Out of the past: Nov. 22

1999

Three area school districts will join a movement to improve educational opportunities for their students and teachers; the Oak Ridge and Perryville school districts have established nonprofit school foundations, and Kelly’s district officials are researching the idea of establishing a school foundation; school officials say the foundations will raise money from local sources and alumni to improve school programs and facilities.

While other people decorate their Christmas trees with garland and homemade ornaments, the Salvation Army spares no expense on lights; lots of lights adorn an enormous evergreen outside West Park Mall; they serve as a visual reminder of the goal for helping others through the Army’s Tree of Lights campaign; this year’s fund-raising goal is $220,000.

1974

The Cape Girardeau County Farm Bureau is the only organized opposition to a proposed one-cent city sales tax at Jackson, and it has embarked upon a last-minute campaign to get the issue defeated at the polls Tuesday; Farm Bureau officials say the 1,200-member organization is strongly opposed to the tax on items used in farm production, namely farm machinery.

In its plan to widen Highway 61 in Cape Girardeau, the Missouri Highway Department doesn’t intend to provide a crossover road in the highway’s median to serve the site of the proposed county jail, the County Court has learned; instead, plans currently call for traffic going to or from the proposed jail to use crossover roads at the entrance to Memorial Park, to the east, and one that would be constructed about 900 feet west of the present crossover at the jail site entrance.

1949

The fleet was in last night and sailors, granted liberty ashore, made the best of the opportunity to see Cape Girardeau before they left early this morning for another leg on a voyage that will take them from Great Lakes ports to Orange, Texas, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 14 vessels in the contingent bound for the Navy’s mothball fleet stopped overnight here, part of them docking at the foot of Themis Street and a larger group at the U.S. Engineers harbor below Cape Rock.

In a brief session yesterday, the Cape Girardeau City Council passed on a single item on the agenda: Approval of a $638.47 bill for materials and labor in construction of the new garage facilities on Independence Street, next to the police station; it was made payable to D.F. Slinkard; prior to the meeting, however, Mayor Walter H. Ford and city attorney Albert M. Spradling disposed of another item of city business, turning down a request for the appearance here of a palmist, who asked to sell books and give a free reading to any purchaser; Cape Girardeau has an ordinance prohibiting the practice.

1924

Government postal inspectors and Cape Girardeau County officers are in Randles, 25 miles southwest of Cape Girardeau, investigating the robbery of the Matthews store and post office there Thursday night; approximately $500 in cash was taken by bandits, who use dynamite to blow open the safe.

The Public Works Construction Co. of St. Louis commences work on driving pilings for the new bridge that will span Ramsey Creek on Highway 9, southeast of Cape Girardeau; the work on the bridge is in connection with the grading of the roadway from the new bridge across the Diversion Channel to the old highway near Ancell; the bridge across the creek will be 210 feet in length and will be of steel construction.

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.