Out of the past: Aug. 19

1996

After having three restaurant operators in as many years, those running Cape Girardeau Regional Airport are ready for some permanence; they hope Ronald and Glenda Woodard can give it to them; the Cape Girardeau City Council will decide tonight whether to let the Woodards, who own a family restaurant of the same name in Jackson, lease the airport restaurant; members of the Airport Advisory Board have suggested councilmen approve the arrangement.

Unpacked boxes and drywall dust decorate Southeast Missouri State University's new College of Business building as faculty move in; construction workers continue to put the finishing touches on the $15.8 million Robert A. Dempster Hall even as the college dean, Dr. Gerald McDougall, and his faculty prepare for a new school year.

1971

A blaze which breaks out shortly after the noon hour rages through the Admiral Plastic Corp. property, a division of General Sign Co., at 351 N. Kingshighway, destroying the building and its contents; shortly before 1 p.m., the fire spreads to the roof of the 7-Up Bottling Co. plant immediately north of the blazing structure; by 1:15 p.m., the flames envelope the bottling plant as well.

Area teachers receive the bad news that they had been expecting: Their raises guaranteed by new contracts are caught in the web of President Nixon's 90-day wage-price freeze; the freeze not only brings grumbles from the education profession but creates worries among Cape Girardeau city employees, who were under the impression their new play plan approved by the City Council July 21 would remain in effect.

1946

Immediate activation of the 140th Infantry Regiment, Southeast Missouri's National Guard unit which went into federal service in December 1940, and since the war's end has been on the inactive list, is announced with the appointment of Lt. Col. Russell Boyt as its commanding officer and of Maj. Laurence B. Adams as regimental adjutant.

Bernadette M. Hoche, who was in command of the cancer fund drive conducted in the county earlier this year, announces an appropriation of $5,000 has been made by the executive committee of the Missouri Division, American Cancer Society, for the establishment of a cancer detection center in Cape Girardeau; a committee made up of Dr. D.B. Elrod and Dr. C.A.W. Zimmer of Cape Girardeau and Dr. T.E. Ruff of Jackson has been appointed to plan the organization of the center.

1921

The Gerhardt Construction Co. has severed its connection with the carpenters union, it is announced; the action follows a meeting of the Carpenters Local at Union Hall, at which the carpenters failed to consider demands made by several contractors of the city; J.W. Gerhardt, general manager, says, "It is our intention to push a vigorous fight for better building conditions... The carpenters have become indifferent as to their work and are not making any effort to give the public the service to which it is entitled..."

The yacht P.D.Q. Envelope of Chicago arrives here in the early afternoon on a cruise from Chicago to Mexico, carrying a number of notables and attracting considerable attention; the yacht is owed by George D. Gaw, president of the Gaw-O'Hara Envelope Co.

-- Sharon K. Sanders