Out of the past 10/17/05

25 years ago: Oct. 17, 1980

The Cape Girardeau City Council unanimously accepts the resignation of city manager W.G. Lawley effective Feb. 28.

When the city of Cape Girardeau selects a contractor later this year to operate the city's new transit system, there may be only one contractor to choose from: Kelly Transportation Co.; under the terms of the federal Urban Mass Transportation Act, the city would be disqualified from receiving any federal subsidy for creation of a transit system here if it awards a bus system contract to any firm which would compete with the Kelly company, which operates the taxi services in Cape Girardeau.

50 years ago: Oct. 17, 1955

The United Fund Campaign is officially launched to raise $53,486 for six of the major Cape Girardeau charities and character-building agencies; benefiting from this year's campaign will be the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Boy and Girl Scouts, Missouri Heart Association and Teen Town.

PATTON, Mo. -- Fire originating in an adjacent building spreads to and destroys a frame structure housing the exchange of the Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. here, disrupting service in a wide rural area and causing loss estimated at more than $15,000.

75 years ago: Oct. 17, 1930

Winter makes its appearance in the morning, dropping the temperature to 40 degrees, the new low level for the season; it is probable that the first heavy frost will visit this section tonight.

A crowd estimated at 1,600 persons, wearing overcoats and huddled in blankets, watches as the home team Teachers College gridders trounce the Haskell Institute Indian Reserves in the first night football game at Houck Field Stadium; the local Indians win 12-6.

100 years ago: Oct. 17, 1905

A sudden attack of heart failure claimed the life of Frederick Daues, one of the substantial old residents of Cape Girardeau, at his home on Bellevue; Daues, 77, was a cooper by trade and had lived here for about 45 years; he is survived by six sons.

Arthur Harrison, one of the most prominent of the younger society set of the city, gives a dance for a large number of friends at his home on Themis Street; about 20 couples are present.

-- Sharon K. Sanders