Stories from Friday, August 13, 1993

VILLA RIDGE, Ill. -- Willa Dean Bankson, 63, of Villa Ridge died Thursday, Aug. 12, 1993, at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at the Jones Funeral Home in Villa Ridge.

So you think you've got it bad. Americans don't, not really, but they like to talk as if the whole place, sea to shining sea, is falling apart. Washington, the place we populate with our votes and fuel with our tax dollars, rests far from the geographical center but smack in the middle of the nation's problems...

Beginning today, representatives of the Cape Girardeau fire and police departments will be distributing information packets to flood victims who are returning or who will soon return to their homes. Bettie Knoll, a special officer with the police department who has been checking on residents within the flood zones for the past few weeks, will distribute the packets with three firefighters. The group will answer any questions flood victims might have or refer them to an agency that could help...

The 15th annual Zonta Club Fashion Show will be held on Sept. 20 at the Show Me Center using a party theme of "Celebrate." The activities will begin at 6 p.m., with the fashion show starting promptly at 7:15 p.m. More than $5,000 in gifts will be raffled during the fashion show, including an original piece of jewelry from C.P. McGinty's, a membership for one year at Universal Physique, as well as travel certificates, savings bonds, certificates to restaurants and retail stores...

Former students of the Hooe School of the community known as Popp City are planning a school reunion for Sept. 4. Names and addresses are being sought of those who attended the school during the 1920s and 1930s. If you have information on a Hooe student or would like more information on the reunion, contact Mary Beggs Hopper at 545-3150, Helen Fisher Hildenbrand at 471-4277 or Bill Dodson at 545-3621...

The Gibson Recovery Center has canceled its fifth annual Mississippi River Canoe Trek for this summer due to the flood. "Several months ago, as we were planning our departure dates, we thought for sure that the river stages would be low enough to allow us a safe and profitable trip," said Robert W. Antill, chairman. "As everyone can see, Mother Nature had other plans, and we must go along with them."...

The Advance Knights of Columbus will sponsor a Miss Labor Day competition for girls from the surrounding areas on Sept. 4 at 7:30 p.m. The contest is open for girls between the ages of 14 and 19 and it will be held at the Lawrence Umfleet Jr. Park in Advance...

The $5.7 billion flood-aid package that passed Congress and was signed into law by President Clinton in St. Louis Thursday comes none too soon for displaced homeowners and businesses and cropless farmers ravaged by this year's record flooding along Midwestern rivers...

MARBLE HILL -- Mary D. Arnzen, 92, of Marble Hill, died Wednesday, Aug. 11, 1993, at the St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Nov. 5, 1900, at Leopold, daughter of George and Gesina Wubker Scharenborg. She married Henry J. Arnzen, Oct. 15, 1924. He died Oct. 23, 1961...

ANNA, Ill. - Eula Merle Coomes, 94, of Alton, Ill., formerly of Union County, died Wednesday, Aug. 11, at the Eldercare Nursing Center in Alton. She was born in Anna, Ill., on Nov. 4, 1898, to Oliver and Izora Miller Poole. She married Oliver D. Coomes, who preceded her in death in 1966...

LEOPOLD -- Lillian M. Bowman, 89, of Leopold, died Wednesday, Aug. 11, 1993, at Advance Nursing Care Center in Advance. She was born April 5, 1904, at Leopold, daughter of Frank nd Catherine VanDoren Eldracher. She and Fred Bowman were married in 1937. He died Sept. 30, 1981...

BERTRAND -- Maude Ellen Stricker, 74, of Bertrand, died Wednesday, Aug. 11, 1993, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born Sept. 10, 1918, in Cape Girardeau, daughter of John Ernest and Anna Mae Tharpe Williams. She and Lawrence Stricker were married Aug. 8, 1943. He died Oct. 31, 1967...

JACKSON -- Funeral service for former Cape Girardeau County Coroner and Circuit Clerk Norval "Grub" Short of Jackson will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at McCombs Funeral Chapel. The Rev. Lawrence Eatherton will officiate. Burial will be in Pleasant Hill Cemetery, with military graveside rites by VFW Post 3838 of Cape Girardeau...

JACKSON -- Robert W. Hoffmeister, 81, of Jackson, died Wednesday, Aug. 11, 1993, at St. Francis Medical Center. He was born Feb. 26, 1912, at Jackson, son of Henry A. and Minnie Voges Hoffmeister. He and Margaret Loos were married Nov. 6, 1937, at Jackson...

Clayton A. Farrow Sr., 88, of Affton, died Wednesday, Aug. 11, 1993, at St. Anthony's Medical Center in St. Louis. He was born June 5, 1905, in Cape Girardeau, son of George A. and Hattie L. Kirby Farrow Sr. He married the former Dorris H. Holbsworth...

Sue McGee, 57, 2110 Brink, died Thursday, Aug. 12, 1993, at St. Louis University Hospital. She was born June 28, 1936, at Holland, Mo., daughter of Cecil and Beatrice Wright McGee. McGee worked at Kroger in Caruthersville, Steele and Malden 10 years. She moved to Cape Girardeau in 1967, and had been a checker at Del Farm 25 years...

SIKESTON -- Tylene Stallings, 85, of Sikeston, died Thursday, Aug. 12, 1993, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. She was born March 11, 1908, at Sikeston, daughter of Walter and Louise LaGrange Kendall. She and Tharon E. Stallings were married Sept. 1, 1934, at Fredericktown...

While students stock up on pencils and paper for the start of school, educators spend days, even weeks, making sure everything is ready for the first day of classes. In Cape Girardeau, public schools begin Aug. 26, said Superintendent Neyland Clark...

ST. LOUIS President Clinton Thursday signed into law a $5.7 billion disaster relief bill to aid Midwestern flood victims, who he hailed as ordinary people who through heroic deeds inspired all of America. Clinton, who stopped in St. Louis on his way to see Pope John Paul II in Denver, also signed a bill that will relax federal regulations on banks serving flood-ravaged areas...

Between 1-1 inches of badly needed rain fell Thursday morning on parched corn fields in the Cape Girardeau area, but agricultural sources said at least another 2-3 inches of rain is needed to prevent additional crop yield losses. The rain, heavy at first, started around 7:30 a.m., at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport. ...

BENTON -- Scott County voters will be asked to authorize riverboat gambling in an election Nov. 2 that could lead to establishment of a floating casino at the Southeast Missouri Regional Port near Scott City. Riverboat gambling also will be on the election ballot in Cape Girardeau that day. It marks the second time around in Cape Girardeau; voters rejected the issue in June...

Some details of the $5.7 billion disaster relief legislation approved Wednesday by the Senate and signed into law Thursday by President Bill Clinton: In direct assistance, the bill authorizes $2 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to continue direct aid to individuals and families and $200 million for direct assistant grants to state and local government for long-term recovery...

Cape Girardeau police officers were kept busy Thursday morning with a series of seven accidents involving a total of 17 cars, which occurred near the Diversion Channel bridge on Interstate 55. The mayhem started shortly before 8 a.m., when a northbound van locked its brakes and spun around on the wet pavement and stopped just barely on the shoulder, facing south. Police were notified by a passing off-duty Missouri State Highway patrolman of the van almost immediately...

The National Federation of Music Clubs is establishing a new Junior Music Festival Center at Southeast Missouri State University. Festival entrants do not compete against each other, but are rated on individual merits. Junior Festivals are for average students as well as for those who are exceptionally talented. Students are awarded "Gold Cups" after earning a required amount of points...

Don and Janet Presson of Keyboards and Kindermusik will begin their fall semester classes on Sept. 7. Keyboard classes are for ages 5 through adult, Kindermusik classes for ages 3 through 5 and beginning classes for ages 18 months through 3 years. For more information or enrollment, contact 334-8623...

Lee Soroko's age 26 qualifies him as a member of the MTV Generation, but he thinks the music video channel and Nintendo undermine creativity. "We live in a society in which creativity is being eroded away by blanket information," he says. "People have trouble making creative decisions."...

Laura Easley attended her first Heartland Writers' Conference last year, a wanna-be writer hoping to find a publisher for her children's novel. She didn't. But walking into the banquet late and taking the first available seat, she found herself passing the rolls to Louis Daniel Brodsky, the St. Louis poet and Faulkner scholar who also owns Time Being Books...