Out of the past 12/15/09

25 years ago: Dec. 15, 1984

Closing the University Schools or making the elementary and secondary "laboratory" schools bigger and better are two of five possible alternatives suggested by a Southeast Missouri State University task force that has spent almost six months evaluating the future of the campus school system.

The old Florsheim shoe factory on North Main Street is once again to be used for manufacturing; instead of shoes, the product will be foam; the first floor of the five-story structure has been leased to the Burkhart Foam Co. of Cairo, Ill.

50 years ago: Dec. 15, 1959

A move to consolidate the towns of Fornfelt and Ancell fails by a narrow margin; while the proposal carries by better than 11 to 1 in Fornfelt, it loses in Ancell, where it fails to get the required two-thirds majority.

Four men are elected directors of the Chamber of Commerce; Dr. John Crow is elected to the civic division, R.E.L. Lamkin Jr., to the commercial retail division, and Clarence Suedekum and Francis Lewis to the commercial service division.

75 years ago: Dec. 15, 1934

In the early hours before dawn, three burglars force open the front door to the H.A. Lang jewelry store, 126 N. Main St., and, after carefully selecting their loot from the Christmas stock on hand, escape with jewelry valued at $2,000.

Don Pritchard, captain and stellar end of the State College football team, was the only Girardean placed on the all-state team picked by coaches of Cape Girardeau, Kirksville, Rolla, Washington and St. Louis universities.

100 years ago: Dec. 15, 1909

Sam McClatchey has a pet that he is proud of, although it's one that won't allow petting; it is an alligator brought from the Red River bayous, which was given to him by Capt. Eagan of the government boat Lilly; the alligator is a young one, about one and a half feet long; McClatchey has it in a tub in the rear room of his saloon on Water Street, until a permanent receptacle is made.

M.A. Dempsey returned from Washington, D.C., and New York last night; he had been to Washington to argue a case in the Supreme Court.

-- Sharon K. Sanders