Out of the past 3/2/06

25 years ago: March 2, 1981

An elderly Cape Girardeau woman dies in her sleep of smoke inhalation when a fire rips through the rear portion of her home; Margaret Hall, 71, 633 S. Henderson Ave., is found in her bed at about 6 a.m. by firefighters who began searching for the woman after controlling the blaze.

A former Division II Coach of the Year is the new head basketball coach at Southeast Missouri State University; after approval by the board of regents, it is announced that Ron Shumate will replace retiring Carroll Williams as the Indians' coach; Shumate, 41, was head of the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga for seven years before leaving after the 1978 to 1979 campaign to enter private business.

50 years ago: March 2, 1956

D.F. Clay, Cape Girardeau insurance agency owner, announces he has filed his petition and will be a candidate for city commissioner in the primary election on March 20; it will be his second venture into municipal politics; in 1948 he was an unsuccessful candidate for mayor.

Walter Q. Adams says he has leased his building at the intersection of Highway 61 and old Highway 74 to Truck Center Inc. of St. Louis, which will establish a truck wholesale parts department there as a branch of White Motor Truck Co.

75 years ago: March 2, 1931

First suits by the federal government to secure flowage rights over land in the setback levee sector in Mississippi and New Madrid counties will be filed in federal court in Cape Girardeau this week; only a few cases will be filed, but action on these will be in the nature of test proceedings for the remainder.

The M.J. Davidson Jr. Construction Co. of St. Louis is low bidder on a contract for construction of pavement and gravel shoulders on Highway 74 and a short section of pavement on Highway 61 south of Cape Girardeau; the successful bid was $58,316.96.

100 years ago: March 2, 1906

The Rev. Otto J. Gilbert, recently called to the pulpit of the German Evangelical Church, arrived in Cape Girardeau Tuesday from Chicago; he was accompanied to his new assignment by his wife and child.

H.G. Myers, Cape Girardeau's secondhand man, is moving his emporium from 105 Independence St., to 11 S. Spanish St., just south of the Bee Store; Myers buys and sells anything, and his hustling business methods keep his establishment constantly on the increase.

-- Sharon K. Sanders