Out of the past 7/8/08

25 years ago: July 8, 1983

BENTON, Mo. — Circuit Court Judge Tony Heckemeyer, at a pretrial conference yesterday, set Jan. 16 to 18 for Douglas Wayne Thompson's trial in the shooting death of a Cape Girardeau auxiliary police officer 22 years ago; the trial will be held at Charleston, Mo.

PERRYVILLE, Mo. — Wolsey and Co., a New York merchant banking firm, has purchased the Rockwell International Sabreliner Division, including its plant here; the transaction was completed last week at a cost of $33 million.

50 years ago: July 8, 1958

Appointment of an Independence, Mo., man, Richard H. Swaim, as executive vice president of First National Bank, effective Aug. 1, is announced by bank president Lyman A. Matthews.

Cape Girardeau's municipal tax levy for the current year was set at $1.33 per $100 assessed valuation — a nickel more than last year — in an ordinance given first reading yesterday by the city council; Mayor Walter H. Ford says the levy is identical in all respects with that of a year ago, except that five cents have been added to provide for payment of the airport bond issue voted last year.

75 years ago: July 8, 1933

Dr. W.W. Parker, the president of the Teachers College, who will take charge of the institution in September, arrived in Cape Girardeau yesterday evening, driving here from Little Rock, Ark.; his family, visiting his wife's family in Conway, Ark., will come to Cape Girardeau the latter part of August.

An American bicycle-riding fad having spread to Cape Girardeau, an exclusive bicycle shop opens here; the Bike Shop, 716 Broadway, is opened by Aleen Vogel and Theodore Hedden.

100 years ago: July 8, 1908

The Stacker Lee arrives in Cape Girardeau in the morning on its way to St. Louis, the first trip of the season; the boat is loaded, but stops here only a few minutes before proceeding northward; there are two Lee Line boats in service between St. Louis and Memphis, Tenn., the Ferd Herold also belonging to that line.

Judge W.H. Wallace of Kansas City, Democratic candidate for governor, speaks in the evening at the Common Pleas Courthouse; he is recognized as one of the best orators in Missouri.

— Sharon K. Sanders