Stories from Thursday, August 6, 2015

By KATHERINE WEBSTER and ERIN RAGAN SEMO News Service NEW MADRID, Mo. -- An explosion rocked the metal service building at Noranda Aluminum about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, injuring 33 employees, none seriously, and taking out the side of the building. A large plume of smoke could be seen above the plant near New Madrid, Missouri, in New Madrid County...

By MICHELLE FRIEDRICH Associate Editor A week after a Naylor, Mo., man was sentenced to federal prison for possessing child pornography, the related charges he was facing in Butler County Circuit Court were dismissed. Billy Joe Wertenberger was supposed to appear Tuesday afternoon before Presiding Circuit Judge Michael Pritchett for plea or trial settings in his cases...

By DONNA FARLEY Staff Writer A project to improve drainage and prevent future flood damage in the Poplar Bluff Industrial Park has received a 90-day extension. Poplar Bluff City Council members granted contractors a new completion date, Sept. 24, during a meeting Monday, when the council also approved a permit for a new day care...

By DONNA FARLEY Staff Writer A special meeting of the Poplar Bluff City Council will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday at city hall to interview applicants for a vacant council member at large seat. City council members have said they want time to speak with each of the five people who have applied for the position vacated by Dr. Jack Rushin in July...

The 38th Griffin Family Reunion opened Friday, July 3, at Duck Creek Church with dinner for the three different age groups. Hosts were Nelda and Bill Burge, Lorie and Reggie William and Britney and Matt Fox. Golf, fishing (all ages), visiting, picture making and fireworks display completed the Saturday activities...

By DONNA FARLEY SEMO News Service Individuals from Ellsinore, Poplar Bluff and Puxico were elected Saturday to the Ozark Border Electric Cooperative Board of Directors, during an annual meeting on the Three Rivers College campus attended by approximately 3,000 people...

The Wappapello Civic Center will have country music and dance 7-10 p.m. each Saturday evening unless notified otherwise. This week's entertainment will feature Bill Swift and Southern Country Band. The WCC is a smoke and alcohol free facility inside the building...

By BARBARA HORTON SEMO NEWS SERVICE Months of planning has gone into revamping the Women Aware conference scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 24, at the Black River Coliseum in Poplar Bluff. Carine McCandless, author, entrepreneur, activist and mother, will be the keynote speaker for the 28th annual event. Her memoirs The Wild Truth published in November quickly became a New York Times Best Seller and has been selected for many Best Books of 2014 lists...

By DAVID SILVERBERG SEMO News Service Three area schools had first place winners during the National Beta Convention in Nashville, Tenn., which had students competing from 18 states. Neelyville High School had the top scrapbooking entry at the Senior Beta Convention...

Home! What a sweet sounding word. Of all the memories we have none are as precious as those of home. Home is where we first learned from the tender embrace of Mother's arms that we were loved. Not that we, as infants, knew the word, for we had no vocabulary. ...

The members of the Master's Touch Church will be hosting the Davison Family 6 p.m. Aug. 8. Dinner to follow. The church is located six miles west of Bloomfield on J Highway and County 249. Pastor Everett Owens and the congregation invited everyone to attend...

Southern Bank is the first bank in the region to put the power of fraud protection for debit cards directly into the hands of customers. The revolutionary CardValet app is the smarter way for customers to protect and manage their debit card. By simply downloading the app, customers can control when, where and how their card is used...

The City of Puxico will be holding a dedication ceremony for the new Harty Family Annex to the Puxico Public Library 1 p.m. Aug. 14. This annex has been made possible with a generous donation from Norman Harty, who graduated from Puxico High School with the Class of 1954...

The 24th Annual Old Greenville Days Event will be celebrated on Sept. 19 - 20 at the Greenville Recreation Area just two miles south of Greenville, Mo., on U. S. Highway 67. This annual family-oriented event is done in partnership with the Wayne County Historical Society and several businesses and volunteers. It consists of a civil war black powder rendezvous living history encampment, craft shows, and live entertainment...

A free Quilt Show will be held Tuesday-Friday from 1-4 p.m. and Saturday 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. Aug. 11-15 during Homecoming at the Berry-Glenn Museum. There will also be a Car Show in the Parking lot on Saturday.

Carolyn Nepean Carolyn Jean Nepean, 61, of Wappapello died July 24, 2015 at the St. Louis University Hospital in St. Louis. Services were held July 28, 2015 at the Morrison-Worley Chapel in Greenville. Burial followed at the Shiloh Cemetery in Shook...

Donnie Marcum Donnie Marcum, 74, of Wappapello died at his home July 28, 2015. Services were held July 31, 2015 at Morgan Sifford Funeral Home in Puxico. Burial followed in the Dogwood Cemetery in East Prairie, Mo.

By MICHELLE L. VARVIL Casen Hemby, Addison Mitchell and Sydney Kilbreth were recognized as the top readers in their respective age group during the July 23 celebration July 23 held in front of the Puxico Public Library to mark the end of this year's summer reading program...

By MICHELLE L. VARVIL Members of the Puxico High School Marching Band already are hard at work learning their parade and field show music and preparing for what they hope is another undefeated season. "I believe we have close to 60," said director David Barani of the number of students in this year's band. ...

POPLAR BLUFF, MO - Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center will celebrate its newest expansion in care with a grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony at the newly renovated Behavioral Health Center. In Missouri, more than 34,000 people are admitted each year for behavioral health treatment, and Southeast Missouri has some of the highest patient volumes in the state...

By KRISTIN DeJOURNETT SEMO News Service In February, Driea Rodgers, 35, of Advance visited Cross Trails Clinic because she was experiencing problems with her speech, spelling, and memory. She was referred for an MRI two days later. Doctors made a shocking discovery: Rodgers had two masses in her brain. One was benign but the other was determined to be a stage four malignant tumor...

By NOREEN HYSLOP SEMO News Service BERNIE, Mo. -- It all started one morning in April 1978. It was Election Day, and Norman Swafford was busy with his Bernie-based photography business. It was prior to the digital age, and Swafford had taken a quick break from his downtown studio to grab a bite of breakfast at Ma Brown's Cafe just a few steps away from his back door...

By GEORGE F. WILL WASHINGTON -- Executives of Planned Parenthood's federally subsidized meat markets -- your tax dollars at work -- lack the courage of their convictions. They should drop the pretense of conducting a complex moral calculus about the organs they harvest from the babies they kill...

By DAVID SILVERBERG Associate Editor Community Care Missouri is a new health insurance program being offered by First Choice Insurance of Poplar Bluff to employers with 10 or more employees. "We began this process two years ago so we could provide an alternative to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)," said Steve Phillips, president of First Choice Insurance (FCI) and Community Care Missouri (CCM)...

By MIKE JENSEN Publisher Sikeston Standard Democrat It's been a year since Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Mo., following an attack on a police officer. Despite massive protests and riots over false reports that Brown was assassinated with his hands held in the air, not a whole lot has changed...

Robert Lee Wallace Robert Lee Wallace, 65, of Poplar Bluff, Mo., passed away Wednesday, July 29, 2015, at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. Mr. Wallace was born May 21, 1950, in Poplar Bluff, to the late Manuel Wallace and Fannie Mae Matthews-Wallace...

SUGAR GROVE, Ill. -- Carr Vernon returned to Rich Harvest Farms for the second time this summer for the 113th Western Amateur. The Poplar Bluff golfer who helped the United States team win the Palmer Cup here in June, shot 1-over 73 Tuesday. Vernon is tied with 15 others for 52nd heading into the second round...

By JOHN PRATT Mo. Dept. of Conservation If you are a squirrel hunter, this is the time of year that you have been waiting for. The squirrels are starting to get active and hunting will soon be good. It appears the acorn crop is very good for white and red oak species. I believe the squirrel hunting will be good and continue to get better this fall...

Sam Corbin Sam Corbin, 88, formerly of Poplar Bluff, passed Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015 at Spring Mill Meadows Care Center, Indianapolis, Ind. Mr. Corbin was born Oct. 1, 1926 in Grady, Ark. to the late Charlie and Zula Washington Corbin. On March 19, 1953, he and Beaufort E. Fleming were married in Harviell, Mo...

By CANDICE DAVIS Mo. Dept. of Conservation CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -- The Missouri Department of Conservation recently completed spring breeding bird surveys in Scott County and the results showed increased numbers of Bobwhite quail. These surveys were conducted within the Scott County Quail Focus Area as well as outside the focus area. ...

John David Henggeler John David Henggeler, 55, of Poplar Bluff, passed away Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015, at his residence. Mr. Henggeler was born Nov. 22, 1959, in St. Joseph, Mo., to the late Charles Aloysius and Rose Ida Paul Henggeler. On June 19, 1999, he married Stephanie Letassy in Eureka Springs, Ark. She survives the home. Along with his parents he was preceded in death by his brothers, Gregg and Charles Henggeler...

By PAUL DAVIS Outdoors Editor Most fifth graders want to be good at something when they grow up. Max Wangler, a student at Sarcoxie, Mo.'s elementary school and formerly of Poplar Bluff, Mo., is an avid archer who competes in the National Archery in the Schools Program. Now, at 10 years old, he's at the top of his game, and he's the best in the world...

Paul E. Henson PIEDMONT, Mo. -- Paul Edward Henson, 81, of Piedmont, died Sunday, Aug. 2, 2015 at the Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Mo. Visitation will be held at 11 a.m, Thursday at the Morrison-Worley Funeral Chapel in Piedmont. Funeral services will follow at 1 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home chapel...

Imarine "Ima" Gardner Imarine "Ima" Gardner, 90, of Hot Springs, Ark., died Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015. She was born Aug. 11, 1924 at Swifton, Ark. to the late Clifford and Pearl (Anderson) Holt. Ima was a forward thinking woman who worked hard and was ahead of her time. ...

Cedric Lewis' family and friends remember how good he was. They remember how he never lost a track and field race to his teammates during his years at Poplar Bluff, and how future athletes, friends and even family members couldn't touch his records...