Out of the past 6/17/11

25 years ago: June 17, 1986

Lon Maxey, president of General Sign Co., announces his company will move to a new location on Rusmar Avenue off South Kingshighway; the company was hard-hit by last month's flash flooding at its current location, 39 N. Broadview St.

A sunken barge on the Mississippi River near Mississippi County exploded yesterday during an operation to salvage rotting grain; a diver from Tulsa, Okla., was killed when he was pinned beneath the surface.

50 years ago: June 17, 1961

The Missourian suggests that city officials seize the opportunity of a sewer line repair to open east-west Merriwether Street from its terminus near the Missouri Pacific tracks to Frederick Street; opening the street would also improve insect-and-rodent-ridden Happy Hollow.

First Baptist Church has contracted with SEMO Tuckpointing Co. for $6,000 renovation work on the original church building, which will include tuckpointing, sandblasting and waterproofing the red brick structure.

75 years ago: June 17, 1936

Seven men are injured, three of them severely, at 9:15 a.m. when two brick walls and the roof of a 45 by 30-foot wing of the T.J. Seabaugh store, 730 N. Spanish St., collapses, burying the workers who were constructing the addition under tons of brick, mortar, roofing and steel; most severely hurt are Luey Stevens, 40, of near Arbor, Mo., Oscar Brown, 38, and Alonzo Kent, 47.

The mercury at Cape Girardeau soars to 99 degrees in the afternoon; the reading is seven degrees higher than any reading in June 1935, when the peak was reached at 92 degrees on June 20.

100 years ago: June 17, 1911

Many out-of-town automobiles can be seen on Cape Girardeau streets, bringing representatives here for the big inter-state highway convention; delegates are boosting a St. Louis-to-Hot Springs, Ark., highway.

An electric drink mixer has been installed at the soda fountain of I. Ben Miller's Main Street ice cream shop, which makes the drinks better than ever.

-- Sharon K. Sanders