Anderson Perasso Funeral Home

William "Bill" Meyer, 85, of Sioux City died Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013, at Northern Hills Assisted Living after a long illness. Bill along with his brother, Chuck, owned and operated Meyer Brothers Funeral Homes until their retirement.Services will be 10:30 a.m. Monday at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, with the Rev. Merlin J. Schrad officiating. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery, with military graveside rites. Visitation will be 4 to 8 p.m. today, with the family present 5 to 8 p.m. and a vigil service at 7 p.m., at Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel. Condolences may be posted online at www.meyerbroschapels.com.Bill was born on Friday, March 4, 1927, in rural Creighton, Neb., the son of John Albert and Mary Ann (Kessler) Meyer. He grew up on the family farm and attended St. Ludger Academy in Creighton where he graduated in May 1945. He was drafted into the U.S. Army on June 16, 1945, and received his basic training in Ft. Lewis, Washington. He served on an attack personnel ship (AP 115, General George M. Randall) in the South Pacific, receiving his discharge in February 1947.He then attended Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Neb., for his pre-mortuary requirements. He graduated from St. Louis College of Mortuary Science in June 1950 with distinguished honors. Bill started his internship in Chadron, Neb., and in February 1951 moved to Omaha, where he completed his internship and received his license as a Funeral Director/Embalmer in June 1951.Bill met and married his wife, the former Ruby Arlene Forre, an Immanuel Hospital nurse, on Oct. 11, 1952, in Omaha. They moved to Albion, Neb., in February 1954 and in May 1955 purchased the Smith Home for Funerals and Home Furnishings that they owned and operated until they purchased the Manning O’Toole Funeral Home which was located at 500 W. Fourth St., in Sioux City on March 1, 1960.In the later part of 1969, Bill incorporated with his brother, Charles, who owned and operated Perasso Brothers Funeral Home. In 1970, they purchased Anderson Funeral Home and merged Perasso Brothers wit... (Sioux City Journal)

The area overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump and locals believe new jobs will now come - but will that be enough to turn around decades of economic distress?Nine years after his plumbing company collapsed at the height of the credit crunch, Clint Barta is feeling confident enough to start again."It's only been days, so it's a bit slow," says Barta who has been in the business for 33 years. "But I'm meeting with a builder tomorrow."The plumber had to lay off 75 employees back in 2008 and commuted daily for an out-of-town job to keep his family afloat."For years, we saw nothing in this town," he says. "But now we live in 'Trump times' and it's all starting to change". Barta lives in Jamestown, a tiny town of 1,900 people nestled in the fertile hills of north Tennessee. An area "with 230 churches and just one pub", as some locals describe it.It's a two-hour drive from here to the nearest city, and the busy streets and shining high-rises of the state capital Nashville feel like a world away.In Jamestown, the streets that make up the town centre are deserted.A short walk takes you past row upon row of empty shops with bare shelves, broken blinds, and months' worth of post piling up under the doors. There are dusty shop fronts, a florist with plastic funeral wreaths in the window, a thrift store, a few sun-bleached 'For Sale' signs. Between 2008 and 2012 official statistics show Jamestown had the sixth lowest median household income of any town in the US. And by 2015 over half of its population was living below the poverty line.But since Donald Trump won the election in November 2016, there's a new sense of optimism in the air."I am hopeful about his promise of bringing jobs back, I have already experienced it myself with my business reopening", says Clint Barta. "Trump is a businessman and I'd rather have a businessman in office than a politician."Many echo his optimism. Voters in Jamestown and the surrounding Fentress County came out overwhelmingly in favour of the Republican candidate, who won 82.5% of the local vote."[We are] Repub... (BBC News)