Pictures of the Past #1

This photo was made at Aviation Day at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport in 1961. Karen Campbell-Schmidt spotted her family in the photo: "What a nice surprise to see my family in the paper!! The photo is of my mother Betty Jo Campbell holding my brother George Campbell Jr. To their left is my sister Rebecca Campbell Everly. We cannot quite decide if that is dad standing behind them or not. At the time (about 1960??) my brother would have been about 3. We lived in Chaffee. Our family moved away in 1965, when there was much reorganization of the Frisco (now Burlington Northern) Railroad. Both of our parents have since passed away after returning to live in Cape after retirement in the mid-1980s. My brother is a very successful motivational speaker and screen writer. Our sister is a retired elementary school teacher. I am not in this picture but I do remember attending this event. I briefly retired from a 37-year career as an RN in Tulsa, Okla., and decided to move back to Cape. After a few months of retirement in Cape I returned to a great RN position."

May 23, 1957 Southeast Missourian. Cape Choraliers will present their sixth annual spring concert for the public at State College auditorium at 8 Friday night. The 44-voice chorus consists of the following members: Back row, left to right: Mrs. Lyall Carver, Miss Ruth Froemsdorf, Mrs. Emmett Young, Miss Carol Sparks, Mrs. Joe Francis Jr., R.G. Wagoner, Art Fischer, Gordon Mueller, Rudy Reimann, Harold Haas and Rev. George Michel; third row: Crawford McClue, R.P. Smith, Fred Scheerer, Mrs. Paul Wood, Miss Bonnie Barringer, Miss Pauline Galloway, Miss Mildred Wallace, Mrs. Earl Blackwell, Miss Mary Caldwell, Mrs. Kelley Gaines, Mrs. C.A. Bohnsack; second row: Dr. Paul Wood, Willard Adams, Rev. Guy Steele, Mrs. Oscar Kasten, Mrs. Martha Hunt, Miss Catherine Langley, Miss Jeannette Vandeven, Miss Dorothy Weber, Mrs. Howard Bock, Mrs. Bob Lemmons, Mrs. Thelvan Rickard, Mrs. Guy Steele: front row: Henry Creighton, Mrs. Charles James, Mrs. Emil Werner, Mrs. Glenn Smith, Mrs. Joe Blackwell, Mrs. Joe Davis, Mrs. Pat Stroder, Mrs. Leo Boren, Mrs. John Hill Jr., Mrs. D.J. Barks, and Gloria Sue Palsgrove, a guest accompanist. In the foreground are pictured Miss Peggy Head and Don Werner guest musicians, who accompany the chorus for the “Song of Easter” selection; Director Jack Palsgrove, and Mrs. Betty Sue Palsgrove at the piano. (G.D. Fronabarger/Southeast Missourian archive)

June 26, 1961 Southeast Missourian. Aviation Day at Municipal Airport Sunday brought out what airport officials and police estimated as the largest crowd ever present at the field. The crowd, surpassing even that of the airport dedication last summer, was estimated at close to 10,000 persons. The picture shows a part of the crowd in front of and south of the new administration building watching planes arrive and leave, taking passengers for rides over the city and seeing parachute jumps staged by the Mau Mau Sports Parachute Club of Cape and the Greater St. Louis Parachute Club, and other events which all day long entertained the visitors. (G.D. Fronabarger/Southeast Missourian archive)

G.D. Fronabarger likely took this picture to illustrate a story, or ad, about the comfortable waiting area at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport.

Just as they do today, women like to display their sewing skills at the SEMO District Fair. We believe this unidentified woman was showing off the afghan she made in this undated photo.

This farmer showed off the height of the corn he grew. Note the youngster sitting in second-story barn window. Larry Schabbing supplied the story behind this photo: "This is a picture of my dad (Albert Schabbing) and myself displaying a brand of corn called Goliath that we tried and grew on our dairy farm one year. Normally, corn does not grow this tall, and we tried it on the basis of what it would do. The corn did grow to the height as shown in the photo, and I still can't recall how Dad got (G.D.) Fronabarger to come out to the farm and snap this photo. I certainly do remember when this picture was taking, but to time stamp the date is unknown. Mr. Fronabarger came to our farm and to the Campster 4-H Club and did several photo sessions to promote what was going on out in the rural areas. Thanks for showing this one particular picture... It is some of the few memories I still have growing up on our farm just west of the Walmart in Cape."

Robert Brinkopf of Effingham, Ill., identified this photograph as having been published in a booklet marking the 100th anniversary of Trinity Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau in 1954. Front row, left to right: Grace Baumann, Carol Rudert, Mrs. Irvin Rasche, accompanist, Mrs. William Luckmann, Norma Steinbach, Lena Weber, Mrs. Melvin Haertling, Mrs. Paul Gerlach, Patricia Parker. Second row: H.A. Krahn, director, Mrs. I.H. Crews, Mrs. Paul Brauer, Mrs. Alvert Hilpert, Laura Gerlach, Ida Daume, Ruth Froemsdorf, Mrs. Charlotte Davis, Lida Landgraf, Sally Edmonds. Third row: Martin Niedling, Clarence Bertling, Layton Keller, Don Popp, Carl Lehne, Albert Hilpert, Gene Popp, E.G. Rudert. Back row: A.E. Landgraf, Richard Dippold, Ronnie Hopper, Arthur Fischer, Gene Popp, Paul Brauer. Brinkopf also observed that "Mr. Krahn was the eighth grade teacher and principal at the time. Miss Froemsdorf was a long time 3rd grade teacher at the school. Mr. Brauer, Miss Steinbach, and Miss Baumann were also teachers at the time."