Out of the past: Aug. 18

1999

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education will likely restore about $1 million in construction costs to the district’s Vocational Career Center; two months ago, the board scaled back $1 million in costs from the design of the school because of higher-than-anticipated bids and postponed awarding a contract for construction; the board voted in executive session Monday, however, to reinstate the original design; school officials believe more state funding for the building will be made available.

Parents and new students, along with members of fraternities and sororities, began helping the newcomers move into the dorms at Southeast Missouri State University Tuesday; the bulk of new students are expected to begin arriving on campus today; returning students will begin their return to campus Friday.

1974

The Rev. Frederick T. Schumacher of Cape Girardeau was recently elected vice president of the board of directors of Lutheran Welfare Services of Illinois; he is director of the Consortium on Pastoral Care of the Illinois Conference of Churches, an ecumenical agency which oversees Protestant chaplaincy and religious programs in the state Departments of Corrections, Mental Health and Children and Family Services.

Truman Weaver, 539 Asher, sustained burns to both hands while attempting to carry blazing curtains from his home which was struck by lighting during a thunderstorm yesterday; he wasn’t hospitalized; his sister-in-law, Mrs Willie Weaver, 537 Asher, was visiting in the home when the lightning struck; she was overcome by smoke and had to be given oxygen.

1949

WASHINGTON — President Truman nominates Col. Louis H. Renfrow, assistant to the Secretary of Defense, for promotion to the temporary rank of brigadier general; Renfrow, 53, is the husband of the former Ruth Kelso, daughter of Judge and Mrs. I.R. Kelso of Cape Girardeau and St. Louis; the Renfrows reside in St. Louis, but spend some time in Cape Girardeau.

A harried corps of garbage collectors is fighting a losing battle with Cape Girardeau housewives; they can’t keep up with the remains of watermelons, cantaloupes, peaches and vegetables that fill containers almost as rapidly as they can be emptied; city health officer C.C. Summers says that it is ever thus in July and August; normally, the two city collection trucks make two pickups each week on their routes; but at this season of the year, one collection is about the best that can be done.

1924

Norman Hely, president of the Edward Hely Stone Co. of Cape Girardeau, has purchased a handsome new home in St. Louis on the southeast corner of Kingsbury and Trinity avenues; the Globe-Democrat newspaper reported the sale of the brick house, with a “reception hall, living room, dining room, breakfast room and tiled washroom on the first floor” and “four large bedrooms and a tiled bath with shower on the second.”

Auto loads of khaki-clad and exuberant boys from Sikeston and other towns south of here pass through Cape Girardeau early in the morning on their way to the Boy Scout camp at Baker’s Mill; over 200 boys from Southeast Missouri are expected to be at the camp this year.

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.