Stories from Thursday, March 20, 2008

Gerald Dayton Harms, age 80, of Schell City, was born on Dec. 4, 1927, in Lincoln, Mo., to Albert H. and Ruby Parks (Rohning) Harms and passed from this life on Saturday, March 15, 2008, in Schell City, Mo. Gerald attended school in Lincoln and Schell City then attended college for two years. In the early 1950s he served in the United States Army, in the Korean Conflict, 24th Division 7th Infantry...

Juanita Shepherd Bledsoe, 85, of Nevada, passed away Tuesday night, March 18, 2008, at Nevada Regional Medical Center. She was born Oct. 29, 1922, in Norman, Okla., to Walter Howard Elliot and Julia Marshall Arnold Elliott. She married William Glenn Shepherd on June 8, 1940, and he preceded her in death on May 8, 1978. She then married Richard A. Bledsoe, on Oct. 17, 1979, and he died Sept. 27, 1987...

Natasha Schultz and Keith (Nate) Scarberry, are proud to announce the birth of their daughter Alaina Nichole Scarberry. Alaina was born at 3:59 p.m., on March 13, 2008, at Nevada Regional Medical Center. She weighed 7 pounds, 2 ounces, and measured 19 inches...

Here are excerpts from recent editorials in Missouri newspapers: March 19 Springfield News-Leader, on five years in Iraq: Over the past couple of months, the News-Leader has developed a tribute to those Missouri soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. At last count, there were 89 of them. .....

Maybe you should hold the newspaper out away from your face as you are reading it today. I'm sure that as I wrote this column I coughed all over the page I was writing on. I would really worry about exposing other people except that almost everyone I meet either has a cold, is getting over a cold, or has a family member with one...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- On Wednesday, Gov. Matt Blunt asked President Bush to quickly approve disaster declarations for both individual assistance and public assistance for 70 Missouri counties and the city of St. Louis as a result of flooding and severe weather across the entire central and southern parts of Missouri, including Vernon County...

Heartland Hospice, a Medicare accredited agency, is looking for volunteers to spend one to two hours per week with patients throughout Bates, Henry, Cass, Vernon and St. Clair counties. Heartland Hospice provides end-of-life care to patients with life-limiting diagnoses, such as cancer, COPD, end-stage cardiac disease, ALS and end-stage Alzheimer's Disease...

A Stockton man accused of setting a fire inside a Nevada woman's home was released today from the Vernon County jail on his own recognizance so he could be transferred to Stockton Court and face nine other criminal charges. Patrick Ellis, 30, was granted a release from his $50,000 cash-only bond Thursday afternoon during a pre-trial hearing by 28th Circuit Judge Neal Quitno, only to be transferred across the Cedar County line, where a $100,000 bond awaited him...

Editor's note: Cottey College students have returned from a trip to Italy, where educational modules, sight seeing and immersion in the culture offered a unique learning opportunity for second-year students. Cottey public information directer Steve Reed has kept folks at home posted on the happenings of the trip, in the form of letters to Mama. This is the final letter...