Out of the past 10/26/04

25 years ago: Oct. 26, 1979

The relatively dry weather of recent weeks has aided progress on four major construction projects; work is moving rapidly on the new public library, a new city fire station, the Marquette Cement plant project and on the cancer treatment unit at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

The controversial Deja Vu Massage Parlor at Leemon will apparently close by Dec. 1 as the result of an eviction notice ordered by the owner of the property and the trailer where the business is located; Leemon residents have claimed the business is engaged in prostitution.

50 years ago: Oct. 26, 1954

Siegfried Reinhardt, who at 28 is recognized as one of the United States' foremost painters, will be the guest artist at the 1954 Missourian Art Exhibition Dec. 4 and 5, it is announced by the committee in charge of the show; born in East Prussia, Reinhardt moved to St. Louis in 1928 and has made his home there ever since.

R.P. Smith, who has served as U.S. commissioner for the eastern district of Missouri for 14 years, announces his resignation to the federal judiciary in St. Louis.

75 years ago: Oct. 26, 1929

State superintendent Charles A. Lee and Dean M.G. Neal of the school of education of the University of Missouri fly to Cape Girardeau from St. James, Mo., in a Curtiss-Robin monoplane piloted by E.B. Gray of the Curtiss Flying Service of St. Louis; Lee addresses the gathering of the Southeast Missouri Teachers Association.

W.O. Bowman, vice president of the First National Bank in Cape Girardeau, was elected chairman of Group 6 of the Missouri Bankers Association, which met yesterday at Sikeston, Mo.

100 years ago: Oct. 26, 1904

Missouri Gov. Alexander M. Dockery is the guest of the Normal School, touring the magnificent buildings now in construction, the dormitories being erected, and the rooms where the school's new statuary will be installed; in the evening he gives fiery campaign speech to the public at the opera house.

E.L. Walker, representative of the Standard Basket Co., says the firm's new plant will be in operation here by Jan. 1; the site for the new building -- just south of the Indiana Milling Co. -- is being cleared off and construction will begin soon.

-- Sharon K. Sanders