Out of the past: April 27

1994

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education hires Dan Tallent to be the new Cape Girardeau Central High School principal; the board also hires Timothy L. Niggle to fill the position of director of human resources.

Clarence Bahner, an employee of Schearf Plumbing of Cape Girardeau, is left rubbing his head after the dirt walls of a sewer trench collapse on him while installing a sewer line at 2517 Saddleridge; Bahner, who is left buried up to his waist, is rescued by his boss, Jim Schearf, and two Union Electric Co. employees; he is shaken but unhurt.

1969

Ben F. Jutzi, director of development for the international Lutheran Laymen League in the area of Houston, Texas, is the keynote speaker in the afternoon at the 10th anniversary rally of the Cape Area L.L.L. at Christ Lutheran Church in Gordonville.

Over 400 children participated in the annual Breakfast and Evening Optimist clubs' bicycle safety check held yesterday at five different locations throughout Cape Girardeau; a spokesman for the clubs says this year's turnout was the largest ever recorded.

1944

Continuing its rise at the rate of about a foot in 24 hours, the Mississippi river reaches a stage of 38.2 feet at 8 a.m. at Cape Girardeau, rapidly approaching the danger line for Illinois and Missouri levees; the rise has brought additional flood coverage in Cape Girardeau's exposed spots; the water covers the Main-Independence streets intersection, and a few more inches will put it over the floor levels in the Woolworth store; water already covers the floor of the Frisco passenger depot, with the station's normal activities transferred to the old freight depot.

Two sightseeing Cape Girardeau youths -- Joe Golliher and Harold Campbell, both 18 -- had a narrow escape yesterday evening, when their borrowed outboard motorboat was swamped in the Mississippi River east of the Frisco passenger depot; the current caught the boat and flipped it; luckily, the youths were wearing life preserves; they were fished out of the water by George O. Clark of Cape Girardeau, who was in a boat nearby; another boater, Bill Hollenbeck, assisted in the rescue.

1919

The Odd Fellows and Rebekahs, here attending a convention of the Southeast Missouri Odd Fellows Association, hold their centennial exercises at Centenary Methodist Church in the morning; the Rev. W.L. Halberstadt, pastor, delivers an able sermon on "Fraternalism."

Unless the heavy rain stops work, the new steel bridge over the great diversion channel where it cuts Rock Levee Road will be opened to traffic Thursday morning; all that remains to be done is to complete the approaches.

-- Sharon K. Sanders