Out of the past: Aug. 12

1999

Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush flew into Cape Girardeau last night and met privately with conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, Limbaugh’s mother, Millie, and brother, David Limbaugh; the private meeting was held at Millie Limbaugh’s home on Jonquil Lane; State Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, also attended the gathering, which Kinder helped set up.

LifeBeat, Southeast Hospital’s medical helicopter service, is operating again after an accident at the hospital; another aircraft and pilot from St. Louis Helicopter Airways Inc. were on the job by 8 p.m. Tuesday; medical flight service was interrupted earlier in the day, when an accident forced the helicopter to land on Broadway near the hospital; no one was injured in the incident.

1974

Two major projects received building permits in Cape Girardeau the first week of August; the largest, for three floors to be added to the east, presently two-story wing of Southeast Hospital, calls for a cost of $2,450,000; Buckley Construction Co. of Fenton has the contract for the hospital addition, which will also include renovation of a portion of the original structure, bringing the east end of this building flush with the remainder of the frontage; the other permit is for the major renovation of Centenary United Methodist Church, stated cost of which is $754,000; this project will be built by Wettereau Builders Inc. of Hazelwood.

Cape Girardeau County Surveyor Carl M. Friese believes he should have been given the job of surveying the proposed site of the new county jail and sheriff’s office instead of Robert J. Hahn, the county’s consulting engineer; appearing before the County Court, Friese declares the court should have given him the job since he is elected to do it; the court says the reason Friese wasn’t given the job of surveying the 23-acre County Farm site on the west edge of Cape Girardeau was because of ignorance on the judges’ part.

1949

Activities of the second annual V-J Day picnic start in the evening at Arena Park, with the main feature of the VFW-sponsored picnic happening tomorrow; on today’s schedule are a beauty contest, featuring 16 girls, and a street dance; a variety show tomorrow will offer the best of local talent, including Gerald Jones, pianist; Elbert “Babe” Meystedt, novelty number; Bud Lemons, soloist; Kelly Jackson, cowboy singer; Phillip Schuch, clarinet soloist; William McCart, trumpet soloist; Delores and Lois Huckstep, cowboy singers; Shorty Crawley, novelty imitation; and Buddy Gerald, harmonica soloist.

Cape Girardeau’s proposed low-cost housing program, revived after a lapse in action dating back to prewar days, appears to be stalled again, this time by lack of enabling legislation by the state, which would allow it to enter into cooperative agreements with the federal government.

1924

Oscar Caldwell, 65, well-known and prosperous farmer of Commerce, dies at 1 a.m. of injuries received a week ago when a team he was driving became frightened and ran away with him; Caldwell was helping his men get the hay crop in the barns and was riding a mower; when the team became frightened and he lost control, Caldwell attempted to jump off the mower; he fell to the ground, suffering spinal and other internal injuries; he is survived by his wife and seven children.

J.A. Whiteford, recently elected superintendent of public schools for Cape Girardeau, is expected to arrive here Thursday from Bentonville, Arkansas; the new school head will be confronted with a number of important tasks before the opening of classes, perhaps the most important being making arrangements for conducting school at Central High in “shifts”; owing to the crowded conditions prevailing there, pupils during the coming school year will attend classes during but half the day, the enrollment being divided into two shifts, morning and afternoon.

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 www.semissourian.com/history.