Out of the past: May 20

1996

Norman Brooks has been teaching art students at L.J. Schultz since the building opened as a seventh-grade attendance center 31 years ago, but this year will be his last in the classroom; Brooks and his wife, Peggy, are just two of the 23 teachers, principals and staff members of the Cape Girardeau School District who accepted a retirement incentive from the school board; in all, 27 district employees are retiring later this month.

More than two years after Cape Girardeau voters approved $25 million in sewer revenue bonds, community leaders, city officials and representatives of Sverdrup Engineers of St. Louis and Robinson Construction Co. of Perryville, Missouri, take part in a groundbreaking ceremony at College and Henderson streets; the first phase of the project is underway in that neighborhood, where rainwater and sanitary sewer lines are being separated.

1971

Council meetings of 25 years ago came to the forefront last night, when the Cape Girardeau Metro Association asked the current City Council to set aside 50% of its parking meter receipts to buy and develop off-street parking lots in the city's business sections; turning back the calendar, Glenn J. Hutson, spokesman for the group, recalled that about 25 years ago when a dispute developed over a proposal for parking meters for city streets, the City Council promised the former association part of the money from the meters would be used to obtain other parking areas.

Ray Yeager of Cape Girardeau, a bulldozer operator for Drury Construction Co., completed the leveling of the Alvarado in 1971.(Steve Robertson ~ Southeast Missourian archive)

The last of the Alvardo, once one of the most attractive restaurants in the area, was pushed into the basement of the old structure near the intersection of Broadway and Highway 61; the Spanish-style building was razed to make way for construction of a filling station.

1946

Delivering the address at the 72nd annual commencement program of State College, Missouri Gov. Phil M. Donnelly calls on members of the graduating class for an increased participation in governmental affairs and services; 88 members of the class receive their diplomas in ceremonies at Academic Hall auditorium.

Cape Girardeau's school enumeration shows a reduction in the number of children of school age, 6 to 19, inclusive, with 4,405 as compared to 4,473 last year; the report shows there are 2,238 boys and 2,167 girls of school age; white boys number 2,094 and white girls, 2,007; there are 304 Black children in the district, including 144 boys and 160 girls.

1921

A small baby was barely saved yesterday afternoon, when the home of Harvey Ross in the rear of 319 Good Hope St., was destroyed by fire; the baby had been left alone in the house by other members of the family, but was saved by a neighbor, Clara Robertson, who rushed through the blaze and carried the child to safety; the old frame house apparently ignited when a piece of wood fell from a cook stove; the house burned in a few minutes.

Roy Miller, an employee of the threshing machine factory in north Cape Girardeau, is off duty for several days owing to a mishap Wednesday; Miller, in walking between the molds at the foundry, made a misstep, and his left foot submerged in melted iron ore; he is getting about with the use of crutches.

-- Sharon K. Sanders