History

The two-story Victorian-era Glenn House has stood tall overlooking the Mississippi River for 136 years. But as of late, its future as a museum is uncertain because of excessive water damage, overwhelming moisture levels, chipping paint, wood rot and crumbling bricks — all requiring repair that outweighs current funding...

The United States entered First World War on April 6, 1917, when Congress declared war on Germany, followed by a similar declaration on Austria-Hungary on Dec. 7. American troops would not be sent en masse until 1918. With war being waged, the Missouri National Guard was federalized and sent overseas in August 1917. ...

The Southeast Missouri University Foundation has backed out of plans to buy a dilapidated, old house so two Cape Girardeau men can obtain it and renovate the structure; foundation officials had considered buying the 90-year-old-house at 534 Washington Ave., at a cost of $24,500 and tearing it down; the property boarders a university parking lot...

PHILADELPHIA -- Lew Klein, a broadcast pioneer who helped create "American Bandstand" and launched the careers of Dick Clark and Bob Saget, has died at 91. Klein died Wednesday, according to Temple University, where Klein taught and mentored students for more than six decades...

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- The Harry S. Truman Library and Museum will close for about a year starting at the end of next month to undergo a $22 million renovation and expansion. The Independence museum announced in a news release the museum's last day open to the public will be July 22. The project will include a new entrance and lobby, a larger store and expanded exhibition galleries...

Unprecedented attendance, the promise of another generous commitment by Boyd Gaming Corp. and a crowd willing to exercise patience when it was time to leave put a fitting cap on Riverfest 1994; festival organizers are pleased with the two-day festival, calling it a huge success drawing as many as 75,000 people to the riverfront...

The 1994 edition of Cape Girardeau Riverfest opened to a huge crowd Friday night, due in part to ideal weather conditions; but an early afternoon thunderstorm put a brief damper on some of Saturday afternoon's activities, and forced more than an hour delay in the evening's fireworks display...

Dan Milligan, former Cape Girardeau Central High School principal, said Friday his decision to leave school a week before commencement was based on a series of meetings starting six weeks earlier requesting special treatment for one senior; on June 3, Milligan left Central High in protest of a decision to allow seniors who hadn't completed graduation requirements to participate in commencement; he hasn't returned to the school...

LOS ANGELES -- After 25 years living under the shadow of one of the nation's most notorious murder cases, O.J. Simpson says his life has entered a phase he calls the "no negative zone." In a telephone interview, the 71-year-old Simpson said he is healthy and happy living in Las Vegas. ...

History was made beneath a cloudy sky as the United States Colored Troops Memorial statue — one of only three in existence — was formally unveiled by descendants of the Ivers family and dedicated by officials Saturday at Ivers Square in downtown Cape Girardeau...

Cape Girardeau County Sheriff Norman Copeland, credited for transforming a department in shambles into a first-rate law enforcement agency, announced yesterday he will retire Aug. 1; Copeland was appointed sheriff in March 1986, following the resignation of Dwight Thomas, and was elected to the remainder of that term in November 1988; he won re-election in 1992...

The Cape Girardeau City Council has approved the initial phases of two engineering projects, which could give the city a new, safe water-supply source; the first project is a study of an alluvial well, and the second is a project to design earthquake protection of the water system...

Cape Girardeau is sitting on a tourist bonanza: we're located on the Great River Road, Mississippi River Trail Bikeway, and Trail of Tears National Historic Trail. We can now add another multi-state route to the list: the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail...

Cape Girardeau Board of Education member Bob Fox is unhappy with a decision allowing seniors who haven't completed requirements to participate in Central High School's graduation ceremony Friday; Supt. Neyland Clark, at the direction of members of the school board, last Friday made a decision that seniors within one unit of graduation, who can prove they are pursuing that final credit, could participate in Central's commencement ceremony...

Noted artist and sculptor of 40 years Roy W. Butler has masterminded the creation of the newest outdoor 6-foot bronze monument in Cape Girardeau, set to officially unveil 11 a.m. Saturday at Ivers Square. The ceremony will take place 156 years after the first enslaved African-Americans in Cape Girardeau enlisted in the U.S. Colored Troops on June 18, 1865...

As of July 1, shoppers won't be able to smoke in the public areas at 13 St. Louis area shipping centers; so far, West Park Mall hasn't joined the no-smoking bandwagon, but it's conceivable it could. Cape Girardeau voters turn down a 37-cent tax increase earmarked for building improvements at the city's schools; the ballot issue loses by 176 votes; the school district asked voters to waive the property-tax rollback provided by Proposition C, the state sales tax for education; the waiver would have added 37 cents for each $100 of assessed valuation.. ...

COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France -- President Donald Trump, who has at times questioned the value of NATO and other institutions emerging from World War II, paid tribute on the 75th anniversary of D-Day to the "cherished alliance" forged in battle by the U.S. and partner nations. To aging warriors gathered on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach, he said, "Our debt to you is everlasting...

BERLIN -- When Chancellor Angela Merkel thanked the Allies for the D-Day invasion and the "liberation" of Germany in World War II, she might have raised some eyebrows internationally. To those at home, the statement was unremarkable. There's no denying the machine guns and howitzers firing at the Allied forces landing in Normandy 75 years ago were manned by German soldiers. But over the decades, Germans' attitudes toward the war have evolved from a sense of defeat to something far more complex...

Local musician Jerry Ford and historian Frank Nickell have teamed up to present a nearly 40-chapter biography on Cape Girardeau native and test pilot turned fighter pilot Gen. Seth McKee of the U.S. Air Corps. Thursday is the 75th anniversary of D-Day -- the day the Allies invaded Western Europe in World War II -- which makes the timing of the book even more significant, according to Ford...

A Bloomfield Road condemnation case finally has come to an end after the Missouri Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the City of Cape Girardeau. The high court issued its judgment Tuesday. Deputy city manager Molly Mehner said city officials are disappointed the Supreme Court won't consider the appeal...

The National Weather Service is predicting heavy rain through the weekend, but lighter than originally feared, meaning the predicted Mississippi River crest in Cape Girardeau remains at 46 feet on Friday. And the new statue dedication ceremony at Ivers Square on Saturday is still a go...

PORTSMOUTH, England -- Queen Elizabeth II and world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, gathered Wednesday on the south coast of England to honor the troops who risked and sacrificed their lives 75 years ago on D-Day, a bloody but ultimately triumphant turning point in World War II...

The Rev. D. Chad McIntosh is the new pastor of West Side Church of God in Cape Girardeau; he graduated in May from Mid-America Bible College in Oklahoma City with majors in pastoral ministry and Bible; McIntosh and his wife, Lynn, have a 3-year-old son, Jacob...

CHAMBOIS, France -- In the spring following the terrible D-Day battle, the grass grew especially thick and green, fertilized by thousands of corpses plowed into mass graves. It's hard now -- 75 years later, overlooking wheat fields spotted with blood-red poppies and with skylarks singing overhead -- to imagine it was here in 1944, on a wide, open plain soldiers nicknamed "the Corridor of Death," Adolf Hitler's armies in Normandy were all but destroyed, clearing the path for the liberation of Paris.. ...

A decision Friday to allow Cape Girardeau Central High seniors who don't meet graduation requirements to participate in the commencement ceremony prompted Central High principal Dan Milligan to take a stand against the move; Milligan, who disagrees with the decision and its timing, Friday removed items from his office, and says he's not sure he'll be back at school next week...

This 6-foot 100-pound alligator gar, taken by net Sunday morning in the Mississippi River. From the left, Arthur J. Burton, who caught the fish; Norman and Donnie Mae and Sam King. This huge fish can destroy a lot of other fish in a short while and Mississippi rivermen, warn, might even attack a child wading the stream's shallows. Published Monday, June 9, 1958. (Southeast Missourian Archive)...

The Missouri Highway and Transportation Department at Sikeston will open bids next week for the removal of asbestos in 11 houses and attached garages that are being demolished to make room for the relocated Highway 74 Mississippi River bridge route through Cape Girardeau; officials with the department say acquisition of all parcels of land needed for the highway right-of-way should be completed by the end of the year...

TAMMS, Ill. -- Ground was broken here yesterday for a $60 million, super-maximum prison, which will employ up to 250 people during construction; when completed, the facility will employ up to 300 and provide an $11-million-per-year payroll; the prison is scheduled to open in the fall of 1996...

Southeast Missouri State University has been selected to participate in a new loan program, beginning in the 1995-96 academic year; the new program will allow students to skip the bank and borrow money directly from the federal government; Southeast is one of 983 schools selected to participate in the new loan program...

It was to have been the dream home of the charismatic bootheel Congressman Samuel Caruthers for whom Caruthersville was named. In fact, the home was well under pen and construction of Edwin Branch Deane when Caruthers' life was abruptly ended in 1860 at the age of 40. Caruthers had always admired Ashland, the Kentucky home of Henry Clay, and asked Deane to duplicate it...

It's up to docent and curator Charlotte Slinkard to stitch together pieces of history for display at the Cape River Heritage Museum in Cape Girardeau. Slinkard of Cape Girardeau and her husband, Bill, have traveled to New Orleans and Quebec, she said, collecting chronological information from 19 research facilities...

SOUTHWICK, England -- Leonard "Ted" Emmings has had a mission for 75 years. The night before the D-Day landings, Emmings and his shipmates on a Royal Navy landing craft learned their mission was to ferry 36 Canadian troops to Juno Beach, a stretch of Normandy coast fortified with artillery, mortars, mines and machine gun emplacements. The men made a pact: Whatever happened, they would look after those who didn't make it back...

Fort D, Missouri’s only redan or V-shaped Civil War-era earthworks, is a step closer to being added to the National Register of Historic Places. Civil War re-enactor Scott House, who has long been involved in efforts to preserve the site at 920 Fort St. on Cape Girardeau’s south side, is optimistic Fort D will receive national recognition now that the application has been approved by the Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation...

Oftentimes we hear that the Battle of New Orleans was the last battle of the War of 1812, fought on Jan. 8, 1815, after the signing of the Treaty of Ghent. However, Southeast Missouri men fought a later battle on May 24, 1815: the Battle of the Sinkhole...

Richard Schultz of Schultz Monument Co., standing in middle, and Alan Schwartz, also with the company, lower middle, work at the installation of the United States Colored Troop Memorial, from sculptor Roy W. Butler, as Denise Lincoln of Cape Girardeau holds an umbrella Sunday outside the Common Pleas Courthouse Annex at Ivers Square in downtown Cape Girardeau. ...

The role and contribution of African-Americans in our community have a long, but largely unwritten history. James and Harriet's triumph is etched firmly upon the cityscape of old town Cape Girardeau, making the history of freedom over slavery a tangible experience today...

Even though Cape Girardeau Public Library user services supervisor Jean Martin said some question the need for libraries, the institution has retained relevancy within the community -- with Thursday's 10th anniversary celebration as proof. To commemorate, cookies and a "then and now" photo display is set for 9 a.m. today...

The future of the Common Pleas Courthouse Annex is far from certain even as Cape Girardeau city officials talk confidently of renovating the adjacent courthouse for use as city hall. City manager Scott Meyer said Wednesday officials will have to evaluate what to do with the Annex, formerly a Carnegie Library...

Major renovations to Cape Girardeau’s Ivers Square and the iconic gazebo are moving ahead this week in advance of Friday’s scheduled Tunes at Twilight concert. It’s all part of an effort to transform the former Common Pleas Courthouse Park, which the city renamed in June 2017 to pay tribute to former slaves James and Harriet Ivers. ...

NEW YORK -- A new museum opening at the Statue of Liberty is giving visitors another opportunity to explore its history and the impact the iconic structure has had on the world. The 26,000-square-foot museum on Liberty Island, scheduled to open to the public Thursday, is the new home for the statue's original torch and other artifacts previously in a smaller museum space inside the statue's pedestal, which is accessible only to the fraction of the more than 4 million annual visitors who manage to get limited-availability statue entry tickets.. ...

NEW YORK -- Tim Conway, the impish second banana to Carol Burnett who won four Emmy Awards on her TV variety show, starred aboard "McHale's Navy" and later voiced the role of Barnacle Boy for "Spongebob Squarepants," has died. He was 85. Conway died Tuesday morning in a Los Angeles care facility, according to Howard Bragman, who heads LaBrea Media. ...

Doris Day, the sunny blond actress and singer whose frothy comedic roles opposite the likes of Rock Hudson and Cary Grant made her one of Hollywood's biggest stars in the 1950s and '60s and a symbol of wholesome American womanhood, died Monday. She was 97...

CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- It's longer than two city buses, weighs more than a Boeing 747 fully loaded with passengers and can pull 16 Statues of Liberty over a mountain. The Big Boy No. 4014 steam locomotive rolled out of a Union Pacific restoration shop in Cheyenne over the weekend for a big debut after five years of restoration. It then headed toward Utah as part of a yearlong tour to commemorate the Transcontinental Railroad's 150th anniversary...

The men and women who served and lived during World War II are passing away each day. What they left behind are photographs, letters, diaries and oral histories of a nation's sacrifice. Factories were retrofitted for war production, and citizens endured food and gas rations, while enthusiastically supporting war bond drives. The Vandivort family of Cape Girardeau had two sons who enlisted, Arthur Clayton and William Soresby. One made the ultimate sacrifice in defending our nation...

When Old McKendree Chapel celebrates its bicentennial this year, it will continue to hold the distinction it has held for the past 200 years: being older than the state of Missouri itself. Constructed in 1819, the little Methodist chapel at the outskirts of Jackson and Cape Girardeau predated the state's invention by more than a year and a half...

When the Esquire Theatre opened on Jan. 22, 1947, capacity crowds descended on Cape Girardeau's newest movie palace. Moviegoers wanted to experience the Art Deco edifice with its "full mile of neon lighting." Bing Crosby even sent a congratulatory telegram...

ST. LOUIS -- The fast-rising Mississippi River on Thursday neared levels unseen since the historic 1993 flood -- and topped it in at least one place -- as the bulging Big Muddy threatened levees and forced a Missouri town's residents to head for higher ground...

Six members of the Glenn family are set to visit the Glenn House during the museum's Glenn Garden Weekend on Saturday in Cape Girardeau. As part of First Friday with the Arts, the museum will be filled with flowers from 5 to 9 p.m. today. Saturday during the gala, Glenn descendants will greet guests during a live performance by Barefoot on Sunday, with refreshments. And Saturday and Sunday, museum tours officially begin...

The Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation presented its 39th annual Statewide Preservation Honor Awards to Illinois native and Southeast Missouri historian Frank Nickell and developer Jason Coalter, on behalf of Centurion Development LLC on Tuesday during a special reception at the Capitol Rotunda in Jefferson City, Missouri...