Out of the past: April 22

1994

The National Rifle Association held its first "Friends of NRA" auction and dinner at the Holiday Inn Convention Center in Cape Girardeau last night; around 300 persons attended the banquet, including state Sen. Peter Kinder, who was co-chairman of the event, state Rep. Mary Kasten and members of U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson's staff.

A "Missouri Wall of Fame" mural will be painted on the west side of the Cape Girardeau floodwall, across from Hutson's Furniture; this will be the seventh mural to be erected by the River Heritage Mural Association; the six-color mural will include 25 panels featuring 25 to 30 famous Missourians.

1969

While flood danger to some cities in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri is heightened as the crest of the Mississippi River pushes southward, predictions still call for the river at Cape Girardeau to begin falling Friday after cresting Thursday at 36 feet; the flood stage today is 34.69 feet.

Capt. and Mrs. Max D. Sullivan are in Cape Girardeau visiting after having been at Fort Carson at Colorado Springs, Colorado, since the first week of September; Sullivan, an Army chaplain, was pastor of St. Mark Lutheran Church here for three years, resigning July 20 last year; he will be leaving Saturday for Vietnam, where he will serve a year, probably as a combat chaplain.

1944

Around 5,000 service men visit the USO center here every month, use between 1,200 and 1,500 sheets of stationery writing letters home, eat countless cookies made in Cape Girardeau kitchens and, when they leave, write back to manager H.V. Beal how much they miss the USO and Cape Girardeau; the count was taken before Harris Field closed.

Selling every one of the 66 head of purebred cattle consigned to the event, officials of the first annual Southeast Missouri Aberdeen-Angus Sale say yesterday's event was a success; the sale, held at the new city park, attracted buyers from Southeast Missouri, Arkansas and Kentucky, who paid $17,325 for the 66 head of black cattle.

1919

Ticket agent John F. Neal receives notice from Frisco headquarters the sleeper service for Cape Girardeau will begin Thursday, the first car to arrive from St. Louis at 1:20 a.m.; at 9 p.m. Thursday, the car will be set out here and opened for the traveling public who desire to use it to go to St. Louis on Friday morning.

Lt. E.E. Johnson has returned to Cape Girardeau from France, where he served as a surgeon at base hospital No. 32 with the American Expeditionary Forces; Johnson's family just recently moved into the Bellevue Apartments, and it is said the doctor will locate permanently in Cape Girardeau.

-- Sharon K. Sanders