Out of the past: Feb. 18

1998

Floodwaters on a Cape Girardeau County road trapped a rural Marble Hill, Missouri, woman in her station wagon shortly before noon yesterday; personnel from the Missouri Conservation Department, the Millersville Fire Department and the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Office responded; Verla Crites had attempted to drive through a flooded section of County Road 351 west of Burfordville; the gravel road was covered by water from nearby Whitewater River.

Nell Holcomb School officially ranks among the best in Missouri; the school is the first in Southeast Missouri to receive accreditation with distinction honors for its performance in the state education department's accreditation process; the honor takes on added significance because in 1991 Nell Holcomb was only provisionally accredited; by 1997, Nell Holcomb became the only Missouri school district to jump from provisional accreditation to accreditation with distinction.

1973

The Southeast Hospital development fund campaign was explained to approximately 40 Cape Girardeau and area ministers at a luncheon Tuesday at Hirsch Tower; Ray W. Call, general campaign chairman, asked the ministers for their help in the million dollar fund drive campaign.

Tom Womack, formerly associated with his father, W.C. Womack, in the operation of Womack's Drug Store, 1000 S. Sprigg St., has taken a position in sales with the Deevers Realty Co., 440 Broadway; the Womacks recently sold their store, which they has operated since Feb. 8, 1941, to Jack Finney, who operates other stores in Cape Girardeau and in Jackson.

1948

Members of the State College Board of Regents meets in the afternoon to discuss what steps are to be taken to replace the 21-year-old Houck Field House, which was destroyed by fire yesterday; although no definite word is forthcoming, it appears certain the board will seek an emergency appropriation from the State Legislature, now in session, to allow construction work to proceed at the earliest possible moment.

The effect of the Houck Field House fire on the athletic program at Cape Girardeau Central High School, and any connection with the proposed public school building program, will be discussed at the next meeting of the school board in March; Supt. Louis J. Schultz says that for years the schools have paid rental on Houck for use in high school basketball games, but recently the feasibility of constructing a combined gymnasium-auditorium for the high school has come up.

1923

Members of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, known formerly as the German Methodist Church and the Ebenezer Church, are well satisfied with the new name adopted by the church board Tuesday night; Cape Girardeau has five Methodist churches; the three southern Methodist churches are Centenary, Maple Avenue and Third; German Methodist is now the Grace Methodist Church; the fifth Methodist church is St. James AME.

A memorial service for Frances Willard, founder of the movement for prohibition, is held in the afternoon at the First Christian Church, the building being crowded with members of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and others interested in Willard's work; Willard started her battle against liquor traffic in 1874, when she was elected the head of the W.C.T.U.; her efforts spread from America to other nations until, at the time of her death in 1898, 35 nations were under the "white ribbon."

-- Sharon K. Sanders