Out of the past: April 17

1991

Picket lines are to be set up early today at the Burlington Northern Railroad offices in Cape Girardeau and Chaffee, Missouri, as part of a strike by railroad unions against the nation's major railroads; pickets also are scheduled to be set up at the St. Louis Southwestern (Cotton Belt) Railroad.

A $425,000 expansion to St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Elementary School in Cape Girardeau began this week; six classrooms and a number of administrative offices will be added to the school.

1966

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Two priests -- the Rev. Harold W. Rehegen of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church here and the Rev. Donald V. Westrich, assistant pastor at St. Henry's Catholic Church in Charleston, Missouri -- have been permanently transferred to the service of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese; they had been loaned to the Southern Missouri diocese from the St. Louis Archdiocese.

Although the fifth annual Trail of Tears State Park Dogwood Tour is postponed until next Sunday, several people conduct their own tour anyway; the tour was rescheduled because the trees are expected to be blooming more profusely next week; still, 934 cars drive through the park today.

1941

In an extraordinary proceeding in Jackson yesterday, consolidation of the Link and Old Salem rural school districts in the west end of the county with the Millersville district was rejected by a special commission appointed by county school superintendent Otto C. Kiehne; at the April 1 election, voters in both the Old Salem and Link districts voted against the consolidation, while Millersville voted almost unanimously for it; an appeal to the superintendent followed.

Ermine Sloan, a graduate of the Teachers College and formerly head of the college health department, has assumed her duties as superintendent of nurses at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

1916

Cape Girardeau voters will go to the polls tomorrow to decide whether the city shall issue bonds to the extent of $15,000 for the purpose of buying a new and modern fire-fighting apparatus; it has been reported that an automobile truck to carry chemical tanks, a large supply of hose, a few ladders and other equipment can be purchased at a price ranging from $7,000 to $12,000.

Clarence Stevens, formerly a carrier boy for The Daily Republican but now employed at the shoe factory, had one bone broken and another dislocated in his left arm Saturday night when he fell at the skating rink.

-- Sharon K. Sanders