Out of the past 7/3/12

25 years ago: July 3, 1987

Bob Hope, one of the world's most widely known and admired celebrities, will perform during the grand opening of the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau; Hope will appear here Aug. 28.

A group of unidentified, out-of-town businessmen visit the Cape Girardeau Shopping Centre site, flying in from St. Louis by helicopter; heavy grading work is expected to begin next week on the 67-acre site.

50 years ago: July 3, 1962

Superintendent of schools Charles E. House says there is little likelihood that Cape Girardeau's new junior high school will be complete by September 1963 as originally planned; contracts for the job haven't been awarded, and negotiations between the architect and low bidders on the four phases of the project are continuing.

Scott City Mayor Phillip Uhrhan, 64, died suddenly yesterday while working with a street department grader.

75 years ago: July 3, 1937

Professor L.H. Strunk, secretary of the Southeast Missouri Teachers Association, is anxiously awaiting word about Amelia Earhart and her navigator, lost over the Pacific Ocean; he had hoped to bring her here this fall as a speaker at the teachers association convention.

A substantial increase in the number of marriage licenses issued in Cape Girardeau County is expected because of a new Illinois law that requires prospective brides and bridegrooms to produce a medical certificate when they apply for a marriage license.

100 years ago: July 3, 1912

A special express rail car yesterday brought to town the big biplane that will be flown at the Fourth of July picnic tomorrow; Fred Cain in the morning hauls it to the fairgrounds in a hay frame in his wagon; the Baldwin machine weighs between 900 and 1,000 pounds.

George Rodenmayer, a former businessman of Cape Girardeau, visits here in the morning; he is now postmaster and mayor of Ancell, Mo., the terminus of the Houck railroad.

-- Sharon K. Sanders