Out of the past: Aug. 24

1998

NationsBank officials in Cape Girardeau have announced that Steve Taylor is the new community bank president for Cape Girardeau and Jackson; Taylor is also regional commercial market manager of Southeast Missouri and Illinois.

Hiromi Kozono is not a well-known personality in the United States, but when he visited Universal Studios in Hollywood a few weeks ago, he was mobbed by a group of Japanese tourists touring the studio; in Japan, Kozono, known to the Japanese public simply as "Hiromi," is not just a familiar face, he is an actor and television star; Hiromi, who is host to his own daily television talk show in Japan, is in Cape Girardeau to film part of a television documentary to air on Japanese television next year; the documentary will also feature Kazu Maeda, a former Japanese watercraft champion, and American Larry Rippenkroeger from Los Angeles, a four-time world champion on the Jet Ski.

1973

Cape Girardeau public schools superintendent Charles E. House says Franklin School definitely will not open Monday, and classes instead will be held at Grace Methodist Church for grades 5 and 6 and kindergarten and at Hawthorn School for grades 1 through 4; some classes at Washington School will move to Red Star Baptist Church, but the rest will be held at school; classrooms at Washington School are nearly finished, although a few rooms cannot yet be used.

CAIRO, Ill. -- Access to Cairo from Missouri and Kentucky was cut off for about 2 1/2 hours yesterday, when accidents simultaneously blocked both bridges that lead into Cairo; the Illinois-Kentucky span over the Ohio River was blocked when a semitrailer truck jackknifed about 12:20 p.m. on the Kentucky approach, blocking both lanes of traffic; as a result, a traffic jam developed on the Missouri-Illinois bridge across the Mississippi River; the situation was further exacerbated by an accident on that bridge.

1948

Five painters are injured, one severely, when a scaffolding on which they are standing to paint the ceiling of Kent Library at State College collapses at 12:50 p.m., dropping them 18 feet to the floor; injured are J.M. Bullock, 70, who suffers possible internal injuries; Walter D. Chapman, 59, broken ankle; George Bullock, about 30; Adam Harris, 33; and Frank Pierce; the latter three receive minor abrasions; Jimmy Bullock, 16, son of George Bullock, who is seated on the floor, also receives minor injuries when a portion of the scaffold falls on him.

ORAN, Mo. -- Construction work at the Big Inch pipeline pumping station near here is virtually at a standstill as picketing continues before the entrance gate to the station; the station is being enlarged by Brown & Root, contractors for the Texas Eastern Corporation, owners of the pipeline; their employees are not unionized.

1923

The cotton crop in Cape Girardeau County, especially in the south end of the county, is threatened by the army worm; Ed Cuskaden, a farmer living four miles south of Cape Girardeau, noticed the worms in his field Sunday; since then, their numbers have increased, and there are now thousands of them in the 4-acre field; the worms are stripping the plants of leaves.

Farmers living on the Bend Road north of Cape Girardeau are preparing to appear before the County Court at its next meeting in September and renew their demands that the road to Egypt Mills from here be repaired; the farmers are asking that the road be relocated and surveyed and made a uniform width; they are asking that the sharp curves be reduced and the hills cut down.

-- Sharon K. Sanders