History

African Scientific Research Institute has announced a National Register project to examine the lives and stories of African Americans, free and enslaved, in the United States. According to Jihad Muhammad, chairman of Ancestral Creations, based in St. Louis, a kickoff community announcement for the group's Southeast Missouri Delta Heritage project will be Sept. 3 and 4 in Sikeston, Missouri...

Evangelical United Church of Christ, 37 S. Ellis St., is a partner church with Carron Hall United Church in Jamaica as part of the Missouri Conference Partnership with the United Church of Jamaica and Cayman Islands; a group of youth and chaperones left July 4 for an eight-day visit to Carron Hall Church; while there, the group led Vacation Bible School, worked at the Pringle Home orphanage, painted the church and the minister's house...

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- A mural that was painted in a Vermont synagogue more than 100 years ago by a Lithuanian immigrant -- and hidden behind a wall for years-- has been termed a rare piece of art and has been painstakingly moved and restored. The large colorful triptych painted by sign painter Ben Zion Black in 1910 shows the Ten Commandments with a lion on both sides, the sun beaming down, and columns and rich curtains at the borders. ...

NEW YORK -- Wolfgang Petersen, the German filmmaker whose World War II submarine epic "Das Boot" propelled him into a blockbuster Hollywood career that included the films "In the Line of Fire," "Air Force One" and "The Perfect Storm," has died. He was 81...

Thunderstorms and heavy rain that pounded the region Thursday night resulted in power outages in Cape Girardeau and isolated flooding in Poplar Bluff, Missouri; the storms, brought in on 20-to-25 mph winds, hit areas of south-central Illinois, Southeast Missouri and parts of northwest Tennessee; they dumped 2.15 inches of rain on Cape Girardeau; power was out yesterday for up to three hours in the vicinity of Route K and Interstate 55 in west Cape Girardeau...

In three years' time, a quarter of Southeast Missouri State University faculty members have been replaced, resulting in a changing climate on campus, school officials say; 345 new faculty members are participating in a five-day orientation to campus and Southeast Missouri...

Cape Girardeau County has its share of ghost towns -- unincorporated communities where few if any residents dwell. One such town is Houk -- not Houck -- where highways F and Z meet, south of Tilsit, west of Gordonville. The town is Solado on a map at the county's Recorder of Deeds office, and at least one person I asked called it Bugtown or Bucktown...

A portrait of Rush Limbaugh that is a part of the Missouri Wall of Fame mural on Water Street was spray-painted with, among other things, the number 666, a swastika and the word Nazi; the words appeared to be carefully sprayed with black paint on the fingers and shirt of the yellow-and-black mural; Mary Miller, director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, says this is the first time one of the city's murals has been vandalized...

The Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission did a poor job of putting together its 15-year highway plan in 1992, says a report by Missouri's Total Transportation Commission; first off, the project started $1.4 billion in the hole; that deficit could grow to 10 times that amount by the time the project is completed in the new century without new funding, says the report; in addition, the plan didn't allow for construction cost increases from inflation, said the report...

"Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." This famous quote from Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Co. in 1903, also describes the philosophy of Cape Girardeau's oldest car dealership -- The Fred A. Groves Motor Co. Inc., better known as Ford Groves. The 108-year-old business now owned by Bob and Bari Neff, purchased from Neff's father-in-law, William J. Schicker, in 1987, has a solid history in Cape Girardeau...

David D. Hodge, a 16-year employee of NataionsBank, has been named regional executive of NationsBank's Southeast Missouri-Illinois region; Hodge, most recently a regional executive in Charlottesville, Virginia, will begin his new duties in Cape Girardeau Monday...

The last preparations are being made for tomorrow's start of the Jackson Homecomers celebration, a Jackson tradition since 1908; a little over 8,000 people attended the first Homecomers; today, the 89th Homecomers is sponsored by Jackson American Legion Post 158 and has grown considerably...

NEW HAMBURG, Mo. -- A time capsule, tucked away Sept. 14, 1948, behind the altar of St. Lawrence Catholic Church in New Hamburg, is opened, kicking off a year-long celebration commemorating the church's 150th anniversary; the capsule is a metal lock box wrapped with brown paper; inside the locked box are financial records, correspondence and a sermon from 1948...

JACKSON, Miss. -- A Mississippi grand jury has declined to indict the white woman whose accusation set off the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago, most likely closing the case that shocked a nation and galvanized the modern civil rights movement...

NEW YORK -- Lamont Dozier, the middle name of the celebrated Holland-Dozier-Holland team that wrote and produced "You Can't Hurry Love," "Heat Wave" and dozens of other hits and helped make Motown an essential record company of the 1960s and beyond, has died at age 81...

The Arts Council of Southeast Missouri has named Greg Jones as the new executive director of the organization; he replaces Beverly Strohmeyer, the director for 12 years, who resigned last month to accept a position with the Missouri Arts Council in St. Louis; Jones formerly served as studio coordinator for the sculpture, metalsmithing and wood shops programs at the University of Iowa in Iowa City...

NEW YORK — Olivia Newton-John, the Grammy-winning superstar who reigned on pop, country, adult contemporary and dance charts with such hits as “Physical” and “You’re the One That I Want” and won countless hearts as everyone’s favorite Sandy in the blockbuster film version of “Grease,” has died. She was 73. ...

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education voted to end school reassignments for kindergarteners during a special meeting yesterday at the board office; more than 20 parents attended the meeting, which was requested by board member Harry Rediger July 28, to resolve the issue of kindergarten over-enrollment at Clippard Elementary School; parents previously had addressed the board with concerns about the random selection process that was used to decide who among the 74 kindergarten students pre-enrolled at the school would be transported to another school to prevent overcrowding.. ...

Twenty people were arrested Tuesday and five more are sought on drug charges stemming from an investigation by the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force; Cape Girardeau Police Cpl. Keith May, a task force team leader, says officers have been conducting buys and collecting evidence for a year and a half; most of the buys took place in the area of Cape Girardeau that includes Morgan Oak, Good Hope, South Ellis, South Middle and South Lorimier streets...

In mid-June, Cape Girardeau and NationsBank officials announced they had reached a verbal agreement giving the city a 60-day option to buy the old Boatmen's Bank building at 100 Broadway; less than 60 days later, Trammell Crow, a St. Louis-based real estate firm, has taken out classified ads in the Southeast Missourian announcing that the building is for sale; an agent at Trammell Crow who placed the ad said NationsBank requested the ad; "We're asking $350,000 for it," he said...

The land where the current Jackson High School stands on Missouri Street has been home to many different schools serving the Jackson and the surrounding area. The Jackson Military and Finishing School opened in 1899 in the former Carlisle Training School after it closed its doors. ...

Land records are possibly the most valuable records for determining relationships, especially before 1880, when the federal census began including relationships to the head of the household. One of the primary reasons our ancestors came to America and moved often was to find better land. Indeed, in many areas over 80% of adult males owned land...

The federal government has no plans to build Interstate 66, but if it does, the Cape Girardeau City Council will commit $10,000 to lobby government officials to route the interstate through the city; the council last night unanimously approved money for the lobbying effort...

Southeast Missouri State University hopes to boost minority enrollment with the aid of an advisory commission; the school also wants to recruit Blacks for faculty and staff positions; the commission was prompted by school officials' desire to reverse the continuing decline in Black enrollment; Southeast's president, Dr. ...

Construction is expected to begin soon for a 4,500-square-foot parish hall and office building to serve the congregation of Eisleben Lutheran Church in Scott City; the congregation has been working on the plans and raising half of the $250,000 projected costs for the past 18 months; in order to construct the new facility, the old parish hall was stripped and demolished; groundbreaking for the new hall was held July 6...

A teen-ager serving a 37-day sentence in the Cape Girardeau County Jail spent a half hour of freedom yesterday partially submerged in a creek in Arena Park; he was captured at 11:45 a.m. after walking off from a prisoner work program at the Cape Girardeau Recycling Center on Broadview; the capture was made after Southeast Missourian photographer Don Shrubshell saw Hill partially submerged along the bank of the creek and alerted police...

Cape Girardeau police are searching for the men who shot the 57-year-old caretaker of Old Lorimier Cemetery early Thursday in a possible robbery attempt; Robert Banfield was approached by two men as he was unlocking a gate to the cemetery in the 400 block of North Fountain at about 6:30 a.m.; they made Banfield lie on the ground behind a storage building and demanded money from him; when the caretaker said he had only a small amount of change, one of the assailants shot him; the small-caliber bullet struck Banfield in the cheek, passed through the other cheek and exited.. ...

Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood when she played communications officer Lt. Uhura on the original "Star Trek" television series, has died at the age of 89. Her son Kyle Johnson said Nichols died Saturday in Silver City, New Mexico...

No words could wake up a sleepy river town faster than "Steamboat's a comin'!" Arrival of a river vessel meant more than fresh supplies. It meant news from the outside world. Between 1800 and into the next century, until the arrival of the Frisco Railroad, nearly everyone from the north or south came to Cape Girardeau by the river. No wonder, the then little roadways were not much more than "mudways."...

Construction of an interstate highway between Paducah, Kentucky, and Van Buren, Missouri, could cost from $450 million to $625 million depending on the route, Missouri highway officials say; the Missouri Department of Transportation is doing a cost analysis of proposed Interstate 66; the cost study focuses on four alternatives involving five possible routes; all of the routes would connect with Highway 60 at Van Buren, about 130 miles west of Paducah...

The Kohlfeld Capahas are in a financial pinch -- and the Southeast Missourian is stepping to the plate to help get Cape Girardeau's tradition-rich baseball team to the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kansas; the newspaper has pledged $500 to the Capahas and challenges other area businesses to do the same; Kohlfeld Distributing has paid the team's tournament entry fee, but at least $4,000 more is needed for lodging and gasoline expenses...

BARRE, Mass. -- One by one, items purportedly taken from Native Americans massacred at Wounded Knee Creek emerged from the dark, cluttered display cases where they've sat for more than a century in a museum in rural Massachusetts. Moccasins, necklaces, clothing, ceremonial pipes, tools and other objects were carefully laid out on white backgrounds as a photographer dutifully snapped pictures under bright studio lights...

ST-ANNE-DE-BEAUPRE, Quebec -- Pope Francis celebrated Mass on Thursday at Canada's national shrine and came face-to-face with a long-standing demand from Indigenous peoples: to rescind the papal decrees underpinning the so-called "Doctrine of Discovery" and repudiate the theories that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of Native lands and form the basis of some property law today...

Ryan Presley, a meteorologist with the U.S. Weather Service in Paducah, Kentucky, says the current heat wave should be over by tomorrow, when a cold front from Canada passes through area; a heat wave like the Midwest is experiencing with highs near 100 degrees and heat indexes of 110 is no rarity, according to Presley: "We have this every couple of summers."...

LOS ANGELES -- Tony Dow, who as Wally Cleaver on the sitcom "Leave It to Beaver" helped create the popular and lasting image of the American teenager of the 1950s and '60s, died Wednesday. He was 77. Frank Bilotta, who represented Dow in his work as a sculptor, confirmed his death in an email to The Associated Press...

LONDON -- James Lovelock, the British environmental scientist whose influential Gaia theory sees the Earth as a living organism gravely imperiled by human activity, has died on his 103rd birthday. Lovelock's family said Wednesday that he died the previous evening at his home in southwest England "surrounded by his family." The family said his health had deteriorated after a bad fall but that until six months ago Lovelock "was still able to walk along the coast near his home in Dorset and take part in interviews.". ...

The Rev. Steven A. MacDougall, associate pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau since 1992, preaches his farewell sermon; he and his family will leave Monday for Red Bud, Illinois, where he has accepted the pastorate of Trinity Lutheran Church...

Bill Lewis says he knows how Jesus felt: "Everybody's coming in for the last supper"; that's because Wimpy's, a Cape Girardeau institution for 55 years, will serve its last hamburger Wednesday; Bill's brother Freeman bought a hamburger stand called Wimpy's in 1942; located on the northwest corner of Kingshighway and Cape Rock Drive, Wimpy's sold its specialty for 7 cents apiece; the Lewises' parents, Fred and Ethyl, ran the stand while Freeman and his brother Frank were off fighting World War II; soon after they returned, the business moved across the street into a building on the northeast corner of Kingshighway and Cape Rock Drive.. ...

SOUTHPORT, N.C.-- Jean Heller was toiling away on the floor of the Miami Beach Convention Center when an Associated Press colleague from the opposite end of the country walked into her workspace behind the event stage and handed her a thin manila envelope...

NEW YORK -- A decades-old, mint condition Mickey Mantle baseball card could break a record at auction. The collector's item from 1952 features one of baseball's most celebrated and charismatic legends, and is widely regarded as one of just a handful in near-perfect condition...

MASKWACIS, Alberta -- Pope Francis issued a historic apology Monday for the Catholic Church's cooperation with Canada's "catastrophic" policy of Indigenous residential schools, saying the forced assimilation of Native peoples into Christian society destroyed their cultures, severed families and marginalized generations...

Paul Sorvino, an imposing actor who specialized in playing crooks and cops like Paulie Cicero in "Goodfellas" and the NYPD sergeant Phil Cerreta on "Law & Order," has died. He was 83. His publicist Roger Neal said he died Monday morning of natural causes at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. Sorvino had dealt with health issues over the past few years...

The Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority's latest company will not only benefit the port and Scott City, but Cape Girardeau as well; Canal Chip is setting up a $10 million wood chip company at the port; it has already brought a certain amount of prosperity to Scott City, which received a $100,000 Community Development Block Grant that was tied into new businesses at the port; the grant will go to establish a new well for the city's water system...

Zalma Block and his wife, Matilda (Rodney) Renfroe Block, built and operated St. Charles Hotel for many years. Most assume Zalma was the first or only member of the family to arrive in Cape. He arrived in the area as a child, however, and his parents and siblings were prominent in the business history of Cape Girardeau from 1820 until the late 1800s...

Dying, as a person of African descent, meant the segregation experienced in life followed in death. Through the late 1800s and early 1900s, Cape Girardeau County "colored" and paupers grave sites, in city and church cemeteries, were allowed only in sections along outer perimeters. Graves were designated with little more than field stones or hand-poured cement markers. In rural areas, enslaved were buried a discrete distance from enslaver family cemeteries, along tree lines of farm fields...

A group of concerned Jackson merchants and business owners are getting up very early once a week; for the past two months, on Thursday mornings at 7, the group -- the Small Business Recruitment Committee -- has been meeting to discuss the future of small businesses in Jackson; Councilwoman Val Tuschhoff, a member of the group, says about 12 Jackson business men and women decided to become active in the recruitment of small businesses to Jackson...

Local mural and tattoo artist John "Johnny" Thurman is being remembered by family and friends as an outgoing friend who never met a stranger. Thurman died July 8 after a biking accident in Cape Girardeau. He was 41. He worked at a number of tattoo shops, including A Different Drummer Tattoo in Cape Girardeau, True Hand Tattoo in Sikeston, Missouri, and Trader Bob's Tattoo in St. ...

NEW YORK — Ivana Trump, a skier-turned-businesswoman who formed half of a publicity power couple in the 1980s as the first wife of former President Donald Trump and mother of his oldest children, has died in New York City, her family announced Thursday. She was 73...

Calling him a "man of great polarities," Southeast Missouri State University drawing and printmaking professor Dr. Grant Lund is trying to capture the essence of William Faulkner's psyche in a mural he designed; he started painting the mural in Kent Library's third-floor hall last week; the mural will be completed before July 26 and dedicated as part of the Faulkner Centennial Celebration at Southeast Sept. 7...

LONDON -- A previously unknown self-portrait of Vincent Van Gogh has been discovered behind another of the artist's paintings, the National Galleries of Scotland said Thursday. The self-portrait was found on the back of Van Gogh's "Head of a Peasant Woman" when experts at the Edinburgh gallery took an X-ray of the canvas ahead of an upcoming exhibition. ...