Out of the past: July 26

1999

“We’ve been automotive parts specialists since the Model T,” says Greg Stroup, president of Auto Tire & Parts, which is observing its 90th year in business; Auto Tire & Parts, 212 S. Kingshighway, was founded in 1909 by Barrett Cotner on Spanish Street; the company now has locations in 24 Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois communities.

The heat index sizzles at 112 degrees in the afternoon in Cape Girardeau; after a sweltering weekend, the Salvation Army office is swarmed with requests for fans; 45 fans are distributed today, leaving the program with 20 or 25 in storage, and more are needed; the American Red Cross is maintaining heat shelters from noon to 5 p.m. daily at the Osage Community Centre in Cape Girardedau and at the New McKendree United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall in Jackson.

1974

About a dozen police officers’ wives and children picket outside Cape Girardeau City Hall at Common Pleas Courthouse in the morning in support of more pay and improved fringe benefits for their husbands and fathers; two other interested citizens join the group and are carrying signs by mid morning; the wives say their picketing will be confined to outside the courthouse, police headquarters, business areas and other public buildings; previous plans to picket the homes of Mayor Howard C. Tooke and councilmen have been abandoned

Juvenile officers are packing up and clearing out their desks for the long-awaited move from 37 S. Frederick St. to the new Juvenile Detention Home at 317 Merriwether St., which should be open for business Monday; chief juvenile officer is Richard McGill.

1949

The din of hammers and saws in the Hill Street area of Red Star, where much storm reconstruction work is underway, increased yesterday when 10 Boy Scouts started putting the siding on a new house for Clarence Riley, 52, a blind man whose dwelling was destroyed by the May 21 tornado; the Scouts from Troop 2 moved in on the heels of three relatives of Riley, who placed the foundation and put up the studding and installed the sub-flooring.

Two cases of polio at the State College housing unit at Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport are reported; Edward Martin Jr., 2-year-old son of Mr. And Mrs. Edward Martin, is taken to St. Mary’s Hospital in East St. Louis, Illinois, this morning; Dianne Cross, 3, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Cross, is to to be taken to the same hospital later today; there have been four other cases of polio in Cape Girardeau reported, and possibly a fifth case; there are 10 known cases in Scott County.

1924

J.A. Whiteford of Bentonville, Arkansas, for more than 25 years a prominent educator in the Midwest, has been picked as superintendent of the Cape Girardeau public schools; he fills the position left vacant by John N. Crocker, who resigned to accept a similar job in Sedalia; the new superintendent was selected by the school board from a list of 55 applicants; he’ll take up his new duties no later than Aug. 25.

Excavation of the basement for the new Rock Levee School building was started yesterday morning by the Gerhardt Construction Co., and it is planned to finish the building by Oct. 5; the new school house is about one-fourth of a mile south of the old one, which was rendered unsafe by the blasting operations conducted in the quarry in the immediate vicinity; the new school will contain two large classrooms and vestibules and will have a full basement with furnace; the estimated cost is $14,000, and the school is being erected for the district by the Marquette Cement Co.

Southeast Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders compiles the information for the daily Out of the Past column. She also writes a blog called “From the Morgue” that showcases interesting historical stories from the newspaper. Check out her blog at semissourian.com/history.