Out of the past: July 23

1995

The Rev. Oscar A. Gerken, former pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, is guest speaker at St. Andrew Lutheran Church; he speaks on "The Challenge of China," based on Luke 10:2.

The congregation of La Croix United Methodist Church holds its first worship services in its new church at 3102 Lexington Ave.; the new auditorium seats nearly 300, and the facility is designed to accommodate a children's ministry; the church held services at West Park 4 Cine and Sunday School classes in the theater and Pasta House in the mall for almost seven years.

1970

There will be an added incentive for many alumni of State College to return to the campus next Oct. 30-31 for the annual Homecoming observance; a special program is being planned to honor Helen Bedford, the faculty member with the longest continuing service in the history of the college; Bedford, head of the department of fine and applied arts, joined the college faculty in 1925.

The City of Cape Girardeau has been waiting nearly 16 months for a new fire truck ordered from an Elmira, New York, plant, and that wait will continue another four or five days; Fire Chief Carl J. Lewis has been notified the truck is finally on its way, coming by rail; but, it turns out, the boxcar in which it was shipped has been spotted at a site north of the city in the wrong direction; the nearest switching station to Cape Girardeau is in Hayti, Missouri, some 100 miles south.

1945

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Sullivan, living on Gordonville Road, have received word from the War Department that their son, Pfc. Paul Sullivan, died July 16 in a hospital in the Philippine Islands; the parents were informed their son had been ill of malaria, and that the illness developed into a typhus-type fever.

A genuine heat wave hit Cape Girardeau and the district yesterday, sending the mercury climbing to 96 degrees, a new record for the season; today looks like a carbon copy.

1920

An addition measuring 32-by-28 feet is being built at the rear and adjoining the mattress factory at the corner of Independence and Hanover streets; the factory, which has been shut down for more than two years, was recently taken over by E. Drusch, formerly a store owner on West Broadway.

The greatest display of silver trophy cups ever seen in the area is attracting attention in a Buckner-Ragsdale store window; seven beautiful silver cups are to be awarded at the Cape County Fair this fall for prize-winning livestock; two massive cups have been provided by Southeast Missouri Trust Co., one to be awarded for the champion Guernsey bull and the other for the champion Guernsey cow.

-- Sharon K. Sanders