Out of the past 9/10/07

25 years ago: Sept. 10, 1982

The yearly transformation of Arena Park has begun; a number of tents have sprung up overnight at the park as preparations continue for Monday's opening of the 127th annual SEMO District Fair.

Jennie Bendel, 76, of the Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau, was chosen third runner-up in the third annual Ms. Missouri Nursing Home Pageant in St. Louis; she was chosen from a field of 27 candidates ranging in age from their 60s to their 90s.

50 years ago: Sept. 10, 1957

District Fair secretary Frank Steck reports a paid attendance of 2,076 at the fair yesterday; he estimated that the total attendance during the day ran between 6,000 and 7,000 persons; featured entertainment in front of the grandstand tonight will be Pat Kelly's Rock 'N Roll Revue with the Shamrocks.

The first helicopter to land in downtown Cape Girardeau sets down on the Mississippi River levee east of the of the International Shoe Co. plant; the craft brings two officials of the Army Corps of Engineers office in St. Louis on an inspection trip in connection with the floodwall project here.

75 years ago: Sept. 10, 1932

BENTON, Mo. -- Henrietta Moore, a Sikeston, Mo., High School senior, will be the 1932 queen of Benton Neighbor Day when it is held Oct. 6; she is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A.J. Moore of Sikeston.

The St. Vincent's Council of Knights of Columbus announces the purchase of three lots in the 1100 block of Broadway where a new clubhouse will be built; the lots were purchased from the Southeast Missouri Lumber Co., and W.C. Miller; Columbus Association of Cape Girar­deau has been formed to finance and build the structure.

100 years ago: Sept. 10, 1907

Yesterday morning, the big shoe factory on North Main Street was put in operation with a dozen young men; there have been applications filed by several hundred, but as every employee will have to be taught the shoe-making skills, only a few will be started at a time; the first workers are employed on the fifth floor, in the cutting department.

The Broadway bowling alleys are open and are in excellent shape; these are the finest alleys in Southeast Missouri.

-- Sharon K. Sanders