Out of the past: June 12

1995

Louisa Panou-Takahashi, assistant professor of music at Southeast Missouri State University, departs for Rome to begin directing Operafestival di Roma 1995, a six-week cavalcade of concerts, recitals and classes that give university singers from around the worl an opportunity to sing and study in the birthplace of opera.

The U.S. Coast Guard in St. Louis gives the green light for barge traffic to resume on the Mississippi River between St. Louis and Cairo, Illinois, at a release rate of one vessel per hour.

1970

Rear Adm. Sheldon H. Kinney, assistant to the chief of naval operations for education and training, spoke last night before the Cape Girardeau Chapter of the Navy League; he observed that professors in the nation's colleges and universities who oppose the Reserve Officers Training Corps exhibit a peculiar view of academic freedom; the professors deny the value of ROTC, Kinney said, without ever examining its curriculum.

Southeast Missouri farmers are winning the battle against Mother Nature's recent above-normal rainfall, but the struggle has been costly in terms of crop planting and harvesting delays and in crop losses; some area farmers, unable to plant certain crops, have resorted to putting substitute crops in the ground, while other farmers are running as much as three weeks behind schedule in planting.

1945

The steamer Penniman, along with a quarters boat, arrive at Cape Girardeau at noon on the last lap of an inspection tour of the Mississippi River, harbor and flood-control projects, which began early last week at Minneapolis, Minnesota; it will end with the cruise from here to Cairo, Illinois, this afternoon; 11 prominent Cape Girardeau men join the engineers on the last leg of the journey.

The Mississippi River continues its upsurge, fed by the Missouri, Meramec and other tributaries; this morning's stage at Cape Girardeau is 35.2 feet, a rise of 1.3 feet from yesterday morning; the rise is forcing a number of families in the lower cottages in Smelterville to move to higher ground; downtown, the water is three inches deep on the Frisco tracks near Themis Street, and the railroad is preparing to lay its auxiliary tracks, so as to keep trains out of water as long as possible.

1920

G.W. Mabrey and Robert Price, two of Cape Girardeau's popular barbers, have opened a shop on Good Hope Street, one door west of the Braun Grocery.

A syndicate of Cape Girardeau County men, associated with Texas oil operators, reports preparations are being made to drill for oil in Cape Girardeau County; they are arranging to drill three test wells; the local syndicate, of which J.H. Minton is treasurer, will open offices here at once.

-- Sharon K. Sanders