Out of the past: Aug. 25

1998

The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's board of directors "put on its business hat" to endorse Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus project; Chamber executive director John Mehner said the 19-member board voted unanimously to endorse the $35.6 million project to convert the old St. Vincent's College property into a school for the arts and performing arts center; the proposal makes good business sense, Mehner said.

Eagle Ridge Christian School students had several new things to adjust to yesterday; students this week entered a new building, were required to wear new school uniforms and marked the beginning of a new preschool program; some 120 students from as far away as Southern Illinois and Patton, Missouri, have enrolled, an increase of 33% from last year; the expanded enrollment is due largely to the school's new 30,000-square-foot building a mile west of Interstate 55 along Route K.

1973

Part of the Blue Grass Shows, billed as the midway attraction at the SEMO District Fair for many years, is already on the fairgrounds at Arena Park in anticipation of the 1973 exposition to open Sept. 11; "We look forward to coming back here," says R.H. Groscurth, brother of the shows' manager, C.C. Groscurth; "This is a nice fair ... not as big as some, but definitely one of the better fairs," he said.

CAIRO, Ill. -- In an effort to squelch rumors that the emergency room at St. Mary's Hospital here is no longer operating, two physicians from the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine at Carbondale have arrived to serve the financially-troubled facility as house physicians; they are Dr. Kofi S. Amankwah, assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at SIU, and Dr. George Guess, a resident in family practice at the medical school; meanwhile, the Pulaski-Alexander Development Corp. at Mounds, Illinois, is continuing to negotiate with the Sisters of the Holy Cross for the purchase of the hospital.

1948

Cape Girardeau schools put the finishing touches on schedules as they prepare for an anticipated enrollment of 5,358 pupils for the nine-month term, which will begin generally Sept. 7; class work in public schools will start that day, preceded Monday by a meeting of all teachers in the system with the superintendent; also opening that day will be State College, Steimle Business School and St. Vincent's, St. Mary's and Trinity Lutheran parochial schools; opening Sept. 8 will be the State College Training School and St. Vincent's College.

The final 12 of 36 sections of hardwood flooring that will serve as the playing surface for State College and Cape Girardeau Central High School basketball games this season are being laid by college workers at the Arena Building; Vernon A. Chapman, college superintendent of grounds and buildings, says that a force of workers has been engaged in dismantling buildings secured by the college at the Weingarten, Missouri, prisoner of war camp, and the sections are being trucked here; the Arena Building will take the place of Houck Field House for hoop competition this season.

1923

Five additional lawsuits, growing out of the alleged ejection of several students from the men's dormitory of Cape Girardeau Teachers College, were filed in Circuit Court at Jackson on Friday against Joseph A. Serena, college president, and Vernon Chapman, superintendent of grounds; the new suits bring the total to 12 in which damages aggregating $72,000 are asked.

Public schools of Cape Girardeau will open Sept. 4, superintendent J.N. Crocker announces; 82 teachers, five more than were in service last year, have been employed to teach in the schools this year; numerous improvements to the grade schools and Central High School have been made during the summer, and the buildings are ready for the opening.

-- Sharon K. Sanders