Out of the past 5/9/05

25 years ago: May 9, 1980

Two Southeast Missouri State University coeds are informed they had become two of 50 women nationwide selected for flight training by the Air Force; Air Force ROTC commander Lt. Col. Ronald Herr receives notice that Sharon Amelon of Jackson and Linda Meyer of St. Louis, Mo., both have been chosen to join the select few females who will take flight training.

Nine-year-old Holly Noel Plumb, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Plumb of Cape Girardeau, is honored by the Evening Optimist Club for her outstanding citizenship that led to the conviction of a thief who stole a billfold in the Cape Girardeau Public Library last December.

50 years ago: May 9, 1955

Louise Vasterling Himmelberger, president of two prominent business establishments in the city, died unexpectedly May 7 at a hospital where she had undergone emergency surgery.

Cape Hardware Co., 711 Broadway, is expected to move during the Memorial Day holiday into new quarters next to the building formerly used by the Joe L. Jones establishment; the move will double the space available to the store; the business is owned by James P. Lee.

75 years ago: May 9, 1930

A city income tax ordinance for Cape Girardeau is proposed by Mayor Edward L. Drum as a means to a solution of the present system of "overtaxation"; Drum sees in the present tax system a tendency for the great wealth-producing sources to escape taxation; this is becoming more pronounced, and the burden of the tax is falling on tangible property, the average homeowner and the man of moderate business strength, according to Drum.

George W. Foster, consulting engineer for the Curtiss-Wright Flying Service of St. Louis, Mo., and George E. Congdon Jr., sales manager for the service, were in Cape Girardeau yesterday inspecting several sites for an airport.

100 years ago: May 9, 1905

It has been decided that the G.B. Lesh Manufacturing Co. of Warsaw, Ind., will move to Memphis, Tenn.; members of the Cape Girardeau Commercial Club had been courting the big factory.

Cape Girardeau is preparing for one of the gayest weeks in its history; on May 15, the Bauscher Carnival Co. will open on the Whitelaw grounds; a great many attractions will be displayed by this company, which is well-known throughout the district.

-- Sharon K. Sanders