Out of the past: Feb. 19

2000

A not-for-profit corporation wants approval from Southeast Missouri State University to open a charter school in St. Louis; Lift for Life Gym in St. Louis, which operates an after-school athletic program that centers around weightlifting, wants to open a middle school next fall for 60 students; under state law, the SEMO Board of Regents has 60 days to act on the application, which was filed Monday.

It’s official: Cape Girardeau is a Main Street community; Gov. Mel Carnahan yesterday named Cape Girardeau and Fayetteville the latest Main Street communities, bringing the state total to 14; the revitalization program for Cape Girardeau encompasses an area from Water Street along Broadway to Pacific and to Morgan Oak; it includes the primary downtown business area, Haarig, upper Broadway and old St. Vincent’s College, site of the proposed River Campus of Southeast Missouri State University.

1975

​CHAFFEE — The City of Chaffee and the Chaffee Special Road District will undergo state audits as a result of accusations of mismanagement in the municipal operation and flagrant conflicts of interest and nepotism by certain road district commissioners and employees; the office of state Auditor George W. Lehr has acknowledged that the audits will be conducted as soon as a backlog of petition audits is caught up.

Five to six acres of land northwest of the Interstate 55-Highway 61 interchange on Bird Road is offered free of charge to the Missouri Department of Education as a site for a new State School for the Handicapped; Thomas L. Meyer, a Cape Girardeau Board of Education member, makes the offer on behalf of Charles N. Harris, owner of the land, to Dr. Arthur L. Mallory, state commissioner of education, in Jefferson City.

1950

​L.P. Winger of Alhambra, California, formerly a resident of Bonne Terre, will begin his duties at the Southeast Missouri Bible Foundation on Feb. 28, the first day of the spring term at the State College; Winger has been added as an instructor and student secretary to the foundation staff.

The pulpit at Grace Methodist Church, left vacant last week by the sudden death of the Rev. P.A. Kasey, is filled by the Rev. John L. Taylor, district superintendent of Methodist churches; the procedure for selecting a minister to fill a vacancy will be initiated soon; under this, the pastoral committee of the church, the superintendent and bishop will confer relative to a selection.

1925

​Simple funeral rites for Louis Houck, pioneer road builder and author, are planned for Saturday morning at his country home, Elmwood; conforming to his oft-repeated request, the service will be brief and unostentatious, with only a short religious service by the Rev. M.J. LeSage, pastor of St. Vincent’s Catholic Church; the latter leaves for St. Louis to secure a special dispensation from Archbishop John J. Glennon to conduct the service; Houck’s pallbearers will either be his nephews or his immediate neighbors — farmers living in the vicinity of Elmwood.

Superintendent of Schools J.A. Whitford is the principal speaker at the monthly dinner of the Cape Girardeau Association of University Women in the evening at the parish house of Christ Episcopal Church; Whitford’s talk deals with “The Boy and Girl of High School Age”; he maintains that children of today aren’t as bad as they are painted and, if they are, the fault lies with their parents.

Southeast Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders compiles the information for the daily Out of the Past column. She also writes a weekend column called “From the Morgue” that showcases interesting historical stories from the newspaper.