Out of the past 2/25/11

25 years ago: Feb. 25, 1986

The Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents will discuss the possibility of providing funds to help purchase a new firetruck for the city; the department currently uses a 32-year-old, 85-foot aerial ladder; a new 100-foot aerial platform is estimated to cost $400,000.

A short that ignites wiring under the hood of a Cape Girardeau school bus gives elementary students an unscheduled stop at Carolwood and Kage Road; the bus driver, Ernest Corbin, quickly extinguishes the blaze, and the bus company, Ryder-Rustman, dispatches a replacement bus to take the children home.

50 years ago: Feb. 25, 1961

Cape Girardeau, already known as a City of Roses, will become a city of pictures in May, when it undergoes the scrutiny of cameras in the hands of some of the best photographers in the country; during the week of May 21, the University of Missouri's School of Journalism will conduct its annual photo workshop here.

Elmo C. Martin is the new postmaster of Jackson; Martin, 43, is a native of Leemon; seven years ago, he opened a jewelry business in Jackson.

75 years ago: Feb. 25, 1936

A general appeal from civic groups and individuals over Southeast Missouri is being made to high government officials to retain three Civilian Conservation Corps camps that are devoted to drainage rehabilitation, reclaiming the land which was originally drained when the drainage districts built their interconnecting systems.

With the weather continuing to be mild, the massive sheet of ice along 200 miles of the Mississippi River, including the shore-to-shore layer here, starts to break up.

100 years ago: Feb. 25, 1911

The Rev. J.J. Martin, C.M., president of St. Vincent's College, has gone to Chicago on a business trip; he may extend his travels to include Paris and Rome and other European cities; the Rev. T. Levan, C.M., president of St. Thomas Seminary at Denver, is coming here to assume Martin's duties.

J.W. Slinkard has resigned his position with Riverside Lumber Co. to accept a job as Southeast Missouri representative for an eastern oil company.

-- Sharon K. Sanders