Out of the Past: June 25

1999

Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle will decide by Monday whether to charge a man who shot and killed a neighbor he says he thought was trying to break into his South Spanish Street house; police say intoxication and a climate of fear created by the proximity of suspected serial killer Rafael Resendez-Ramirez may have played rolls in the shooting late Wednesday night that left 44-year-old Debra Ann Poch dead.

Southeast Missouri State University’s practice band field may one day be home to a parking garage; the university’s Golden Eagles Marching Band may end up practicing on artificial turf at Houck Stadium, says Dr. Ken Dobbins, Southeast’s executive vice president, who will become the school’s 17th president on July 1; the Board of Regents will discuss tearing up the grass field at Houck and replacing it with artificial turf; federal money would be needed to build the garage.

1974

The Cape Girardeau Jaycees have pledged a work crew to help expedite the opening of a softball diamond in a designated area of the city’s new South Park on the Lefarth tract south of Jefferson School between Minnesota (Wilson Road) and South West End Boulevard; the park board held its regular session last night, with Mayor Howard C. Tooke and Councilman Bradshaw Smith in attendance, and the board recommended the City Council accept the offer.

Because of traffic congestion on Broadway that has caused limited use of the facilities, the Cape Girardeau Post Office announces that three collection boxes are being removed from the street; the lack of use will cause the removal of boxes at Broadway and Ellis, Broadway and Henderson and Broadway and Sunset; a fourth box, at South West End Boulevard and Merriwether, also is being taken out of service.

1949

It appears that unless the proposed $20,000 in state aid comes through, the Cape Girardeau tornado cleanup program will have to be abandoned before it is completed; there is about $5,000 left of the $15,000 federal emergency grant; the Missouri House has passed a bill that would provide the city with the additional funding, but it is awaiting action by the Senate.

At the highest mark in history, toll receipts of the traffic bridge for the year ending May 31 amounted to $307,162.44, the annual report of the bridge owner, the Cape Girardeau Special Road District, shows; receipts were $23,993.58 more than earnings for the year ending May 31, 1948.

1924

Agnes Loughlin, former teacher in expression at the Teachers College here, has been visiting Wilhelmina Vieh and other friends at the college for several days; Loughlin is now teaching in the St. Marys-of-the-Woods Academy near Terre Haute, Indiana; she leaves in the afternoon for St. Louis, where she expects to visit Mrs. L.B. Houck for a day.

The water and light committee of the Jackson City Council lets the contract for extending the water main from the grammar school west to the Obermiller place and then south to the Knox Addition; sealed bids are submitted, and Scott Mitchell is the successful bidder on a bid of 6 1/2 cents per lineal foot.

Southeast Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders compiles the information for the daily Out of the Past column. She also writes a blog called “From the Morgue” that showcases interesting historical stories from the newspaper. Check out her blog at www.semissourian.com/history.