Out of the past: Jan. 4

1994

A Jackson real estate agent unable to fill his office building with tenants has sparked a firestorm of protest over his request to change the building's zoning to better suit market demands; Gerald W. McElrath, who owns a commercial building with three offices at 810 E. Jackson Blvd., has asked that the tract be rezoned a local commercial district.

Jackson Mayor Paul Sander announces Police Chief Larry Koenig will resign soon to accept the new position of personnel director and office manager at Jackson City Hall; the resignation is effective upon the appointment of a new chief, which should take place within the next 45 days.

1969

Cape Girardeau and area shiver in the grasp of the severest and most prolonged wave of frigid air to roll down from the north this winter; area residents bundle up a little extra, turn up their furnaces and find their cars harder to start in the morning; the mercury in the morning plummets to a season low of 7 degrees at the airport.

The Downtowner Motel, just west of the traffic bridge on Morgan Oak Street, has a new owner; Quinton Parish of Murphysboro, Illinois, purchased the real estate and business from Ralph Gray of Carbondale, Illinois, who had owned it the past four years.

1944

Leon C. "Bud" Smith, 24, a petty officer first class in the Navy, is missing in action; word from the Navy Department came to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Smith of Portland, Oregon, and was relayed by them to their daughter, Mrs. James G. O'Howell of Cape Girardeau, in a letter received yesterday.

Howard Trunnell, a veteran Cape Girardeau flier, says Cape Girardeau should make every effort to acquire Harris Field at the close of the war and make it a municipal airport; Trunnell recently returned from England, where he has been a pilot for the Royal Air Force Ferry Command and who has served in many capacities in aviation in his 14 years of fling.

1919

Cape Girardeau's young folks are enjoying the first skating of the winter season, the lakes at Fairground Park being covered with a thick coating of ice.

Whit Dodge, the Frisco carpenter, is in Cape Girardeau and reports that the Frisco depot being built at Hazel Spur, the halfway place between Fornfelt and Illmo, is about completed and should be ready for use late next week; although small, the depot is a nice building and fits in well with other stations along the Gulf line branch.

-- Sharon K. Sanders