Stories from Friday, January 29, 1999

To the editor: The pendulum swings and with it the tide of time and human thought change. So it is on the 26th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the infamous decision that stripped the unborn of their previous constitutional protection of right to life and, thus, all other rights. The thinking of the American people is changing for several reasons. The foremost is that truth ultimately prevails...

Every year there are thousands of parents who are grief stricken by the sudden death of an infant child. It is difficult to imagine the helpless feeling of loss as a happy, beautiful, living part of one's self has suddenly been snatched away forever...

JEFFERSON CITY -- Gov. Mel Carnahan has reappointed Cape Girardeau lawyer Don Dickerson to Southeast Missouri State University's Board of Regents. Dickerson's new six-year term will expire Jan. 1, 2005. Carnahan appointed Dickerson to the board in 1993...

Collection bags are continuously agitated to prevent the platelets from clumping. The Red Cross is complementing its traditional blood donation services in the area with a new procedure designed to help cancer patients and organ transplant recipients...

It would be easy to compare the recent handling of highway programs in Missouri to a poorly played football game. Such a comparison would be full of fumbles and missed signals. To review: Missouri voters approved Proposition A in 1987. This proposition was a limited highway program to be funded by an increase in the state's fuel tax. ...

To the editor: Last Saturday evening, many folks paid good money to hear the sound of monster trucks at the Show Me Center, leaving them with ringing ears and headaches beyond belief. Not I. I went to bed at a decent hour so I would feel like going to church on Sunday...

When the full moon rises Sunday night, it marks a once-in-a-blue-moon event. Sunday's full moon is the first of two blue moons this year, a lunar event that hasn't been seen in eight decades. A blue moon is the second full moon occurring in a calendar month. Sunday's blue moon is the first for 1999. A second blue moon happens March 31...

Pope John Paul II's visit to St. Louis didn't just bring a message to the Roman Catholic Church, he sent a message to all denominations and religious faiths. It was a message of hope and cooperation, but it was also a challenge to work toward peace...

BENTON -- The Kelly school board has decided to seek a $4.5 million bond issue to build a new high school and to furnish it. School patrons will vote on the bond issue April 6. A building committee of faculty, parents and students developed the bond issue proposal. The bond would be repaid over 20 years...

I know this is true, because it was in my favorite hometown newspaper, which has never steered me wrong yet. In the Ozark hills west of here where I grew up, almost anything can happen. And it usually does. I possess a good-sized storehouse of unusual things that have happened in those hills. I call them my memories...

Southeast Missouri State University will celebrate Black History Month in February. One of the featured events will be the annual Michael Davis Lecture, slated for 7 p.m. on Feb. 14 in the University Center Ballroom. Chuck Stone, founding president of the National Association of Black Journalists and a two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, will present the lecture...

Brandi Bollinger jostled for rebounding position with a teammate and Woodland player during Tuesday's JV game. PATTON -- Brandi Bollinger, a senior at Meadow Heights High School, didn't want to make a statement. She's not a rebel. She didn't expect newspapers and radio stations to contact her...

Midway through the second quarter, the featherweight Lady Bulldogs of Notre Dame had landed a few jabs to the body of heavily favored heavyweight Jackson and trailed just 24-19. Then, like a boxer terrified by the sight of his own blood, the top-ranked team in Class 4A tightened its grip and punished the Lady Bulldogs with a dizzying uppercut in the form of a 20-0 run and ended up knocking out Notre Dame 62-44...

BENTON -- Cape Central removed any hope of a Kelly comeback when it outscored the Lady Hawks by 17 points in the third quarter en route to a 60-31 victory Thursday night. The Lady Tigers, who were paced by Katie Dougherty's 14 points, improved to 12-4 on the season...

IDALIA -- Melvin Duley of Idalia died Wednesday, Jan. 27, 1999, at Lucy Lee Hospital in Poplar Bluff. Watkins and Sons Funeral Home at Dexter is in charge of arrangements.

Elmond L. Marshall, 79, of Cape Girardeau died Wednesday, Jan. 27, 1999, at St. Francis Medical Center. He was born March 23, 1919, at Field Creek, Texas, son of Oris H. and Vivian B. Carson Marshall. He and Oneida Tedder were married Aug. 5, 1939, in Brady, Texas...

GORDONVILLE -- Louis William Ringger, 95, of Collierville, Tenn., died Wednesday, Jan. 27, 1999, at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. He was born March 25, 1903, in Memphis, son of Werner and Elizabeth Hildebrand Ringger. He and Norma Siemers were married in June 1968, in Anna, Ill. She died in January 1991...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Theodore "Ted" Hase, 93, of Jonesboro died Thursday, Jan. 28, 1999, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born Sept. 8, 1905, in Dongola, son of Oscar C. and Mae Dillow Hase. He and Beulah A. Miller were married April 24, 1926, in Murphysboro...

DONGOLA, Ill. -- Graveside service for Minnie E. Sheehan of St. Louis was held Tuesday at the American Legion Cemetery in Dongola. Announcement courtesy of Crain Funeral Home in Dongola. Sheehan, 95, died Sunday, Jan. 24, 1999, in St. Louis. She was formerly of Dongola. She married Raymond C. Sheehan, who preceded her in death...

SIKESTON -- William Brooks Pinnell, 76, of Sikeston died Wednesday, Jan. 27, 1999, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. He was born Sept. 23, 1922, in New Madrid, son of Lloyd Brooks and Leila Christine Tickell Pinnell. He and Evelyn Blankenship were married Dec. 14, 1945...

OLMSTED, Ill. -- Carol Neeley, 55, of Olmsted died Thursday, Jan. 28, 1999, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at Jones Funeral Home in Villa Ridge.