Out of the past 6/27/06

25 years ago: June 27, 1981

Federal funds for cities will be tight over the next three and a half years, according to Sen. John C. Danforth, who speaks to the Cape Girardeau City Council at city hall; the Republican senator offers little hope for federal funding to help establish a mass transit system here.

Mrs. Mary A. Spitzmiller of Cape Girardeau, a well-known civic leader who devoted much of her time and efforts to the Otahki Girl Scout Council, dies at Chaffee General Hospital at age 61; the former Miss Foster married Paul J. Spitzmiller in 1942, while he was serving in the military in Australia and she was in Cape Girardeau; she is survived by a son and two brothers.

50 years ago: June 27, 1956

The Cagleco Sportswear, climaxing 10 years in which it has outgrown four locations, will hold a luncheon and open house tomorrow marking the beginning of operations in its newest quarters on Broadview Street.

The dark, menacing storm clouds that gathered over Cape Girardeau yesterday afternoon resulted only in a heavy showers here, apparently having spent themselves in the area around Jackson and Daisy, where considerable damage from wind and lightning was done.

75 years ago: June 27, 1931

A giant dredging machine, described as the biggest of its kind in the world, is being moved by the Callahan Construction Co. from Blomeyer, Mo., to its starting position near Cape Girardeau, where it will be used to help rebuild the levee along the Little River Diversion Channel, south of here.

Soaring higher as the most gripping of all June heat waves in recent years continues, the mercury in Cape Girardeau ascends to 96 degrees in the afternoon at the Teachers College; thermometers in the downtown section register even higher.

100 years ago: June 27, 1906

A meeting of the alumni and former students of the University of Missouri was held last night in the Cape Girardeau Commercial Club rooms; the purpose of the meeting was the organization of a local alumni association, which will serve as a connecting link between the university and its 50 former students residing in Cape Girardeau County.

E.L. Walker, proprietor of the box factory, was finally able to secure a residence in Cape Girardeau, and yesterday he arrived here with his family and household goods.

-- Sharon K. Sanders