Out of the past: Nov. 4

1999

Cape Girardeau Mayor Al Spradling III and Jackson Mayor Paul Sander won’t be wining and dining with state highway officials tonight; instead, they will be among the expected crowd of 10,000 attending the annual football clash between Cape Girardeau Central and Jackson high schools; the mayors regularly attend the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce’s annual highway dinner, but this year the “big game” is scheduled for the same night.

The eight confirmed cases of hepatitis A in Bollinger County are the result of person-to-person transmission and aren’t associated with a restaurant or single event, a state health official says; the first case was confirmed in early September, the next about a month later, and more continued to occur in October; three people tested positive for the virus in the past week.

1974

An era of almost 60 years of operation in the dairy business ended Friday for the Blattner family of Cape Girardeau with the sale of the milk processing and sales service of Sunny Hill Dairy Farms Co., 45 S. West End Blvd., to Prairie Farms Dairy Inc. of Olney, Illinois; Louis C. Blattner Jr., son of the founder of Sunny Hill and president of the company, says Prairie Farms will continue to package milk and sell it under the Sunny Hill label.

Five Southeast Missouri residents, natives of other countries, become citizens of the United States in a naturalization ceremony in the afternoon in Federal District Court; they are Chang-Wei Hwang, 50, and Lily Hwang, 53, of Cape Girardeau, Gisela Gockel, 44, of Cape Girardeau, Steven W. Smith, 20, of Birchtree and Kyong Suk Becker, 29, of Korea; Judge John K. Regan delivers the welcome address.

1949

Tax money currently being collected in the recently annexed portion of the Cape Special Road District will go to the district and not the county the attorney general rules; the opinion of the state legal office is reported by Prosecuting Attorney Raymond H. Vogel, who had asked for the information at the request of the County Court; there has been some discussion between the court and road district officials over reimbursement to the county of a part of the tax money.

The two-story home of Floyd Hefner on Hillcrest Drive and all its furnishings were destroyed yesterday afternoon by fire, in which one of the two family dogs perished; whipped by a brisk, cold wind, the fire quickly made a blazing inferno of the six-room dwelling, and it was rendered a mass off flaming ruins within 30 minutes after the alarm was sounded; Hefner, a painter, estimates tentatively the loss at $4,410, including the furniture; there was no one home when the fire started.

1924

Indications in the afternoon are that a near-record vote will be achieved in today’s general election in Cape Girardeau County; at 1 p.m., 2,167 votes had been cast in Cape Girardeau Township, and reports from Jackson and rural precincts are that the early voting was unusually heavy.

I. Ben Miller is in receipt of a letter from the American Guernsey Cattle Club saying he has another state champion in his herd, making four state championships for Lila Drew Farm; Imp. Betty’s Prize II, 100102, is now the Missouri state champion Guernsey cow in Class BB (4 1/2 years old, carrying a calf for 265 days), having produced 8,883.3 pounds of milk, testing 6.56, containing 577.51 pounds butter fat; Miller’s previous three champion cows are still in his herd of 60 animals, making fine records.

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.