Out of the past 2/29/12

Today's Out of the Past column includes items from leap days in the past, beginning with 1908, the first year the Southeast Missourian published a newspaper on Feb. 29.

1908: At a meeting of the school board, a resolution is unanimously adopted that provides for a special tax levy for the purpose of providing for a high school building to cost $50,000.

1912: Funeral services for pioneer riverboat captain Edmond Gray are held at his home at Gray's Point, Mo.; by Gray's request, he is buried at midnight, the coffin being encased in concrete.

1924: At least eight Cape Girardeans are celebrating a birthday anniversary delayed for four years: Joseph Baumgartner, Ernest Sawyer, Mrs. E.F. Vaeth, Mrs. Ollie Crump, Hilda Fischer, Mrs. C.B. Crabtree, Joe Sciortino and Norman J. Schwab.

1936: The Mississippi River -- a combination of high water and heavy, grinding ice floes -- is on its most dangerous rampage of the winter; the rapidly rising stream is carrying with it thousands of dollars worth of valuable floating equipment torn from their moorings by ice.

1944: Mary A. Powell, who resides with her daughter and son-in-law in Cape Girardeau, is one of those people celebrating a leap day birthday; she is 92 years old, but really this is only her 23rd birthday.

1952: The Central High Tigers win the championship of the Class A regional basketball tournament at the Arena Building by defeating the Flat River (Mo.) Bears 53-34.

1968: Although single women in Cape Girardeau have been known to declare there are no bachelors in town, The Southeast Missourian prints the names and addresses of 49 eligible bachelors; single women may take advantage of the leap day tradition of asking men to marry them.

1972: A review of the 1968 crop of leap year bachelors reveals that several have joined the ranks of married men, including Harold Kuehle and Dr. Peter Hilty.

1988: Jeremy Reed Shank, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jim Shank of Jackson, won't celebrate his next birthday until 1992; he is born at Southeast Hospital at 3:02 a.m.

1992: Country and western singer George Strait performs before a crowd of more than 7,000 at the Show Me Center.

2008: Gov. Matt Blunt sends a message to President George Bush asking for federal aid for 18 Missouri counties -- including Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Butler, Scott, Stoddard and Wayne -- that suffered significant damage from ice storms that swept across the state Feb. 10 to 14.

-- Sharon K. Sanders