Stories from Monday, October 19, 1998

In The Wine Cellar, which opened at 31 N. Main in downtown Cape Girardeau three years ago, has expanded into about 3,000 square feet next door to its former quarters. The business has expanded its inventory on wines, beers, cheese, breads and gourmet foods, said Jim Weatherholt. "And, we have added a daily luncheon."...

The USDA Rural Development office has moved to a new office building near Dexter. The Area VII office, formerly located in Sikeston, is now located about two miles north of Highway 60, two miles north of Dexter. The official address is USDA Rural Development, 18450 Ridgeway Lane, Dexter, Mo., 63841...

A "Farm Financial" meeting will be held Oct. 29 at the Dexter Library. The 7:30 p.m. session is sponsored by University of Missouri Outreach and Extension of Stoddard County. Speakers will include Ron Milbach, Production Credit; Tom Love, Union Planters Bank, Dexter; Steve Morrison land Terry Williams, both of USDA-Farm Service Agency, and David Reinbott, of University Extension...

This Financial Focus column is prepared by Edward Jones Investments headquartered in St. Louis. Jones includes branches throughout the nation, including Cape Girardeau and Jackson. Some investors regard investing in stocks as playing the market. In fact, all stocks are not created equal. Each company that issues stocks has a unique history of growth, earnings and paying dividends. Thus, each stock offers a different level of risk as well as reward...

The catfish were transferred into holding tanks contained in pickup trucks parked on the bank of the fish pond. Workers, from left, Harlan Groning, Larry Wills, Roy Moore, Paula Moore, James Spence and Paul Jones prepared to transfer catfish from a seine into a live car net...

The Bootheel Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission will hold its annual meeting next month at New Madrid. The program, to be held at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 19, at New Madrid High School Cafeteria, will feature a speaker to be named later, from the Missouri Department of Economic Development...

Gymboree will celebrate its grand opening at West park Mall Saturday. Gymboree features children's clothing and accessories, including an exclusive line of active wear and accessories for boys and girls from newborn through seven years old. The new Cape Girardeau store, which opened recently, is part of an ongoing plan to bring exclusive lines to many new markets throughout the U.S., said Gary White, Gymboree president and executive officer...

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Team has expanded its services and equipment, including a new equipment van. The cleaning service was founded more than two years ago by Susan Elayer and Connie Litzelfelner. The company specialized in commerce cleaning, but does include residential household cleaning in it services...

Tourism is big business in Missouri, contributing significantly to the economy, with benefits filtering into every county. Traveler spending in the Show Me State has topped the $10 billion mark each of the past couple of years. Tourism statistics reveal that shopping is the big attraction for almost one third of the visitors to state, with other visitor activity including historic places, museums, cultural events, festivals and sporting events. ...

Ginger Lemonds has joined Beverly Healthcare as director of admissions. She will also handle the group's marketing and community involvement programs. Lemonds, a graduate of University of North Texas, worked ten years as an investment banker. Greg Nolan, of Jackson, has joined Edgewater Glass, 324 S. Plaza Way, in Cape Girardeau, as an outside sales representative...

Commerce Bancshares Inc. announced record earnings of $109.7 million for first nine months of 1998, ending Sept. 30, an increase of 14 percent, compared to the $976 million during the same period in 1997. Per-share earnings were $1.85, up 14 percent from the $1.62 of last year. The return on assets for the quarter was 1.42 percent, and the return on equity was of 14.9 percent...

"Enhancing Southern Illinois for 21st Century" is the topic for a regional, two-day, economic conference, to be held at Mt. Vernon, Ill. Holiday Inn Nov. 17-18. The event is co-hosted by the Southern Illinois University-Carbondale Office of Economic and Regional Development and the Extension Service...

SBC Communications Inc. has announced financial results for the third quarter. Revenues for the quarter were $6.8 billion, up 7.1 percent, from the $6.3 billion during the same period in 1997. Reported earnings for the quarter were $1.2 billion, or 65 cents per diluted share, compared to $826 million during the same period a year ago...

Schnucks Markets Inc., headquartered at St. Louis, ranks among the nation's top five supermarket video rental operations, according to "Supermarket News," a national retail trade weekly. Schnucks, which is number four on the list, offers videos for sale and rental at 73 of its 89 stores in Illinois, Indiana and Missouri, including Cape Girardeau...

The Regional Commerce &I Growth Associated (RCGA) has issued it "Southeast Missouri Regional Chamber Directory, A Blueprint for Progress." The 160-page directory includes information about population, labor force, income, and chambers of commerce membership...

METROPOLIS, Ill. -- The nearly perfect weather conditions on Saturday helped the crowd at the 25th annual Fort Massac Encampment to swell to about 75,000, the biggest single day in the history of the encampment. With beautiful weather and fall temperatures, "it was wall-to-wall people," said Terry Johnson, Fort Massac site supervisor...

Officials in Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Cape Girardeau County want to send the state highway department a message. The Cape Girardeau City Council and Jackson Board of Aldermen are expected to pass a joint resolution tonight outlining the key highway projects they want the Missouri Department of Transportation to undertake...

Built in 1905 at a cost of $10,000, the old Jefferson School at the southeast corner of Jefferson and Ellis streets sits vacant now. The "For Sale" sign in the front yard for the past two months has brought a few calls but no serious inquiries. The bell tower and people's memories are all that remain of the school's place in the city's racial history...

Once again I find myself stuffing everything I own into a multitude of cardboard boxes. It's time to move, this time to Utica, N.Y. On the road again. ... I own a lot of stuff, and I'm rather fond of most of it, but every time I have to load up another box, I swear that if I had a yard, I'd be holding a yard sale...

WELL, CLINTON'S at it again. Getting ready to bomb. Well, what about Bosnia? Isn't that how we started with Bosnia? We were just going to bomb. Next thing you know, we've got troops and everything. We were only going to be there a short period of time. ...

Senior citizens from across Southeast Missouri filled the Show Me Center Thursday to celebrate 25 years of the senior nutrition program, which has grown over the years into much more than an opportunity by which seniors are just provided a hot meal...

The railroads, law enforcement agencies and state transportation departments have long realized the importance of traffic signals and other safety devices at railroad crossings, yet today many rural crossings remain unprotected. That no longer is the case at the Shelby Street crossing in Oran, where six people have lost their lives in train-vehicle accidents over the past four decades...

To the editor: This note is to thank the young man, Sam Fletcher, for the great letter to the editor he wrote concerning abortion. He has to be a very nice person to have taken the time to have written and explained the way that abortion is done. My husband and I are both Catholics and are 81 years old. We pray every day for the reparation and elimination of abortion...

Agenda Monday, Oct. 19 City Hall Public hearing -- Hearing to consider the request for voluntary annexation of property owned by Jenkins Heirs/Jackson. -- Hearing to consider the request for the rezoning of a 20.32-acre tract of land at the northwest quadrant of East Jackson Boulevard and Old Orchard Road intersection from I-1 (light industrial) to C-2 (general commercial) as requested by Jim Besher...

A group of students studying German, faculty at Southeast Missouri State University and a Cape Girardeau family will get a chance to tour southern Germany and Austria during the university's winter break. Dr. Dieter Jedan, chairman of the department of foreign languages at Southeast Missouri State University will lead the group, which also includes three students from the University of Missouri at Columbia, during the trip...

The high school football season is seven weeks old -- which in Missouri can only mean one thing. Now it's time to really get serious as round-robin district play that will decide playoff berths gets under way. Several area teams are off to fast starts -- namely St. Vincent and Scott City, who are both state-ranked -- while many others are struggling...

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southeast Missouri State University volleyball player Amy Henken was named the MVP of the SIU Classic that Southeast won over the weekend. It had previously been announced that Southeast's Angie Aschoff was the MVP. Aschoff did join Henken on the all-tournament team...

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- John Dees, 49, a former resident of Cape Girardeau, died Oct. 15, 1998, at his home. He was born Dec. 14, 1948, at Cape Girardeau, son of John Paul and Florene Dees. He had lived in Clearwater for the last two years. Dees served in the U.S. Navy from 1970 to 1974 and was a veteran of the Vietnam War...

Mildred Elizabeth Faries, 79, of Cape Girardeau, formerly of Marble Hill, died Saturday, Oct. 17, 1998, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. She was born Feb. 1, 1919, at Glen Allen, daughter of Marvin H. and Lula Buehler Walker. She and Jackson R. Faries were married on April 17, 1942. He died July 27, 1987...

MARBLE HILL -- W. Duane Douglas, 71, of Marble Hill died Saturday, Oct. 17, 1998, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Nov. 1, 1926, at Luray, Kan., son of James Frederick and Cora Opal Bean Douglas. Douglas was an Army veteran of World War II...

COBDEN, Ill. -- Charles M. Boes, 78, of Cobden died Saturday, Oct. 17, 1998, at Memorial Hospital in Carbondale. He was born Dec. 23, 1919, at Brazil, Ind., son of James Douglas and Irene Foster Boes. Boes was a veteran of World War II. He was a retired farmer...

POPLAR BLUFF -- John W. Sides, 73, of Poplar Bluff died Sunday, Oct. 18, 1998, at his home. He was born on Nov. 3, 1924, at Belleville, Ark., son of Grover C. and Effie Lee Payne Sides. He and Marie Pixley were married in Piggott, Ark., on June 3, 1945...

DELTA -- Albert "Rouge" Land, 84, of Delta died Sunday, Oct. 18, 1998, at Chaffee Nursing Center. Arrangements are incomplete at Morgan Funeral Home in Advance.

PERRYVILLE -- The Rev. Willis F. "Gus" Darling, C.M., 91, of Perryville died Friday, Oct. 16, 1998, at St. Mary's Seminary in Perryville. He was born Nov. 20, 1906, at Sparta, Ill., son of Roscoe and Anna Stratmann Darling. He served on the faculty of St. Vincent's College in Cape Girardeau from 1933 to 1944, and was the founding pastor of Holy Family Church, which served the black Catholic community in southern Cape Girardeau at the time...