History

It took longer for the memories of rising floodwaters to fade than for Commerce, Missouri, residents to accept or decline property buyout offers that began four months ago; the State Emergency Management Agency closed its flood buyout office last week even though some offers are still on the table; residents didn't learn about the closing until it happened; about 45 landowners in Commerce accepted offers, and only 13 declined...

JEFFERSON CITY -- A bill that would allow Cape Girardeau County to retain a county coroner instead of hiring a medical examiner when it becomes first class next year won legislative approval yesterday and awaits the governor's signature; a medical examiner costs more than $100,000 a year while a coroner is paid about $20,000...

PATTON, Mo. -- Despite petition drives and new faces on the Meadow Heights Board of Education, an earlier decision not to rehire former high school principal Rick Chastain will stand; the board voted 4-3 last night not to renew Chastain's contract as high school principal; Chastain maintains he was fired because he blew the whistle on the district's former superintendent, who added fictitious names to attendance records...

His commanding presence transformed rowdy classes into disciplined learning experiences. Though not the first teacher of Black students of Cape Girardeau, John Solomon Cobb became a foremost educator of his generation, a Missouri pioneer for Black education. "An ardent student, conversant with the classics" with an outstanding personal library, his undisputed standard for excellence developed and improved the education and the educators of the region...

G. Warren Smith, president of Southeastern Louisiana University at Hammond, and his wife are scheduled to visit Southeast Missouri State University this week; a finalist for the presidency of the local university, Smith will meet with the Board of Regents, faculty, staff, students and public in a series of meetings Wednesday and Thursday...

The City of Cape Girardeau is getting aggressive with airport marketing; it's spending part of the airport's $538,000 annual budget on advertising, surveys and promotional open houses in hopes landings and takeoffs will increase; airport management funneled $375 a month into radio advertising on KGMO and sister stations KAPE and KYRX; the ads, which run Thursdays through Sundays to target business travelers, feature phrases like "take off with great bargains" and "Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, your gateway to the world"; newspaper advertising, paid for in part by Trans World Express, will begin soon.. ...

Marie Watkins Oliver of Cape Girardeau was a determined and indefatigable woman, who, after becoming a regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution in the early 20th century, made it a mission to ensure Missouri had a state flag. Missouri came into the Union as America's 24th state in 1821, "with a coat of arms and a shield with two grizzly bears on it, but no flag," Nickell said. ...

Dr. Richard L. Konichek is the new pastor of Family Worship Center, 800 S. Sprigg; during his 20 years as pastor he has conducted a nursing home ministry, jail ministry, and served as chaplain in several boys youth homes; he also has served as vice president and president of a ministerial association...

Pat Buchanan loyalists battle Bob Dole supporters in nine congressional district caucuses across Missouri to select delegates to the GOP national convention in San Diego; Dole wins 14 delegates to 11 for Buchanan, and Alan Keyes picks up two; 27 alternates also are selected; Missouri's nine remaining delegates will be elected at large during the state GOP convention in Springfield next month; today's outcome is one of Buchanan's best showings since the conservative commentator won the New Hampshire primary in February.. ...

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the nation’s 32nd president, died of a cerebral hemorrhage 76 years ago today in Warm Springs, Georgia — a sudden passing that catapulted Harry Truman of Missouri into the Oval Office. FDR, the nation’s only chief executive to be elected to four terms in office, was survived by his wife of 40 years, Eleanor...

Given the right opportunity, all students can find some area in which they succeed, says Barbara Lohr; Lohr is one of four teachers to be honored as Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce 1996 Educators of the Year; in addition to Lohr, a high school office technology teacher at the Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School, honorees are Richard B. ...

On a wintry day in the early 1980s, Bob Keathley of Bernie, Mo., attended an estate sale near Lebanon, Tenn. The items being sold had been collected by a retired medical doctor who had traveled widely and accumulated a sizable collection of old and historical books. Robert Keathley, who had for years been interested in antiques, was attracted to a row of old books that were to be put up for sale at an upcoming auction...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- A Sikeston pilot walked away from an airplane crash yesterday afternoon with only a few minor scratches; Edward Boyd was attempting to land a rented Cessna 150 at the Sikeston Municipal Airport around 4:30 p.m.; the plane stalled, landed in an open field about 100 yards west of the airport and flipped over; it was a total loss...

Kentucky-born Thomas Ewing Tribble was 5 years old when the Civil War broke out. At the time he was living with his parents, Nelson and Henrietta, along with his brothers, including John William, and sisters in Simpson County, Kentucky. There are no details on his education, but according to the 1870 census for Simpson County, when he was 13, he was working on the family farm. ...

In 1902, on a small farm along the Little Muddy Creek in Bollinger County, Missouri, a passion for the law first stirred in a 10-year-old boy; 14 years later, he set out on a legal career that spanned eight decades; yesterday, the lifetime love affair between the man and the law ended; Rush Hudson Limbaugh, one of Cape Girardeau's favorite sons and the nation's oldest practicing lawyer, died Monday afternoon at his home here; he was 104...

The City of Cape Girardeau and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District, plan to mark the finish of $20 million in river wall improvement projects in Cape Girardeau over a 15-year period with a ceremony at the wall near the downtown Merriwether Pump station at 11 a.m. April 14...

Easter Sunday ALTO PASS, Ill. -- Worshipers gather at Bald Knob Cross for Easter Sunrise service, marking the 60th annual sunrise service atop Bald Knob Mountain near Alto Pass; conducting the service at the site of the 111-foot cross are the Revs. Richard Hays and Bill Vandergraph...

Cape Girardeau Regional Airport Advisory Board yesterday objected to a proposed five-acre juvenile center being built at the airport; with the board unanimously opposing that site, the only Cape Girardeau County location still in contention for the center is a five-acre tract on the west side of South Sprigg Street, about a half-mile south of its intersection with Southern Expressway...

Like its predecessor the dodo bird, the passenger pigeon is now extinct, with the last known sighting in the wild of the red-eyed fowl believed to have been in New Haven, Missouri, 157 miles northwest of Cape Girardeau. According to Otto Widmann’s book, “Birds of Missouri: A Preliminary Catalogue,” A.F. Eimbeck documented seeing the bird Sept. 26, 1902, in that small Franklin County city. ...

Klaus Park has been removed from a list of potential sites for a planned state juvenile facility; Cape Girardeau County Commissioner Larry Bock says officials with the Missouri Division of Youth Services suggested the site be removed from the county's application because of opposition from homeowners in the surrounding area; two other Cape County sites are still on the table: a five-acre site at Cape Girardeau Regional Airport and a five-acre site owned by 630 Corp. ...

One hundred years ago -- April 3, 1921 -- members of Cape Girardeau Country Club played the first round of golf in the county's history. From their clubhouse site, the highest point of the club's 80-odd-acre property, members could see the Mississippi River and Cape Rock. What they couldn't see was how the club would survive the Great Depression, World War II and a fire. Nor could they see how the club would become a powerful benevolent force in the community through the generations...

There were so many write-in races in Cape Girardeau County that the ballots were still being counted Wednesday afternoon; results may be available tomorrow morning; write-in results are being tallied for these posts: Oak Ridge, one seat on the Board of Trustees; Delta, mayor and Ward 2 alderman; Pocahontas, five seats on the Board of Trustees; Gordonville, two seats on the Board of Trustees; Old Appleton, five seats on the Board of Trustees; Whitewater Area Fire Protection District, two seats on the Board of Directors, and Fruitland Area Fire Protection District, one seat on the Board of Directors.. ...

The makeup of the Cape Girardeau City Council won't change as voters yesterday re-elected councilmen Melvin Gateley, Jack Rickard and Melvin Kasten; Gateley won re-election to a second, four-year term in Ward 5, defeating challenger Lawrence Godfrey; Rickard defeated first-time candidate Jay Purcell in Ward 3 to win a four-year term; and Kasten was unopposed for re-election to a second, four-year term in Ward 4...

William C. Merwin and his wife, Debra, arrive in Cape Girardeau; Merwin, president of State University of New York College at Potsdam is one of three finalists for president of Southeast Missouri State University; he will hold a series of meetings with the Board of Regents, university officials and student leaders tomorrow and Thursday; the public will have an opportunity to meet Merwin at a reception Wednesday evening...

Multiple fire crews battled a blaze Wednesday evening at the former Broadway Theatre in downtown Cape Girardeau. According to Cape Girardeau Fire Department battalion chief Brad Dillow, at approximately 5:30 p.m., crews responded to a report of smoke at the building, 805-809 Broadway. Upon arrival, crews saw heavy smoke and flames showing from the second floor. Crews had the fire extinguished at approximately 6:30 p.m. ...

Inspired by a phone call she received by a researcher wanting more information about an ancestor who was enslaved in Cape Girardeau County, archive center director Marybeth Niederkorn is working to make it easier to find information about former slaves in the county...

METROPOLIS, Ill. -- Metropolis has hit the jackpot; after three years as host city to Merv Griffin's Players Riverboat Casino, this small Southern Illinois city of 7,500 residents has taken $15,598,123 to the bank; there is no sign the bank will close any time soon...

WASHINGTON -- G. Gordon Liddy, a mastermind of the Watergate burglary and a radio talk show host after emerging from prison, died Tuesday at age 90. His son, Thomas Liddy, confirmed the death but did not reveal the cause, other than to say it was not related to COVID-19...

Palm Sunday. Children holding palms lead the Palm Sunday procession during the opening hymn of the morning worship service at First Presbyterian Church, Broadway and Lorimier Street; there is a congregational reading of the passion of Jesus; Bill York reads the part of Jesus and Allen Bryan portrays Pilate...

Forty years ago Tuesday, the 40th president of the United States was shot and seriously wounded outside a Hilton hotel in Washington, D.C. Three other men were also hit with gunfire from a .22-caliber revolver wielded by John Hinckley Jr. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity, remaining under institutional psychiatric care until released Sept. 10, 2016...

Cape Girardeau County will submit three sites to the Missouri Division of Youth Services for a proposed juvenile detention center; deadline for submissions is Sunday; the state plans to build two facilities in the region, one on the east side and one on the west; the site in Klaus Park originally proposed to house the center has drawn protests from surrounding homeowners; in addition to Klaus Park, a five-acre site at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport is being proposed, as is a five-acre site on South Sprigg Street about a block south of the Southern Expressway or old Highway 74.. ...

Cape Girardeau public schools are looking at a shortfall of $200,000 to $350,000 in this year's budget; the district already budgeted to spend $550,000 more than it planned to receive; now, revenues may be less than projected; the district budgeted revenues of $22.1 million for this school year, but business manager Steve DelVecchio says best projections show the district will receive only $21.8 million...

A Missouri Supreme Court decision to end the state's use tax has city and county leaders nervously waiting for more information; the 1.5% tax was levied in July 1992 on residents and businesses who buy products from other states and then store or use them in Missouri; it primarily affected mail-order businesses and large industries that import raw materials; justices threw out the tax Tuesday with a 7-0 ruling...

Voters will go to the polls to elect school board members in Jackson next week, but they may return in August to decide on a bond issue for the school district; a report from the facilities review committee ranks the district's building needs; some of the committee's recommendations to the school board include constructing a math and science building at the high school, an addition to North Elementary School that would add about two rooms per grade level, building a new elementary school south of town and an addition at the junior high school.. ...

Dr. Wilson Brown began his long trek to Missouri from Maryland in March 1823. A daily journal describes his 29-day trip, traveling approximately 20 miles per day. In spite of broken equipment, sickness, washed out roads and turbulent weather, including a tornado in Kentucky, he was elated to finally see the Mississippi River. With his wagon and horses, Dr. Brown crossed the river at Gill's Ferry, a mile above Grand Tower on April 22...

It's been an on-again, off-again spring in Southeast Missouri; following the on-again mild temperatures this weekend, spring is off again with the mercury dipping below freezing overnight and only climbing into the 40s for daytime highs; that's the forecast through Thursday, when cloudy skies and temperatures in the 60s are expected to return to the area...

Cape Girardeau Police Department auxiliary Sgt. Herbert Goss and patrolman Donald Crittendon died 11 days apart 60 years ago from gunshot wounds sustained in a March 10, 1961, shootout. "The sacrifice these officers made is immeasurable," Sgt. Joey Hann said. "These officers gave their lives for the community they swore to serve, and their sacrifice is a solemn reminder to every officer in this profession that tomorrows are never promised in law enforcement."...

Parking structures, student housing around Wildwood, new academic buildings -- they are all components of a long-term plan for upgrading the Southeast Missouri State University campus; Scheme D, the master-plan option recently presented to the university's Board of Regents by consultants Mackey Mitchell Zahner, calls for maintaining a compact campus while allowing for expansion, creating quadrangles and greens to link the campus with pedestrian-scaled open space, limiting vehicular traffic and improving student safety.. ...

Jackson High School junior Mia Foote was honored Tuesday for her poster design celebrating Missouri's bicentennial this year. Foote was joined in the school's library by guests from the Missouri Bicentennial Commission, State Historical Society of Missouri, school staff, Foote's family and Jackson Mayor Dwain Hahs during a poster unveiling ceremony...

The Cape Girardeau Police Department paid tribute to Good Hope Street night policeman Willis Martin who was killed on duty 100 years ago on Feb. 27, 1921. Martin's body was discovered by two men at approximately 7:30 a.m. Feb. 27, 1921, at Segal Shoe Store, located at 629 Good Hope St...

Dreary morning skies and a chill in the wind Saturday didn't stop thousands from thinking about spring and accompanying home improvements; organizers estimate 7,000 people attended the first day of the 16th Annual SEMO Homebuilders Association Home and Garden Show; they expect more people at the Show Me Center today...

A Cape Girardeau doctor will challenge U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson in the Republican primary for the 8th District congressional seat; Dr. C. John Ritter, an internist at Cape Girardeau Physician Associates, filed yesterday in Jefferson City; he is the second Republican to challenge Emerson; the other is Bollinger County resident Richard Kline, who filed earlier this year...

The suspect in a Cape Girardeau County killing and abduction was captured late yesterday after a gun battle with a Missouri highway patrolman on Interstate 270 near St. Louis; Russell E. Bucklew, 27, is in critical condition in a St. Louis hospital after he was shot in the gun battle; the highway patrolman also was shot; the hostage, Stephanie Ray Pruitt, 22, also was shot in the leg, but it isn't clear when she was injured; Bucklew was sought in the killing of Michael Houston Sanders, 27, who was shot about 6 p.m. ...

In 1823, the book, "Memoirs of a Captivity Among the Indians of North America" appeared in Philadelphia. The author, John Dunn Hunter, claimed Kickapoo Indians massacred his family and captured him at age 3, in about 1801. The band later moved west to what is now eastern Kansas, where Indians captured him again. ...

As the filing date for statewide office approaches, hardly a day goes by that Paul Sander doesn't hear about the District 157 seat; now Jackson's mayor and most famous non-candidate wants to set the record straight: He's not filing for state representative; Sander says he's happy serving Jackson residents as mayor and plans to run again in 1997...

NEW YORK -- Yaphet Kotto, the commanding actor who brought tough magnetism and stately gravitas to films including the James Bond movie "Live and Let Die" and "Alien," has died. He was 81. Kotto's wife, Tessie Sinahon, announced his death Monday in a Facebook post. She said he died Monday in the Philippines. Kotto's agent, Ryan Goldhar, confirmed Kotto's death...

It was a job search that didn't take long to complete; after two months of screening applications, the Scott City Board of Education unanimously voted Friday to hire Roger Tatum as its new superintendent; the Oak Ridge school board will meet tonight to accept Tatum's resignation and discuss its search for a new superintendent...

Cape Girardeau attorney and longtime high school sports radio announcer Kevin Phillips died Saturday at Saint Francis Medical Center. He was 65 years old. His cause of death was not disclosed. A Cape Girardeau native, Phillips graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1977 and went on to earn a law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law in 1981. ...