Out of the past: Aug. 27

1996

Free tickets are being distributed at various outlets in 25 counties of Southeast Missouri for President Bill Clinton's campaign rally in Cape Girardeau; Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and their wives will attend a rally at Capaha Park Friday afternoon before the campaign hits the road with a bus tour to Memphis, Tennessee.

Children with new backpacks, clothes and pencils arrive at Cape Girardeau public schools in the morning to begin a new school year; first-day enrollment is 4,129 students, down a couple hundred from last year; but Dr. Dan Tallent, superintendent, says that number will grow over the week.

1971

Cape Girardeau police and the Missouri Highway Department urge motorists to use extreme caution traveling through the Highway 74 and South Kingshighway intersection now that signal lights there have been activated; the lights, which regulate traffic in all directions, were put into use late yesterday afternoon on a 10-day trial basis.

The Jackson Board of Education last night let contracts for a new elementary building: for general contracting, Ben Sides Construction Co.; heating and air conditioning, McDaniel's Refrigeration of Pinckneyville, Illinois; plumbing, B.W. Birk of Cape Girardeau; electrical, Acme Electric of Cape Girardeau; kitchen equipment, Lohmann Supply Co. of Cape Girardeau.

1946

Cape Girardeau Mayor R.E. Beckman, who yesterday told the Community Development Committee that something must be done about the condition of Common Pleas Courthouse, today says no repair work will contemplated until the Supreme Court hands down a decision relative to the fate of the structure, possibly in October or November; the court will decide whether the city has the right to turn over to the federal government as a site for a new post office building the site of the Common Pleas.

David Shaltupsky is named the new manager of the Cape Girardeau plant of Dorsa Dresses, Inc.; he will take over Sept. 15, when the retiring manager, Daniel Paley, completes his work with the firm; Shaltupsky, who was connected with the Curtiss-Wright Corp. in St. Louis during the war, resides with his family on Perryville Road.

1921

Joseph A. Serena(Southeast Missourian archive)

Dr. Joseph A. Serena formally assumes the duties of president of Southeast Missouri Teachers College; when asked his plans for the college, he replies, "Why, I plan to assist in putting the Southeast Missouri State Teachers College in the position of the premier institution of its kind in Missouri."

The McCarthy Construction Co. of St. Louis is awarded the contract to build the Carnegie Library in Cape Girardeau when bids are opened; the bid of the firm is $25,616; the W.H. Meystedt Plumbing Co. of Cape Girardeau is awarded the contract for plumbing and heating on a bid of $3,037; Mayor H.H. Haas indicates work on the building will be rushed so that it opens by the first of the year.

-- Sharon K. Sanders