Stories from Monday, March 5, 2012

By BARBARA ANN HORTON News Editor Experiencing the culture of the United States, watching the St. Louis Cardinals' play baseball and the Adventures of Tom Sawyer lured two foreign exchange students to spend their junior year of high school in Poplar Bluff, Mo...

By SARABETH WALLER Staff Writer When Erin Edington of Poplar Bluff, Mo., left her Jackson High School letter jacket at a car wash in 2001, she feared she would never see it again. In December 2011, 10 years later, a Good Samaritan tracked her down to return the cherished possession...

By DAVID SILVERBERG Associate Editor Two more candidates have decided to enter the race for Butler County sheriff, according to County Clerk Tonyi Deffendall. Van Rhodes, 49, of Poplar Bluff filed Friday as a Democratic candidate in the Aug. 7 primary election...

By BILL O'REILLY Last week, I ambled on up to the late Ronald Reagan's ranch high in the mountains of Santa Barbara County. Rancho del Cielo (Ranch in the Sky) comprises 688 acres and one very small home. In fact, I was surprised by how modest it is...

By DALE McFEATTERS Scripps Howard News Service Being a sucker for lists, I was immediately taken by a feature called "America's Happiest Cities" on the website Daily Beast. The site lists 15 cities, in ascending order of good cheer, based on such criteria as the weather, employment rates and percentage of families making more than $100,000 a year...

By GEORGE F. WILL WASHINGTON -- The most accomplished social scientist of the last half-century would occasionally visit his friend and Harvard colleague Pat Moynihan at the White House when Moynihan was President Nixon's domestic policy adviser. Once Moynihan took him to Nixon and said: "Mr. President, James Q. Wilson is the smartest man in the United States. The president of the United States should pay attention to what he has to say." Moynihan was right on both counts...

By BETSY HART Scripps Howard News Service This past week marked the death of Jan Berenstain at 88. If you are a parent, you know that name. Jan and her husband Stan created the Berenstain Bears books. The lovable family of Mama Bear, Papa Bear, Sister Bear and Brother Bear lived in Bear Country, of course. Stan died in 2005 at age 82...

Two Poplar Bluff area students have been named to the University of Arkansas Dean's lists for the fall 2011 semester. Ashley Moline of Poplar Bluff, Mo., a freshman who is majoring in Apparel Studies in the Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences...

The quarterly Community Relations Council Meeting of the Mingo Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center will be held at the Mingo Job Crops Center, 4253 Hwy. T, Puxico, Mo. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday. Meeting and meal will be held in the dining room...

Regina Jones Photo Regina J. (Fox) Jones, 91, of Flint, Mich., formerly of Fredericktown, Mo., died Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012, at The Maple Place in Flint. Mrs. Jones was born March 19, 1921, in Chicago, Ill. She was a special education teacher for many years and had retired in Alton, Ill. Mrs. Jones was a lifelong member of the Methodist faith, and had been active in the Methodist Church while living in Fredericktown, Mo...

Ted Bazzell will entertain from 10:30 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. Friday, March 9, at Northside Nutrition Center. The menu include catfish, fish sandwich, baked beans, 3 bean salad, French fries, cornbread/bun.

Vernon Ayers DEXTER, Mo. -- Oscar Vernon Ayers Jr., 77, of Dexter, Mo., died Saturday, March 3, 2012, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Mr. Ayers was born Aug. 3, 1934, in Sikeston, Mo. He lived in Sikeston before moving to Dexter 40 years ago. Mr. Ayers had worked as a pipefitter and was a member of the Pipefitters Local 562 in St. Louis, Mo. He was a member of Semo Son Riders Christian Motorcycle Group and Murray Lane Baptist Church in Sikeston...

PUXICO, Mo. -- Tim Hutson, 75, of rural Bloomfield, Mo., formerly of Puxico, Mo., died Sunday, March 4, 2012, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Funeral arrangements are pending with Morgan Sifford Funeral Home in Puxico.

Betty Wallace PIEDMONT, Mo. -- Betty U. Wallace, 76, of Poplar Bluff, Mo., died Friday, March 2, 2012, at Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center in Poplar Bluff. Ms. Wallace was born March 31, 1935, in Yuma, Ariz. She graduated from Mill Spring grade school. Ms. Wallace became a Christian at a young age and was of the Pentecostal faith. She enjoyed spending time with her family, singing and listening to gospel music...

Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS) MO 734 held its weekly meeting at 10 a.m. Wednesday at First Presbyterian Church. Linda Morgan, leader, called the meeting to order. Attending were 18 TOPS and six KOPS members. Weigh-in was held before the meeting from 7:30 - 9:45 a.m. Helen Rollins, TOPS, and Verna Rickman, KOPS, were the best losers. The best monthly loser was Shirley Wheat...