Out of the past: April 16

1998

Arriving yesterday at the Cape Girardeau Post Office to mail their federal tax returns, customers were stopped by a handful of anti-tax protesters from the Libertarian, Reform and U.S. Taxpayers parties; the protesters paraded in front of the post office with placards over the lunch hour and again in the evening; Wednesday was the deadline for filing taxes.

Southeast Hospital, celebrating its 70th anniversary, recognizes three longtime friends of the hospital at its Southeast Missouri Hospital Association annual dinner; C.A. Bohnsack and Dr. Jean A. Chapman receive Outstanding Service Awards, and the hospital's Special Service Award goes to Edna Ruth Fischer; guest speaker for the gathering is Marc Smith, president of the Missouri Hospital Association.

1973

Construction of a five-story apartment building is planned for a 120-by-120-foot lot at 727 Bellevue, across from Centenary United Methodist Church; two houses on the lot will be torn down to make room for the structure, a development of Cape Realty Co.; each of the upper four floors will hold four deluxe apartments, with three bedrooms, two baths, living room with fireplace, dining and kitchen areas; the ground floor will be given over entirely to parking for tenants' automobiles, thus eliminating the need for a large exterior parking lot.

As the Mississippi River continued its slow but steady fall over the weekend, the task of cleaning up has begun for some homeowners and businesses here; employees of Central Food Inc., South Sprigg Street Road, are back at work, as is Arnold Edwards, owner of Edwards' Phillips 66 Station, 915 N. Main St.; it is estimated about half of the 40 families forced from their homes here during the record-breaking flood have returned.

1948

Monsignor John S. Moser, pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church and dean of the Cape Girardeau Deanery for more than two years, has been assigned to Immaculate Conception Parish in Loose Creek, Missouri; succeeding him here will be the Rev. Theon A. Schoen, who is now pastor of the Loose Creek parish and a native of New Hamburg, Missouri; the two will swap parishes within two weeks.

Center-striping of bridges on Highway 61 from St. Louis to Cape Girardeau and from Jackson to Old Appleton on Highway 25 has been completed; this morning, crews of the State Highway Department move on to that sector of Highway 61 between Benton, Missouri, and Cape Girardeau and center-stripe the pavement, using black paint; on the bridges of highways 61 and 25, white paint was used for striping.

1923

One of the largest, and the most appreciative, audiences ever assembled in Cape Girardeau greeted the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at an afternoon concert yesterday at the State Teachers College here; nearly 1,800 persons attended, and many others were turned away for lack of seating; the concert featured soloist Carolina Lazzari, whose beautiful contralto voice captivated her audience.

Seventy-two teachers for Cape Girardeau's seven public schools are elected at a school board meeting last night at the high school; 61 of the instructors who taught this year were retained, while 11 new teachers were hired, three for Central High School and the remainder for the elementary schools; Frieda Rieck is re-elected director of music, and Edna Haman will continue as the supervisor of the art work in the schools.

-- Sharon K. Sanders