Out of the past: April 29

1999

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The Missouri House of Representatives yesterday budgeted $4.6 million to help fund the River Campus project, but the House isn’t ready to release the purse strings yet; under the capital improvements bill passed by the House, the state wouldn’t spend a dime on Southeast Missouri State University’s River Campus while a lawsuit is pending over the local share of funding; the bill also requires local funding to pay for 50% of the project.

In 1966, strong local opposition led the General Services Administration to ditch its two preferred downtown sites for a new federal building in Cape Girardeau; at a public hearing last night, the consensus was just as strong in favor of the GSA’s current proposal to put the courthouse in Happy Hollow; GSA officials say the positive response means site acquisition can proceed this year.

1974

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Amnesty for those Americans who fled their country in time of war? Not in the view of a six-year prisoner, Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Plumb, who described his experiences in the Hanoi Hilton and other POW camps in North Vietnam to members of the Missouri National Guard Association; Plumb spoke Saturday night to a crowd of more than 800 in the Arena Building: “I have an old-fashioned concept that every boy in America has a duty to his country ...”

The first county race in the August primary election develops with the filings of two Republicans for the office of county clerk, long held by Democrat Rusby C. Crites of Jackson; Clarence C. Schade of Cape Girardeau and Gerald L. Ainsworth of Jackson file their declarations for candidacy.

1949

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A $30,300 summer upkeep program, one of the largest in many years and reaching into every public school building in Cape Girardeau for major and minor repairs and additions, will be placed underway at the close of the school term next month; the greater portion — more than half — of the outlay of expense is allotted to upkeep of the heating systems; this comes to $16,500, with two new steam boilers — one at Central High School and the other at May Greene Elementary ­— the principal items on the list.

Charleston residents are calling each other by dial telephones today; the new $250,000 system, eliminating the manual exchange, was placed in service at the stroke of midnight, when technicians put the new, modern plant into operation; a new telephone book, listing changes in numbers, has been issued to subscribers by Southeast Missouri Telephone Co.; the equipment is housed in a new building.

1924

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Trapped in a bathroom by a fire in a building used jointly as a residence and a general store in Delta, Mrs. J.J. Shuls, 50, wife of a prominent Delta merchant, was fatally burned late yesterday, before she could be rescued from the structure; she dies at a Cape Girardeau hospital at 12:30 a.m., eight hours after being rushed here for treatment; she was carried from the blazing building by G.W. “Cap” Snider, who heard her cries and bravely penetrated the smoke and flames to rescue her.

Eight college girls, trapped in the second floor of a burning dwelling, have thrilling escapes in flimsy night attire, when a fire, originating mysteriously in the basement, guts the home of Mrs. G.W. Tarlton, 1208 Broadway, early in the morning; student Belle Marler of Lodi in Wayne County sustains a severe laceration of her left knee, when she leaps from the second-story window, 20 feet to the ground; seven other girls escape by means of a ladder raised by neighbors and firemen to a window on the east side of the house.

Southeast Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders compiles the information for the daily Out of the Past column. She also writes a blog called “From the Morgue” that showcases interesting historical stories from the newspaper. Check out her blog at semissourian.com/history.