Out of the past: June 20

1998

Two new surgery centers are in the works for Cape Girardeau; Dr. William Kapp III, an orthopedist, has issued a letter of intent to apply for a certificate of need to build a $5.4 million ambulatory surgery facility, Mississippi Valley Surgery Center; and the Missouri Department of Health has given the go-ahead to Silver Springs Surgery Center LLC.

The end is getting near for the Cape Girardeau flood-control project; the final phase of the project to widen and straighten Walker Branch, which began in February, is expected to be finished in November; the improvements run from just north of Kingshighway Drive to the intersection of Cape Rock Drive and Perryville Road; the city is also closer to acquiring land needed for a dry detention reservoir near Route K and County Road 620.

1973

Forty-seven years of tradition is broken, as two young women take their places among members of the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band at the weekly band concert in Capaha Park; Terri Taylor Patterson, bassoonist, and Debbie Poston, flutist, are the first women ever to be part of the regular compliment of the city's paid musicians, although women frequently through the years have appeared as guest soloists.

A group of youthful, education-minded Cape Girardeau residents has developed a School of Community, which is popularly referred to as an open classroom -- a school in which learning isn't forced on pupils, but invited, and creativity is more valued than structure; the board for the school consists of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Metzger, the Rev. Arthur English, Mrs. Patti Michel and Michael Holdinghouse; it is scheduled to open Sept. 4.

1948

The Lorimier elm with lightning rods drawn in. Southeast Missourian archive

The Lorimier elm with lightning rods drawn in. Southeast Missourian archive

In an effort to protect the Lorimier Elm in Old Lorimier Cemetery, lightning rods have been installed on the historic tree; Clarence Samuels, a resident of Oak Ridge and a man of much experience in rodding all types of property, took special pains in protecting the elm because of its historic nature; competent authorities on trees have stated the tree was a large one when Lorimier was buried under it in 1812.

A quartet composed of Mary Frances Hunter, Mary Clack, Stephen Limbaugh and Don Poe performs at the morning service of Centenary Methodist Church; Alene Sadler at the organ plays "Prelude" by Genari Karganoff as the morning prelude and "Pastorale" by Henri Deshayes for the offertory number.

1923

The Coffer-Miller Players pleased old friends and made hundreds of new ones with the great comedies they gave on the Teachers College campus Monday and yesterday; each member of the troupe is an artist, so each part was well rendered, and the audiences delighted in the performances.

Ralph Brissenden, who has been in St. Louis, is back in Cape Girardeau to open district headquarters for the Burton Building and Loan Association; Brissenden had intended to make his home in St. Louis, but after a few weeks decided Cape Girardeau was the place for him to live, especially since the real warm weather has set in.

-- Sharon K. Sanders