Out of the past: Dec. 19

1993

A Nativity pageant, with live stable animals, is presented twice in the evening on the parking lot of Hanover Lutheran Church, 2949 Perryville Road; the pageant is presented by members of the Youth Group and Men's Club of the church; the Christmas story is narrated by Pastor Jeff Sippy, while it is acted out by the characters in the pageant.

It was not a good year for farmers in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois; although grain prices were high, yields were just under average in many cases; overall, production was dramatically down due to acreage lost by flooding.

1968

Howard C. Tooke, president of the M.E. Leming Lumber Co., is sworn in as the fifth member of the Cape Girardeau City Council, after being appointed to the office by the other four members last night; Tooke occupies the seat vacated by the former mayor, A. Robert Pierce Jr., now a state representative-elect.

The man who has served as Cape Girardeau's engineer for the past 35 years, John R. Walther, will retire Jan. 1; but he has agreed to continue to serve the city on a part-time basis as a consulting engineer, particularly in the field of design; Robert J. Hahn, now assistant city engineer, was named to fill the office vacated by Walther.

1943

A Christmas vesper service is held in the afternoon at State College auditorium, sponsored by the Student Christian Association; the invocation is given by the Rev. Miles H. Stots, pastor of Grace Methodist Church, and scripture is read by president W.W. Parker of the college; the Rev. C.A. Higgins, rector of Christ Episcopal Church, delivers the benediction.

Christmas music is featured at both services at First Baptist Church; in the morning, the regular church choir, directed by Mrs. Donald Black, presents a program, with Betty Trickey at the organ and Dorothy Gray and Seaman Vernon Kindall as soloists; the annual Student Night program is held in the evening.

1918

Charles Reed, a former employee of the Cape Girardeau Bell Telephone Co., was reported as dead from influenza and buried at sea as he was going to France on board a transport; happily, however, the report was in error, and Reed has written his fiancee here that he is safe and well in France.

Second Lt. Kenrick Burrough has returned from Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, having received his discharge from the Army; he is in Jefferson City, Missouri, at the present for the purpose of gaining admission to the Missouri bar; he intends to return to Cape Girardeau and enter the practice of law.

-- Sharon K. Sanders