Out of the past: April 26

1994

The late Sue Lusk is honored for her service to Cape Girardeau and Mid America Teen Challenge, exactly one year after her death; she is one of four winners of the 1994 United Way Cybertel Volunteer award; the others are Nicole Wadlington, Dorothy Ressel and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10495 at Jackson.

Union Electric doesn't have to look very far to find the source of a power failure that darkens homes and businesses in some areas of Cape Girardeau in the morning; a wire of a high-voltage feeder line fails around 8:45 a.m. in front of the Union Electric Service Center at 45 S. Minnesota Ave.

1969

SIKESTON, Mo. -- No new incidents were reported yesterday in Sikeston, where merchants, firemen, police and residents spent an uneasy night; the city took measures to defend itself against the outbreak of fires and vandalism that has struck Sikeston in recent days; the feeling is strong here someone is attempting to split the city's black and white populations.

EAST CAPE GIRARDEAU, Ill. -- A McClure, Illinois, woman was shot in the leg early yesterday afternoon when grappling for a pistol with an unidentified intruder who attempted to hold up the Colony Club here; the woman, who cleans up the premises, wasn't seriously injured.

1944

The Mississippi River reaches 37.4 feet at Cape Girardeau at 1 p.m, a rise of exactly one foot in 29 hours; more than 1,300 Illinois state militia men have been dispatched to the dike at Wolf Lake and Aldridge, Illinois, where they are sandbagging it an effort to hold back the flood's crest; in Cape Girardeau, moving out activities continue in the Main Street business district; the Newberry Co. store has closed, its counters loaded with merchandise to keep it above floodwaters; Johnston Cleaning Co. has been shut down since Monday, its boilers removed from the rear of the building; Firestone store has taken a flood location at 626 Good Hope St.; water has invaded all of South Main Street between Water and Independence streets.

Because of the high water, Frisco train service from St. Louis to Cape Girardeau is suspended at noon after the arrival of the two noon trains; today's business is taken care of from the freight depot.

1919

City Counselor James A. Barks has received a copy of a motion filed by the Missouri Utilities Co., before the State Public Service Commission asking for increased rates for water, gas and electric service in Cape Girardeau, effective immediately.

In The Missourian's front window is displayed the skull of a buffalo, which was plowed up on the farm of Mercer Wilson in the Big Field, near Arbor; the Big Field for centuries was a morass, almost bottomless, and was one of the hunting paradises of Missouri; it has been drained and put into cultivation.

-- Sharon K. Sanders