`MISS JANE' REMINISCES ON 53-YEAR CAREER

AFLOAT IN MEMORIES: Jane Barnett remembers riding on the Cape Girardeau Symphony float in the city's sesquicentennial parade in 1956, playing a harp owned by Fred Naeter, then owner of the Southeast Missourian. She once played in the symphony. (RAN PAGE 4A)

CAPE GIRARDEAU In the early 1930s, the Missouri state legislature was considering the benefits of adopting a proposed 1-cent sales tax. Drinkers anticipated the repeal of the 18th Amendment. Drivers wanting a new car eyed a New Pontiac Straight Eight roadster for $585.

Jane Barnett, a Cape Girardeau merchant, remembers it all.

On Oct. 18, 1933, the Co-op Drug and Sundry Shop opened in downtown Cape Girardeau.

Owner Elaine "Tommie" Davis, a former teacher and coach, featured a variety of opening specials to lure curious shoppers. They could choose from Lydia Pinkhams Vegetable Compound for 93 cents; Vaseline, four cents; aspirin, nine cents; Squibb Cod Liver Oil, 69 cents; quinine capsules, eight cents; and a selection of patent medicines.

The Co-op, firmly implanted at 40 N. Main Street, has remained in business for nearly 60 years, through Depression years and war years. The shop has witnessed the ups and downs of Cape's downtown business district.

The 57-year history of the landmark, one of the city's oldest retail stores, comes to a close this month.

Barnett, or Miss Jane as some of her friends call her, is clearing the shelves for the last inventory. Barnett, who joined Davis as a business partner in 1938, has become a fixture in her half century career in the business. Davis died about 10 years ago.

At age 82, Barnett is still manning the store. The Co-op will be open Fridays and Saturdays this month, while Barnett winds down the operation. Current plans are to sell the building.

Friends are helping her in the process, pitching in to assist where they can.

"Customers and friends are both in the same category," Barnett said. "There is no difference. I have met so many friends through the shop. They are unforgettable, generous and kind."

One could add, abundant. A recent impromptu gathering given by a friend to mark her retirement grew from an invited list of 15 to well over 100 attendees.

Friends say Barnett makes an impression on her customers at the Co-op with her sensitivity and interest in them. She also makes an impact visually, not being conservative in her clothing and jewelry selection. She attributes her avant garde tastes to her life-long interest in theater and the transition in the shop to accent jewelry in the late 1960s.

"When a drugstore opened downtown, we decided to remodel and change the nature of the store to emphasize jewelry," Barnett said. "We picked up the new jewelry styles of the late '60s. People went wild over it then."

She started wearing the jewelry to display it. Combined with chic clothes she ordered from New York, Barnett created a vogue image that she still displays today.

The theater factor originated from the times she and her sister staged drama productions in their backyard, utilizing clothing they could find for costumes. Barnett earned a degree in public school music at the Illinois Women's College, then worked with a theater school in Iowa after graduation.

"I traveled with the school's troupe, selling tickets, coaching and managing," she recalled. "It got lonely on the road. I had to sleep in railroad stations on the bench sometimes. It was a hard life." After six months of the adventure, she returned home for a while in 1930.

"Then I learned there were teaching jobs in Missouri," Barnett said. After teaching in Oran, she went on to Diehlstadt, Hornersville, and Sikeston schools, teaching music, drama and English.

After seven years, she was again ready for a career change. Davis, a former teacher, invited Barnett in 1938 to join her as a business partner in the Co-op after losing two partners in five years.

"It was fascinating. There were so many different types of people. Unlike teaching, every day was different," she said of her business career. "I was shy and introverted at first, though. She (Davis) had to push me out to wait on customers the first days."

Among the customers were prostitutes who plied their trade in the upstairs quarters along Water, Main and Spanish streets. "We got to know many of them," Barnett said. "They told me quite a few stories. I could write a book."

She said the customer base has changed over the years, although university students and steamboat visitors have continued to frequent the shop. Friends say Barnett has developed an innate sense about her regular customers and can anticipate their choices in jewelry.

"It's been an education, coming to know all these people," Barnett said. "It's been wonderful and inspiring.

"I have learned how to work with people, cope with the ups and downs of life, and always be prepared. That almost sounds like a Girl Scout motto," she said with a laugh.

She said the camaraderie among downtown business owners has been a unique part of life along the riverfront.

Over the years, Barnett has maintained an active interest in drama and music.

In 1958, she and Davis established the Davis-Barnett Awards, which are presented annually to outstanding members of Southeast Missouri State University Theatre. Awards are presented in seven categories. Barnett often loans jewelry and props to the theatre for productions.

The University Theatre presented Barnett a plaque of appreciation in a ceremony last semester for her continued support of the school's drama program.

Barnett has learned to play a variety of musical instruments over the years, including a potato mandolin, concertina, violin, autoharp and balalaika. She played the violin for several years in the Cape Girardeau Symphony, which was under the direction of college professor Fritz Heim. In the Cape Girardeau sesquicentennial parade in 1956, Barnett rode the symphony float, playing a harp belonging to Fred Naeter, then an owner of the Southeast Missourian. She said one of the pleasures in her life was that the float placed second in a field of 24 in the parade.

Other particularly memorable events Barnett recalls is being named Miss Downtown in an annual poll of shoppers, and playing in the orchestra for Eleanor Roosevelt when she lectured in Cape Girardeau. Both events occurred in the 1950s.

Among the notable customers Barnett has served at the Co-op have been U.S. Senators Stuart Symington and Tom Eagleton, and actor John Carradine.

Barnett has accumulated several collections over the years, including perfume bottles, which she began collecting at the age of 12.

Other collections cover a broad spectrum, including cigarette and pipe holders, fancy fans, trivets, face pins, wall masks, healing stones and Greta Garbo memorabilia. An avid fan of the famed actress, Barnett has posters, photographs, videotapes and other material on Garbo.