Out of the past: Dec. 5

1994

John Bollinger, Missouri's oldest working recorder of deeds in both age and length of service, is completing his last month on the job; Bollinger, 76, says, "It's time to retire. I don't know what I'm going to do. I may want to go fishing"; Bollinger became Scott County recorder Jan. 1, 1955.

The scum came clean; Donald Duck has been found, unharmed, with a note attached referencing a scavenger hunt; in plenty time for Christmas, the Cape Girardeau Fire Department's holiday display was made complete over the weekend, when a 6-year-old Jackson boy found the plywood Disney character propped against a road sing on County Road 619, north of Cape Girardeau.

1969

Thirty low-rent housing units in the city of Illmo are assured, when the Federal Housing and Urban Development Corp., approves a $517,251 loan to the city to construct the residences; the units will be built ona 5.13-acre tract at First and Hickory streets.

A Norway spruce, long a familiar sight at the home of Mr. and Mrs. James L. Pettigrew, 215 S. Louisiana Ave., will be cut Saturday morning and taken to Kent Library, where it will be installed as a campus Tree of Lights; Sigma Sigma Sigma social sorority is sponsoring a campus-wide Tree of Lights campaign, with proceeds to be donated to the Salvation Army.

1944

Mayor R.E. Beckman late yesterday received a telegram from E.G. Gilliland, president of the Toledo, Ohio, Baseball Club of the American Association, announcing definitely the Mud Hens will be in Cape Girardeau for 1945 spring training.

The Civil Aeronautics Administration to Congress is recommending postwar construction of new airports and improvements to existing facilities in 23 Southeast Missouri community; Cape Girardeau carries a recommendation of $651,000 in improvements; among the other district towns to get recommendations for new ports or improvements are Jackson, Chaffee, Charleston, Dexter, East Prairie, Hayti, Kennett, New Madrid, Perryville and Poplar Bluff.

1919

According to reports, a big Federation of Labor meeting will be held this evening at Buckner Hall to take the first steps toward organizing employees of the International Shoe factory into a union; International recently closed its factory here, and some speculate it is because of the labor talks; however, Supt. D.B. Smith says the closure is due to the coal shortage.

Ira Biffle, a Bollinger County, Missouri, boy, and his two companions of the Queen's Aerial Transportation Company of Queen's Island, New York, who were here the last few days in two airplanes, depart in the afternoon; their plans to stop at Sikeston, Missouri, on the way to Arkansas have changed, and they will now likely fly to New Orleans.

-- Sharon K. Sanders