Out of the past 6/15/11

25 years ago: June 15, 1986

St. Mark Lutheran Church celebrates its 20th birthday; the Rev. John Schroeppel, a former pastor, is the special guest and makes remarks at a potluck dinner at noon.

The Rev. Bradford Robinson is the new associate pastor at the First Pentecostal Church.

50 years ago: June 15, 1961

ADVANCE, Mo. -- A bolt of lighting "out of the blue" struck two men and two boys in a field near here yesterday afternoon, stunning all and sending one to the hospital with burns; hospitalized is Bland Long, 65, on whose farm the incident occurred; stunned by the bolt were Long's son-in-law, Loy Moore, and Moore's sons, Loy Jr., 14, and Allen, 12.

J.E. Stroder and Edison "Bud" Schwettmann have rented the former Franklin store building at 433 Broadway and are planning to open a billiard hall there.

75 years ago: June 15, 1936

The government's war bonus bonds roll in, and Cape Girardeau veterans, the men who did the fighting or were standing ready to go to France during the World War, are ready to receive them; waiting when the post office opens at 8 a.m. is Walter Oberheide, a Cape Girardeau vet, the first to be handed his bonds and accompanying check; mail carriers and clerks have a big day distributing the bonus.

The Cape Girardeau City Council votes to keep the city tax rate for the ensuing fiscal year the same as for the year just ended, 70 cents on the $100 assessed valuation.

100 years ago: June 15, 1911

H.J. Meyers and his wife depart in the morning for St. Louis; they don't take the train, but instead depend upon two horses and a good spring wagon to deliver them to the city in the course of five or six days; they packed a large box full of hot-weather victuals, a portable cooking outfit and a tent for the long pleasure drive.

A 14-year-old girl of Rombauer, Mo., seems to be a bone of contention for her mother and sister; she was kidnapped from the mother by the sister, and then brought to Cape Girardeau and placed in St. Vincent's Convent, where she now is.

-- Sharon K. Sanders