Out of the past: April 11

1998

CHESTER, Ill. -- Traffic will be reduced to one lane on the Mississippi River bridge at Chester later this month as repair work resumes; the Missouri Department of Transportation is overseeing the $4.66 million project to upgrade the bridge; traffic restrictions will begin April 25 at the earliest; in addition to one-lane traffic, vehicles using the bridge on Highway 51, including farm machinery, will be limited to 10 feet in width and 14 feet in height.

EAST PRAIRIE, Mo. -- Big Oak Tree State Park some day may have few giant oaks, and that concerns Southeast Missouri State University biology professor Alan Journet; he wants to give a helping hand to Mother Nature so new oak trees can take root in the park by doing what the American Indians did years ago; he wants to burn the dense layer of shrubs and small trees in small test plots; Journet, East Prairie High School biology teacher Chris Reeves and Trail of Tears State Park naturalist Denise Dowling want to conduct a controlled burn this spring; but Mother Nature hasn't helped; the controlled burn has been postponed three times because of wet ground, the result of spring rains.

1973

Flood losses in rural Cape Girardeau County will total at least $1,300,000, according to a special report prepared by the disaster committee of the Cape Girardeau County Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service; it doesn't cover damage in Cape Girardeau itself; the greatest damage to agricultural and rural property -- estimated at $600,000 -- involves houses and farm buildings, the report says.

JEFFERSON CITY -- Sen. Albert M. Spradling Jr., D-Cape Girardeau, accuses Gov. Christopher S. "Kit" Bond of passing over four qualified men to appoint Edward Haynes to head the state merit system; Spradling, a member of the Senate's Gubernatorial Appointments Committee, says Bond named Haynes because he would make a better lobbyist.

1948

The Rev. Joseph A. Serena, former president of the State College and pastor of several Christian churches, preaches at First Christian Church in Cape Girardeau in the morning; he is filling in for the pastor, the Rev. Vernon A. Hammond, who is ill.

KENNETT, Mo. -- Orville Zimmerman, for 13 years representative of this 10th District in Congress, receives the final tribute of his hundreds of close personal friends and acquaintances; his fellow citizens of Kennett, rural folk of the sandy countryside, friends from virtually every community in Southeast Missouri, official congressional representatives all stand side by side to honor the member of the Congress who was fatally stricken at his Washington, D.C., office Wednesday; the body arrived yesterday afternoon aboard an Air Transport Command C-54, which landed at the former Army airfield at Malden, Missouri; it was taken to the Baldwin Funeral Home here, and funeral rites are conducted this afternoon at the armory.

1923

The reputation of Scott County Deputy Sheriff Tom Scott of Benton, Missouri, as an aid to federal officers in ferreting out liquor violations draws for him the appointment as official jailer for federal prisoners in this district; prisoners are taken to Benton, where Scott is in charge of the jail; Prohibition agents in Federal Court this week highly commend Scott's cooperation with them and were anxious that he secure the appointment as the official jailer; federal prisoners were formerly kept in the Cape Girardeau County jail at Jackson; the government pays 75 cents a day for board of the prisoners.

With practically every member of the Lions Club and a large number of other residents in attendance, the Lions observe "Tree Planting Week" in the afternoon by setting out a hawthorn tree in the parkway between the double drives on South Main Street, east of St. Vincent's Church; the tree is planted in memory of the late police chief Jeff Hutson; likewise, Wednesday Club members observe Arbor Day by planting a hawthorn in the parkway facing the Frisco depot, near Independence Street; the club's tree honors Amy Kimmel, founder of the Cape Girardeau club and still an active member.

-- Sharon K. Sanders