The Times Herald from Port Huron, Michigan • Page 1

3 1 Workina World: rV 1 Bringing in the mink Page IB She rekindles the pack hope Page ID Page 1C flu xrpn tv 75 cents Final edition Weather: a few sprinkles Details, Page 7A A Gannett Newspaper Copyright, The Times Heral Company JW1 PORT HURON, MICHIGAN November 1, 1981 moll bonks ceayghH" in mil mmeraer s' DU6 '-C GNS in mergers are: Wolverine State Bank, Sandusky, agreed in November 1980 to become part of the National Detroit parent company of the National Bank of Detroit and NBD Port Huron Bank N.A. That merger became final this month. Marine Bank and Trust, Marine City, and Michigan National Bank-Port Huron also are seeking to merge. In Huron County, Community Bank of Bad Axe merged in July with People's Banking Bay City. Huron County Bank, Harbor Beach, also is seeking to merge with First American Bank, Kalamazoo.

Eugene Schoen, Wolverine State Bank president, said stockholders approved the merger because it was in the best interest of the bank's customers. Government regulatic; creasing costs and lack of ready legal and administrative expertise also helped push the bank toward merger. But Schoen said the merger should have not affect how the bank does business. "We'll make our own decision as we have in the past," he said. Edwin Steinmetz, Marine Bank Trust chairman of the board, said merging with Michigan National will give customers there access to more services.

"Because of our position as a smaller bank, we can't provide the number of services. Because of the nature of the ballgame today, we have to provide all the services we can to the customers See Merger, Page 8A By JIM KETCHUM Times Herald Reporter The small-town community bank today may be facing its stif-fest challenge for survival. Locked in a battle against inflation, traditionally low savings rates, impending deregulation, competition and a demand for more services, independent bankers including many in the Blue Water Area are scurrying to maintain their autonomy. Many bankers view the future with some fear. At least four Blue Water Area banks either have merged with larger banks during the past year or are considering it.

Most area bankers agree that a national trend toward bank mergers and consolidations probably will continue during the 1980s. And they worry that their institutions might join the ranks of the merged. A recently released study by the Strategic Planning Institute, Cambridge, says the nation's 14,600 independent banks may dwindle to as few as 100 major banks and a few small community banks. The institute, a non-profit organization formerly affiliated with the Harvard Business School, predicts that the very smallest banks those with less than $100 million in asssets will survive. They probably will make it because of an ability to provide their strictly local customers with empathy and hometown contacts.

But the rest are probably doomed. Area banks currently involved Shuffle will be put through paces entific payload, will test out the Area team ready to rescue By BILL BUNN Times Herald Reporter HARRISON TOWNSHIP Several Blue Water Area residents again will form an Earth-bound safety net Wednesday when the Columbia astronauts are expected to roar toward space. Men from Selfridge Air National Guard Base will fly beneath the space shuttle's flight path as the craft soars above the Atlantic Ocean, and they'll be ready to rescue the astronauts in the event of trouble. See Team, Page 4A long arm which eventually will be used to retrieve satellites and will generally just be stressed more to see how it behaves under less-than-ideal circumstances. Its astronaut crew, for example, will try and land Columbia under stiff crosswinds to find out how well it handles.

As in the first mission, accidents and other unforeseen hitches have delayed this flight, the second of four aimed at getting the shuttle ready for routine use. But the delays this time have By ELLEN HALE Gannett News Service The nation's and the world's first reusable spacecraft will return to space again Nov. 4, just half a year after its victorious and record-setting maiden voyage. With some of its sheen of newness already fading, space shuttle Columbia and its two-man crew will hunker down and get to work during this five-day mission to find out just how successful the revolutionary new space travel system is going to be in linking man to the heavens. After the first mission last lumbia this time will be put through more demanding paces.

The craft will carry its first sci April, which National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials themselves call benign, Co See Shuttle, Page 4A inside Today; Tiny Stephanie proves she can be a scrapper Six news sections 92 pages Deaths reported Mrs. Myrtle F. Wheeler Mrs. Vernita Comment George F. Engelbert Mrs.

Winifred M. Siler Aaron W. Vanhyste Antonio F. Durentini Mrs. Mary Mclnerney Obituaries on Page 7B Index Builders 8C Crossword Living 1-7D Markets.

News briefs 7A Seniors 2D Srrt. 1-7C Television 1-20E Want ads7-HD Editorials. Farm 11B Happenings 6B Landers ZD Local 1-12B "The most important thing is for her to rest," McElrath said. "We're just going to take care of her and love her it may be a little rough at first for her to adjust to being at home. The lights won't be on 24 hours a day and she won't hear the instruments beeping and ticking all the time." Stephanie's four months of neonatal care cost more than $100,000, said the McElraths, who have no health insurance.

A fund has been set up to accept contributions. It took an order from the Pentagon to Stephanie's flight to Georgia after she was born three months early. As she waited at Opa-locka Airport for an Air Force jet, the batteries powering her life supports failed. Doctors operated the controls manually during the 2-hour flight to Talmadge Memorial Hospital in Augusta, Ga. Doctors said the baby beat the odds that infants born weighing less than 2 pounds stand a 90 percent chance of severe birth defects or retardation.

The large amounts of pure oxygen she was given caused a detachment of the retina and arrest of growth in the eye, a condition known as retrolental fibroplasia. Doctors say the seriousness of the condition is uncertain. MIAMI (AP) The one-pound, 11-ounce premature daughter of Gary and Carlene McElrath, who was flown to Georgia by the Pentagon because Florida hospitals refused her care, finally has made it home at age 4 months weighing six-pounds, 10-ounces. Shortly after her birth June 27, doctors gave the tiny girl only a 10 percent chance of survival, but by Friday, Stephanie McElrath's weight had reached that of a normal newborn and she was released to her parents by Jackson Memorial Hospital here. Florida hospitals had turned her away at first, saying they had no more room for premature babies.

Jackson, one of the hospitals that turned down the McEl-raths, admitted their baby when the number of premies in their care subsided. The parents, of North Miami Beach, also brought home a special pad with sensors that monitor heartbeat and breathing. The McElraths were informed their first daughter has normal mental capacity but may have vision problems caused by the concentrated oxygen she received as she fought for life. "We're really excited she's home," McElrath said. "No more driving 20 minutes or anything, we Just open our eyeballs and there she is." Keep smiling Nowadays, if you cast your read upon the waters, you'll robablv be cited for probably ffi puiiuung.

Lottery The winning number in Sat urday's daily Michigan lottery drawing was u. The winning number in Sat urday's Daily-4 Michigan lot tery drawing was 7367. Halloween ends in death for boy "Evidently Bouton opened the door, saw the boys, shut the door, went to his bedroom, came back to the door, returned with a pistol and shot Breaux," he said. The boy was wearing a camouflage hat and an Army T-shirt and carried a plastic submachine gun, he said. Shaw did not know who reported the shooting, which happened about 6:30 p.m.

He said Bouton, who lived in the same upper middle-class Baton Rouge neighborhood as Breaux, was taken Into custody but was not immediately booked. Breaux died about 7:45 p.m., said Mary Hardy, director of nurses at the hospital. BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) A 13-year-old boy who went trick-or-treatlng dressed as a soldier with a plastic submachine gun was shot and killed Saturday evening, authorities said. Daniel Kevin Breaux was shot once in the chest with a .357 Magnum revolver and died about an hour later at Earl K.

Long Hospital, police and hospital officials said. Robert James Bouton, 58, was taken into custody, Jim Shaw, a spokesman for the East Baton Rouge sheriff's office, said. "Evidently Breaux, a 12-year-old and a 13-year-old approached Bouton's house, Knocked on the door," Shaw aaid. Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie and the rest of the Muppets gang join The Times Herald in today's comic section. The Muppets, created by Jim Henson, bring a new dimension ot family fun to Times Herald readers.

The stars of television and two feature films will appear in the newspaper daily and Sunday. Look for the Muppets daily, starting with Page 2 of today's comics Meet the Moppets.