Out of the past: March 13

2000

​The Southeast Missouri State University basketball Indians are headed to Salt Lake City for their first round of NCAA Tournament play; the Indians will play the Louisiana State University Tigers on Thursday, their first-ever NCAA Tournament game; several hundred fans erupted into cheers and screams yesterday at Drury Lodge in Cape Girardeau, as the pairings were announced on television.

Citing settling floors, leaks and a parking lot that floods, Louis J. Schultz School principal Rob Huff says the building, which houses seventh-grade classes for the Cape Girardeau School District, is nearing the end of its usefulness as an educational facility; he hopes voters approve an $18 million bond issue April 4 to fund construction of a new school; Schultz, 101 S. Pacific St., was constructed as Central High School in 1914.

1975

​Thousands of people crowd into Houck Field House in the morning for the opening session of the 99th annual Southeast Missouri District Teachers Association convention; Cape Girardeau streets leading to Houck are choked with traffic as teachers and school administrators arrive; guest speaker at the opening session is former Miss America Marilyn Van Derbur, a top lecturer on the national circuit.

The Missouri Highway Commission, meeting in Jefferson City yesterday, unanimously approved the relocation of Highway 72 from the Interstate 55 interchange between Cape Girardeau and Jackson to just west of the Highway 34 intersection west of Jackson; the commission’s action puts the project, estimated cost over $16 million, on the State Highway Department’s five-year right of way and construction schedule.

1950

​Injured when struck by an automobile on South Kingshighway, a short distance north of its intersection with old Highway 74, yesterday afternoon, Kenneth M. Johnson, 13, a seventh-grade pupil at Marquette School, dies this morning at a local hospital; the youth, son of Glenn Johnson, was on his way to the Johnson home from a grocery store, which is across the highway from the dwelling.

Under the terms of the will of A.F. Lorberg, farmer of near Gordonville, who died March 4, his property is to be converted into cash and the proceeds given to the Lutheran Orphanage at Des Peres; the estate is estimated at more than $45,000; Lorberg’s wife, the former Wilhelmina Daume, passed away in 1948, and the couple had no children.

1925

​After a brief illness that began little more than a week ago, the Rev. R.E. Roos, pastor of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, died yesterday at Saint Francis Hospital; death is said to have been caused by complications following an operation for gallstones; Roos would have been 33 years old April 2; he is survived by his widow, two young children, eight sisters and four brothers; he had been pastor of Grace Church three years.

Members of the Cape Girardeau Board of Education say they may postpone the bond issue election for construction of a new public school building here until after the regular school election in April; some members favor postponing the vote until after the two new board members, to be selected at the election, take their seats.

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.