Out of the past 2/15/11

25 years ago: Feb. 15, 1986

"Lutesville-Marble Hill" will be the name placed before voters when the question of merging the two Bollinger County towns is decided upon Aug. 5; last November, voters nixed a consolidation plan.

The Cape Girardeau League of Women Voters will coordinate a petition drive to place a measure before county voters establishing a mill tax to support the Cape Girardeau County Nursing Service.

50 years ago: Feb. 15, 1961

Missouri Utilities Co. and Union Electric Co. of St. Louis jointly announce that a 44-mile high-voltage transmission line connecting the Joppa plant of Electric Energy Inc. with Cape Girardeau will be built next year; the additional power source will give Cape Girardeau and all of the region served by Missouri Utilities as much electrical power as can be used.

It is reported D. Jefferson Lance, 44, a graduate of State College in Cape Girardeau, class of 1940, will be named U.S. attorney for Eastern Missouri; he is a native of Oregon County and a 1948 graduate of the University of Missouri Law School.

75 years ago: Feb. 15, 1936

Sponsors are being sought in Cape Girardeau for National Youth Administration work projects, chiefly light construction jobs; the sponsor must furnish materials needed.

Leaving its parking place on Lacy Street near Southeast Missouri Hospital shortly before noon, a driverless 1934 model Plymouth coupe automobile owned by Dr. Rusby Seabaugh of Jackson runs east down the steep Lacy hill, turns abruptly to the north about halfway down the incline and leaps into the rear of lot owned by County Assessor J. Doyle Summers, 1617 Broadway; the runaway tears out a section of fence before crashing into the west side of the brick dwelling.

100 years ago: Feb. 15, 1911

W.F. Schade of Jackson had a successful sale of horses and mules yesterday; more than $11,000 worth of breeding stock was sold.

T.H. Bousen, an employee of the Cape Girardeau Portland Cement plant, narrowly escaped death last evening when he was caught and whirled by the belt of one of the pulleys at the plant; he sustained a deep gash to his head and was otherwise bruised, but, fortunately, none of his injuries were too serious.

-- Sharon K. Sanders