Week of Aug. 28 - Sept. 3

Aug. 31, 1953

Ensign Busch Jr. Freed

Ensign Roland G. Busch Jr. -- believed dead for nearly a year -- has been released from communist captivity. He will be returning home soon, for the first time in three years.

Mr. and Mrs. Roland G. Busch learned of their son's return to American control Saturday night at about 10:50 p.m.

That was just a year and three months after they received an official telegram informing them their son had died when his jet plane had crashed into a hillside in Korea. It was 3 months and 23 days after they learned their son had been seen alive and in good condition in a communist prison camp.

Doyle Edwards of Cape Girardeau had heard a broadcast from St. Louis that Ensign Busch had been included in the latest prisoner exhange, and Edwards called the Busches with the news...

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Aug. 30, 1972

Final I-55 St. Louis segment opens

By John L. Blue

Missourian managing editor

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Twin ribbons of concrete, dedicated here this forenoon, were the catalysts for a plea from Gov. Warren E. Hearns for better human understanding between urban and rural society.

The long-awaited opening of Interstate 55 between Cape Girardeau and St. Louis was the occasion for fanfare and the gathering of an estimated 1,500 persons.

Hundreds of people walked down the superhighway for a mile or more from the Highway 51 overpass to the reviewing stand far down the interstate.

Cars were parked solidly two and three deep on the shoulder and along the interstate for 1 1/2 miles miles to the Highway 51 overpass.

In his speech during the ceremony, Gov. Hearns said that greater understanding between urban and rural areas was at the top of Missouri's needs...

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Aug. 31, 1996

Throng jams park to see president

By Mark Bliss

Southeast Missourian

A shirt-sleeved President Clinton told a cheering, sign-waving crowd estimated at up to 30,000 people Friday at Cape Girardeau's Capaha Park that he wants to be re-elected to "build a bridge to the 21st century."

Clinton said he had done his best to change the politics of Washington to make it more like life in Cape Girardeau.

The campaign rally marked the first time in the city's history that a sitting president and vice president had visited Cape Girardeau at the same time. It also was the first visit to Cape Girardeau by a sitting Democratic president...