Stories from Monday, August 29, 2016

A 70th wedding anniversary celebration honoring Rex and Ava Tucker of Poplar Bluff will be held from 2 - 4 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 4, 2016, at Agee Fellowship Church. The couple was married Sept. 3, 1946 in Pocahontas, Ark. They lived 43 years on their farm in Doniphan until moving to Poplar Bluff 23 years ago. ...

Leon and Venita Monehan of Poplar Bluff will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary from 2 - 4 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 4, 2016, at Little Brown General Baptist Church. Their two children, Jerry Monehan of St. Louis, and Debbie Donnellan of Springfield, Mo. will host...

By DONNA FARLEY Staff Writer Kay Porter was not a woman who liked attention or extravagance. She was, by most accounts, a conservative and frugal person. She liked playing bridge with a small group of close friends. She favored tailored suits in quiet shades...

By DONNA FARLEY Staff Writer It's noon on Thursday and the line at the Kay Porter House stretches out the dining room door, down the sidewalk around the corner of a red brick building in downtown Poplar Bluff, Mo. The United Gospel Rescue Mission feeds up to 150 people each day at the Porter house, a building only made possible by an approximately $1 million gift from its namesake...

By DONNA FARLEY Staff Writer The Edgewood home was created more than a century ago to provide a safe place for children, either orphaned or taken into foster care. Many were removed from traumatic situations, some coming to the home without even enough clothing to keep warm in winter months or a pair of shoes to call their own...

By DONNA FARLEY Staff Writer The Poplar Bluff High School drama club once performed on a small section of stage in a gym annex -- until workers came one day and began nailing up two-by-fours to create space for a cardio-aerobics room. Kay Porter came to the rescue a month later, offering a $1 million donation for a new theater building to be run by drama teacher Jo Nell Seifert. Seifert was a close friend of Porter...

By DONNA FARLEY Staff Writer As a summer magic program packed the lower level of Poplar Bluff Municipal Library, children giggled over the antics of the performer and his bag of tricks, which included a white rabbit and wand. Attendance at library children's programs could break 10,000 this year, more than three times the number seen prior to a massive expansion and renovation...

By DONNA FARLEY Staff Writer Women come to the doors of Haven House from homes that have been broken by violence. They often have children in tow, and no where else to turn for shelter or help. Here, they find a safe place to land, and help figuring out what to do next...

By DONNA FARLEY Staff Writer For Tika Blackmon, diagnosed with cancer just one day before her 17th birthday, the United Cancer Assistance Network provided information and support during the 33 radiation treatments needed to help the Poplar Bluff girl become cancer free in 2013...