Out of the past: April 24

1996

If the first two days of the awareness campaign are any indication, Random Acts of Kindness Week is going to be quite popular in the Cape Girardeau region; about 60 businesses, organizations, churches and schools have already signed up to participate in the week, which is scheduled for May 12-18; the Southeast Missourian is sponsoring the week.

State appeals court judges usually labor in obscurity, but that isn't the case in Cape Girardeau where an all-female panel of judges makes legal history; it marks the first time in Missouri that state appeals court cases are heard by three women judges; dressed in their black robes, Chief Judge Kathianne Knaup Crane and Judges Mary Rhodes Russell and Mary K. Hoff hear oral arguments in a handful of cases in the morning at the Common Pleas Courthouse.

1971

Cape Girardeau gained still more industrial depth yesterday with the announcement by Superior Electric Products Corp. of plans for expansion of its large plant on Nash Road; construction on a 72,000-square-foot addition will begin Monday; it will provide much needed additional warehousing facilities for the company and will permit a portion of the existing structure now used for such purposes to be converted into expanded production area.

The Southeast Missouri Press Association, meeting at Jackson, approves a $250 contribution to the building fund of the new Missouri Press Association Building in Columbia; Allen Black, publisher of the Malden Press-Merit, suggests the contribution to the fund, pointing out area newspapers haven't supported it as strongly as other Missouri press groups.

1946

For some inexplicable reason, Cape Girardeau County's hens appear to have gone on strike; in a seven-day period, marketing of eggs has fallen off 50% at a time of the year -- April and the first part of May -- when production is usually at its peak.

Cape Girardeau's chances of securing a Naval Reserve unit under the postwar training program now pending in legislation before Congress are brightened considerably by a letter to Mayor R.E. Beckman from Capt. J.M. Isaac, district director of Naval Reserve, who says either he or a representative will be here soon to inspect facilities.

1921

City Commissioner Clarence E. Schuchert, who is also the leader of the city band, has asked the Chamber of Commerce to assist band members in acquiring new uniforms; he asks that the chamber provide half of the expense.

Charles Chester Phelan, son-in-law of W.A. Watts, of Cape Girardeau dies at a local hospital in the morning, following severe injuries he received about two hours previous when he was caught between two freight cars in the Frisco railroad yard, near the Bolz Cooperage Co.; Phelan was attempting to pass through an opening between two cars, when another car bumped into one of them, forcing it against the other and pinioning Phelan between them.

-- Sharon K. Sanders