Out of the past: April 18

1998

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- A new association has been charged with managing the community's newest park; the newly-formed Perryville Community Parks Association will be overseeing the use and operation of a new, approximately 34-acre park made available to the community by the Congregation of the Mission-Midwest Province, commonly known as the Vincentians; the park property is adjacent to the 650-acre property the Vincentians plan to develop; the new park sits on the St. Mary of the Barrens Seminary picnic grounds, which means the St. Vincent de Paul Parish Picnic will continue.

A 9-year-old girl and a well-known Cape Girardeau artist are the winners of the city flag contest; Samantha Roussel, a third-grader at Clippard Elementary and the daughter of Bill and Sue Roussel, and Jim Parker, the founder of the University Museum, submitted the winning flag designs for the children's and adults' city flags.

1973

A rousing round of applause from a standing audience greeted Cape Girardeau's Golden Deeds Award winner as he walked slowly, apparently disbelieving what he heard, to the podium at last night's Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce dinner; Charles A. Hood, a lifelong resident of the city, the first mayor under the council-manager form of government and a force in Cape Girardeau through his adult life, was named the 11th recipient of the award, presented by the Cape Girardeau Exchange Club.

A successful renovation and building fund crusade at Centenary United Methodist Church has concluded; crusade director Dr. Frank L. Countryman announced last night at a celebration of thanksgiving at the church that $561,442 had been pledged; the campaign goal was $500,000; Countryman came to Centenary from the Department of Finance and Field Service of the Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church in New York.

1948

The first endorsement of a Southeast Missouri resident to succeed Col. Paul C. Jones of Kennett as a member of the State Highway Commission came yesterday, when the Scott County Democratic convention adopted a resolution suggesting the appointment of Leo A. Fisher of Sikeston; Fisher is a prominent farmer of the community.

Southeast Missouri Democrats in county conventions yesterday generally adopted resolutions praising the administrations of President Harry S. Truman and Missouri Gov. P.M. Donnelly, and in some instances also endorsed J.V. Conrad of New Madrid for national committeeman and Mrs. J.V. Billings of Kennett for national committeewoman.

1923

The Rev. J.M. Bradley of Cape Girardeau will be the new pastor of Kingdom House in St. Louis, having been appointed by Methodist Bishop W.R. McMurry; Bradley has been presiding elder of the Cape Girardeau district; this post will be taken by the Rev. A.C. Johnson, who has been transferred from the interior of the state.

THEBES, Ill. -- Nora Gammon, newly-elected mayor of Thebes, declares she will run the town "just as well as I run my kitchen"; Gammon swept into office with three women aldermen on a straight women's ticket; asked whether he objected to his wife's new duties, Roy Gammon says, "If she runs the town as well as she runs our home, she'll make it a place worth living in."

-- Sharon K. Sanders