Out of the past 2/16/12

25 years ago: Feb. 16, 1987

Sunday dinner was a little late for 900 to 1,000 customers of Union Electric living in the northwest residential area of Cape Girardeau when the power went out; many of the homes in the area also lost heat with electricity; for some, power was out for nearly five hours.

Joe L. Woods, 91, of Cape Girardeau died yesterday at a local hospital; Woods lived most of his life in Cape Girardeau, moving here from Commerce, Mo.; Woods was one of the first black police officers to serve Cape Girardeau.

50 years ago: Feb. 16, 1962

Harry A. Siemers, a Cape Girardeau investments representative, has filed as a Republican candidate for county collector in the Aug. 7 primary; it's his first bid for political office.

Speaking to members of the news media yesterday at the Colonial Restaurant, St. Louis Cardinals manager Johnny Keane said Stan Musial will have to earn his position on the team this year; Keane, who was here with broadcaster Harry Carey, coach Red Schoendienst and others from the Cardinals, said, "With Musial, you wonder how many games he is going to play; after all, he is not near the athlete he once was."

75 years ago: Feb. 16, 1937

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- Thirteen men, trapped on the roof of a floating barn in the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway when their motorboat caught fire and burned yesterday, are rescued today and brought to Charleston; the men were on their way to Wolf Island to bring out a load of corn.

New sponsorship for two WPA nursery schools here must be found if they are to reopen soon; the city council, which had sponsored the schools, paying a portion of the costs, has decided it won't continue to do so.

100 years ago: Feb. 16, 1912

Edward Howard, cashier of the Cape County Savings Bank at Jackson, plunges down an elevator shaft from the seventh floor of the National Bank of Commerce building in St. Louis and is instantly killed.

O.O. Bowers, for many years connected with Morton Brothers Harness and saddlery shop on Broadway, has bought the business and will continue to run it in the most progressive manner.

-- Sharon K. Sanders