Out of the past: March 10

2000

Southeast Missouri State University basketball fans may find few tickets available to the school’s first appearance ever in the Division I NCAA Tournament next week; like the other schools in the Big Dance, the university is guaranteed only 450 tickets for the first- and second-round games combined.

JEFFERSON CITY – Missouri’s population grew only slightly last year, according to estimates released by the Missouri Office of Administration and the U.S. Bureau of the Census; as of July 1, 1999, nearly 5.5 million people were living in the state, an increase of about 32,000 from the previous year; Southeast Missouri’s nine counties, however, saw a dip of 14% or less between 1998 and 1999; Cape Girardeau County, however, grew by 9%.

1975

Mark Watson has taken over operation of Pagliai’s Pizza on Broadway, following the recent purchase of the business from Dave Lepovitz; he had been associated with the restaurant the past four years and has been identified with the pizza business for 10 years.

Cape Girardeau received its first snow of winter, just 11 days before Spring; 6 inches of snow blanketed Cape Girardeau and the area yesterday; schools here and in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois are closed, traffic is snarled across the state, and many residents have difficulty getting to work.

1950

Verna Lee Landis, city clerk and secretary to the Board of Registrars, announces that registration for the special better roads election April 4 will be held in all 11 Cape Girardeau wards on Tuesday, March 21, and at Common Pleas Courthouse March 22; all persons who haven’t previously registered and are eligible to vote must register in the ward in which they reside.

Rate increases that will cost district telephone users one half million dollars more per year are granted the Southeast Missouri Telephone Co. by the Missouri Public Service Commission; however, the commission rejects a company rate schedule that would have increased it’s gross earnings by $634,000 a year; the company is directed to submit a new rate schedule based on an increase of $500,000 in its gross revenue, with the schedule to become effective March 21.

1925

Teachers College athletics officials, who have charge of the arrangements for the annual high school track and field meet here in May, are preparing to call on the City Council to ask that Fairground Park be enclosed during the contests; it is explained that all the expenses of the meet are paid from gate admissions; unless the park is enclosed, it won’t be possible to collect admission; expenses usually amount to around $500.

Preliminary steps are taken at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the establishment of an air mail route from that city to St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans; that could lead to Cape Girardeau securing an air mail service as well.

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.