Out of the past 12/7/11

25 years ago: Dec. 7, 1986

Three Navy veterans from Cape Girardeau are among the 27 members of the Southeast Missouri chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association: Leonard Webb, Melvin Bacon and James McLain; last week, Webb and Bacon returned to Pearl Harbor for the first time since the end of World War II to participate in the association's national convention.

Al's Midtown, noted for its Friday catfish and Wednesday kettle beef, is under new ownership; Gary and Mary McIntyre have purchased the business from Ed and Celestine Kohlfeld.

50 years ago: Dec. 7, 1961

Jack L. Clay, owner of the Clay Insurance Agency, 38 S. Spanish St., until his appointment in 1957 to be deputy state superintendent of insurance, has been named by Gov. John M. Dalton to be Missouri's new superintendent of insurance.

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Douglas W. Thompson, the California desperado who is serving a life sentence for the slaying of one man, goes on trial before a predominantly farmer jury here, charged with the fatal shooting of Herbert L. Goss, Cape Girardeau auxiliary police officer.

75 years ago: Dec. 7, 1936

Bringing the first real touch of winter, the temperature sinks to 13 degrees in Cape Girardeau, the lowest reading of the season; at Jackson, the official reading is 8 degrees.

After hearing a request by G.M. Tines for the city to rezone his property at Sprigg and Walnut streets to allow him to build a filling station and coal-selling office, the city council rejects his appeal; the land is zoned for two-family residences.

100 years ago: Dec. 7, 1911

The Powers Advertising Co. of Cape Girardeau, recently taken over by J.N. Gale and Joseph Fuerth, is shipping this week a full car of fan handles for export; the management has recently gone to a very heavy expense installing new machinery throughout the factory, and now has an hourly output of 30,000 of these handles.

C.A. Browning has just returned from Colorado, Wyoming and other western states, where he has been for his health; he is now visiting his daughters, Mrs. J.A. Cunningham and Ada Bell Browning.

-- Sharon K. Sanders