Out of the past: July 30

1996

Almost a month after they asked questions, landowners who would be affected by a Bollinger-Cape Girardeau County lake will get the answers they've been waiting for at a meeting this evening at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Jackson; the lake project was first proposed in 1990 and resurfaced last summer; the 7,680-acre recreational lake would be built near Millersville and would affect about 200 landowners; it would be funded by a 1-cent sales tax in both counties.

Cape Girardeau is the chosen site for a new, 200-job service center, announces Alliance Blue Cross Blue Shield; the insurance company, headquartered in St. Louis, plans to lease space in a "build-to-suit" facility to be constructed in Cape West Business Park at Interstate 55 and Route K.

1971

The lower electric rate design offered Cape Girardeau by the Missouri Public Service Commission staff and Missouri Utilities Co. represents about a 10.6% increase to customers, effective immediately, says Mayor Howard C. Tooke; City Council members aren't very receptive to the proposal since it was reached without considering the city's testimony, the mayor explains.

As part of the summer maintenance program at Cape Girardeau public schools, workers for Landgraf Construction Co. of Jackson are replacing window lintels at Schultz School, 101 S. Pacific St.; some tuck-pointing is also being done on the building.

1946

CARUTHERSVILLE, Mo. -- The search by a professional diver continues in the swift, mid-channel current of the muddy Mississippi River for the bodies of at least 10 persons trapped and drowned in their automobiles Sunday night in the tragic collision of a ferryboat and an oil barge tow; thus far, diver C.B. Brown of Memphis, Tennessee, has made no progress in his search.

Due to a strike of 24 International Shoe Co. employees in St. Louis, the Cape Girardeau factory is closed; the strike started at St. Louis when the company closed a section of the listing department and discharged the 24 employees after they rejected a 7-to-8 1/2-cent per hour wage increase offer and demanded instead a 15-cent raise.

1921

Glenda Mabrey, popular daughter of Col. Warren L. Mabrey, has been named to represent Cape Girardeau County at the Missouri Centennial Exposition at Sedalia; she will appear there as an attendant upon the "queen"; the centennial starts Aug. 8 and continues to Aug. 20.

Records show that Cape Girardeau leads most cities of its size in the country in point of the number of automobiles; there are 1,046 autos registered with the Cape Girardeau City Clerk, and the Ford car leads all others by a big margin.

-- Sharon K. Sanders