Stories from Friday, October 18, 2019

By the grace of God and with the help of friends and family, Laura Clark is waging a battle with aggressive breast cancer. The retired Poplar Bluff Junior High School Spanish teacher and artist is facing her triple negative breast cancer diagnosis the way she lives her life, with faith and humor...

Betty May Hays, 90, Plattsburg, Mo., formerly of Poplar Bluff, passed away Oct. 15, 2019. Betty was born June 11, 1929 in Doniphan. She graduated from Southeast Missouri State University with a B.S. in Education and a master’s degree in reading. Betty was a first grade teacher at O’Neal Elementary School in Poplar Bluff and retired after thirty-two years of service in 1994. She was named the Teacher of the Year in 1983 for the Poplar Bluff R-I School District...

David ‘Buster’ Leuckel Sr. passed away peacefully on Oct. 13, 2019 at his home in Lynden, Wash. at the age of 83. Buster was born in Perryville, Mo. on Feb. 24, 1936 to Phil and Debbie Leuckel. As a child, Buster grew up in Van Buren. He graduated from Poplar Bluff High School and attended the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo...

Irma Leah Schalk, 95, of Poplar Bluff, passed away, Friday, Oct. 18, 2019 at Oakdale Care Center, in Poplar Bluff. Mrs. Schalk, the daughter of the late George and Ozie Ethel Spradling Kiser, was born Jan. 9, 1924, in Poplar Bluff. She attended Living Word Baptist Church. ...

Butler County schools tested, on average, higher than the overall state in both English Language Arts and mathematics tests during the 2018-19 school year.

My Gran Dianne was a dumpling queen. Her chicken and dumplings were good enough to make you want to slap your grandma (unless she was the one making the dumplings). It’s never good to smack the hand that feeds you.