Out of the past 5/11/11

25 years ago: May 11, 1986

Dr. Kenneth C. Johnston, director superintendent of the Cape Girardeau-Farmington district of the United Methodist Church, delivers the morning message at Centenary United Methodist Church; his topic is "Partners with the Lord."

The Southeast Missouri Council on the Arts, through a grant from the Missouri Arts Council, will sponsor a part of the entertainment for Riverfest '86; the celebration is scheduled for June 20 and 21 in downtown Cape Girardeau.

50 years ago: May 11, 1961

A revised prediction by the U.S. Weather Bureau moves the expected crest at Cape Girardeau to 40 feet late Sunday; workers move back to the job of building higher the temporary dirt levee in the North Main Street area and in finishing the secondary levee at the Missouri Utilities Co. power plant.

A break in a sanitary sewer line in the No. 1 District was discovered yesterday; the broken line is at the east end of the tie yard behind the Missouri Pacific Railroad depot along the extension of Merriwether Street in the Happy Hollow area.

75 years ago: May 11, 1936

Rains, breaking a threatened drought in parts of Southeast Missouri, fell over the weekend, heavy showers of near-cloudburst proportions occurring in the western part of Cape Girardeau County; dry Cape Girardeau, however, received only a sprinkle in comparison to other parts of the county.

City engineer John R. Walther has been notified by Harl Haas, owner of a streetcar that had been placed on a vacant lot just east of the Lueders Studio building, that the car has been sold and will be moved within a few days; Haas originally planned to use the car as a restaurant.

100 years ago: May 11, 1911

G.C. Lemley of 303 Themis St. is being credited with saving the Common Pleas Courthouse from burning last night; he noticed the glare of flames in a downstairs room in the southwest corner of the building and, after notifying a neighbor, broke into the locked room to extinguish the blaze; he was aided in his efforts by the fire department.

The first contingent of athletes for the big carnival of athletics and oratoricals tomorrow and Saturday arrive in the morning, coming here by automobile from Charleston, Mo., a trip that took two hours.

-- Sharon K. Sanders