Out of the past: Feb. 13

1997

A group of landowners has vowed to fight a proposed legislative amendment filed by state Sen. Peter Kinder that would allow Cape Girardeau and Bollinger county voters to decide if a recreational lake should be built; more than 100 people whose property would be affected if a 7,700-acre lake were built on the boundary of the two counties near Millersville met last night at the Millersville School to discuss a letter-writing campaign aimed at opposing Kinder's amendment.

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- Mississippi County Clerk Junior DeLay was surprised to learn this week that an FBI investigation into claims of voter fraud in Mississippi County's November election was incomplete; Delay is responsible for storing voter records; just days before Monday's fire destroyed the Mississippi County Courthouse in Charleston, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Andrew Fois informed U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson's office the FBI has been instructed to conduct a preliminary investigation into the alleged vote fraud; ballots that might prove vital to the investigation are under 4 feet of water in the basement of the burned-out courthouse, DeLay says.

1972

Portraits of the late Dr. Arthur Clay Magill and Dr. Homer R. Bolen, both longtime faculty members of the State College Division of Science who made many contributions to that department, have been place in the entryway of Magill Hall of Science on the college campus; Magill spent 48 years in the department, serving as its head from 1924 until his retirement in 1952; Bolen, head of the Division of Science and Mathematics since 1960, retired in April 1970.

Willard Allen Robinson, executive vice president and secretary of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce who was instrumental in industrial and civic development of the city the past decade, died of a heart attack yesterday while on a golfing trip in Biloxi, Mississippi; he was 59 years old.

1947

A large brown and white collie, its ownership unknown, was rescued from a floating cake of ice in the Mississippi River south of the traffic bridge yesterday by the crew of the towboat Viking, under command of Capt. Melvin Hulett; shaking with cold, the dog was taken aboard the tow and given warm food, but as the boat reached the shore here, the animal bounded off and ran up the street.

Under sponsorship of two garden clubs -- the Cape Girardeau Garden Club and the River Hills Garden Club -- the New York City Opera Co. will present two grand operas here March 12; for a student matinee in the afternoon, "Rigoletta" will be presented, while in the evening "Carmen" will be performed; the performances will be in the State College auditorium.

1922

Yeggs lasts night broke into the office of the Frisco Railroad freight office here, blew the large safe and escaped with $3.20 in cash, all that was left in the cash box; nothing else was taken; nitroglycerine was used to blow the safe open.

Farmers living north of Cape Girardeau are highly pleased with the plans for a new bridge to span Juden Creek and which, they declare, will fill a long-felt need; the bridge will be a permanent structure, designed by Dennis Scivally, state engineer.

-- Sharon K. Sanders