Out of the past: July 23

1991

BENTON, Mo. -- After nearly four decades in public office and with his 74th birthday approaching, state Sen. John Dennis has decided to leave politics; he won't seek a fifth term in the Senate next year.

Water consumption in Cape Girardeau hit a record high this month, thanks in part to the July heat wave; Union Electric's water department reports Cape Girardeau residents have been using between 5.8 million and 6.1 million gallons of water per 24-hour day so far this month.

1966

A workshop to train certain residents of underprivileged areas as neighborhood leaders in anti-poverty efforts will be held next week at State College; the class will include 20 to 25 residents of Cape Girardeau, Bollinger and Perry counties, who will be paid from federal funds for their services to their respective neighborhoods.

The number of shoplifting reports is snowballing in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois as two elusive women continue a jewelry theft spree that has resulted in jewelry stores setbacks totaling in excess of $11,000 in less than two weeks; Sikeston, Missouri, Lt. James "Bud" Stone says the two are suspected of looting five Cape Girardeau and Bootheel area stores and have apparently moved operations into Illinois.

1941

Illinois Gov. Dwight H. Green has approved a measure passed by the state legislature to enable counties in Illinois to issue revenue bonds to buy and operate toll bridges; this is the measure under which Alexander County, Illinois, would have authority to purchase the toll bridge at Cape Girardeau and pay for it with receipts from the bridge itself.

Cape Girardeau's two-day aluminum campaign will kickoff tomorrow morning, when 10 trucks, furnished by the city and local business firms, will meet at Courthouse Park; each of the trucks will be manned by a driver and five Boy Scouts; each truck will be assigned to geographic districts set up in the city for the recycling campaign.

1916

Mike Doyle of the Park Theater and his partner, J.H. Strain, have purchased the equipment of the Broadway Theater and will dispose of it to an out-of-town concern; the selling of the equipment probably marks the close of that location as a picture house; it is reported that the building's owner, Albright Walther, has rented the store room to a man who will open a men's furnishings store there.

A horse and buggy belonging to W.L. Giboney was stolen overnight from the barn of his father, Robert Giboney, on Bloomfield Road; the thief was tracked to Blomeyer, Missouri, where he abandoned the buggy and dashed off into the woods, making his getaway.

-- Sharon K. Sanders