STEAMBOAT MAKES AN UNSCHEDULED STOP

The Mississippi Queen steamboat made an unscheduled stop at Cape Girardeau Wednesday afternoon, to discharge a passenger who became ill while traveling on the boat.

Capt. Lawrence Keeton of the Mississippi Queen said the female passenger was experiencing difficulty in walking and asked to be let off the boat at Cape Girardeau so she could be hospitalized.

After the boat docked here at 3 p.m., paramedics from the Cape County Private Ambulance Service transported the woman to the St. Francis Medical Center. Keeton said the woman was expected to be transferred to a Kansas City hospital near her home in western Missouri. Keeton said the woman was accompanied on the boat by her sister and brother-in-law.

The Mississippi Queen left Cape Girardeau at 3:40 p.m., en route to St. Louis and Minneapolis for its final cruise of the season on the upper Mississippi River. Keeton said the steamboat will pass Cape Girardeau on its return trip to New Orleans, where it will spend the winter.