Out of the past: March 11

2000

​Cape Girardeau businessman Jim Drury’s lawsuit to block the city from spending tax money on the River Campus project has been returned to the circuit court where it was originally filed; last April, Drury and his MidAmerica Hotels Corp. filed a lawsuit in Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court against the City of Cape Girardeau; it had been moved to federal court last May, but Drury’s lawyer, Walter S. Drusch, argued the suit should be heard in circuit court, and a federal judge agreed.

JEFFERSON CITY — Two Southeast Missouri circuit judges filed for reelection this week; Judge John W. Grimm, a Democrat, is seeking a second six-year term on the 32nd Judicial Circuit Division 2 bench, covering Bollinger, Cape Girardeau and Perry counties; Judge Stephen R. Sharp, also a Democrat, is seeking his second full term term on the 35th Judicial Circuit bench, covering Dunklin and Stoddard counties.

1975

​Two of the top staff members of the Cape Girardeau School District were “removed” from their positions last night, causing a major shakeup in the school administration and visible anger from the audience at the school board meeting; Supt. Charles E. House, who had been with the school system 14 years, 12 1/2 in the top office and 18 months as assistant superintendent, resigned his position with regret; Eugene Sifford, principal of Cape Girardeau Central High School since 1969 and assistant principal at the junior high the prior year, was reassigned to classroom teaching and permanent teacher status.

A plan that would involve the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in conducting studies for a Mississippi River port to serve Cape Girardeau and Scott counties was formulated at a meeting in Cape Girardeau yesterday of the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority Board of Commissioners; the commissioners in voting to petition the corps office to make the study, also designated a 12.5-mile stretch of the river from near the railroad bridge at Thebes, Illinois, to directly across from Devil’s Island north of Cape Girardeau as a general location for a port.

1950

​Leasing of the building at 119 N. Main St. in Cape Girardeau, owned by Louis Hecht and now occupied by Gamble Stores, to the Biederman Furniture Co. of St. Louis is announced; the new firm will take up occupancy July 1 on a 10-year lease; officials with Gamble-Skogmo Co. say they are negotiating for a lease at another location.

Judge Fred Clippard, 78, a member of the Cape Girardeau County Court for 10 years, dies in the morning at a local hospital; born in Laflin on Dec. 8, 1871, Clppard married Dora Barks on Dec. 4, 1898, at Barks Chapel near Whitewater; she survives, as does a brother, Frank B. Clippard, of Utica, Michigan; a son, Paul, died in 1939.

1925

​Today marks the second anniversary of the cyclone that wrecked the central part of Jackson, doing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage to buildings in its path; the most remarkable feature about the March 11, 1923, storm was the miraculous escape of all those who inhabited the wrecked or damaged structures; no one was seriously injured.

Twenty-eight Southeast Missouri high school basketball teams will compete in the annual basketball tournament, which is scheduled to begin tomorrow afternoon at the Teachers College; more teams have been entered this year than ever before, and for the first time, preliminary contests will be in progress simultaneously in the college’s two gymnasiums in the Education Building and Academic Hall.

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.