Out of the past: Dec. 9

1997

Yesterday, Cape Girardeans awoke to the first snow flurries of the season; the Monday morning snowfall, which began slowly and eventually totaled .8 inch in Cape Girardeau, caused minor traffic accidents across Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois, and shortened the school day for many students in rural areas; a new storm moving in could bring more of the same to the region later today; rain is expected to change to snow, with an 80% chance of precipitation.

Just over 500 students will graduate Saturday during commencement exercises at Southeast Missouri State University; Dr. Robert Hamblin -- Southeast professor of English, winner of the 1997 Faculty Merit Award and director of the Center for Faulkner Studies -- will present the commencement address; degrees will be conferred on 479 undergraduates and 30 graduate students.

1972

Cape Girardeau's first revenue-sharing check should be arriving shortly; and when it does, Mayor Howard C. Tooke hopes the 1972 share will go toward construction of a new city police headquarters-jail facility; city officials anticipated that Cape Girardeau's annual allocation under the five-year revenue-sharing plan would be $390,928.

A ribbon of light backs up both ways on the Mississippi River traffic bridge during the night, lengthening travelers' wait to two hours as workers labor to extricate a man trapped in his automobile and remove wreckage following an ice-caused collision on the long span; motorists can only wait, as traffic lines lengthen, while rescue crews cut away steel to reached Charles L. Choate, 26, of Lutesville, Missouri; the accident occurs at 6:43 p.m., when an eastbound car skids out of control and crashes with the westbound vehicle operated by Choate; Choate, trapped about 45 minutes, suffers a laceration on the right side of his head and a dislocated right wrist.

1947

After overruling all pending formal motions in connection with the Cape Girardeau post office site matter, Judge Rubey M. Hulen in Federal Court appoints three commissioners -- Harris D. Rodgers of Benton, Missouri, Charles H. Jones of Piedmont, Missouri, and Arthur F. Deneke of Cape Girardeau -- to fix the value of the tract in Courthouse Park, already taken by the government as location for the Federal Building; as the case comes up, Hulen makes it clear it is the opinion of the court that the Courthouse Park condemnation should follow the usual proceedings in condemnation cases; this takes out of the proceedings at this time the proposed trade by the city of the tract in the park including Common Pleas Courthouse for the present Federal Building.

A report at 2 p.m. shows that 104 firms or individuals have contributed $32,581 in six hours of the one-day industrial fund campaign; the goal of the campaign is to raise $100,000 for an industrial revolving fund.

1922

Nathan Tepper, formerly a merchant of Cape Girardeau, receives word that his sister's family, which he was expecting to arrive in America before the new year, has been refused admittance to America by the immigration authorities and hasn't been granted passports from its native Lithuania; word to Tepper comes from Congressman E.D. Hays, who has asked immigration authorities why they have been denied entrance; Tepper came to America from Russia 18 years ago.

R.R. Bedwell, county highway engineer, and Jack Carroll of Cape Girardeau and Fred Hartle of Millersville are the low bidders on a road project extending south from the Perry County line at Appleton, their bid being $31,913.81; they haven't yet been awarded the contract, but they were the only bidders; the contract calls for grading, surfacing and extending a stretch of Kingshighway at the county line at Appleton south 2.58 miles.

-- Sharon K. Sanders