Out of the past: Feb. 25

1993

Riverboat gambling will be the topic of a series of town-hall meetings in Cape Girardeau; the Cape Girardeau Convention & Visitors Bureau Advisory Board voted yesterday to hold three informational meetings to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a riverboat casino.

After getting "burned" by a surprise, 12-inch snowstorm last week, Cape Girardeau area residents aren't taking any chances after the National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning throughout Southeast Missouri; local food stores reported "panic" food-buying all day yesterday, after area radio stations broadcast reports that snow depths of 15 to 20 inches might occur in some areas.

1968

Mary Anne Morrey, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Morrey of Cape Girardeau, has been accepted as a 1968-69 volunteer in the Catholic Church's Extension Volunteer Program; the program was established in 1960 for the purpose of sending laymen and women to serve where they are needed most.

Winnifred Smith of Indianapolis, one of the national leaders in the Christian Church, speaks at the First Christian Church in Cape Girardeau in the morning; she and Charles B. Barr, district minister of the Christian Church in District 10, have been visiting all of the Christian churches in the district.

1943

In the future, the Cape Girardeau Fire Department won't make runs with the fire engines outside of the city, says Commissioner Phil Steck; the department, with a reduced force, takes chances on accidents when it goes beyond the city limits, he says.

Restaurant operators in Cape Girardeau County will be called to register with the Cape County War Price and Rationing Board between March 1 and 10 in order for them to get service under the new institutional food-rationing regulations announced by the Office of Price Administration; the new regulations will cut the amount of rationed food available to restaurants by about 50 percent.

1918

The Cape Girardeau Circuit Court convenes at Jackson at 9 a.m., with Judge Eldridge M. Dearing on the bench; the case of the state of Missouri against John R. Parmenter, convicted of the murder of Cape Girardeau policeman Albert Demortiers, is called, and the defendant is sentenced to 18 years in the penitentiary.

Connections between Cape Girardeau and Scott counties soon will be resumed by the building of a bridge over the big ditch on the Rock Levee Road, providing nothing intervenes to prevent the plans of the Cape Girardeau Township Special Road and County Highway engineer Dennis Scivally; Scivally has telegraphed to several St. Louis firms to get quotations on a supply of cable; if this material can be had, a suspension bridge will immediately be erected over the ditch.

-- Sharon K. Sanders