Out of the past: July 27

1993

The failure of the Perry County levee south of McBride, Missouri, early Sunday morning was a disaster for residents living in that area, but it has proven to be a blessing to workers preparing to raise the sandbag levee protecting Dutchtown given the new flood crest of 48.5 feet at Cape Girardeau a week from today; the breach in the Perry County levee caused a 1.6 foot drop in the river at Cape Girardeau yesterday.

A survey team with the geotechnical survey branch of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with the help of volunteers from the Charleston, Missouri, area, are building a 600-foot-long sandbag levee two feet high below the federal levee south of Commerce, Missouri; seep water from the levee will be used to flood about 150 acres of soybeans to control several sandboils.

1968

David Steinhoff, son of Mr. and Mrs. L.V. Steinhoff, is working his way through a community service project, a requirement toward Eagle Scout, painting parking meter posts, and occasionally stop sign posts, in Cape Girardeau; so far he has painted nearly 200 meter posts in Cape Girardeau.

Howard E. Baker, coin machine operator who in the past few years has bucked vending machine establishments in Cape Girardeau, dies in the evening after being riddled in gangland fashion with bullets from a passing vehicle near McClure, Illinois; Baker, 42, was driving north on Illinois Highway 3 about a mile north of its intersection with Highway 146, when the shooting occurred.

1943

Jackson Mayor C.H. Sander and the city government have been making plans to eliminate flooding in the area from West Main Street to Highway 61; it is proposed to straighten the bed of West Hubble Creek, so that the floodwaters can escape downstream.

Harry A. Naeter of Cape Girardeau reported at Jefferson Barracks Monday for active duty in the Army Air Forces; following usual procedures, he will be assigned to a school for pre-flight training; Naeter has been circulation manager for The Missourian; his wife and their son, Bob, will remain in Cape Girardeau while he is away.

1918

Since the younger physicians are going off to war, Dr. H.B. Futrell of Oak Ridge has taken up the practice of medicine again, after having retired several years ago.

The water and gas rate hearing is completed in the morning before State Commissioner E.J. Bean; city officials and citizens in general are confident they made a fine showing against the utility company and feel the evidence submitted will bring the town better service from the company in the future and at the same time keep the present rates in effect.

-- Sharon K. Sanders