By Clint Baker
(Special to Independent News)

H. Ray Starkey is without a doubt a creative man – and he has many works of art to prove it.

Starkey is owner and manager of The Jeweler’s Shop located at 1080 rue Saint Francois (rear) in Old Town Florissant. The "(rear)" in that address means the store’s front door opens on an alley at the rear of the Edward Jones Building.

Starkey has been in the location only six months. "At first I was a bit concerned about being so tucked away." said Starkey. "But I have learned if you offer a service folks need and want, they will find you."

And so they have. Word-of-mouth and local advertising has produced a steadily growing flow of traffic through his alley store.

Starkey’s business card introduces him as a "watchmaker, jeweler, diamond setter and diamond remount specialist; a provider of unique handcrafted original jewelry."

However, a small business card falls far short of describing the special gifts and talents of H. Ray Starkey.

For one thing, Starkey has the amazing ability to create beautiful one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry from available information ranging from a photograph to a "as best as I can remember" verbal description from the customer. Starkey considers himself a sculptor and says confidently, "If the customer can communicate to me what they want, I can make it." As St. Louis baseball legend Dizzy Dean once said, "It aint’t braggin’ if you can do it."

Some excellent examples can be seen in his display case:
o He created a charm of a favorite dog by reworking a wax model of a fox to make the mold.
o With only a fuzzy snapshot as a guide, he made a miniature vintage Chevy for a customer.
o Someone else wanted a leprechaun. "I saw a picture of one on a barroom wall on Saint Patrick’s Day and sketched it," said Starkey. The tiny golden sprite that resulted looks exactly like the sketch.
o Out of his own fertile imagination he designed and created a gold key charm with a star on the end of it (a "star key") for a Starkey family reunion.

Twenty-six years ago Starkey sculpted and produced a limited number of crucifixes primarily for family members. Starkey’s mother, grandmother and brother have been laid to rest with the crucifix in their hands.

Starkey’s creative expertise as a diamond remount specialist is frequently in demand. Once a customer came to him with an 11.5 carat diamond. "It was bigger than my thumbnail," said Starkey, "much too large for any commercial ring mounting, so I custom made one for him. The customer wears the ring every day."

Although H. Ray Starkey has years of experience in virtually every aspect of the jewelry and watchmaking business, including repair, restoration, purchasing estate jewelry, handling consignments, brokering and trading, his first love is designing and creating jewelry and giving new life to diamonds through remounting.

"That’s what I really like to do," he says, "Customers can get personally involved in the design. They like that and so do I."

He recalls one couple for whom he created a wedding band to fit with the bride’s uniquely shaped engagement ring. On another occasion he worked with a lady who brought in five separate gold rings that held a total of 48 tiny diamonds. Some of the items Starkey has created over the years have, for one reason or another never been claimed. One of these is a stunning three-carat diamond and sapphire ring which he sometimes keeps in his display case.

Starkey credits his early training and experience as a watchmaker for the "hands" to do the other work. He came to the trade as a fifteen-year-old. "I needed a part time job and got one as a watchmaker apprentice in my hometown," he says. "I liked the business so I stayed in it. I must have fixed 20,000 to 30,000 watches."

After graduating from high school and spending three years in the Army, Starkey returned to the jewelry business - this time to St. Louis where he spent 17 years pursuing his craft. In 1987, for personal and family reasons, the Starkeys returned to the Baltimore area where he stayed until this year.

In March of this year Ray and Cookie Starkey made the decision to return, not just to St. Louis, but specifically to Florissant. "When we were in St. Louis the first time we lived on St. Edwards Lane," said Starkey. "We loved the neighborhood and the area, so our move back was in a very real sense a homecoming.'

"Our objective was to set up shop in Old Town. It just seemed a fit for our way of doing business. We think of ourselves as jewelers in the ‘old world’ tradition and we are very comfortable in our surroundings." Most customers will agree that the Jewelers Shop is so much a fit with the Old Town ambience, it is almost impossible to believe they have only been there six months. (The Jeweler's Shop phone number is (314) 831-9200.

Katie Rodriguez Banister, president of Access-4-All, rolled into the gymnasium along with her husband and her book, "Aunt Katie’s Visit." This self-described "woman on wheels" is a quadriplegic—the result of an automobile accident which occurred more than a decade ago.

"I had trouble reading in the second grade," she admitted to the students. "I had trouble with my numbers in the first grade."

Banister said she would get teased by others because of it.

"Just because I had a hard time learning doesn’t mean I’m stupid, does it?" the author asked. "No-o-o-o," the kids confirmed.

"You know what I did? I grew up, and I did not listen to those people," she said.

As tragic as the accident was for the then 25-year-old, Banister said the life-altering experience brought about her life’s mission—educating others about people with disabilities.

"A friend asked me to speak to a class about disabilities," she told her captivated audience. "That’s when I decided this is what I needed to do," Banister said.

Banister now makes appearances to talk about "the culture of disability and to break down the barriers between us and people who are different."

In her book, "Aunt Katie’s Visit," Banister takes readers through a journey of how a physically disabled person goes about everyday tasks.

She also displayed the braces and assisting devices she uses to help her movement, such as a writing brace.

"It’s interesting," she told the students. "I write the same way I wrote before the accident."

Banister, with the assistance of her husband, Steve, had a series of show-and-tell items, braces to assist with eating and electric bike pants for exercising.

"I did three miles yesterday on my bike. It’s totally cool," she said. "Yes, I wish I weren’t paralyzed but I’m going to make the most of what I can."

"Don’t be lazy. Make the best of what you got," she told the students.

Banister described how she uses an eraser to turn pages on books and magazines and to type on the computer. "My favorite brace is the tenodesis," she said. "I call it my bionic hand. It has three straps and Velcro."

Banister also uses it to put on lipstick and makeup. "When you go through something like this, being able to put on your makeup makes you feel so much better," she said.

"Amy, my assistant, dresses and helps me bathe. I take a shower, but it’s different because I have a seat," the author explained. "I kind of feel like I’m in a car wash."

The children’s laughter was hushed by a sobering statement from a woman who has major challenges to overcome every day.

"Probably some of the biggest challenges are learning disabilities," the author said.

The children also learned the politically correct approach to use when a person has disabilities. "The nicest thing you can say to a person with disabilities is ‘hello,’" she said.

"If you are going to stare at somebody, it’s okay, but say hello."

When you want to help a disabled person, she said, "Don’t start grabbing things, it could throw them off balance. Say ‘hi.’ I’d like to help you, just tell me how." "I’m just like you, I just do things a little differently," she said.

(story courtesy of Hazelwood Communications Dept.)

John Lennon never needed anyone to speak for him. Whether it was with his music or his mouth, Lennon made his mind known.

In the terrific new documentary, The U.S. vs. John Lennon, a host of the famous and infamous speak of John Lennon and the price he paid for speaking out. A rebellious maverick from his earliest years, he was no stranger to opposing the establishment.

After the Beatles brought him enormous fame and media attention, Lennon sought a fuller life than one built on celebrity, particularly after meeting and marrying Yoko Ono, an activist who helped John "find the rest of his voice." Yoko was not the only inspiration helping Lennon’s musical and political evolution.

Lennon’s music reflected more and more the turbulent upheavals of young people dealing with momentous social and political movements. Even though he was not an American, Lennon believed that the issues that sent young men and young women into the streets were universal ones; and he felt his activism was validated by that belief.

Eventually, the days of John’s "creative genius" being "cut some slack" were over. By 1971, FBI agents were haunting Lennon’s personal and professional life. Politicians running for office wanted to "neutralize" his prestige and influence over America’s youth; a group whose voting age had just been lowered to 18.

This urgency became especially acute during the campaign for Richard Nixon’s re-election and at the height of anti-Vietnam protests. From the relative innocuousness of bed-ins for peace and growing hair for peace, Lennon and Yoko eventually linked arms with such avowed enemies of the state as Abbie Hoffman, Bobby Seale and Jerry Rubin.

Afraid that any punitive action against Lennon would backfire, the government eventually discovered a "legal" way to get Lennon out of its hair. The Immigration and Naturalization Service served Lennon and Yoko with deportation papers. Drugs were the excuse.

How Lennon prevailed is a fascinating story, vividly told with archival footage and a regiment of talking heads from Gore Vidal, George McGovern, Walter Cronkite and Angela Davis to John Dean, G. Gordon Liddy and journalists of mostly one stripe. Chock full of Lennon’s music, this riveting work from directors David Leaf and John Scheinfeld is unapologetically slanted, with chilling relevance to today’s political climate.

A Lionsgate release, rated PG-13 for strong language, violent images and drug references.

At about the time the lead character is marooned in remote mountain wilderness, Open Season, for all it’s engaging comedy sketch style nerve and energy and its dazzling technology (Imax 3-D, included), will make you feel a bit nostalgic for the tranquil reality of Bambi.

Breakthroughs in computer animation are evolving so fast, and are so seductively amazing, that it isn’t surprising that it feels like the characters and the story of this cheeky work are primarily at the service of the animation.

A forest ranger (voice of Debra Messing) and the grizzly bear she has raised since it was an orphaned cub have come to a crossroads. Boog (voice of Martin Lawrence) denies he’s anybody’s "pet," but he shows no signs of giving up the cushy life of bedding down (complete with tucked-in lullaby) in Beth’s garage and headlining Beth’s animal show.

Then, Boog crosses paths with a mule deer (voice of Ashton Kutcher) that Shaw, a "knuckle-dragging" hunter (voice of Gary Sinise) tried to bag. Elliot may appreciate the finer aspects of quadraped life, like coffee concoctions, Nummy Bars and vandalizing the local PuniMart; but, he knows instinctively that his place is in the forest with creatures like Boog.

After bear and deer spend a night of destructive delirium at the store, Beth heeds the advice of Timberline’s Sheriff Gordy and hauls the tranquilizer darted Boog and Elliot off by helicopter to a release above the falls in the middle of leafy nowhere. "My life is missing!" screams Boog, as he determines, after lumbering around in circles, that the "woods is no place for a bear."

Even though he was thrown out of his own herd (he was known as "Smelliot"), Elliot knows better; but he offers to help the "Boogster" return to civilization. Routine perils, like the toxic spray of irritated skunks and the derision of industrious beavers, are just the opening acts for the dangers of hunting’s open season, which arrives in less than three days.

The "Incredible Mr. E." and Boog go from facing territorial squirrels and curious bunnies to facing the maniacal Shaw, who believes the animal kingdom is on a course to "reverse the natural order and be masters of humans."

Boog must join paws with all creatures great and small to give their enemies the "full outdoor treatment."

Directors Jill Culton and Roger Allers pack the narrative with sassy, irreverent gags; and lots of action sequences to showcase the new-and-improved 3-D technology that put the images right in your lap. Rated PG for rude humor, mild action and brief language.