Out of the past: April 4

1998

The Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission has awarded two construction contracts totaling $29.5 million for the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge; the commission's action sets the stage for work to resume in May on the new, four-lane bridge at Cape Girardeau; at its meeting Friday in Jefferson City, the commission hired Massman Construction Co. of Kansas City to build the substructure of the Illinois approach span for the new bridge; the commissioners also hired Nicholson Construction Co. of Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, to perform jet grouting work on bedrock at the pier site in the middle of the Mississippi River.

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- The final wrinkles in a plan to privatize Perry County Memorial Hospital should be ironed out by the end of next week; hospital officials will meet with the Perry County Commission on Thursday to finalize the reorganization of the hospital, which is converting from a public, not-for-profit institution to a private, not-for-profit institution.

1973

The Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau has reached a record level as it continues flooding even more land throughout eastern Missouri and western Illinois, pushing damage estimates throughout the vast area to $41 million; the record level here was reached some time yesterday; every hour through Sunday, when the river is expected to crest here at 43.5 feet, should bring new records; the river at Cape Girardeau stands at 42.6 feet, two-tenths of an foot higher than the previous record set May 27, 1943.

Two new members were selected to the Cape Girardeau Board of Education yesterday and two incumbents were returned to seats on the City Council by about 2,050 of the 18,827 registered Cape Girardeau voters balloting in school and city elections; J. Kent Cargle and Mrs. Donald R. McBride won places on the school board in an upset that unseated incumbent Mary Kasten; Mayor Howard C. Tooke and Councilman Jerry L. Reynolds won easy victories over the only other council candidate, Paul H. Harty Jr.

1948

The Spring Rally of the Altenburg-Cape Girardeau Zone of the Lutheran Women's Missionary League will be held Wednesday at Illmo; more than 300 women from Lutheran Churches in the territory from Corning, Arkansas, to Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, are expected to attend; guest speakers will be Li-Yen San, a native of China and a student at Concordia Seminary, and Sadie Fulk Roehrs of Fort Wayne, Indiana, national president of the league.

Forcing their way through a window and a door, a thief or thieves stole approximately $160 in school funds from the high school and grade school in Jackson last night or this morning; considerable damage was done to the two buildings.

1923

L.L. Bowman and C.W. Stehr were returned to the Cape Girardeau Board of Education by voters yesterday, and both tax levies for the maintenance of the public schools were approved in a colorless school election; Bowman and Stehr outpaced J.A. Withers in the school board vote.

Sixty veterans of the Civil War, all survivors of the Battle of Shiloh, stopped at Cape Girardeau late yesterday on their annual pilgrimage to the battlefield; the old soldiers left St. Louis on Tuesday on the steamer Tennessee Belle and expect to reach the battlefield late today; Capt. S.M. French, ranking officer of the party, recalls marching through Cape Girardeau in the fall of 1864, coming here from Brownsville, Arkansas, overland, and taking a boat here for Jefferson City.

-- Sharon K. Sanders