. McRoy is employed at S&W Cabinets, and is the son of Ruby McRoy of Sikeston, and the late N.J. McRoy...

Note please, for the record, that members of Congress, in doing the right thing, still have the capacity to do the wrong thing. To their credit, representatives in the U.S. House took action Tuesday to appropriate $3 billion that will be used to provide assistance to victims of Midwest floods. Approval of the measure came after five days of partisan disagreement that was interrupted by the legislators' weekend break. (Those on the sandbag lines, it might be noted, took no such respite.)...

FREDRICKTOWN -- A Fred~ericktown woman was killed and two other people were injured Thursday afternoon in an automobile accident on Route J, about seven miles east of Fredericktown. Crystal Woods, 31, was killed after her eastbound car struck a westbound vehicle driven by Debra Lee, 39, of Fredericktown...

A Chaffee woman was extricated from her vehicle after being involved in a two-car accident Thursday evening at the westernmost entrance to the Wal-Mart Supercenter on Route K. Shortly before 7 p.m., Charlotte A. Dirnberger had stopped in the westbound lane of Route K to make a left turn into Wal-Mart. A truck driven by James E. Garrett, 19, of Benton, slammed into the rear of Dirnberger's sedan, driving it into a nearby sign...

School, at least as I remember it, contained a youthful shorthand that served students well in the clipped, words-tossed-over-the-shoulder variety of hallway conversations. On reflection, it was as if young people believed only so many words were allotted to them in life, and they weren't about to waste some on academic formalities...

To paraphrase Mark Twain, everybody talks about reinventing government, but no one does anything about it. Like the weather, implementing the reinvention of government seems to be beyond earthly powers, even by the politicians who promise to bring it about during campaigns...

Cape Girardeau's highest-level baseball team the Kohlfeld Capahas has had some kind of year. Not only did the club win the National Baseball Congress state championship at Capaha Park on Saturday night, but it did it with the style of true champions by coming from behind twice to beat the St. Louis Pointers 10-7...

Louise Hermina Schack, 87, 548 N. West End Boulevard, died Thursday, July 29, 1993, at her home. She was born March 5, 1906, at Dutchtown, daughter of August and Rosina Schlegel Suedekum. She and Elmer Schack were married Dec. 15, 1927, in Memphis, Tenn. He died in July 1976...

Roy Dale Stanley, 64, 2212 Sherwood, died Thursday, July 29, 1993, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. He was born Oct. 4, 1928, in Lawrence, Kan., son of Roy O. and Anna M. Otto Stanley. He and Donna Arndt were married March 6, 1953, in Wichita, Kan. Stanley was in radio and television broadcasting 48 years. ...

PERRYVILLE -- Robert L. Roy, 62, of Perryville, died Thursday, July 29, 1993, in Perryville. He was born June 2, 1931, at Perryville, son of Robert and Clara Killian Roy. He and Gladys Schemel were married July 3, 1954. Roy was owner/operator of Rob Roy Nursery here. He was a member of St. Vincent's Church, American Association of Nurserymen, and was a Third Degree member of Knights of Columbus. He was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force...

JACKSON -- Herbert Sander, 82, of Jackson, died Thursday, July 29, 1993, at the Lutheran Home. Cracraft-Miller Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

James Walter Fitzgerald Sr., 71, of Fairfield, Ill., died Thursday, July 29, 1993, in a hospital there. He was born in Cape Girardeau, son of Ernest and Myrtle McClard Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was a truck driver for Garman Trucking of Fairfield many years. He attended Albion Pentecost Church...

JACKSON -- Altha Smith, 71, of Amarillo, Texas, died Wednesday, July 27, 1993, at her home. McCombs Funeral Home in Jackson is in charge of funeral arrangements, which are incomplete at this time.

CHAFFEE -- Virgil Clyde Asher, 83, of Chaffee, died Wednesday, July 28, 1993, in Scott City. He was born July 8, 1910, at St. James, son of Jasper Lee and Asbrene Elizabeth Mitchell Asher. He and Goldie Elizabeth McBride LaCroix were married Nov. 4, 1978...

MARBLE HILL -- Funeral service for Harry Francis Tucker of Marble Hill was held Thursday at Baker Funeral Chapel. The Rev. Randy Poole officiated, with burial in Baker Cemetery. Tucker, 78, died Tuesday, July 27, 1993, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Funeral service for Jamison J. "Jami" Grogan of New Madrid, formerly of East Prairie, will be held at 2 p.m. today at Shelby Funeral Chapel. The Rev. George White will officiate, with burial in East Prairie Memorial Park. Grogan, 15, died Tuesday, July 27, 1993, in Cape Girardeau...

DONGOLA, Ill. -- Funeral service for Carl Schluter of Heyworth, formerly of Dongola, will be held at 8 p.m. today at Crain Funeral Chapel here. Merrill Pierce will officiate. Burial will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at Dongola American Legion Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home from 6 p.m. to service time...

Ruth Elizabeth George, 82, of Cape Girardeau, died Thursday, July 29, 1993, at the Lutheran Home. She was born Dec. 1, 1910, in Plymouth, Ill., daughter of Rev. H.M. and Ina Clearwater Ingram. She and Homer George were married Oct. 31, 1930, at Jonesboro, Ill. He died Dec. 9, 1969...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Were a couple guys in a jon boat, armed with dynamite, arrested this week? Officials say no: that's just another of the many rumors running as rampant as floodwaters. Jody Eberly, with Tri-County Flood Information in Jonesboro, said she has heard the dynamite rumor a couple times. "That was an early one."...

There's been no change in the 48.5-foot record flood crest that's expected to pass Cape Girardeau on Thursday. And the good news is no heavy rains are forecast for the next 6-10 days over the Midwest, which has been deluged with heavy rainfall nearly every week for the past three months...

The Missouri cities of Springfield and Kirkwood share the same property maintenance code. But enforcement of the code in those cities, with their vastly different dynamics and demographics, reflects varying degrees of government supervision. Springfield, a growing college town in Southwest Missouri there are six campuses and a population of about 150,000 enforces its maintenance code on a complaint basis...

JACKSON -- Site preparation is under way for the new Jackson Middle School at the intersection of West Independence (Route D) and Broad Ridge. The site work should be completed by the end of August. Howard Hemmann, project engineer for Penzel Construction Company of Jackson, said the work began about two weeks ago. "We cleared the site and started moving earth about two days ago," said Hemmann...

McCLURE, Ill. Willa Simmons knew her home and business were in danger from floodwater; she just didn't know how bad it was. Simmons, who with her husband Bill, owns the El Patio Lounge here. She read in the newspaper Thursday morning that U.S. Army Corps of Engineers believes the levee's weakest spot is just a few yards from where she sleeps and works...

Central Municipal Swimming Pool will be closed Saturday for a Cape Girardeau Gators swim meet. Morning fitness swim at Central Pool will be moved to Capaha Pool from 9-11 a.m., and Capaha will be open to the public from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. Saturday...

JACKSON - Prolonged flooding has not had much of an impact on the 600 miles of roads and bridges maintained by Cape Girardeau County, Associate Commissioner Larry Bock said Thursday. He pointed out that less than 15 miles of county roads are under water and does not believe there will be serious damage to any bridges along those roads...

Five nuns need to make some money to bury four of their sisters, who have been stored in a cooler ever since their tragic deaths by vichyssoise. That's the pretext for "Nunsense," an outlandishly funny really musical revue coming to Cape Girardeau tonight and Saturday night...

The Koshare Indian Dancers of La Junta, Colo., will perform Aug. 14 at the Show Me Center. The Koshares, first formed in 1933, have been seen by millions of people through the years. Twice they have been invited by presidents to perform in Washington, D.C...

More than 35 published authors along with literary agents and editors will on hand for the Heartland Writers' Conference Aug. 14 at the Holiday Inn Conference Center. The conference provides a day-long schedule of workshops designed to help aspiring writers improve their work and get published. ...