Out of the past: April 25

1994

After a long weekend of weighing proposals from two companies interested in developing a riverboat gambling operation in Scott City, its city council gives the nod to Lady Luck Gaming Corp.; Gary Heisel, project coordinator for the company, says it will move promptly to apply for a license from the state gaming commission.

An overtaxed, understaffed assistant U.S. attorney's office in Cape Girardeau will finally get a reprieve, courtesy of the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force; the Cape Girardeau satellite office has acquired Curtis Poore, a local attorney, to handle primarily drug and weapons cases coming through the office.

1969

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Early-morning fires break out within a one-hour and 15-minute period, destroying three Sikeston businesses; authorities are seeking a vandal who had written a fire threat; destroyed are Jean's Photography Studio, Pyramid Roofing Co.'s warehouse and Heckemeyer Auction's barn; a major fire yesterday morning destroyed the Sikeston Auction Barn.

The Saint Francis Hospital Board of Trustees announces the purchase of another 22 acres of land adjoining the existing hospital tract at Mount Auburn and Gordonville roads; it was purchased from A.O. Spalding, but the sale price isn't disclosed; the hospital now owns 43 acres at that site.

1944

Surging upward another foot in 24 hours, the Mississippi River reaches a stage of 36.4 feet at 8 a.m. at Cape Girardeau; mindful of the drenching they took last May, residents of the fertile Southern Illinois lowland, covering some 89 square miles, or 57,000 acres, are fast depopulating the area, loading their possessions onto trucks and wagons and heading for higher ground.

Lt. Loren Crites, 25, son of Mr. and Mrs. G.C. Crites of Cape Girardeau, was fatally injured Monday in a bomber crash near Ardmore, Oklahoma, where he was stationed at a training field; Crites was serving as a co-pilot when the craft crashed, killing its crew of 11.

1919

Liberty National Life Insurance Co. of Cape Girardeau was recently organized and is now open for business; D'N. Stafford, president of First National Bank, is president of the new concern, and insurance man H.L. Albert is vice president; offices are in the building at the corner of Spanish and Themis streets, which formerly housed the public library.

An anti-submarine fleet is coming upriver, making stops at many cities along the way; the flotilla, which will include the destroyer Isabel, three submarine chasers and two flying boats, will travel from New Orleans to as far north on the Mississippi River and its tributaries as the stage of the water permits.

-- Sharon K. Sanders