Out of the past: Aug. 6

1995

The Rev. Raymond V. Epps is retiring as pastor of Shawnee Hills Baptist Church in Jackson, where he and his wife, Doris, have served since August 1988; a fellowship dinner is held in the evening at the church.

The city of Jackson is building a third water tower; the concrete was poured three weeks ago for a 190-foot-high, 300,000-gallon water tank near the junction of Highway 61 and Interstate 55 on Old Appleton Road; it should be in operation by Oct. 31, although painting will continue after that.

1970

Construction workers throughout Southeast Missouri return to work after a contract was signed Wednesday between Laborers Local 282 and the Southeast Missouri Contractors Association; Fred D. Kelley, president of Local 282, says under the settlement the association will appoint foremen for all jobs under $2.5 million and the union will appoint foremen for all jobs over $2.5 million; there will be a foreman for every eight men receiving 45 cents more per hour than the highest paid semi-skilled laborer.

Barring unforeseen difficulties, construction should begin this fall on a building to house a new Cape Girardeau industry: Hardware Wholesalers of Fort Wayne, Indiana; the structure will be located on the industrial tract off Nash Road.

1945

WASHINGTON -- An atomic bomb, hailed as the most terrible destructive force in history, has been loosed upon Japan; President Harry Truman discloses that the first use of the bomb -- containing more power than 20,000 tons of TNT -- was made 16 hours earlier on Hiroshima, a Japanese army base; the atomic bomb, Truman says, is the answer to Japan's refusal to surrender.

By actual count, 3,770 persons visited the exhibit of German atrocity pictures on display Saturday and Sunday at Houck Field House; the photos are being shipped today by truck to Flat River, Missouri, for another two-day showing; from there, they'll go to Sikeston and Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

1920

The body of Fred Beardslee, a young soldier who died while in service with the American Expeditionary Forces in Germany, was brought here last night and sent on the early morning train to Commerce, Missouri, where it will be given its last resting place after a journey that spanned nearly half the globe; Beardslee, the son of Mr. and Mrs. T.J. Beardslee, enlisted in Wisconsin the day the war began; he died of pneumonia Feb. 7, 1919; his family requested that his body be removed from the cemetery at Coblenz and returned to Commerce, to rest near the grave of his father, who died recently.

Eighteen graduates, the largest class ever receiving degrees from the State Teachers College, are presented diplomas at the closing exercise in the evening in the college auditorium; the principle address is given by the Rev. A.B. Carson, pastor of First Baptist Church, who speaks on truth and its absolute necessity in everyday life.

-- Sharon K. Sanders