Out of the past: Jan. 13

1990

A bill that would allow cities and counties along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to decide whether to permit gambling on river excursion boats is being pushed by Rep. Herb Fallert of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri; the bill is patterned after one passed last year in Iowa and is being promoted as a way of boosting tourism in the state.

Cape Girardeau has started a new decade with no homicides being committed within the city over the past two years, a trend unseen here since at least 1977.

1965

Robert H. Capshaw, an automobile dealer and developer at Chaffee, Missouri, has been elected a member of the board of directors of Cape State Bank; he replaces the retiring Harry E. Poe; Capshaw, 45, has served two terms on the Chaffee City Council, two terms as president of the Chaffee Chamber of Commerce, five terms as commander of the VFW, is a past commander of the American Legion post and has been active in many civic and professional groups in Chaffee.

Sen. Albert M. Spradling Jr. yesterday was elected president of the board of directors of Farmers and Merchants Bank, succeeding Walter H. Oberheide.

1940

Most of the 128 additional workers now being assigned to WPA jobs in this county will be sent to a Little River Drainage District reclamation project in the south end of the county; only five men, all skilled workers, were added on the fairground project on U.S. 61.

The rite of bar mitzvah is celebrated for David Samuels, a son of Mr. and Mrs. William Samuels, at B'Nai Israel Synagogue here, with Rabbi Gershon J. Feigon in charge; out-of-town relatives who attend the ceremony include Louis Sorkin, grandfather of the youth, and three of his uncles, Simon and Lavar Sorkin and Jacob Faber, all of St. Louis.

1915

Frank Lowe, president of the state Christian Endeavor Union, speaks in the evening to the young people of the Cape Girardeau churches at the Presbyterian church; Lowe hopes to organize a Christian Endeavor society here.

J.F. Fullbright of Doniphan, Missouri, a member of the state legislature, passes through Cape Girardeau in the morning on his way to Millersville to attend the funeral of his brother, John Fullbright.

-- Sharon K. Sanders