Out of the past 7/7/08

25 years ago: July 7, 1983

Despite concerns voiced by Sunset Court residents wishing to protect their neighborhood, the Cape Girardeau City Council last night approved a rezoning request that paves the way for construction of a new Southeast Missouri Hospital parking lot.

Salary increases of 3 percent will be passed on to Southeast Missouri State University employees during the 1984 fiscal year, the school's board of regents decides; it is also pledged that, if the university's financial picture doesn't change by January, an additional 1 percent increase likely will be granted.

50 years ago: July 7, 1958

Assessed valuation of property in Cape Girardeau, excluding railroad and utility holdings, stands at $29,211,220, announces City Assessor Harry Andrews; railroad and utility assessment figures won't be known until they are returned to the county by the State Tax Commission.

Two Cape Girardeau women — Mrs. Jessie L. Bell and Mrs. Laura Lee Wagner — are injured, one seriously, in a collision of a Greyhound bus and a truck in St. Louis County; the bus driver and a bystander are killed in the accident.

75 years ago: July 7, 1933

The Rev. F.L. Willshire, pastor of the New McKendree Methodist Church at Jackson, announces that special prayers will be offered for rain at the morning worship service Sunday; at his suggestion, ministers of the Evangelical, Presbyterian and Baptist churches there will also offer prayers for rain.

O.H. Cornelius, prohibition agent at Cape Girardeau, is notified he will be transferred to Fort Smith, Ark.; whether another agent will be sent to Cape Girardeau isn't known; E.R. Brown, who also has been stationed here, has been placed on indefinite furlough.

100 years ago: July 7, 1908

The Mississippi River is rising again, and it is expected to reach 31.5 feet; last Friday, the stream had fallen to the 30.6-foot mark, when the second rise set in.

Dr. Leonore Kilgore, osteopath, leaves with her mother for York, Neb., where they will visit their brother and son; early in August, the pair will return by way of Kirksville, Mo., where the doctor will attend the national convention of osteopaths.

— Sharon K. Sanders