Out of the past: April 8

1998

THEBES, Ill. A five-mile stretch of the Mississippi River below Thebes was closed yesterday after a southbound tow struck the Thebes railroad bridge, sinking three barges and damaging three others; the morning accident forced a shutdown of river traffic while a search for two of the sunken barges continued into the night; high, swift water is blamed for the accident, which caused the barges to break up and float downstream.

There will be two new faces on the Cape Girardeau City Council after Ward 1 incumbent James "J.J." Williamson Jr. lost his bid for re-election Tuesday by a seven-vote margin; Frank Stoffregen won the council seat, with 189 votes to Williamson's 182; in Ward 3, Jay Purcell defeated Gerald Stevens for a two-year unexpired seat on the City Council, 371-210.

1973

The flooding Mississippi River reaches its crest at Cape Girardeau early today, a day earlier and nearly a half-foot lower than the National Weather Service at Cairo, Illinois, had predicted; the record river level here is 43.17 feet, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; the previous record level was 42.4 feet set here in 1943.

Anything from full-fledged orchestras to oboe solos are heard during the annual Southeast Missouri District Music Festival held on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University campus; similar events are held throughout the state each April, with the best from each district advancing to state competition later this month at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

1948

Osteopathic physicians of Cape Girardeau have contracted to buy from J. Mott Douglass the brick residence at 105 S. Spanish St., for conversion into a hospital; Dr. C.W. Kinsey says the non-profit hospital will have about 20 beds, and departments will include major and minor surgery, obstetrics, diagnosis and internal medicine, X-ray for both diagnostic and therapeutic cases and complete laboratory facilities.

Faced with the mounting cost of operation, high maintenance and a need for an increase in pay of employees, the Cape Transit Co. will ask the Cape Girardeau City Council to allow it to increase city bus fares on a token basis to the 10-cent level; manager Henry R. DeTournay says it is impossible to operate the bus system on the 5-cent fare which has been in effect since the company began operations in 1941.

1923

Members of Hirsch's Orchestra had the honor Thursday night of being the first orchestra to play for the radio broadcasting station at the Cape Girardeau Teachers College; reports from Illmo, Jackson, Benton, Missouri, and other places indicate the music furnished was plain to hear and enjoyable; members of the orchestra are E.G. Hirsch, cornet; Marion Hall, violin; Raymond Strom, piano; Ralph Popp, saxophone; Phil Hoche, banjo; Anton Haas, saxophone, and Claude McSpadden, drums.

Teachers College student members of the Methodist Student Organization were entertained with a breakfast yesterday at Giboney Houck Park; 60 new members were taken into the organization during a recent membership campaign at the college.

-- Sharon K. Sanders