1999

As if the three-day Memorial Day weekend wasn’t enough time off already, attorneys from Boone County come offering an all-expenses-paid, 10-day trip to Columbia to at least 12 Cape Girardeau County residents; Boone County Prosecutor Kevin Crane and attorneys for murder suspect Earl Ringo begin jury selection with about 190 Cape Girardeau County residents; 12 jurors and at least two alternates will be taken to Columbia for what is expected to be a 10-day trial; this is the third jury picked in Cape Girardeau for another county’s trial.

Eddie Conrad thought everyone should know what life on a river barge is like, so he and Jeffrey D. Kriday built the River Explorer for that purpose; the River Explorer, an excursion boat built atop two 295-foot river barges, the De Soto and the LaSalle, docks in Cape Girardeau before heading north up the Mississippi River to St. Louis in the early afternoon.

1974

The Cape Girardeau Selective Service office will be closed and its executive secretary and records moved to Sikeston June 17-18 as part of the plan to reduce the number of offices and employees; the action is a result of the end of the military draft; offices in Southeast Missouri to be closed are at Cape Girardeau, Kennett and Crystal City; the ones at Farmington, Poplar Bluff and Sikeston will be retained.

An emergency readiness report submitted to the County Court Thursday urges that the City of Cape Girardeau “change its feelings regarding the need for outside assistance” during times of emergencies and “cooperate fully with the county and Jackson to assure maximum use of resources to reduce individual suffering in the event of a disaster”; the report, prepared by the State Disaster Planning and Operations Office, points out Cape Girardeau hasn’t had a formal Civil Defense program for several years, and that its basic plan for natural disaster and civil disturbance is inadequate.

1949

City officials, viewing a May construction total that for the third month passed the $100,000 mark, announce that all persons with major damage from the May 21 tornado will be issued building permits without charge; they ask, however, that the permit be secured so it can be posted at the construction site; city engineer John R. Walther explains that a record of all construction in the city is necessary.

All field activities in the eight-state operation area of the Midwest Dairy Products Corp., are now centralized and directed from Cape Girardeau, and an extensive building program has been completed to house the executive field administrative offices at the Midwest building, 25 S. Spanish St.; additional facilities also will be added with the installation of new testing and control laboratories, as well as a new machine shop for handling extensive repairs and servicing all types of equipment.

1924

With more than half of the money either paid in or pledged, and indications favorable to getting the remainder, members of Third Street Methodist Church in North Cape Girardesau are preparing to wreck the present building in which they are holding services preparatory to building a new, modern structure; the Rev. Fred Statler, pastor, announces that approximately $2,000 has been either pledged or paid in, and with less than $1,000 remaining for the amount needed, he says work will start this week to raze the old structure and build the new, so it may be in use by the end of the summer

Bert Baird, 17, son of Mrs. Charles Baird, a widow of Cape Girardeau, is killed almost instantly, and four boys are hurt, two of them seriously, when an automobile in which they are racing at a high rate of speed, leaves the road and sideswipes a tree on the Bloomfield Road near the Keller Creek bridge, three miles southwest of Cape Girardeau; Baird is standing on the running board of the light Ford roadster, when he is swept from his position and hurled against the tree.

Southeast Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders compiles the information for the daily Out of the Past column. She also writes a blog called “From the Morgue” that showcases interesting historical stories from the newspaper. Check out her blog at semissourian.com/history.