Out of the past 10/6/05

25 years ago: Oct. 6, 1980

A dream came true for Dr. Bill W. Stacy, when he was inaugurated president of Southeast Missouri State University yesterday; Stacy, a 1960 graduate of Southeast, has risen through the ranks at the university since becoming a speech instructor in 1967 to being named the university's 12th president.

U.S. Rep. Bill D. Burlison has accepted Republican opponent Bill Emerson's challenge for a series of debates by proposing a schedule of 18 appearances, but Emerson's staff says he won't be able to make the appearances because they conflict with his campaign schedule.

50 years ago: Oct. 6, 1955

Any effort by the Illmo-Fornfelt School District to collect taxes on land owned by Cape Girardeau in Scott County and used for municipal airport purposes will be opposed by the airport board, says its secretary, Rush H. Limbaugh.

Intermittent rain, which began two days ago, continues to fall in Cape Girardeau, helping break the grip of the late summer and early fall drought that has held the area since early August.

75 years ago: Oct. 6, 1930

Work of constructing a private sanitary sewer line from a property near Park Drive at North Main Street to the Mississippi River is being completed; the line is being built by Dr. L.H. Popp, Cape Oil Co., and E.C. Robinson Lumber Co. for the purpose of taking sewage away from the property owned by the three parties.

John H. Himmelberger, 69, father of the hardwood lumber industry and land development in Southeast Missouri, a pioneer in drainage district and financial projects of the district, and for a quarter of a century a leader in the civic affairs of Cape Girardeau, dies from heart disease at the summer home of his sister, Mrs. H.J. Chrismond, at Culver, Ind.; Himmelberger is survived by his wife, the former Miss Mary A. Kesling.

100 years ago: Oct. 6, 1905

This is the big day at the Oran, Mo., fair, and Cape Girardeau is well represented; the officials of the Cape Fair go down in a body to have a pleasant time with their neighbors and to boast of the Cape Fair next week.

Giles Deevers, a farmer living a few miles north of Cape Girardeau, lost two barns and their contents by fire last night, causing him great loss; in the barn were about 14 tons of hay, a surrey, a practically new binder and most all his other farming implements.

-- Sharon K. Sanders