Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, I came across this article published on the front page of the Southeast Missourian on Tuesday, March 16, 1971. In 1971 Big Bro and I would have been 10 years old and pupils at St. Mary's Grade School, when Fr. Oliver served the Cape Girardeau cathedral and school...

In the early 1900s, the City of Cape Girardeau and officials with the Frisco Railroad were locked in a battle over renewal of a franchise agreement that would allow Frisco to continue to operate its trains through the city. Adding fuel to the fire was the belief by many in Cape Girardeau that the road had violated the terms of an earlier agreement...

Last week's blog about Albert Stone Duckworth's gift of thousands of fossils to Southeast Missouri State University was actually prompted by an article I found about one of his sons, Herbert S. Duckworth, in a 1946 edition of the Southeast Missourian...

Albert Stone Duckworth was the curator of the museum at Southeast Missouri State University from 1926 until his death in 1958. His obituary relates that Duckworth started his professional life working for a Chicago lumber company. Shortly after moving his family to Cape Girardeau in 1903, Duckworth "was called upon to make a timber survey for the Japanese government in 1907. ...

In the early 1970s the Southeast Missourian published a series of weekly feature articles written by staff reporter Sally Wright Brown, now Sally Owen. The series was called "A woman's world," and featured interviews with area women, some prominent, some not so prominent...

Since 1976, the University of Missouri Extension Council has recognized farms that have remained in the same family for at least 100 years. A list of the farms honored as Century Farms is available on the Extension website. It contains numerous familiar names from Southeast Missouri...

For many years, the Exchange Club of Cape Girardeau annually honored men and women active in community service. Beginning in 1958, the Book of Golden Deeds Award was given to some of the most notable civic leaders in Cape Girardeau's history, starting with Dr. A.H. Rasche. Missourian files list recipients through 1990, including Rush Limbaugh Sr., M. Luther Hahs and, my mentor, Judith Ann Crow...

As a kid, I attended St. Mary's Grade School, now St. Mary Cathedral School. And for all eight years, you could depend on two things: Daily Mass and Monsignor Joseph Huels. "Papa Joe," as some of us still refer to him, was a fixture at St. ...

As a kid, I remember Mom mentioning a gathering spot on Broadway with peanut shells covering the floor. Jones Refreshment Stand was located in the 700 block of Broadway. It got its start on April 3, 1921. Here's how an Out of the Past column described it:...

Old photographs fascinate me, especially if they are from the local area. It's always a bit disappointing, however, to find such a photo but not know who the people pictured are. That's not the case with the photo I'm using with this blog. Every face is identified, and all were prominent men of the area in the late 1800s and early 1900s...

For roughly 44 years, the original Franklin Elementary School in Cape Girardeau suffered from an identity crisis. While the pupils who attended the school and the teachers who taught them knew the name of the facility, no where on the outside of the building was it emblazoned for the rest of the world to see...

Cape Girardeau has always taken a great deal of pride in its bands, from the American Legion's Golden Troopers and Cape Girardeau Municipal Band to the Golden Eagles Marching Band at Southeast Missouri State University and the Central High Marching Band...

Here's another in a series titled "Profile" written by the late Southeast Missourian managing editor, Joni Adams. Published Nov. 1, 1994, in the Southeast Missourian:...

What could be more fun than a harvest festival set in the hills of Perry County? T.J. Ernst explored just that question in the Nov. 10, 1994, article published in the Southeast Missourian...

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. ...