Stories from Saturday, July 28, 2012

By PAUL DAVIS SEMO News Service PUXICO, Mo. - Wetlands managers in Southeast Missouri are keeping an eye to the sky as they face a variety of problems this summer brought on by extreme drought conditions and record high temperatures. "The dry conditions are definitely affecting everything," said Duck Creek Conservation Area Biologist Keith Cordell...

By NOREEN HYSLOP Managing Editor Residents are reminded the Dexter Greenhead Chapter of Ducks Unlimited and the Missouri Department of Conservation will be holding the annual Ducks Unlimited Greenwing Event at Otter Slough Conservation Area Saturday morning beginning at 7 a.m. and lasting until about 10 a.m. Activities will begin in the big parking lot next to Cypress Lake at 7 a.m. and will end at approximately 10 a.m...

By JAMES SAMONS SEMO News Service Drought has already affected area crops and livestock, and conditions are expected to get worse before they get better, in spite of Thursday night's storms that dropped from a quarter-inch up to just over an inch in some drought-stricken areas of the Bootheel...

By NOREEN HYSLOP Managing Editor A Dexter student represented his hometown well recently as he took part in the 2012 Missouri lions All-State Band. Fifteen-year-old Brooks Propst, a trombone player and son of Darrin and Molly Propst, anticipated a role in the select group of performers all spring...

NOREEN HYSLOP-nhyslop@dailystatesman.com Luella Layton spent her last day behind the desk at Brown Construction Company in Dexter on Thursday. Layton began her career with Brown in August 1971 and has kept the books there for nearly 41 years. She has seen a lot of changes over four decades in the business. ...

Martha Elizabeth Stobaugh, daughter of the late Charles Andrew and Ollie Pearl Williams Ethridge, was born in Center Ridge, Ark., on Jan. 31,1919, and died at the Missouri Southern Healthcare in Dexter, Mo., on July 26, 2012, at the age of 93. Mrs. Stobaugh moved from Arkansas to the Charter Oak community in 1946, where she and her husband farmed until moving to Dexter in 1985. She was a member of the Church of Christ...

Earl Lee Stilts was born in Gypsy, Mo. on Oct. 2 , 1924, and died at the Crowley Ridge Care Center in Dexter, Mo. on July 26, 2012, at the age of 87. Watkins and Sons Funeral Chapel in Puxico, Mo. is in charge of arrangements.

By SHAY ALDERMAN SEMO News Service A contract to begin rebuilding the lower crevasse in the Birds Point-New Madrid levee system should be awarded next week, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The corps released an update July 20 that said overall rebuilding efforts in the confluence area of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers are proceeding on time or are ahead of schedule, due in part to the weather...

Earl Miller, son of the late Luther and Ida Gooch Miller, was born in Dexter on Dec. 15,1924, and died at the Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center in Poplar Bluff on July 27, 2012, at the age of 87. He had lived all of his life in Dexter. He had worked for Worley Implement Co., John Deere dealer for 32 years. He was a veteran of the U. S. Navy and was a member of the Dexter V. F. W. for 65 years...