Out of the past: April 26

1990

After nearly a quarter century at the helm of the Cape Girardeau Public Library, Martha Maxwell resigns; Maxwell has accepted a job as director of two newly-formed library districts in Jefferson County.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The lake bill passes out of a House of Representatives committee, which could lead to a vote on the Cape Girardeau-Bollinger counties recreational lake; State Rep. Herb Fallert, chairman of the House Committee on Tourism, says it is "a very workable bill and a good compromise."

1965

Judge S.P. Dalton, whose law practice led from Cape Girardeau to the highest position in Missouri's judicial system, dies in a hospital in Houston, Texas, where he had undergone surgery three weeks ago; his law practice in Cape Girardeau started in 1922 and continued until 1939, when he was named a commissioner on the Missouri Supreme Court.

In an address to the Rotary Club, Cape Girardeau attorney Rush H. Limbaugh discusses controversial decisions of the Supreme Court that "have had a terrible impact" on the nation, and the men who have composed the court since the appointment of Chief Justice Earl Warren.

1940

George Gray of Vienna, Illinois, veteran fair and horse race promoter, has been employed by the executive board of the Southeast Missouri Fair Association to manage the revived Cape Girardeau fair this year; Gray agreed to take the job of putting on the fair for $600.

Judge I.R. Kelso is at Kennett, Missouri, for the formal dedication of the new courthouse that Dunklin County has built.

1915

COMMERCE, Mo. -- The building material is being put on the ground for Tillman Anderson's new residence; a Memphis, Tennessee, man drew the plans, and a man named Thornberry, also from Memphis, will have charge of the construction of the bungalow; water will be piped to the house from a 23,000-gallon water tank on the top of the hill; several nearby residences will be connected to the water system.

Judge B.F. Davis receives a letter from Capt. George E. Alt, which he wrote four days before being killed in action in France; the English soldier had returned to London to sign papers giving B.C. Hardesty, a Cape Girardeau lawyer, the power of attorney to act in some cases regarding his property here.

-- Sharon K. Sanders