Out of the past: Oct. 6

1997

About 35 education majors at Southeast Missouri State University are practicing what they'll later be teaching as participants in a national literary initiative called America Reads; Southeast is one of more than 280 colleges and universities participating in the program, which funnels money into the Federal Work Study program and their service programs to promote literacy; the students are being trained as reading tutors to work with preschool and elementary school-aged children.

Three men rob a Cape Girardeau jewelry store in the afternoon, taking about $800 in merchandise; Loyd Ervin, an owner of the store, Jayson Jewelers Ltd., 115 Themis St., fires a shotgun into the air as they flee; no one is hurt.

1972

The Golden Eagles Marching Band of Southeast Missouri State University will again lead the annual Homecoming Parade Saturday morning, but the director will be riding behind in a car; LeRoy F. Mason, longtime leader of the nationally-recognized band, will be the parade marshal greeting those along the Broadway route from an automobile directly behind his Eagles; Mason was employed as band director in 1957 and has made the group into one frequently seen on national television as half-time performers for professional football games.

Cape Girardeau County voters will have a fist full of ballots to mark in the general election Nov. 7; a total of six separate ballots are in the works, three involving county issues, two on state issues and the big one listing all the candidates for county, state and national offices.

1947

The first annual Harvest Festival, held at Fornfelt Friday and Saturday, was such a success the committee is making plans for the 1948 event; Helen McCullom of Fornfelt was named queen of the festival, while Marion DeHart was crowned king, because he sported the best beard.

In a step to take the Harris Field electrical distribution system from the setup under which it operated while controlled by the Army, the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport Board decides to turn it over to the Missouri Utilities Co.; secretary Rush H. Limbaugh Jr. explains that as the situation stands, with the city owning the system, it is responsible for complete maintenance.

1922

International Shoe Co. plant on North Main Street, May 1951.G.D. Fronabarger ~ Southeast Missourian archive

Twelve hundred persons are now employed at the International Shoe factory here, turning out 9,000 pairs of shoes daily; the employees are paid $27,000 weekly, the largest payroll in the history of the plant; the company has a branch at Jackson which employs 120 persons.

It seems there is another hitch in the road-building program in Cape Girardeau County; the bids on the grading contracts are being held up, pending the procuring by Cape Girardeau County of the right of way needed to properly straighten out and widen Kingshighway; about $50,000 worth of contracts for grading are being held up for that reason, all the grading projects being located north of Jackson and south of Old Appleton.

-- Sharon K. Sanders