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The matriarch of the Schnucks' grocery store chain has died. 88-year-old Doris Schnuck died Saturday at her home in Clayton. A company spokeswoman says she had been in failing health.

Doris and Donald Schnuck helped turn a corner grocery in north St. Louis into the area’s leading supermarket chain.  He died in 1991 at age 69. They have six children who run the supermarket chain. Funeral arrangements are pending.

Today, Schnucks operates 100 stores in five states — Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa — with 14,800 employees.

Mrs. Schnuck supported the St. Louis Children’s Hospital, the Children’s Tumor Foundation, the St. Louis Zoo and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. The Children’s Garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden is named for her.

Craig and Terry Schnuck live in Clayton. Scott, Todd, Mark and Nancy live in Ladue. Other survivors include 20 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

 The man accused of setting the Randolph County house fire that killed four children has pleaded not guilty.

33-year-old Derrick Twardoski is facing murder charges after allegedly setting the fire that killed 12-year-old Ethan Owen, 9-year-old Kailey Owen, and five-year-old twins Brandon and Landon Owen in Percy, a village 60 miles southeast of St. Louis. A judge ordered him jailed without bond and assigned him to be represented by a public defender.   State's Attorney Jeremy Walker says he doesn't consider the fire random, though he's declined to detail what led investigators to Twardoski or any relationship he may have had with the victims.

Randolph County Coroner Randy Dudenbostel has confirmed that all four died of smoke inhalation.  

Funeral services for the children will be Tuesday at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Steelville, Illinois.  

Donation are being accepted at the church to help the family with their expenses.  

The funeral service for the Owen children has been planned. It will be held Tuesday, May 14, at 2:00pm at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Steeleville, IL, with visitation Monday evening from 4:00pm until 8:00pm and again Tuesday from 7:30am until 1:45pm also at the church.

   ST. LOUIS (AP) - Exactly how much the soggy spring has slowed farmers' efforts to plant their corn will become a bit clearer.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday was to issue its latest update on spring plantings.

A week ago, the USDA reported that just 12 percent of the nation's cornfields have been planted. That's about a quarter of what was planted by this date over the previous five years, and it marks the slowest start in decades in some states.

In Illinois, only 7 percent of the Illinois corn crop was sown.

Yet USDA estimates that while the wet start is expected to reduce the amount each acre produces this year, farmers are planting so much corn that they're still likely to bring in a record amount.