Out of the past 5/31/11

25 years ago: May 31, 1986

Roger Enrico, president of Pepsi-Cola USA, is guest speaker at the Southeast Missouri State University Foundation's third annual Copper Dome Society dinner.

Nearly 1,000 pilots signed petitions state they would like to delay the closing of Cape Girardeau's Flight Service Station, and U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson, armed with these petitions, plans to testify at a Senate subcommittee hearing on the subject next week.

50 years ago: May 31, 1961

A number of Cape Girardeans report being roused from their slumbers at 6:15 a.m. by a series of explosions; the four heavy blasts, followed by four lighter ones and then a final heavy explosion, are sounds resulting from blasting in a quarry near Gray's Point, Mo., where stone is being taken out for use in revetment work on the Mississippi River; Gray's Point is about five miles downstream from Cape Girardeau.

Dearmont Quadrangle, the largest residence hall at State College, has been made co-ed for the summer session; women will be staying in dorms A and B, while men will live in Dorm D; the residence hall was made co-ed to reduce operating costs.

75 years ago: May 31, 1936

Memorial Day is observed with afternoon services; members of the George Washington and Warren T. Stewart camps and auxiliaries of the Sons of Union Veterans assemble on the main span of the Mississippi River bridge for a brief service, at which the Rev. C.H. Morton, pastor of First Presbyterian Church speaks; a wreath is dropped into the river

A special committee visits the graves of Civil War veterans in Cape Girardeau, marking each with a small American flag.

100 years ago: May 31, 1911

On Memorial Day, 1911, the Civil War memorial fountain in Courthouse Park was dedicated to the Union war dead. (Missourian archives)

On the 50th year since the beginning of the great Civil War, the surviving veterans of that war, widows and children of veterans, and citizens of Cape Girardeau and neighboring towns assembled at Courthouse Park for memorial exercises yesterday; highlight of the ceremony was the unveiling of the statue-fountain, a gift to the city by the Women's Relief Corps.

Hope and Cotner of the Ford Auto Co. delivered three more cars yesterday, one each to Dr. M.A. Grissom, Emil Thilenius and Glen Hope.

-- Sharon K. Sanders