Out of the past: Dec. 5

1998

If the people beside the Salvation Army kettles seem to be swinging those bells more briskly than usual this holiday season, perhaps it is because the 1998 Tree of Lights campaign is running behind; the campaign so far has raised $56,512 toward its goal of $200,000; receipts from the kettles are $8,000 behind the $37,000 that had been taken in by this time last year; the campaign is about $3,000 behind in mail donations.

C.W. "Woody" Rushing, 85, of Cape Girardeau dies at Chateau Girardeau in Cape Girardeau; Rushing worked as a laborer, deckhand and boat operator on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers during the 1930s; later, he was president of Missouri Dry Dock and Repair, North American Barge Inc., Missouri- Illinois Barge Line Co, Missouri Boats Supply Co., Erlbacher Boat Construction Co., Cape Towing Corp. and Missouri Boat Construction; in January 1979, he began the Rushing Marine Corp. with his son, Michael W. Rushing of Jackson; he is survived by his wife, son and two grandchildren.

1973

The long-proposed Cape Girardeau County Public Health Unit went down in defeat for a third time yesterday, but supporters say they are not giving up; they say the proposal will be presented to county voters a fourth time next year, at either the April or August election; Tuesday's balloting was 2,328 for the unit and 1,781 against it; it required a two-thirds majority to pass.

Legislative attempts by Missouri's two senators, Thomas F. Eagleton and Stuart Symington, to lift tolls from the Chester (Illinois) Bridge have moved ahead; in a joint announcement late yesterday, the senators said the Senate Public Works Committee has reported out of committee the omnibus Water Resources Bill, which includes a proposal for making the bridge free; under the plan, tolls would accumulate in a sinking fund to pay the indebtedness on the bridge in a period of two years or less.

1948

The Rev. W.F. Darling, C.M., the first pastor of Holy Family Catholic Church in Cape Girardeau, and the Rev. John Bowman, S.V.D., of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, begin a mission at Holy Family Church in the evening; services will continue through next Sunday; Darling opened the Cape Girardeau church in 1940 and served as its pastor from 1940 to 1945; he is now pastor of St. Katherine's Church at New Orleans, Louisiana, a Black congregation; Bowman, who served in the military for four years during World War II, was the only Black Catholic chaplain in service.

More than $4,000 in cash and merchandise was taken from the Sides-Miller Men's Store, 625 Broadway, last night or early this morning by thieves who cut the 3/8-inch iron bars on a rear window and hauled away a 250-pound safe and armloads of men's wearing apparel; the battered safe is found later in the morning near the County Home by Special Deputy Sheriff Troy Haupt, who is also superintendent of the home.

1923

Excavation work for 1,000 feet of underground conduit, which will carry cables from the central telephone exchange to the south and southwest parts of the city, will be started in an alley from Good Hope to Jefferson streets, says Wayne Berry, superintendent of construction for Cape Girardeau Bell Telephone Co.; this work is a continuation of the underground conduit laid in an alley from Themis Street to Good Hope early this year; completion of the laying of the conduit and installation of the cables will cost the company about $30,000.

Cape Girardeau public schools are dismissed in the afternoon until Monday, while practically all the teachers in the system will leave tonight for St. Louis to attend the annual meeting of the State Teachers Association, which convenes there tomorrow.

-- Sharon K. Sanders