Out of the Past: July 12

1999

Lower humidity and a stellar card of attractions boosted attendance numbers at the second annual Cape Girardeau Regional Air Festival; airport manager Bruce Loy estimates the air show drew between 9,000 and 10,000 spectators; gate figures aren’t yet available; last year, poor weather prevented some planes from flying in.

A federal program benefiting public schools and libraries will provide the Jackson School District with nearly $21,000; technology director Bob Bartley says the school district has received three checks totaling $16,084 from the E-rate program; another check for $4,822 is expected this month in discounts for Internet and telephone service costs accrued by the district between Jan. 1 and June 30; the E-rate program is managed by the Schools and Libraries Division, a government entity created in 1997 by the Federal Communications Commission to assist school districts and libraries in developing technology.

1974

Lightning caused at least two of four barn fires in Cape Girardeau County overnight, which resulted in thousands of dollars in damage to property and livestock; flames swept a stall area at the Macke and Hager Farm near Gordonville, destroyed barns in east Jackson and on Highway 72 near Bollinger County, and damaged a barn north of Whitewater; the 300-acre Macke and Hager Farm is part of one of the largest dairy operations in Southeast Missouri; as many as 25 calves were lost in that blaze.

Weather and players, hopefully, will wear down ridges in a damaged area on one of the two new city tennis courts constructed in Missouri Park on North Fountain Street; vandals Monday wrote names and words in the fresh concrete while the contractor was away from the site for about 10 minutes; the damaged area was patched as best it could be.

1949

Jurl Lock, 26, a student pilot and shoe factory employee of Sikeston, was instantly killed when his light plane crashed and burned east of Morley yesterday afternoon; there were no known eye witnesses; Lock, a World War II veteran with Army service in Japan, had a private pilot’s license and was flying an Aeroriea, owned by the Robinson Flying Service of Sikeston, working for his commercial license.

Rush H. Limbaugh, secretary of the airport advisory board, told members yesterday that $10,000 of the $115,000 bond issue voted two years ago has been paid off; he observed that the payments, including interest as well as principal, have been made at no cost to taxpayers.

1924

Thirty applications for superintendent of the Cape Girardeau public schools have been received by Lee L. Bowman, president of the board of education, following the resignation a week ago of John N. Crocker, who has accepted a similar position in Sedalia; the applications have come from almost every state in the union.

Building activity, swinging away to a late start in early spring, has increased greatly in Cape Girardeau within the past three months; larger and more expensive buildings, construction of homes in residential sections and costly repairs to older buildings have aided in making the first six-month period the best in the building industry here; construction of 124 buildings, at an estimated cost of $600,000, was begun here during the first half of 1924.

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.