Out of the past: June 18

1998

After five years of planning, country music star Willie Nelson will headline the grandstand entertainment at this year's SEMO District Fair with a performance Sept. 17; the 143th annual fair runs Sept. 13 to 19 in Cape Girardeau's Arena Park; also scheduled to appear are Kenny Chesney Sept. 15 and Lonestar with Brad Hawkins Sept. 16.

A full-fledged merger could be the end result as Cape Girardeau's two hospitals continue exploring a permanent affiliation; Saint Francis Medical Center and Southeast Hospital announce that both their boards have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to continue the affiliation process; now the Joint Study Commission, made up of board members and administrators from both hospitals, has to work out the details of how that affiliation will take place, and what form it will take.

1973

SIKESTON, Mo. -- The City Council meets behind doors in the morning -- the second secret session in a week -- to discuss the firing of the police chief and a detective in the police department; City Manager James Huff, who requested the resignations of Chief Arthur Bruce and Detective Lt. Leonard Campbell, has no comment.

An early July opening is planned for Brothers II, a new cocktail lounge to be located in a building at 2023 Independence St. leased by Lyman Crites Jr. from Cape Rock Investment; the lounge will have seating for around 50 customers and will feature entertainment of the piano and organ type, according to Crites.

1948

Gambling in Alexander County, Illinois, across the river from Cape Girardeau, is ordered halted by the county sheriff, Max Bevil; the order is effective at once and applies to all forms of gambling, including dice games and the operation of slot machines; no reason for the order is given, but there is considerable speculation at Cairo, Illinois, where it is rumored children had been observed playing slot machines at one of the known gambling establishments.

Telephone and electrical power service was disrupted and some damaged caused by a series of windstorms which struck Cape Girardeau and the greater part of Southeast Missouri overnight; 150 telephone customers lost service in Cape Girardeau; particularly hard hit were toll lines to the south, to Sikeston and Caruthersville; virtually all trouble is attributed to falling limbs and trees.

1923

Rose, 3, and Fannie May, 2, daughters of Mr. and Mrs. A.W. Gatlin, living in the upstairs rooms of a brick building near St. Vincent's College, are burned to death early in the morning when a fire of unknown origin damages the structure; trapped in an upstairs room where their mother had left them while attending to kitchen duties at the college, the children perish when flames envelope the stairway, cutting off their escape.

"I am out of politics for good," declares former Congressman W.D. Vandiver, who was here yesterday in the interest of Near East Relief work; Vandiver, who formerly was president of the Cape Girardeau Teachers College, spoke Sunday morning at the Presbyterian Church and in the evening at Centenary Methodist Church; regarding his own future, Vandiver plans to work in behalf of the Democratic party, "in behalf of such friends as I may be able to help and try to see to it, as far as possible, that the party does not fall into hands of bootleggers and traitors."

-- Sharon K. Sanders