Stories from Tuesday, June 5, 2001

Editor's note: This is a chapter from Jean Bell Mosley's book "Wide Meadows" that was first published in 1960. The next time Molly and I went up to clean Jeem's house we could tell he was carving again, and it was Janice, all right. He had started with the head...

Southeast Missouri State University will use a $2.6 million, three-year federal grant to develop a regional museum at its River Campus arts school. University officials said the grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services will fund the hiring of a consultant, an architect, and three new museum positions -- curator, museum educator and an exhibits installer...

CAIRO, Ill. -- A steadily dwindling population and stalled economy have spurred Cairo city officials to create programs they hope will jump-start the housing market and new business sector. The population in this small Southern Illinois community, situated at the confluence of Mississippi and Ohio rivers, plummeted from 4,846 in 1990 to just 3,600 today. Half the city's residents live in poverty, and at 9.2 percent, Cairo has the highest unemployment rate in the state...

Freshmen who wait too long to enroll at Southeast Missouri State University this year may not get in. The university's Board of Regents capped fall freshmen enrollment on Monday, citing bulging residence halls and classrooms. It's reportedly the first enrollment cap in school history and takes effect June 22, after which Southeast won't accept additional first-time, full-time freshmen...

There will be a Fourth of July fireworks show along the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau this summer, and making that happen is a point of community pride for members of the city council. "We can look forward to some excitement this summer," said Councilman Richard Eggimann. "I was somewhat embarrassed last year. We didn't have fireworks for first time I can remember, and I'm pretty old."...

7:30 p.m. Monday, June 4 City Hall Action Items Power and Light Committee Street Committee Executive Session...

A public hearing will be held tonight for area child care providers and others wanting to know how a state plan to address child care issues over the next two years will be implemented. The hearing to discuss Missouri's Child Care Development Fund plan will last from 7-9 p.m. at Dempster Hall Room 124 at Southeast Missouri State University...

A 35-minute power outage Monday in the Themis-Middle Street area of downtown Cape Girardeau created some security problems for a couple of businesses. When the power was turned off, the Federal Building doors "locked," said Roger McMullin, building superintendent...

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson said Monday she will seek a fourth term in Congress in 2002. "I am going to be running again," Emerson said. "I love my job and I want to ask the voters to return me" to Congress. The Cape Girardeau Republican's announced re-election bid, which had been expected, ends speculation that Emerson would challenge U.S. Sen. Jean Carnahan, D-Mo., next year. In recent months, Emerson had said she was leaning against a Senate run...

The American Legion color guard was out in full force and former longtime area umpire Mark Seyer threw out the first pitch. Cape Girardeau's Ford & Sons American Legion baseball team certainly opened its home schedule in grand style Monday evening at Capaha Field...

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. -- The Ohio Valley Conference's top performers in men's and women's basketball have been selected as the OVC Athletes of the Year for 2000-01 in voting by the league's athletics directors and sports information directors. Austin Peay senior Trenton Hassell, the OVC Men's Basketball Player of the Year, was chosen as the OVC Male Athlete of the Year, while Tennessee Tech junior Janet Holt, the OVC Women's Basketball Player of the Year, was selected as the OVC Female Athlete of the Year.. ...

Son to Gregory and Maria Elizabeth Castorena of Cape Girardeau, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 4:14 p.m. Saturday, May 26, 2001. Name, Cesar Alexander. Weight, 7 pounds 4 ounces. Third child, second son. Mrs. Castorena is the former Maria Leon, daughter of Jose I. Leon and Raquel Alvarez of Mexico. Castorena is the son of Valente Castorena and Maria Guadalupe Gutierrez of Mexico. He is manager of El Torero Mexican Restaurant...

DELTA, Mo. -- Lucille Kidd, 81, of Delta died Monday, June 4, 2001, at her home. Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Chaffee, Mo., is in charge of arrangements.

Roscoe Ervin, 75, of Cape Girardeau died Sunday, June 3, 2001, at his home. He was born Nov. 14, 1925, in Cape Girardeau, son of Roscoe Herbert and Minnie Spears Ervin. He first married Roberta Rippeto Nov. 14, 1942. She died April 30, 1986. He and Naomi Smith were married Aug. 25, 1986, in Cape Girardeau...

THEBES, Ill. -- Edna Crisp of St. Louis, formerly of Thebes, died Monday, June 4, 2001, at her home. Crain Funeral Home in Tamms, Ill., is in charge of arrangements.

ANNA, Ill. -- Cynthia Lence, 90, of Anna died Sunday, June 3, 2001, at City Care Center. She was born Oct. 1, 1910, in Anna, daughter of William Singleton and Dora Hindman Lence. Lence worked at the former Anna State Hospital 38 years. She was a member of First Baptist Church...

DEXTER, Mo. -- Graveside service for Dicie A. Holland of Dexter will be held at 2 p.m. today at Bloomfield Cemetery. Dale Grissom will officiate. Chiles-Cooper Funeral Home in Bloomfield, Mo., is in charge of arrangements. Holland, 87, died Saturday, June 2, 2001, at Dexter Memorial Hospital...

TAMMS, Ill. -- Lorraine Winn, 81, of Cordova, Tenn., died Friday, June 1, 2001, at Collierville Rehab Center in Collierville, Tenn. She was born Sept. 29, 1919, in Ullin, Ill., daughter of Dallas and Ethel Heninger Jordan. She married Orville Winn, who died in 1966...

ALTENBURG, Mo. -- Vaiden H. Weber, 75, of Altenburg died Monday, June 4, 2001, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Aug. 27, 1925, at New Wells, Mo., daughter of August and Ella Koenig Leimbach. She and Wilmer R. Weber were married Oct. 16, 1949. He died July 11, 1997...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Elaine Hunter, 56, of Jonesboro died Monday, June 4, 2001, at her home. She was born July 16, 1944, at Millcreek, Ill., daughter of Carl W. and Susie Marie Poole Hileman. She and Karol L. Hunter were married April 7, 1962, in Anna, Ill...

EAST PRAIRIE, Mo. -- Cecil Raymond "Butch" Dodge, 55, of East Prairie died Sunday, June 3, 2001, from injuries received in an automobile accident near East Prairie. He was born July 26, 1945, at Charleston, Mo., son of Cecil and Dorothy Stewart Dodge...

PINHOOK, Mo. -- Clyde Merriweather, 75, of Pinhook died Friday, June 1, 2001, at John J. Pershing VA Medical Center in Poplar Bluff, Mo. He was born Feb. 13, 1926, in Hickman, Ky., son of Pompie and Essie Mae Merriweather. He and Annie Rean Crider were married Jan. 19, 1949. She died April 26, 1999...

CHRISTINE STEPHENS recently described quadriplegic Christopher Reeve and Parkinson's disease-afflicted Michael J. Fox of having "paraded around Capitol Hill for months lobbying ... for stem-cell research." Reeve and Fox are "selfish and narcissistic little men," Stephens went on to say. Never before has Stephens' single-minded fanaticism been more reflected than in that vicious verbal assault on two wonderful men. I was sickened by her language...

We received more proof last month that the Cape Girardeau area is home to some of the best teachers in the country. This time, Susan Hekmat, a Central High School English teacher, was one of 15 teachers in the nation who received the Outstanding Speech-Drama-Debate Educator Award. ...

We live in an age when teen-agers do their homework on the Internet. Characters in the video games students love are startlingly lifelike. The pagers on their hips beep with instant news from around the world. So it's unrealistic to think every teen-ager's heart will be reached with the family Bible and good intentions. There's so much in the world to drag them off the path of righteousness, and parents and churches have to compete on the same level...

To the editor: Columnist Jack Stapleton must belly up to the trough of state services a lot more than I do. He contends that we receive much more from the state than we pay for. For one thing, he claims that states receive lots of money from the federal government. Does he believe there is a federal money fairy that just creates extra money for the states? No, that money comes out of our pockets just the same as the money the state receives directly...

To the editor: During the salacious coverage of l'affaire Monica Samille Lewinsky, a letter was published in an Australian newspaper which contained this memorable phrase: Thank God Australia got the convicts and America got the Puritans. I resented then the drooling and almost obscene ecstasy with which the holier-than-thou crowd in America recounted in detail the sordid, but nevertheless private, liaisons between the self-destructive Bill Clinton and the scheming Lewinsky. ...