Stories from Wednesday, July 29, 2020

MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL A 28-year-old Zalma woman was injured in a one-vehicle crash at 5:20 a.m. Wednesday, July 29, on Highway 51, three miles south of Puxico. According to the report, Ashley N. Curtis was operating a 2001 Ford pickup southbound when it ran off the right side of the road and struck an embankment...

City firefighters responded at 11:08 p.m. Tuesday, July 28, to a report of a motor-vehicle crash at the intersection of Vine and Sixth streets. It was investigation only. _ City firefighters responded at 3:54 p.m. Tuesday, July 28, to assist police officers and the coroner’s office at a residence in the 700 block of Price Street...

Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center leaders gathered recently to celebrate the Center of Distinction award, which was given to the Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Center by Healogics​®​, the nation’s largest provider of advanced wound care services...

CAPE GIRARDEAU — Effective Wednesday, July 29, Saint Francis Medical Center will permit one visitor per patient. Visitors are not permitted for adult ICUs and the COVID Care Unit. There are no changes to the OB, pediatric and NICU patient visitor policy. For the complete visitor policy, visit sfmc.net/COVID19...

The realities of a COVID-adjusted world have led the John J. Pershing VA Medical Center in Poplar Bluff to change its Veterans’ Healthy Food distribution program. “Given the current pandemic, we had to be flexible and adjust our monthly food pantry distribution process from on-campus to home deliveries,” said VA nurse and Health Promotion/Disease Prevention Manager Ashley Aubuchon. “This practice started in March and will continue until further notice...

Betty Fay Murdock, 89, of Ponder, Missouri departed this life Monday, July 27, 2020. Visitation will be Friday, July 31, 2020 from noon to 2 p.m. in the Edwards Funeral Home Chapel with the funeral service following at 2 p.m. Raymond Belcher will be officiating. Burial will be in Mt. Olive Cemetery...

Traveling south of Naylor to the end of Highway W, the first thing one sees as the roadway veers right and continues along the Missouri-Arkansas border, is a well-manicured landmark known to locals as Robison Park. A closer inspection of the grounds is likely to reveal the park’s caretaker moving about doing her chores, 91-year-old Velma Joyce Robison...

Frances Joesphine Karow, 94, of Naylor, passed away July 28, 2020 at her residence. Funeral services will be held Saturday August 1, 2020 at 1 p.m. following a visitation at 11 a.m.. Burial will be in Gum Cemetery, near Naylor Mo.

The number of new COVID-19 cases in Missouri over the past week was more than all of June and nearly double the number reported in May. Statewide, there were 1,927 positive tests reported Wednesday alone, a single-day record. It was the ninth straight day with over 1,100 new cases...

Leah Lynn (Marckini) Warn passed peacefully July 26, 2020, in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. She was 81. Leah was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, July 20, 1939, to William and Ida (Hanje) Marckini. She attended Creston High and Grand Rapids Junior College, where she met her husband, Richard E Warn. They married Dec 5, 1959...

A Poplar Bluff-based Christian program has grown in recent months to a viewership now reaching 236 million people in 83 countries around the globe. Kingdom News Now began airing in December 2013 on the local cable station’s religious channel, reaching those subscribers in Poplar Bluff...

Helena Gardner, 88, of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, lost her long-fought battle with cancer on Tuesday, July 28, 2020, with her daughter by her side. Helena was born on Oct. 24, 1931, in Marion, Illinois, to Fred and Mildred Kelton. The Kelton family moved to Poplar Bluff and she attended elementary through high school there. ...

CAPE GIRARDEAU — The animals around us use a variety of fascinating adaptations to find food and to avoid being food for other predators. Kids who think they have the stealth to go undercover as covert nature detectives can learn more about the tricks of the wildlife trade in the virtual Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) four-part program “Nature’s Secret Agents.” The dates for these programs, which is being put on by the staff at MDC’s Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center, will be Aug. ...

Twenty-four anglers tested their mettle Saturday as they competed for the Current River Smallmouth Association’s King of the River title. Unlike most tournaments, which have teams of two competing, the King of the River event pits individuals against each other...

Editor’s Note: This is the 11th of 12 stories highlighting Butler County Teachers of the Year. Teaching is a two-way street for Neelyville High School science teacher Teresa Sheppard. Sheppard is the Neelyville R-IV School District high school teacher of the year...

Derek and Dortha Kneir of Forsyth, Illinois are parents of daughter Danica Kneir born on Thursday July 23, 2020 at 3:34 p.m. at Decatur Memorial Hospital, Decatur IL. She weighed 7 lbs 14oz. Paternal Grandparents are David and Lori Kneir, and Helen and Wayne Dever all of Poplar Bluff...

Jim and Kathy Sanders, owners of White-Sanders Funeral Home in Fisk, have been helping families in Butler County and the surrounding area say a final good-bye to their loved ones for more than 42 years. They have no plans to retire any time soon; in fact, they don’t feel that decision is entirely their own...

What are the biggest challenges facing the person elected to represent the 25th Senate District? The four candidates who will square off in Missouri’s Aug. 4 primary say building relationships within the Senate, the size of the district and maintaining rural values all need to be considered...

Two Republican candidates seek election Tuesday to the Butler County office of eastern district commissioner. The winner of the primary race will face independent candidate Van Rhodes in the November general election. Newcomer John Edwin Ross DeGaris faces incumbent Don “Butch” Anderson for the Republican nomination in the primary...

LITTLE ROCK — Americans seem to have fallen back in love with the outdoors during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. With organized sports, spectator-fueled events and formal schools being shuffled to the side to slow the spread of the virus, time in the outdoors seems to have become a rediscovered gem to many people looking to escape cabin fever during self-imposed quarantines. ...