She Had an Early Taste of One of Life’s Inevitabilities

A 10-year-old San Jose girl who was reached by the long arm of the Internal Revenue Service will get back her life savings, which the agency seized in a dispute over her father’s back taxes. Shannon Burns is still incensed at having the $694 in her savings account taken. “I didn’t like it,” she said. “It was insulting.” Kevin Burns said that IRS agents gave him documents saying the money would be returned after he presented his daughter’s passbook, which showed several small deposits and no withdrawals. “I got it from collecting cans, from doing my homework,” she said. “I got it for Christmas. I got some from my dad and some from my grandmother and some from my great-grandparents.” Burns admitted that he has owed the IRS more than $1,000 since 1983, but said: “It’s my problem, not her problem.”

--Motorists in Ferrysburg, Mich., got a free ride for three months, when they were able to park illegally because police--unsure of whether the town’s name would be changed--ran out of tickets and put off ordering a new supply. Ferrysburg voters were asked to decide Nov. 4 whether the name of the Lake Michigan town should be changed to West Spring Lake, but they overwhelmingly backed keeping the old name. Because of the impending election, Ferrysburg police did not issue a single ticket during the last three months of 1986, Ferrysburg Police Chief William Kaufman said.

--Former Atty. Gen. Elliot L. Richardson joins company with former President Gerald R. Ford, retired Chief Justice Earl Warren and former Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) as a recipient of the Harry S. Truman Good Neighbor Award. Richardson, 66, who resigned rather than carry out President Richard M. Nixon’s order to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox in 1973, will receive the award for outstanding public service on the anniversary of Truman’s birth, May 8. Richardson held four Cabinet posts, including attorney general under Nixon.

--A sculptor is issuing a call of the wild to fans of Marlin Perkins--for money to pay for an eight-foot bronze statue of the late outdoorsman. Bob Tommey of Carthage, Mo., said he has raised about $4,000 in contributions from Perkins’ family and friends, but that a foundry will charge perhaps $20,000 to form a mold from his wax model. Tommey’s work depicts Perkins, host of Mutual of Omaha’s “Wild Kingdom” television show, holding field glasses. He says the model will be finished by the end of the month. “I’ve got one more hand and a few wrinkles to complete,” he said. Perkins died at his home in Clayton, Mo., last June, at the age of 81.