Out of the past: Dec. 26

1993

Despite a law requiring rapid cable television hookup in the newly annexed areas, residents of Cape Girardeau's Stonebridge subdivision are still without service; attorney Thomas R. Carnes, who lives in the subdivision, has been hired by the developer to get the city to force TCI Cablevision of Missouri, Inc., to extend cable TV service to the area.

For the past two years as president of the University of Missouri Board of Curators, attorney John Lichtenegger of Jackson has helped direct a major restructuring of the four-campus system; he will step down as board president at the end of this month.

1968

Ivan L. Irvin, a real estate man elected to his first municipal office here in April, is Cape Girardeau's mayor; he is elected to that office by other members of the council at a special morning meeting; Irvin takes the seat vacated by A. Robert Pierce Jr., elected in November as state representative from Cape Girardeau.

The Cape Girardeau City Council, bowing to loud objections, rescinds the rule making it mandatory for every residence to subscribe for garbage and trash collection in the year ahead; the council, however, retains the proposed monthly charge for those who voluntarily sign up for the service.

1943

Special Christmas music and a sermon by the pastor, the Rev. William Huffman, are features of the morning worship service at Red Star Baptist Church.

His automobile skidding on the ice-covered pavement of Highway 25, one mile south of Appleton, early Christmas day, Charles F. Blattner, 50, owner of the Sunny Hill Farms Feed Store in Cape Girardeau, was instantly killed when his car overturned three times; his wife and their son, Cpl. Paul E. Blattner, with whom they were returning to Jefferson Barracks after he spent a holiday furlough at home, sustained bruises and lacerations, but were otherwise not seriously injured.

1918

With the influenza conditions greatly improved here, the outlook for lifting the ban tomorrow is very favorable; the total number of cases reported to the city clerk's office up to 2 p.m. is seven, and three of them are reported from outside the city limits.

Commissioners with the Cape Special Road District continue to struggle with a solution for spanning the big ditch on the Rock Levee Road; a temporary bridge there was washed away by a flood; as it won't do to stop traffic on this important road four to six months while a steel bridge is constructed, the commissioners are now considering putting in a barge to serve as a ferry.

-- Sharon K. Sanders