Out of the past: Aug. 2

1998

Dr. Brian Anderson becomes the senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Jackson; Anderson has served four churches in 16 years of ministry; he and his wife, Diane, and their two sons, Mark and Paul, are from Richardson, Texas.

Even as the summer heat continues, the most dreaded event of the summer for many youngsters is nearing: The first day back to school; area schools are beginning the 1998-99 school year as early as Aug. 14 and as late as Aug. 26; all will start before the historical beginning of the fall semester, Labor Day, which is Sept. 7, despite a 1983 law requiring all schools to begin after the holiday; however, rural communities can claim an agricultural exemption, and there is no set rule on how that exemption is applied by school districts.

1973

Commenting on Gov. Christopher S. Bond's veto of the Legislature's reorganization bill, Sen. Albert M. Spradling Jr., D-Cape Girardeau, says Bond "wants to run the state government his own way," likening the young Republican governor to President Richard Nixon; but chairman of Missouri's Little Hoover Commission, D.W. Gilmore, a former Benton, Missouri, attorney who served as a Democrat in the Senate, defends Bond's action; Gilmore says Bond did what he had to do and, had he not done so, Bond would have abdicated the proper authority of the executive branch.

Construction of a Mississippi River bridge connecting Cape Girardeau and Southern Illinois has been added to a long-range plan to develop major highways in the two-state region; the new span is only in the thinking stage, and nothing definite has been proposed.

1948

Basketball games of the State College and Cape Girardeau Central High School will be played this winter on a sectional hardwood floor to be laid in the Arena Building; the move is necessary because of the destruction of Houck Field House; Fred A. Groves, a member of the college Board of Regents, reveals arrangements have been made to secure surplus buildings from the Weingarten, Missouri, prisoner of war camp, including a hardwood floor suitable for a basketball court.

EAST PRAIRIE, Mo. -- H.A. Jones, 27, former Navy pilot, was burned to death late yesterday afternoon, when a plane he was piloting crashed into a tree and caught fire on the Mount Level Plantation, 6 miles southeast of here; Jones, part owner of the East Prairie Milling Co., had started to take off from the plantation when the ship struck a tree as he circled the place; crashing through the limbs of one tree, it went on 500 feet before striking another, falling and catching fire.

1923

Proclaimed "the best picnic ever," more than 500 persons attended the picnic organized by the Egypt Mills Guernsey Club yesterday; highlight of the day was the milking contest; Louise Kirchoff, 16, was crowned champion milker of Egypt Mills; Kirchoff milked three different Guernsey cows for one minute each, collecting 6.1 pounds of milk; finishing in order were Elsie Borchelt, 5.8 pounds; Wilma Exler, 5.1 pounds, and Olga Koerber, 4.1 pounds.

A slow, steady rain falls throughout this section in the morning, breaking the intense heat of the past two days; it is one of those really beneficial rains which are so rare in summer time, not the kind that comes amid much lightning, thunder and wind; crops are especially benefited, as the late corn needed rain badly.

-- Sharon K. Sanders