Out of the past: March 9

2000

Southeast Hospital’s School of Nursing will begin a course to train surgical technicians next summer and has changed its name to reflect the scope of its health career programs; the name Southeast Missouri Hospital College of Nursing and Health Sciences has been adopted by the school’s board of directors.

The flora has spring fever; blooms and blossoms on trees and plants are early this year, says Rocky Hayes, urban forester with the Missouri Conservation Department; with today’s high registering 20 degrees higher than a year ago, thing that go “bloom” have to respond, says Paul Schnare of Sunny Hill Gardens and Florists; crabapple, cherry and Bradford pear trees are all showing early spring colors.

1975

On the last day of filing yesterday, Cape Girardeau businessman Wilburn A. Lee announced he would be a third candidate for the only open seat on the Cape Girardeau City Council this spring, assuring that a city primary election will be held March 18; Lee, is opposed by incumbent Paul W. Stehr and Brenda Green.

A native Southeast Missouri female vocalist, who has made it to the top as a recording artist and in personal appearances, will headline the free entertainment each day of the 1975 SEMO District Fair, Sept. 9 through 13; the vivacious brunette, known only by the professional name of “Kelly”, is a native of Naylor; at birth she was named Darlene Kelly Leroux by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. James H. Leroux, now of Doniphan.

1950

ADVANCE – A father and three small sons perished and their mother and another son were seriously burned when fire destroyed their four-room farm dwelling, five miles east of Advance, shortly before midnight; found dead in the ruins were the father, Buford Crader, 26, and his children, Dewayne, 6, Donald, 4, and Billy, 2; in a Cape Girardeau hospital are Violet Crater, 25, and her infant son, Dennis, 3 months old; both are in serious condition.

While union carpenters continue to work, laborers of the Cape Girardeau local are picketing the State College field house project; top officials of the laborers’ district organization says, “We are on record to fight this thing all the way”; the issue involves the removal of wooden forms from concrete work; laborers insist that for years this task has been assigned to them and charge that, on the field house job, carpenters are doing this work.

1925

Madame Julia Claussen delighted a large audience yesterday afternoon at Academic Hall; the Swedish-American prima donna rewarded her admirers with two encores”; Claussen leaves in the afternoon for St. Louis, where she will be the guest soloist with the city’s symphony orchestra Friday and Saturday.

The will of the late Louis Houck is filed for probate in Common Pleas Court; his only son, Giboney Houck, is to inherit several hundred acres of land in the county; two lots in the city of Cape Girardeau are given his daughter, Rebecca Houck Frissell, while Charles G. Juden, a son-in-law, is given the large plantation south of the city on which he resides; most of the land owned by Houck will be divided among his grandchildren; to his widow, Mary Hunter Giboney Houck, he left “what amount may be due in life insurance…”; Elwood, their rural estate, is owned by his wife, as is considerable other city and county property.

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.