Out of the past: Nov. 13

1997

The eagle mascot won't fly, Southeast Missouri State University's mascot committee has discovered; the advisory committee last week had looked at the idea of an eagle character for a mascot, but Student Government shot down that idea Monday; the student senators acted after receiving a petition signed by 400 students opposing the idea; some students expressed support for returning to an Indian mascot; in recent years, Southeast hasn't had a mascot.

City leaders celebrate in Charleston and Licking, Missouri, after learning that Gov. Mel Carnahan chose their towns as sites for two maximum-security prisons; in Charleston, they toast the news with apple cider at city hall; "Everybody is excited," says Charleston civic leader Betty Hearnes, a former state representative and wife of former Gov. Warren Hearnes; she helped lead the effort to land a prison in Charleston; the prison will be built on a 120-acre site south of Interstate 57 and the city limits.

1972

With more rain and possibly thunderstorms predicted for tonight and tomorrow, flash flood warnings continue in effect throughout Southeast Missouri; despite receiving over an inch of rain since midnight, L.W. McDowell, superintendent of the City Public Works Department, says no major problems have developed from rain at Cape Girardeau as of 8 a.m.; city employees worked all day Saturday picking up leaves in an effort to keep them from clogging catch basins.

Cape Girardeau's name may be French, but it was its German heritage that was on parade Saturday night; from colorful German dolls and other appointments in the foyer of the Arena Building to the stag-emblazoned beer steins on the tables and a sauerbraten dinner, the fourth annual Heritage Ball was a salute to the city's German past and present; proceeds from the ball will go toward restoration of the Glenn House.

1947

A one-day, whirlwind campaign to raise $100,000 industrial fund is being planned for Cape Girardeau on Dec. 9; the Chamber of Commerce will use the funds to bring new factories to the city; directing the effort for the chamber will be Edward W. Opfer.

The Hollywood Cafe, 705 Broadway, reopens under the management of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Perry, 616 Elm St., and Mr. and Mrs. Woodrow Perry, 111 N. Main St.; the men are brothers; the women are sisters, the former Misses Virgie and Kirllian Putz of Grand Tower, Illinois; the cafe was leased from Pete George.

1922

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Almost every day, cotton planters from the South come into Southeast Missouri to rent lands to be planted in cotton next spring; southern planters have been forced by the boll weevil either to depend less on cotton crops or to seek new lands for growing this staple; they have found the qualities of soil and climate to growing cotton in Southeast Missouri, a territory which heretofore has made wheat and corn its chief products.

Burning out of three auxiliary motors at the power plant of the Missouri Public Utilities Co. here threw many towns of Southeast Missouri into darkness Saturday night; the entire district that depends on the Cape Girardeau plant for service was without electricity for 35 minutes.

-- Sharon K. Sanders