Stories from Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Improvement is a running theme in today’s headlines. Southeast Missouri is abuzz with road construction and paving in 1924 but Carter County stalls a few decades later. Meanwhile in the R-I school district, an adult education program grows under the oversight of a local teacher...

POPLAR BLUFF FIRE DEPARTMENT Poplar Bluff firefighters responded at 3 p.m. Friday, Dec. 29, to occupants on a stalled elevator in the north tower at 506 Hazel St. According to Battalion Chief Jeffrey Hale’s report, crews from stations one and three responded to a direct telephone call about an occupant trapped between the 10th and 11th floors in the north tower. The five firefighters opened the elevator doors and assisted the occupant out. Maintenance was servicing the elevator...

Phillip Ray Barker, 76, of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, passed away Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, at his home. Phillip was born July 7, 1947, to Robert and Fannie Barker in Poplar Bluff. He married Brenda Bloodworth Jan. 12, 1966, also in Poplar Bluff. Phillip was a longtime member of the Three Rivers Shrine Club of Poplar Bluff. ...

Edward L. “Mr. Ed” Dean, 69, of Mount Olive, Illinois passed away at 8:35 p.m. Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, at the Staunton Health and Rehab Center in Staunton, Illinois. He was born March 5, 1954, in Amboy, Illinois, a son of Juanita (Reiners) Dean and the late Leonard Dean. He married Patricia G. (York) Dean Jan. 9, 1993, in Gillespie, Illinois and she survives. Ed was an over the road truck driver with many years as an owner and operator prior to his retirement...

Nora Shell, 78, of Dexter, died Sunday, Jan. 7, at Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center. Visitation is at 1 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 13, at Ruegg Funeral Home, Greenville Chapel. Funeral service following at 3 p.m., also in the Greenville Chapel. Burial is in Greenville City Cemetery...

Mary Lou Deal, 90, of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, passed away Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, at Boone Hospital in Columbia, Missouri. Mary was born April 5, 1933, in Neelyville. She married Jerry Deal, July 25, 1958. Mary lived in Poplar Bluff her entire life until 2018 when she moved to Columbia to be close to her daughter, Teresa...

Venus Marie (Maclin) Dushaunack Lawrence, 38, of Poplar Bluff died Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024 in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

An employee at Poplar Bluff High School reported at 8:02 a.m. Friday, Jan. 5, a THC vaping device was seized from a juvenile student. The device was photographed and destroyed and the matter was referred to the juvenile office. _ Amanda Smith complained at 9:02 a.m. Friday, Jan. 5, that an adult female acquaintance cursed at her and spit in her face during a custody exchange on the parking lot at the police department on Shelby Road...

Ronald Rae Glidewell, 73, of Poplar Bluff, Missouri passed away Jan. 09, 2024, at St. Francis Hospital in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Ronald was born Nov. 25, 1950, to Kenneth and Ruby Glidewell in Sikeston, Missouri. Ronald had a passion for people, and loved working with recovery groups which included, Crossroads Ministry, Christway Ministries, and Recycling Grace Ministries. ...

There was once a saying that the sun never set on the British Empire. Today it can also be said the fire never goes out in an Ole Hickory Pit smoker. At any given moment there are hundreds — even thousands — of Ole Hickory Pit barbecues in use on six of the world’s seven continents...