Out of the past: Aug. 15

1997

In three years' time, a quarter of Southeast Missouri State University faculty members have been replaced, resulting in a changing climate on campus, school officials say; 345 new faculty members are participating in a five-day orientation to campus and Southeast Missouri.

An areawide parent advocacy group has been organized to help exceptional students in parochial and home schools get educational opportunities most often available to public school students; Cape Area Citizen Advocates of Parochial School Gifted Students, or CAPS, was developed by president Carol Morrow and president-elect Aaron Horrell about a year ago; the two are hoping to sign up members who are interested in promoting new learning challenges to gifted students they say are not being adequately served by public school gifted programs.

1972

The Cape Girardeau School District begins providing free textbooks for all public and non-public school pupils residing in the district and attending school in this state; steps to implement the new free textbook law were taken last night by the Board of Education.

Calling upon her young audience to dedicate their generation to the preservation of wildlife, Carol Perkins elicited a standing ovation and more than a few tears last night when she painted a poignant picture of the desperate state many wild creatures face in a world built by man for man with little regard for animals; the wife of Marlin Perkins, the St. Louis Zoo director, spoke to 350 participants of FOCUS, a week-long event featuring self-exploratory seminars and adventures into the arts as part of an effort to build a better world through communication.

1947

Rainfall of 1.24 inches at 1 a.m. -- the first of an consequence since July 1 -- gives relief from the prolonged heat wave and brings jubilation to farmers who see revival of their heat-parched field crops.

Excavation for foundations and basements of the two new State College buildings, a dormitory and student service center, will begin the latter part of next week, says Ray M. Dilschneider of St. Louis, contractor; construction cost for the two buildings will be $843,100; a ground-breaking ceremony for the student service building has been arranged for 3 p.m. Tuesday on the campus just south of the Agriculture Building, where the new structure will be built; later on, there will be a cornerstone-laying ceremony for the dormitory.

1922

Dies, Eletha Schuchert, aged and esteemed citizen of Cape Girardeau, suddenly from neuralgia of the heart at her home at 215 N. Lorimier St.; she was 72 years old last March and was the widow of John F. Schuchert.

A reward is being offered for the vandals who caused a break in the electricity transmission line running south from Cape Girardeau; both Fornfelt and Illmo lost power Saturday night, and Sunday morning the trouble was located at a spot near the Scott County bridge across the diversion channel; a long fence wire with a wagon spring fastened to both ends had been thrown over the transmission wires in such a way as to break the circuit.

-- Sharon K. Sanders