Out of the past: Dec. 15

1993

A 230-foot radio transmission tower was erected yesterday at 338 N. Henderson Ave., for KRCU, the National Public Radio affiliate at Southeast Missouri State University; the tower replaces the one on the roof of Academic Hall; a boost in power from 100 to 6,000 watts should increase the station's broadcast radius from five to 25 miles.

The first copies of "Images of the Past in the City of Roses," a book produced by the Southeast Missourian concerning the history of Cape Girardeau, have arrived.

1968

Speakers have been placed in the belfry of the General Baptist Church, Broadway and Spanish Street, and Christmas music is being played from 6:30 to 9 each night; the church is also open at that time for downtown Christmas shoppers who might want to come in and rest.

The Rev. C.E. Fleshman, pastor of the Church of the Bible Covenant, dedicates gifts that have been presented to the church during the morning worship service; a complete communion service has been given to the church by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Burnett; Mr. and Mrs. Lester Rhodes have presented a new communion table.

1943

The coldest weather in Cape Girardeau this season sends the mercury down to one degree above zero in the morning; the reading was on the State College thermometer; snow fell all day yesterday and until late in the night, when skies cleared; today dawned on hard-frozen ground, iced-over ponds and small steams, dozens of stalled automobiles, and thousands of Girardeans shivering on their way to work.

J. Maple Wilson, 79, a druggist of 60 years service to the profession, dies at the family home on North Ellis Street; he was the son of Dr. William B. and Ann Eliza Juden Wilson, a pioneer Cape Girardeau couple.

1918

R.A. Caldwell, a farmer living near Fruitland, received a message yesterday from the War Department advising him of the death of his son, Ellis Caldwell, 28, in France on Dec. 7; spinal meningitis following an attack of influenza was the cause of death.

The floods which took out the bridge on the Rock Levee Road across the diversion channel recently also took away the temporary bridge across the channel at Blomeyer, Missouri; a steel bridge is being placed there, but the approaches are not yet finished.

-- Sharon K. Sanders