PATTY MULKEY LEAVES A BIG LEGACY HERE

Friends gathered last week to salute Patty Mulkey, who is leaving the community after more than two decades of service to Cape Girardeau.

She has donated untold hours to the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Cape Girardeau Historical Society, the Glenn House and the Cape River Heritage Museum. One of her biggest projects was the museum, which she helped to create and maintain at 538 Independence.

Mulkey has served as both president and director of the museum's board of directors. Sunny Staples, current board president, puts it succinctly: "Patty is the museum."

She also served on the city's bicentennial committee in 1976 and helped to write the city's historic preservation ordinance. Her name appears on the Mulkey-White scholarship for students of history at Southeast Missouri State University.

Mulkey gave her time and energies to all these local projects not because she had to, but because she wanted to. She gets the job done, and often times does it single-handedly. That kind of dedication doesn't go unnoticed.

When she moves to Alabama, a little piece of Cape Girardeau's history will go with her. But she leaves behind a heritage of hard work that may inspire others to step up to the plate. Cape Girardeau owes much to Patty Mulkey. We wish her well, and we thank her for a job well done.