Out of the past: Dec. 15

1991

Grace United Methodist Church presents its annual Christmas cantata at morning worship services; soloists are Wanda Bierschwal, Janice McClelland, Dimple Bridges, Rodney Bridges, Mike Dumey, Betsy Dumey, Ray Haring, Joan Haring, Ashley Skinner and Hayley Bridges.

For possibly the first time in the nearly 20 years the city of Cape Girardeau has collected a 1-cent sales tax, annual receipts have declined from the previous year; the checks received for 1991 totaled $4,766,562, a drop of almost 1 percent from 1990.

1966

A number of National Guardsmen and Army reservists in Southeast Missouri are scheduled to be ordered to active duty during the first three months of 1967 for four to six months of training; the activation is of people who have enlisted in a National Guard or reserve unit and haven't yet undergone a period of active-duty training.

In a talk yesterday to the Cape Girardeau West Rotary Club, Harold Kuehle, a paraplegic, described architectural barriers to the physically handicapped and their effect in preventing the disabled from exercising their economic powers.

1941

Falling through the ice of the lagoon in Fairground Park at noon, two schoolboys have a narrow escape; one of them, John Hunter, 10, son of Mr. and Mrs. Mac Hunter of Cape Girardeau, is in the icy water three or four minutes before being rescued; the name of the other boy isn't learned.

A northbound freight train narrowly misses being wrecked when the engine strikes some large stones that had been rolled onto the Frisco Railroad main line track two miles north of the passenger station in the evening; after a delay of 25 minutes, the track is cleared, and the train is able to proceed; special agents from Chaffee, Missouri, are investigating the incident.

1916

A well-attended meeting of the Cape Girardeau Commercial Club last night voted unanimously to get behind the newly organized Cape Manufacturing Co., successor of the Freeze Threshing Machine Co.; in reorganizing the company and expanding, the firm is selling $150,000 in stock, $50,000 of which already has been engaged.

The fine, new bungalow of F.F. Braun on South Lorimier Street was destroyed by fire late yesterday afternoon, and all the household goods and clothing of the family were consumed with it, with the exception of a piano, which George Waters saved by pulling to a door and getting assistance to move it to the house of a neighbor.

-- Sharon K. Sanders