By rights, we should have officially started the Christmas season in Cape Girardeau Sunday with the 27th annual Parade of Lights. But, alas, COVID-19 decided to play Grinch, and Old Town Cape canceled the event that easily draws thousands to downtown Cape Girardeau the first Sunday after Thanksgiving each year. It was the responsible thing to do, in light of the pandemic...

On Nov. 22, 1993, the 30th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, the man who arrested shooter Lee Harvey Oswald spoke at the Southeast Missouri Historical Conference in the University Center Ballroom. Maurice "Nick" McDonald, a retired Dallas police officer, sat down with Southeast Missourian reporter Sam Blackwell and shared his memories of that day...

My dad hunted geese as a y0ung man, but I don't recall him ever hunting in Illinois. Family owned property on Big Island near Commerce, Missouri, and that's where he would get his birds. In this article business editor B. Ray Owen examined the economics of goose hunting in Alexander, Union, Jackson and Williamson counties in Southern Illinois following the Great Flood of '93...

In honor of the holiday tomorrow: Thank you, veterans of all wars! Published Oct. 5, 1992, in the Southeast Missourian:...

It's always nice to see old buildings re-purposed and given new life. Much like Cape Girardeau's old police and fire station on Independence Street which houses the Cape River Heritage Museum, Cairo's old Custom House also continues to serve the community as a museum...

My Big Sis is fascinated by the unexplained and paranormal. As the sidekick in many of her adventures, I've spent an evening in a darkened Glenn House waiting for David and Lulu to make an appearance, as well as a night in Old Lorimier Cemetery trying to conjure up "ghoolies and ghosties" and any manner of "beasties." Together, we've made ghostly tours of downtown Cape Girardeau and St. ...

I. Ben Miller was a man of ambition. In the mid 1880s, having passed the examination to become a pharmacist and having worked three years as a drug clerk and assistant postmaster in Minden, Louisiana, he returned to Cape Girardeau, becoming associated with J. Maple Wilson in a drug store on Main Street. A short while later, Miller branched out on his own, opening a store on Main Street...

As I re-read this story as I prepped it for this blog, I was struck by this statement: "Each place they moved, Jane Stacy added a new circle of friends. 'I don't lose friends, I just accumulate them. They're too valuable to lose.'"...

Word War II had ended the month before. Service men and women were coming home. And those left behind were making plans to restart their lives. And President Truman in October 1945 did what had been a long tradition for him: He visited Caruthersville, Missouri, to take in the annual American Legion Fair...

Not every new idea or concept gains immediate acceptance. This was certainly true of Cape Girardeau's floodwall. On the heels of the crest of the Great Flood of '93, staff writer Sam Blackwell took a look at the controversies that greeted the downtown flood-control plan...

I've always had a deep respect for Rush H. Limbaugh Sr., although I never met the man. I did speak to him on the telephone on occasion, when I did historical research for him. In this article about Limbaugh, published September 20, 1994, in the Southeast Missourian, managing editor Joni Adams continued her series called "Profiles."...

Hula-hoops. Clackers. Yo-yos. These are just a few of the toys we played with when I was a kid. This Southeast Missourian article from Sept. 11, 1994, takes a look at the games children played in an earlier generation...

In the summer of 1991, players from Cape Girardeau Central High School's 1949 basketball team gathered here for a reunion. Among those to return to his alma mater was former Clemson University president Bill Atchley. Four years later, he would come back to Cape Girardeau to serve as interim president of Southeast Missouri State University, as the Board of Regents searched for Dr. Kala Stroup's successor...

I’ve always had an interest in the stories of Missouri’s Civil War guerrillas, including Jesse and Frank James. This article takes the James story a step further with a discussion of Jesse’s killer, Bob Ford. Published in the Southeast Missourian, July 23, 1995:...

This week's blog concludes Sam Blackwell's look at the community of Smelterville. Published July 9, 1993, in the Southeast Missourian:...

I grew up on South Sprigg Street in Cape Girardeau, on the top of Tollgate Hill. Our house was about two blocks north of Smelterville. In a two-part series published in 1993, Sam Blackwell explained the Smelterville community and examined it's history...

The Tipton family has been cleaning up Cape Girardeau's messes since 1948. Plans for a 6,000-square-foot expansion to the business's operation prompted this article in the Southeast Missourian on Monday, June 5, 1995...

Disney's animated film "Pocahontas" debuted in theaters in 1995. Its popularity prompted two articles in the Southeast Missourian on Sunday, June 18, 1995, about the real life community of Pocahontas, Missouri...

The artwork on the walls of my home reflect my personal tastes: Local artists and history. Along with paintings I treasure by Marjorie Suedekum and the late Joey Sebek, are several drawings by Mark Farmer. Here's a story the Southeast Missourian published about Mark on June 6, 1993...

Last year, I wrote a blog on Charles L. Harris, whose gift of his private library to the local college at his death in 1944 became the core of Kent Library's Rare Book Room...