Out of the past 6/23/12

25 years ago: June 23, 1987

Photographs of Cape Girardeau people and sites, taken during "A Day in the Life of Cape Girardeau" on May 7, have been selected for an upcoming museum exhibit and a special newspaper section; jurors from St. Louis and Carbondale, Ill., picked 72 black and white and color photos taken by 20 local photographers; the selections will be displayed at the University Museum beginning Friday.

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Faced with the reality of an $85,000 operating budget deficit this year, and the certainty there will be no additional tax revenue forthcoming to meet that deficit, the financially-pressed Bollinger County Commission has started laying off county employees; additional cuts in services and personnel are likely in the near future.

50 years ago: June 23, 1962

Rex Miller has resigned as head track coach at Cape Girardeau Central High School to further his education; Kenneth Hargens has been hired to succeed him; Ryland Meyr of Chaffee, Mo., has been named assistant coach.

Apple Creek bridge on Highway 61 at Old Appleton, the scene of scores of accidents over the years, is badly damaged early in the morning when a runaway tractor-trailer truck hauling 30,000 pounds of uncured bacon smacks into it; the driver of the truck is forced to swim about 15 feet to shore, after his tractor submerged in the muddy waters at 2:30 a.m.; slabs of bacon are strewn across the bridge deck and into the creek.

75 years ago: June 23, 1937

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Col. Charles D. Matthews Jr., 61, former chairman of the Missouri State Highway Commission, at present a member of the State Eleemosynary Board, president of the Bank of Sikeston and a member of the board of trustees of Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Tenn., dies of a heart ailment at his home here.

Five WPA laborers start working on the ground at the city lot at William and Lorimier streets, preparing to build a tennis court there for public use; one court will be made now and a second will be added later, if attendance warrants it.

100 years ago: June 23, 1912

The Rev. A. Birner of Wittenberg, Mo., preaches the sermon in the morning at Trinity Lutheran Church in the German language; Birner recently graduated from Concordia Seminary; his field of labor will be at Stayton, Ore.

Nell Sansom of Plainville, Tex., is here visiting her cousin, Mildred Towne; Sansom is on her way home from Cincinnati, where she has just graduated from the music conservatory in that city.

-- Sharon K. Sanders