Out of the past 8/27/11

25 years ago: Aug. 27, 1986

The start of construction of the $10.5 million Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority on the Mississippi River, east of Scott City, moved a bit closer this week; site exploration crews from the St. Louis Army Corps of Engineers are taking core samples of the earth beneath the site of the slack water harbor and port facility; construction of the facility is set to begin next spring.

Enrollment at Southeast Missouri State University this fall is down slightly from a comparable time a year ago, but school officials expect the figures to increase over the next two weeks; 7,914 undergraduates are enrolled in classes, along with 536 graduate students.

50 years ago: Aug. 27, 1961

Bill Kitchen of Cape Girardeau has been ordained as an evangelist in the Church of God, 1000 Bend Rd.; Kitchen is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Kitchen and is employed at the Central Packing Co.

Andy Watson, right, winner of the World's Championship Overall Go-Kart Race, was handed the $1,000 prize and Eddie Rickenbacher Trophy by Miss Missouri of 1961, Sarah Kay Burns of Caruthersville, Mo. Looking on was TWIKA president Sig Petchul. (Missourian archives photo by G.D. "Frony" Fronabarger)

Andy Watson's twin McCulloch engine go-kart wins the Overall World's Championship Kart Race at TWIKA Speedway; with his win, Watson, of Kansas City, Mo., becomes the world champion go-karter and does so by downing the former champion.

75 years ago: Aug. 27, 1936

The Cape Girardeau Baptist Association closed its annual two-day meeting last night at First Baptist Church and voted to hold next year's meeting at Perryville, Mo.; Judge J.T. McDonald of Jackson was named chairman of a committee to work out a plan to restore the Old Bethel Church grounds west of Cape Girardeau.

A U.S. mail contract, the first of its kind awarded in this section of the country to a trucking firm, has been given to the George Kimbel Truck Lines, Inc., of Cape Girardeau; the firm has started carrying the mail from Chicago, through Cape Girardeau, to Memphis, on a daily schedule.

100 years ago: Aug. 27, 1911

The Rev. O.J. Ferguson, pastor of the new South Cape church, holds regular services and starts a revival meeting; he and the Rev. Lowe will conduct revival services this week, and the Rev. Clarence Burton of Jackson the week after that.

J.C. Williams, an extensive lumber mill operator and farmer of Farmington, Mo., comes down to attend the funeral of Mrs. Charles Juden and to look over the town, which he hasn't visited since he was a boy.

-- Sharon K. Sanders