Out of the past: Feb. 13

1999

With all David Limbaugh's personas — lawyer, editor of his famous brother's books, Sunday school teacher — he has long aspired to be a writer; the Cape Girardeau resident is about to begin writing a nationally syndicated column for Los Angeles-based Creators Syndicate; the column will launch April 4, and the Southeast Missourian will carry it.

The federal government plans to buy property by Sept. 30 for construction of a new courthouse in Cape Girardeau; the government wants to buy the nearly six-acre Happy Hollow site at Independence and Frederick streets, west of Cape Girardeau City Hall; a public hearing on the site, hopefully in March or April, must be held in Cape Girardeau before the purchase is made.

1974

A former member and president of the Cape Girardeau Board of Education — and the first woman candidate — Mary C. Kasten, filed yesterday for a three-year seat on the school board; she is the fourth candidate seeking one of the two three-year posts to be filled at the April 2 school election; the seats are open through expirations of the terms of board members John O. Kramer and Dr. C. John Ritter, who haven't yet filed for reelection.

An attendance record for a movie shown in Cape Girardeau has been set by "American Graffiti", which next week will move into its eighth week at the newly-opened Town Plaza Cinema II; Paul E. Meyer, manager here for the Kerasotes Theaters, says the film has grossed more than any other movie that has shown in Cape Girardeau, including "Gone With the Wind".

1949

Race Relations Sunday is observed in a special order of worship and a special sermon and music at the morning worship service at First Christian Church in Cape Girardeau; the pastor, the Rev. Vernon A. Hammond, preaches on "The Hostile Dividing Walls".

The Rev. Roy Bettcher of Moorseville, Indiana, who is conducting a revival at the Church of the Nazarene in Cape Girardeau, speaks to Sunday school classes after they hold their regular sessions; his subject is "Crime Doesn't Pay", and he illustrates by reviewing the life of former public enemy No. 1, John Dillinger; the evangelist knew Dillinger, having lived as a close neighbor to the family, and he offered his aid when Dillinger was shot to death by police.

1924

The Missouri Supreme Court will decide whether the Little River Drainage District is to be allowed to proceed with its reclamation project "to better equalize and improve drainage facilities for 500,000 acres of farm land in Southeast Missouri"; a suit filed last week by a St. Louis attorney representing a New Madrid County landowner will be carried to the highest court in the state to test the legality of a drainage law passed in 1923, giving a drainage district power to equalize and improve drainage outlets.

The Rev. J. Richard Spann, for the past 16 months pastor of Centenary Methodist Church, has resigned his pastorate and will leave next week to take a position as head of the city church administration of Southern Methodist University at Dallas, Texas.

-- Sharon K. Sanders