The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 21

Garrison Keillor Impresses Iowa Crowd page 4B METRO DM Sunday February 24, 2002 GAGE CHURCH, Iowa News, 515-284-8054 RANDY ESSEX, Metro News, 515-284-8461 Des Bloincs Sunbay jRcpictrr Famous Iowans lap mmwdi faipte's psft Clara Bradley's trail begins and ends in Iowa Jf By BERT CALMER REGISTER STAFF WRITER The federal fugitive known as Clara Bradley, arrested last week near her long-abandoned hometown of Des Moines, moved to Montana as a child and was divorced at the time she allegedly killed her second husband in Polk County sheriff's officials who booked Bradley in jail Wednesday took inventory of her clothes, a few papers, $57.63 in cash and no identification cards. "Our history of her is really limited," said Ankeny police See FUGITIVE, Page 2B California. Bradley's circuitous lifestyle, intensified by her connection to her husband's violent death, helped her elude federal authorities for more statements about her past. She has used at least 45 aliases over the years and cant prove her relationship to the three children who were in her care. than 20 years.

Ultimately, Bradley's journey ended where it began, in central Iowa, where citizens whose handouts helped her survive tipped police to her suspicious behavior. Authorities who lost track of Bradley after she deserted her San Diego home on Sept. 10, 1980, are still confounded by her contradictory Nellie Verne Walker Sculptor 1874-1973 Nellie Verne Walker spent Welfare reform measures limit payments to five years. The first group of Iowans reaches that limit this month. her life working with stone: She was one of America's foremost female sculptors.

Walker was born In Red Oak, one of eight children of Everett Ami Walker and his wife Rebecca J. Lindsey. They moved to Moulton when the future artist was a year old, and Nellie learned stone carving at her father's monument works as he made tombstones. At 17, Walker created her first limestone piece, a bust of Abraham Lincoln, working ROBERT NANDELUTHE REGISTER Approach: Bond firms are advertising aggressively and creatively like this Court Avenue business. only from an engraving and taking just 24 days to complete the work.

It was displayed at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and now is housed at r-r i t- X. tty- I 1 Hi) i the Garrett Memorial Library in Moulton. Walker moved to Chicago in 1900 to study at the Chicago Art Institute, where she also taught for five years Bail-bond business flourishes inDJM. Some say the increase in crime has made the industry lucrative. before opening a studio of her own at the Midway Art Studio.

She also studied in Paris. A diminutive woman who was not quite 5 feet tall, Walker was known as "the lady who lived on a ladder" because she preferred large works of art. She eschewed marriage and the traditional female role of her era. Today, her legacy includes By MAGGIE O'BRIEN REGISTER STAFF WRITER Crime doesnt pay, but getting people out of jail does. The number of bail-bonds companies in Des Moines has nearly tripled in the last 10 ANDREA MELENDEZREGISTER PHOTOS Help ends: Jammie Berry gives daughter Latinya a dose of medicine as the 8-year-old holds her nose.

Berry has reached the five-year limit for receiving welfare, and she thinks caring for her ailing children makes looking for a job out of the question. Future uncertain as benefits end years. In 1992, there were seven bail-bonds companies listed in the Yellow Pages, compared to 19 today. Some longtime bail-bonds By FRANK SANTIAGO REGISTER STAFF WRITER companies say people start their own businesses for less than honest reasons. Jay many monuments, busts and bas reliefs, mostly in the Midwest.

In 1907 she completed a statue of Sen. James Harlan for the nation's Capitol. In 1913, she created a statue of Chief Keokuk, which stands in Keokuk's Rand Park, overlooking the Mississippi. Her Polish War Memorial was finished in Chicago in 1927. At the Iowa Capitol Is her Suffrage Memorial Panel, a bas relief honoring pioneering suffragists, which was dedicated in 1936.

Walker retired from the greater part of her work In 1948 because of failing eyesight. Walker was named to the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1987. She is burled near her parents at Moulton's Oakland Cemetery. Tom Longden Rothmeyer of Iowa Bail Bonds, 200 Fourth said his family-run business was one Jammie Berry's years on welfare are almost over. "IVe been scared to death," she says.

"The money helped pay the rent and light bill, and if I was lucky, it allowed me to buy some laundry soap." of few similar companies in town when it opened 15 years ago. More people started to v. think it was an easy way to make a quick buck," Rothmeyer said. "They got greedy." Greedy or not, the bail- bonds industry makes money Berry is part of the first wave of Iowans to hit welfare reform's new five-year limit. Her family and 370 others were notified they were being cut off beginning this month.

Berry's biggest worry is finding someone to care for her 4-year-old son if she has to look for a job. She has cradled Leon Jr. and soothed his painful joints damaged by arthritis. She has taken him to the doctor in her 1986 van that has 200,000 miles on it, four bald tires and two broken windows. "I got the hardest job in the world," she says of raising Leon and her daughter, Latinya 8, in her east Des Moines home.

"But I dont get a paycheck for this." She received a six-month hardship renewal but was told there will be no more welfare after that. Of the 164 families that asked for extensions, 54 received them. What happens to Berry and the other families and the See WELFARE, Page 2B for most people who choose it as their prof essioa The business is competitive, and some bondsmen hang out at police stations hoping to be the first to find someone who needs to bail a loved one out of jail. Water workout: Jammie Berry helps her son, Leon 4, with his physical therapy in the pool at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines. Leon has a form of arthritis.

Berry helps with the twice-a-week therapy to cut costs. See BAIL, Page 2B A tale from Brighton to brighten your day if you're a cat Living Here Museum details history of slaves The Historic Jordan House, 2001 Fuller Road in West Des Moines, was the home of Sen. James C. Jordan. He founded what is now West Des Moines.

Basement rooms in the home are dedicated to the history of the Underground Railroad escaping slaves were housed in the rooms on their way to freedom. JF; On The Web said. For $1 million, it ought to put a little sweat on your forehead. Here's one for the next Iowa tourism brochure: A Minnesota woman was heading south into Iowa last week when her car went off the interstate, through a fence and into a grove of trees. Where she was trapped, unseen for two days, until being spotted by Iowa Department of Transportation workers.

The grateful 48-year-old woman was rushed to the hospitaL And presented with a ticket for failure to maintain control of her vehicle. Welcome to Iowa, lady. John Carlton can reached at (StS) 284 (204 or carlon8newi dmreg com Yep. It works. Marge says the dogs are happy to see her when she gets home, and they don't expect a treat.

"They understand what I'm saying," she said. "I belong to five bridge clubs." Now, as long as she doesn't let them get a look at today's newspaper Karen Schnepf started jazzing up recipes when she was a kid, and now it might pay off big. Schnepf, a 49-year-old Le Mars artist, is heading for Orlando today, where she is a finalist in the Pillsbury Bake-Off. The winner gets $1 million. Schnepf's entry is something called Blue Cheese Crescent Spirals.

The winner will be announced live on CBS Tuesday. What's in her concoction? How does plum jam and cayenne pepper strike you? It's kind of spicy," Schnepf climbing a tree," said Tammy Miller, who works at the shelter in Washington. "I guess we know now it happens." They thought the animal was a stray, but somebody has shown an interest in claiming it. "The dog isnt here right now though," Miller said. "It's at the vet in Marion.

It had a lot of scratches. Actually, I call them bark burns." The dog has been given the name Julia by shelter volunteers, apparently in honor of Julia "Butterfly HilL whom you may remember. Hill got a lot of television time for herself by living two years in the branches of a California redwood tree. She did it to keep loggers from cutting it down. California Julia cried when she finally came down.

Iowa Julia was up her tree only an hour or so, but rescuers said she seemed really happy to get back on the ground. Every Sunday morning, Marge Nelson has a word with her dogs before walking out the door. "I'm going to church now," she tells poodles Muffin and Scamper. And the dogs get pretty excited, because Marge always gives them a treat when she gets home an hour or so later. "They understand what I'm telling them," she said.

"They're right there waiting for their treat when I get home from church." Except sometimes Marge has a night meeting at her Indianola church, and she doesnt want to give them treats because it's too late for a snack by the she gets home. No problem. "I tell them I'm going to bridge club," she says. Cara Sorrells figured it would be a strange day when she answered the phone at the Washington County Safety Center and heard a man from Brighton say that a dog chased his cat up a tree. Followed it right on up, too.

The dog, he meant It climbed the tree a pretty tall tree and was stuck up there with the cat. And no, this wasnt a joke. Sorrells, a dispatcher in the office that handles the county's law enforcement calls, got on the phone to Andy DahL who volunteers at the humane society. "I'm not climbing up a tree to get a cat," Dahl told her. "IVe been torn up too much doing that." "WelL yes, it's a cat," Sorrells said.

"But there's a dog up there too." Dahl couldnt pass that one up, so he headed off to Brighton with two helpers. Discover "Famous Iowans" who changed the world at DesMoinesReglster.com JohxCarlsoVs IOWA And there was the dog a Treeing Walker Coonhound hanging on to a branch maybe 25 feet up. The cat managed to get down on its owa The dog was another matter. So the three volunteers went up a ladder and passed the 50-pound dog from one to the other, down to safety. No bites or snarls from the terrified pooch.

The animal was, Sorrells said, "really sweet about the whole thing." "IVe never heard of a dog Index Dateline Iowa 2B Obituaries 6B.7B Weather 8B Week in Review 4B A.