Out of the past: Nov. 11

1997

Veterans Day. Veterans, their families, school children and others gather around four rebuilt brick pillars at Cape Girardeau's Freedom Corner to honor men and women of the military; Freedom Corner is rededicated as part of Veterans Day ceremonies; the brick columns honor 203 soldiers from Cape Girardeau County who died in service to their country.

The number of possible corridors under consideration for expansion and improvements to Highways 34 and 72 has been trimmed from 13 to five, according to representatives for QST Infrastructure Inc., the firm hired by the Missouri Department of Transportation; a public meeting on the project is scheduled for Nov. 18 at the Holiday Inn in Cape Girardeau; the project would provide a new or improved four-lane highway between the Highway 34-72 intersection in Jackson and the new Highway 74-Interstate 55 interchange at Cape Girardeau.

1972

Southeast Missouri farmers, deluged by repeated rainfall in the wettest late summer-early autumn season in the memory of most, have suffered $37,330,669 in crop losses -- $24,742,435 in soybeans alone -- and the disaster is still unfolding; the figures were estimated this week by soil conservation officials, using their average and other figures and the average prices listed by the Missouri Department of Agriculture.

JEFFERSON CITY -- Preparations for shifting the State Highway Patrol's Troop E headquarters from Poplar Bluff to Sikeston will proceed as scheduled despite a suit filed by the City of Poplar Bluff; Judge James T. Riley of Cole County Circuit Court refused yesterday to issue a restraining order to halt surveying, geological testing and bid letting for the Sikeston site.

1947

Veterans of two wars marched again down Broadway on Nov. 11, 1947. Here, the Golden Troopers led the parade, with the Naval Reserve Division in the background. (Southeast Missourian archive)

Shoulder to shoulder, veterans of the two World Wars march again as the 14th District American Legion holds its annual Armistice convention in Cape Girardeau; one of the main features of the convention, the parade forms at Courthouse Park and moves down Broadway to Houck Field Stadium; during the intermission of the football game between the State College B team and the St. Louis University freshmen, an appropriate ceremony honors the nation's war dead.

With hints of winter in the air, the telephones of Illmo fuel dealers are ringing a tune that isn't so merry; the reason is that retailers are behind with orders and can't get much coal to fill them; Claude Ross of Illmo, whose trucks brought in 16 tons yesterday, says trucks were lined up in double fashion for more than a mile near the mine, not far from Marion, Illinois; he is distributing coal in small lots.

1922

Armistice Day. The Cape Girardeau Post Office maintains regular hours, because the day is not a legal holiday this year.

Sgt. Glover Gill, weighing 264 pounds, arrives in Cape Girardeau on an early morning Frisco train, after an absence of more than two years, which he spent with Uncle Sam's Provost Guards in the Philippine Islands; Gill received his discharge from the Army at Fort McDowell, California, on Nov. 3 and caught the first train for Cape Girardeau; he says he is here to stay, unless another war breaks out and his country needs his services.

-- Sharon K. Sanders