X-Nico

100 unusual facts about Missouri


129th Field Artillery Regiment

Only the 1st Battalion is presently constituted as an active unit, and is assigned to the Missouri Army National Guard, with its headquarters in Maryville, Missouri, and has subordinate elements located in armories in Albany, Independence, and Chillicothe, Missouri.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

In 2009, a highway in Missouri was named "Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel Highway" after a Springfield, Missouri area Neo-Nazi group cleaned the stretch of highway as part of an "Adopt-A-Highway" plan.

Al-Haramain Foundation

The Ashland chapter assisted the Islamic Society of Springfield, Missouri, in the purchase of a prayer house, but the Springfield organization shares no common directors and is not and never was under the control of the Al-Haramain organization.

Albert D. Nortoni

Nortoni married twice, first in 1892 to Maggie Lina of Bevier, Missouri, and again in 1906 to Emma Belcher of Boone County, Missouri.

Alfred Morrison Lay

Born in Lewis County, Missouri, Lay moved with his parents to Benton County in 1842.

Ameristar Casinos

Ameristar's properties in Kansas City and St. Charles, Missouri, and Black Hawk, Colorado, benefitted from casino-related regulatory reform approved by voters in 2008-09.

Antonio A. Feliz

In the early 1980s, Feliz was employed at Park College in Parkville, Missouri, which at the time was affiliated with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now Community of Christ).

Arkamo Rangers

The Arkamo Rangers were a Springfield, Missouri bluegrass band with simple and traditional sound yet rebellious and questioning lyrics celebrating modern life with traditional ways.

Armstrong Teasdale

Armstrong Teasdale LLP, is a law firm based in Clayton, Missouri.

Asplenium × gravesii

It has been found in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Hocking County, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Madison County, Missouri, Arkansas, Dade County, Georgia, and Alabama.

Atlantic and Pacific Railroad

The new branch, defined by state law to lie south of the Osage River, began at Franklin (now Pacific) on the main line and headed west-southwesterly across the state.

Austra Skujytė

On 15 April 2005 in Columbia, Missouri, she broke the women's decathlon world record, with a score of 8366.

Barks, Perry County, Missouri

Barks is an unincorporated community in south-central St. Mary's Township in Perry County, Missouri.

Battle of Moore's Mill

The Missouri State Militia commanders and Union Volunteers began to converge on Joseph C. Porter’s recruiters and associated guerrillas, fighting small action at Vassar Hill on July 19, Florida on July 22, and Santa Fe on July 24.

Bennie Moten

Bennie Moten (November 13, 1894 – April 2, 1935) was a noted American jazz pianist and band leader born in Kansas City, Missouri.

Bible Grove Consolidated District No. 5 School

Bible Grove Consolidated District #5 School (also known as Bible Grove School) is a historic school on the south side of Route T. at Bible Grove, Missouri.

Bill Stouffer

Stouffer and his wife, Sue Ellen, currently live on their family farm in Saline County, Napton, Missouri, where Stouffer has been an active farmer since 1967.

Bolckow, Missouri

Bolckow is a city in Benton Township, Andrew County, Missouri, United States.

Borden, Indiana

Norman M. Coats of Kirkwood, Missouri has written a book called Growing Up on Daisy Hill, which chronicles his early years being born and raised in the nearby hills and hollows of Borden during the Great Depression.

Brian Munzlinger

Munzlinger, a third-generation Missouri farmer, his wife, Michele and their two children reside on their farm near Williamstown, Missouri.

Cassville, Missouri

Cassville is a city in Flat Creek Township, Barry County, Missouri, United States.

Charlie Creath

Charles Cyril "Charlie" Creath (December 30, 1890, Ironton, Missouri – October 23, 1951, Chicago) was an American jazz trumpeter, saxophonist, accordionist, and bandleader.

Cinque Hommes Township, Perry County, Missouri

Cinque Hommes covers an area of 55.5 square miles (143.7km2) and contains one incorporated village (Biehle), and three unincorporated communities: Highland, Millheim, and Schumer Springs.

Courtney McCool

Courtney Lynn McCool (born April 1, 1988 in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American gymnast, who was a team member in the 2004 Summer Olympics women's artistic gymnastic team.

McCool was coached by Al and Armine Fong of Great American Gymnastic Express in Kansas City, Missouri.

Defiance, Missouri

Because there was already a Parsons, Kansas on the Katy line, settlers considered other names, including Missouriton and Bluff City, before deciding on Defiance because of the hamlet's defiance of rival Matson, Missouri to get a station on the line.

Dixon, Missouri

Route 133 runs north from Interstate 44 exit 145 about two miles east of Hazelgreen to Richland, Swedeborg, Crocker, and about two miles west of Dixon, then north out of the county.

Don Angell

He went on to represent the region in the U.S. Olympic Trials boxing finals held in Kansas City, Missouri, losing in the quarter finals.

Downtown Columbia Historic District

Downtown Columbia, Missouri, which includes a Downtown Columbia Historic District listed on the NRHP in Missouri

East Central Community College

:For the community college in Union, Missouri, see East Central College

Egbert B. Brown

Among the high points of his career were two victories over Joseph Shelby, at the Second Battle of Springfield during Marmaduke's first raid, and at Marshall, Missouri, during Shelby's Great Raid of 1863.

Freddie Sweetan

In part to an agreement with Sweetan and Leo Burke, Prosser and Sweetan( being the same person) began wrestling in the Kansas City-area as Killer Kox and K.O. Kox with Bob Geigel's NWA Central States.

Friedenberg, Missouri

Unlike the communities of Altenburg, Frohna and Uniontown that were settled by Saxon Lutherans from Germany, Friedenberg was founded in 1838 by Lutheran immigrants from Bavaria, Germany.

G. Waldo Dunnington

Guy Waldo Dunnington (January 15, 1906, Bowling Green, Missouri – April 10, 1974, Natchitoches, Louisiana) was a writer, historian and professor of German known for his writings on the famous German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss.

Georg Lurich

Lurich wrestled American world wrestling champion and title holder Frank Gotch in Kansas City in 1913, but lost what would be Gotch's final match.

Goodland, Missouri

It formerly had a post office, but that has closed and its mail now comes from Belleview.

Hooker, Missouri

Built on a new alignment of US 66 (which bypassed the town of Devils Elbow), nothing remains of the town.

Huggins, Missouri

It is located on Route M about two miles north of Route 38 near Bendavis.

Isaac Morley

The citizens were taken by the Missouri militia to Richmond, Ray county, to await trial.

James R. Barton

Barton was born in Howard County, Missouri, emigrated to Mexico in 1841 and moved to Los Angeles in 1843.

James Timberlake

In January 1882, outlaws Robert Ford, Charles Ford and Dick Liddil surrendered to Timberlake at the Fords' sister, Martha Bolton's residence in Ray County, Missouri, on the condition that they would receive full pardons and $10,000 in reward money, in exchange for the death or imprisonment of the gang's ringleader, Jesse James.

James Timberlake was born on March 22, 1846 in Platte County, Missouri, to farmer John Timberlake and his wife Patsy Noland.

Josef Spudich

He taught and coached in Sikeston, Missouri, Cairo and El Dorado Springs; then starting in 1942, at Freeport High School, Freeport, Illinois, where he was head football coach from 1951–1954.

Joseph G. Williams

Well into his 80s Joe still did a few shows every year in his homestate of Missouri mostly at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia.

Joseph J. Kinyoun

The family moved to Johnson County, Missouri, in 1866, where the elder Kinyoun was a physician.

Kevin Sandoval

After retiring from football, Sandoval attended and graduated from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri.

Kirkwood, Missouri

Hornbeck had been missing since the age of 11, when he was abducted from near his home in Richwoods, Missouri.

LaMark Brown

Brown started all four years at Hazelwood West High School in Hazelwood, Missouri at free safety and running back and was a two-time consensus Class 6 all-state performer by the Missouri Coaches Association, the Missouri Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association and the Kansas City Star.

Larry Don

According to legend, it was built from a World War II landing craft that was quartered in St. Louis and trucked to the Lake of the Ozarks.

Lillian Berlin

In 2003, after a concert in Kansas City, Lillian was stabbed after a show because of his opinion on the events of 9/11.

Lindenwood Women's Ice Hockey

The women’s team currently plays out of Lindenwood University’s Ice Hockey Arena, which is located in Wentzville, Missouri.

Lorance Township, Bollinger County, Missouri

The township contains two incorporated settlements: Glen Allen and Marble Hill.

Louis Lorimier

Lorimier is also responsible for the founding of at least two Missouri counties: Cape Girardeau County, and Bollinger County, the next county to the west.

Manchester United Methodist Church

Manchester United Methodist Church (formerly Manchester Methodist Episcopal Church, abbreviated Manchester UMC or simply MUMC) is a United Methodist megachurch in Manchester, Missouri.

Marideth Sisco

She was living in the Ozark town of West Plains, Missouri, when she had a chance encounter that would change her status from that of a retired journalist and part-time musician to that of a minor celebrity.

Marquis James

Marquis James (August 29, 1891, Springfield, Missouri – November 19, 1955) was an American journalist and author, twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his works The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston and The Life of Andrew Jackson.

Marthasville, Missouri

Because of the many wineries from here east to Defiance, Marthasville is considered to mark one end of the "Missouri Weinstrasse".

Maryville University

Maryville University of St. Louis is a private, coeducational university located in the city of Town and Country, Missouri, United States.

May 26–31, 2013 tornado outbreak

The tornado continued causing damage in residential areas before crossing the Missouri River into St. Louis County and Earth City, Bridgeton, and the northern side of Maryland Heights as it moved along Interstate 70 near its intersection with Interstate 270.

McCredie

McCredie Township, Callaway County, Missouri, one of eighteen townships in Callaway County, Missouri, USA

Mel Bay

Melbourne E. Bay was born on February 25, 1913 in the little Ozark Mountain town of Bunker, Missouri.

Micronesian American

Micronesians are also increasing rapidly in other places of the U.S. such as in Kansas City, Missouri, where the majority of the Micronesians are of Pohnpeian origin.

Mid-America Regional Council

The Mid-America Regional Council serves the nine county Kansas City metropolitan area, including Cass, Clay, Jackson, Platte and Ray Counties in Missouri and Johnson, Leavenworth, Miami and Wyandotte counties in Kansas.

Missouri's at-large congressional district

From the state's creation August 10, 1821 until the end of the 29th United States Congress (in 1847), and also for the 73rd Congress (1933-1935), Missouri elected its members of the United States House of Representatives at-large state-wide on a general ticket.

Moberly Area Community College

Moberly Area Community College (commonly MACC) is a two-year college based in Moberly, Missouri, United States.

Mount Horeb Baptist Church

Mount Horeb Baptist Church is a historic church in Mineola, Missouri.

Mount Sterling, Iowa

Mount Sterling was first settled in the late 1830s when George and Horace Wood established a sawmill and corn-cracker to serve the small farms of southern Van Buren County and the northern portion of nearby Scotland County, Missouri.

National Climatic Data Center

Processing of the climate data was accomplished at Weather Records Processing Centers at Chattanooga, Tennessee, Kansas City, Missouri, and San Francisco, California, until January 1, 1963 when it became consolidated with the NWRC.

Nightveil

Even after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Capps continued to make appearances at conventions as Nightveil until 2007, her last appearance at Visioncon in Springfield, Missouri.

Novinger, Missouri

Novinger is a town in Nineveh Township, Adair County, Missouri, United States.

Paul C. Henshaw

During hie tenure the company became an established provider of uranium and expanded to include lead and zinc in Missouri as well as silver in Colorado.

Paul Carpenter Standley

Paul Carpenter Standley (1884 in Avalon, Missouri – June 2, 1963 Tegucigalpa, Honduras) was an American botanist.

Perfect Drift

He went home to live out his life at Stonecrest Farms in Kansas City, Missouri, home of his breeder, but will spend summers at the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs.

Richard Rosenberg

At the time of his death from carbon monoxide poisoning in Wentzville, Missouri he had written and was filming what was intended to be the fourth film in the series, The 100% All-Beef Doom.

Riverport Riot

The Riverport Riot was a riot at the Riverport Amphitheater (now named Verizon Wireless Amphitheater St. Louis) in Maryland Heights, Missouri (near St. Louis) at a Guns N' Roses concert on July 2, 1991.

Robert Joseph Hermann

Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Hermann represented the Archbishop in overseeing the parishes in five deaneries: Northeast St. Louis County, Northwest St. Louis County, Festus, St. Charles County and Washington.

Rocky Ridge

Rocky Ridge, Missouri, an unincorporated community in Sainte Genevieve County

Samuel P. Cox

Frank was not tried for the bank murder however he was tried in 1883 in Gallatin for an 1881 murder of a Rock Island Railroad employee at nearby Winston, Missouri.

Sidney D. Jackman

Soon after getting married Jackman moved his family to Howard County, Missouri, and in 1855 they settled in Papinville, located in Bates County.

Silver Lake, Missouri

Silver Lake is an unincorporated settlement in Saint Mary's Township in Perry County, Missouri.

Smith W. Brookhart

Brookhart was born in a cabin on a farm in Scotland County, Missouri, the son of Abram C. and Cynthia Wildman Brookhart.

Spaceway F2

SPACEWAY-2 immediately started broadcasting HD locals to DirecTV customers in eight more markets: Minneapolis, Minnesota; Sacramento and San Diego, California; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Nashville, Tennessee; Kansas City, Missouri.

St. Charles County, Missouri

It is mostly a six-lane freeway throughout most of the county but there are sections in St. Charles and St. Peters where the Interstate widens to 11 lanes of traffic.

Stephen T. McClard

Stephen T. McClard (born September 18, 1967 in Farmington, Missouri) Band Director, Furniture Designer, Professional Musician, 3rd Generation Piano Technician, Luthier and Author of the book, The Superior Educator: A Calm and Assertive Approach to Classroom Management and Large Group Motivation.

Tarkio

Tarkio, Missouri, a town on the Tarkio River in the northwest corner of Missouri

The Pas

In Canada and elsewhere, the book is used as part of school reading, and so despite its size, The Pas is widely known to several generations of Canadians, much as the town of Hannibal, Missouri is known to many from Mark Twain's writings.

Theron C. Bennett

Born in Pierce City, Missouri, he graduated in 1902 from the school which is now New Mexico State University.

Times of Northeast Benton County

In addition to the city of Pea Ridge, the newspaper covers the communities of Little Flock to the south, Avoca and Brightwater to the southeast, Garfield, Lost Bridge and Gateway to the east, and historically — though intermittently in recent years — Jacket and Mountain to the north in Missouri.

Tony Twist

He also owned a chain of bars named Twister's Iron Bar Saloon, with locations in St. Charles and Ste. Genevieve Missouri.

Truman Reservoir

The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, however, did relocate its main line between La Due and Clinton; the project included five miles of new track and a causeway/bridge combination over the lake.

Uniontown, Missouri

Uniontown is an unincorporated community located in Union Township in southeastern Perry County, Missouri.

United States v. Neil Scott Kramer

The pair drove to the Comfort Inn in Willow Springs, Missouri, where Kramer "plied the victim with illegal narcotics and then engaged in sexual intercourse with her."

Walter Page

Walter Sylvester Page was born in Gallatin, Missouri on February 9, 1900 to parents Edward and Blanche Page.

Washington Missourian

The Washington Missourian is the Franklin County paper based in Washington, Missouri.

Watson, Missouri

Watson is a village in Nishnabotna Township, Atchison County, Missouri, United States.

William B. Hanna

At the age of four, he relocated with his family to Kansas City, Missouri.

William Thomas Carpenter

William Thomas 'Will Tom' Carpenter, born November 16, 1854 in Johnson County, Missouri, the youngest son of James and Cynthia (Johnson) Carpenter, was a legendary cowman who authored a book about his experiences.

William Wilson Hudson

He was born in Orange County, Virginia in 1808 and was a professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at the University of Alabama before moving to Columbia, Missouri in 1838.

Willis Ricketts

He graduated in 1950 from the School of Pharmacy at the College of the Ozarks, a Christian institution in Point Lookout, Missouri.

Zamir Gotta

He is best known as the traveling companion of American chef Anthony Bourdain in his Travel Channel TV show Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, when they traveled to Uzbekistan, Russia and Romania and later in the U.S. Rust Belt, Ukraine, and Kansas City.


Amazonia, Missouri

Amazonia is a village in Lincoln Township, Andrew County, Missouri, United States.

Anthony Peeler

He had expressed interest in joining the coaching staff of Frank Haith at Missouri in 2011, but no job offer was forthcoming.

Brutus Hamilton

Hamilton was born on July 19, 1900 in Peculiar, Missouri, and in Missouri he grew up as a farm boy whose parents' property was next door to the Harry S. Truman family farm.

Charles Binaggio

Born in Beaumont, Texas, Binaggio moved with his family to Kansas City, Missouri, at an early age.

Chase Daniel

Ironically, it was only after he had committed to Mizzou that Longhorn coach Mack Brown began to seriously look at Daniel but Daniel stuck to his oral commitment with Missouri.

Chee-Chee

Frank DeMayo (1885-1949?), Missouri mobster nicknamed "Chee-Chee"

Conference of Chief Justices

The first meeting, organized by the Council of State Governments and funded by private foundations, and held in St. Louis, Missouri, was held at the behest of New Jersey Chief Justice Arthur T. Vanderbilt, Nebraska Chief Justice Robert G. Simmons and Missouri Chief Justice Laurance M. Hyde, who was elected as the first chairman by the representatives of the 44 states in attendance.

Council of Conservative Citizens

The CofCC continues protesting speaking engagements by Morris Dees in Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Indiana, and South Carolina, declaring him to be a threat to free speech and a fraud.

David A. De Armond

He was born in Blair County, Pennsylvania, attended Lycoming College and moved to Davenport, Iowa in 1866; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1867 and commenced practice in Davenport; moved to Missouri in 1869 and settled in Greenfield, Missouri, Dade County, Missouri.

David Catania

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Catania is a graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and Georgetown University Law Center.

Douglas Eads Foster

He went to public schools in Warrensburg, then to Missouri State Teachers College and Washington School of Dentistry in St. Louis, Missouri.

Franklin Archibald Dick

He was assistant adjutant general to Nathaniel Lyon at Camp Jackson (the first Missouri Civil War incident); Missouri provost marshal general under Major General Samuel Curtis; law partner with Montgomery Blair at the Blair House in Washington D C after the Civil War.

Frederick Lucian Hosmer

Frederick Lucian Hosmer (1840-1929) was an American Unitarian minister who served congregations in Massachusetts, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, and California and who wrote many significant hymns.

Gephardt

Dick Gephardt (born 1941), former U.S. Representative from Missouri and U.S. Presidential candidate

Harrison E. Havens

He was born in Franklin County, Ohio and was the Republican Party Representative from Missouri for the 4th District in the 42nd United States Congress between 1871 and 1873, and for the 6th District in the 43rd United States Congress from 1873 to 1875.

Huc-Mazelet Luquiens

The Bishop Museum (Honolulu, Hawaii), the Butler Institute of American Art (Youngstown, Ohio), the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Hawaii State Art Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Isaacs Art Center (Waimea, Hawaii), the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Missouri), the Hilo Art Museum (Hilo, Hawaii), the Isaacs Art Center (Waimea, Hawaii), and the Yale University Art Gallery are among the public collections holding prints by Huc-Mazelet Luquiens.

James Britton

James H. Britton (1817–1900), mayor of St. Louis, Missouri, United States

Josh Outman

Outman pitched for Forest Park Community College in Saint Louis, before transferring to the University of Central Missouri (formerly Central Missouri State University).

Kape

KAPE, a radio station (1550 AM) licensed to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, United States.

KBFL

KBFL-FM, a radio station (99.9 FM) licensed to Buffalo, Missouri, United States

KDKD

KDKD-FM, a radio station (95.3 FM) licensed to Clinton, Missouri, United States

KIIK

KOZQ-FM, a radio station (102.3 FM) licensed to Waynesville, Missouri, which held the call sign KIIK-FM from 2007 to 2011

KUVM

KUVM-LD, a television station (channel 10) licensed to Missouri City, Texas, United States

L. William Zahner

William Zahner III (b. June 30, 1955, in Kansas City, Missouri) is the president and CEO of Zahner, an architectural metal company in Kansas City, Missouri.

Lauren Lueders

She participated in the St. John's Sports Medicine All-Star Game with the top girls' basketball players in Missouri and scored 16 points and added eight rebounds to lead the White squad.

Malden, Missouri

Malden is a city in the northeast corner of Dunklin County, Missouri, United States, located near the intersection of Missouri Route 25 and U.S. Route 62.

Marie Helene Franey

She would later study at the Institute of Canon Law at Saint Louis University in Missouri.

Millsboro, Delaware

Thus, it is one of only three cities in the United States to record both its state's extreme temperatures, the others being Chester, Massachusetts and Warsaw, Missouri.

Missouri Route 5

Shortly after entering Wright County, Route 5 forms a one-mile east-west concurrency with U.S. 60 (as a limited-access highway) in Mansfield.

Mopac

The Mopac Expressway, State Highway Loop 1 in Austin, Texas, named after the Missouri Pacific railroad whose tracks bisect the expressway.

New Madrid County, Missouri

Like most rural areas throughout Missouri, voters in New Madrid County generally adhere to socially and culturally conservative principles but are more moderate or populist on economic issues, typical of the Dixiecrat philosophy.

Nishnabotna Township, Atchison County, Missouri

Nishnabotna Township is probably best known outside the immediate region for a reference by the New Yorker cartoonist George Booth, a native of Missouri.

Office of the Supervising Architect

In 1893 Missouri Congressman John Charles Tarsney introduced a bill that allowed the Supervisory Architect to have competitions among private architects for major structures.

Patricia Breckenridge

Breckenridge was one of three candidates Missouri's Appellate Judicial Commission proposed to governor Matt Blunt to replace retiring Judge Ronnie White on the Missouri Supreme Court.

Peter Myers

Peter C. Myers (1931-2012), a US Missouri politician who was Deputy Secretary of Agriculture under Ronald Reagan

Richard Berkley

Richard L. Berkley (born 1931), mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, 1979–1991

Robert Christopher

Robert Collins Christopher was an American journalist who served in World War II and was in the force that occupied Japan after Douglas MacArthur accepted the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri.

Salem Lutheran Church, Farrar, Missouri

The original congregation had some ties to the Paitzdorf congregation in Paitzdorf (present-day Uniontown), Missouri.

Sioux City and Pacific Railroad

In August 1867 the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River opened a branch from Missouri Valley Junction west to California Junction (sold to the Sioux City and Pacific in July 1871), where the Sioux City and Pacific, funded by the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River, began constructing its line north through the Missouri River Valley, reaching Sioux City in February 1868.

Thomas Bonacum

He studied at St. Vincent's College, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and at the University of Würzburg, Bavaria, after which he was ordained priest at St. Louis, 18 June 1870.

Thomas Halsey

Thomas Jefferson Halsey (1863–1961), United States Representative from Missouri

Tracy A. Henke

Prior to serving at DOJ, she was Senior Policy Advisor for U.S. Senator Christopher Bond of Missouri, and before that, she worked for Senator Jack Danforth.

Troost

Benoist Troost (1786–1859), Dutch-born physician, publisher and community leader in Kansas City, Missouri.

United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit across Missouri in St. Louis has jurisdiction over decisions appealed from the Western District of Missouri (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appealed to the Federal Circuit).

University of Missouri Graduate School

The University of Missouri Graduate School is one of the 19 academic schools and colleges of the University of Missouri.

William Wesley Cox

He ran in many elections, and his last attempt at office was in 1944, running for the United States Senate seat in Missouri, at the age of 79.