Stories from Tuesday, August 15, 2017

PIEDMONT, Mo. - Michael L. Morris, Sr., 61, of Piedmont, died Sunday, August 13, 2017 at his residence. Visitation will be at 5 p.m., Tuesday, August 15 at the Morrison-Worley Funeral Chapel in Piedmont. The funeral will follow at 7 p.m. in the funeral home chapel with Bro. Pete Ruble officiating. Cremation will follow service. Online condolences may be made at www.morrisonworleychapel.com...

MALDEN, Mo. -- Mary Frances McDonald, 76, of Red Bay, Ala., formerly of Clarkton, Mo., died Friday, Aug. 11, 2016 at Generations of Red Bay in Red Bay, Ala. Visitation will be at 2 p.m., Tuesday until service time at Bradshaw Funeral Homes, Inc., Malden. The funeral will be at 3 p.m., Tuesday, at Bradshaw Chapel in Malden with Rev. Tommy Johnson officiating. Burial will be in Stanfield Cemetery in Clarkton...

By GEORGE F. WILL BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Southern Gothic is a literary genre and, occasionally, a political style that, like the genre, blends strangeness and irony. Consider the current primary campaign to pick the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions. It illuminates, however, not a regional peculiarity but a national perversity, that of the Republican Party...

To the Editor One of my life's goals was to visit all 50 states. After visiting 49 others, it was time to take the challenge of a road trip to Alaska. After months of planning we were ready. We had the Milepost booklet, Travel Guide of Canada and Alaska ("Don't leave home without it"), our passports, a GPS system, and a lot of confidence. ...

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -- The headlining act for this weekend's Stoogefest 9.5 canceled Monday morning, citing a recently issued travel advisory from the NAACP naming Missouri a travel risk for people of color. The news hit organizer and Stooges Restaurant owner Ron Cook especially hard, he said, because the Nashville-based Gian Cage Band was the inspiration for the event -- the second Stoogefest of the summer...

Stephen James "Jamie" Blalock, 51, of Poplar Bluff passed away Friday, Aug. 11, 2017 at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, surrounded by his entire family, after an illness of eight months. Jamie was born Aug. 27, 1965, in Memphis, Tenn., to Leslie and Connie Simmons Blalock. He graduated from Poplar Bluff High School in 1983. On Nov. 2, 1985, he married Regina Dawn Smith in Poplar Bluff...

Norma Lee Tipton, 88, of Poplar Bluff, Mo., passed away Monday, Aug. 14, 2017 at Oakdale Care Center in Poplar Bluff. Norma, the daughter of the late Russell L. and Inez Gaines Proffer, was born Feb. 25, 1929 in Poplar Bluff. She was a member of New Home General Baptist Church and had retired after 18 years in sales at Poplar Bluff Christian Book Store. Norma enjoyed spending time with her family, knitting, crocheting, bowling and crafts...

The cutline for the photo that ran with the Debbie Rodewald story in Sunday's paper was misidentified. The ladies in the photo are Rodewald's "Puxico Forever Friends." We regret any inconvenience this error may have caused.