Out of the past: Aug. 3

1998

Southeast Missouri State University shook the money tree in fiscal 1998, raising nearly $5.8 million; the foundation received $5.77 million in the year ending June 30; that was an increase of nearly $2.89 million from the previous year, foundation officials said; the financial gifts included a record $5.3 million in cash contributions.

Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs, Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean, and Al Jolson's "The Jazz Singer" introduced the world to talking pictures the year Homer Gilbert began playing cornet with the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band; Gilbert was 14 years old in 1927, something of a prodigy, who was only 12 when he began playing with Peg Meyer's dance band; he began rehearsing with the municipal band that summer, and the following year, conductor Thomas A. Danks invited him to join the band and then directed him to sit in the first chair; On Wednesday, Gilbert will be honored for his 72 years with the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band, an association which will end with the band's final concert of the season one week hence.

1973

Cecil W. Tate, a Cape Girardeau businessman, has been named the new manager of the state license bureau at 220 N. Main St.; Tate, a Republican, replaces Pauline Young, a Democrat, who has managed the license fee agency since December 1965.

Paint brushes are swishing and weed cutters clipping at the Cape Girardeau Civic Center, 201 N. Spanish St., as workers use the month of August to prepare the building for full program usage in the fall; Elsie Gaden, center director, is supervising the cleaning of the yard, cleaning and painting the gymnasium at the north end of the building, putting up shelves for storage and acquiring furnishings; work is being done by a Mainstream employee, Lucille Jones, and three Neighborhood Youth Corps employees, Mini Davis, Charles Hammond and James Lyons, as well as volunteers.

1948

Unless there is an unforeseeable hitch in plans, Cape Girardeau residents will be called on before the first of the year to approve bond issues for two new fire stations and equipment and a new swimming pool; a minimum of $200,000 will be needed for the fire stations and equipment, including two new pumper trucks for each station, a new pumper-ladder truck for the present station and an emergency truck to handle certain equipment not adaptable to the regular firefighting vehicles; the exact cost of the pool isn't known.

H.T. "Doc" Miles was appointed manager of the Cape Girardeau Capahas on Sunday, succeeding Diz Anderson; Miles, a chiropractor, has had 10 years of playing experience as a catcher; he played his last season in 1940 before coming here last winter; for the Caps, he has played in 12 games and obtained eight hits in 41 times at the plate.

1923

A Southeast Missourian extra declares: "Harding dies. President is victim of apoplexy"; a former U.S. senator from Ohio, Harding was elected president in 1921 as a Republican; he was stricken ill at Seattle, Washington, having returned from a trip to Alaska; he died at 9:30 p.m., Cape Girardeau time, Thursday, Aug. 2, in San Francisco.

Radio wins in the contest for speed in spreading news of the death of President Harding, so far as Cape Girardeau is concerned; the first reports come here by wireless; then telegraph wires click the news, and the telephone follows, contributing to the detailed account published in The Missourian extra; the news shocks Girardeans; it is such a blow that most hear the reports or read the headlines in silence; few can comment, it is so hard to believe; flags throughout the town are lowered to half-staff.

-- Sharon K. Sanders