Out of the past: July 6

1995

The 140th edition of the SEMO District Fair will be held Sept. 10-16 in Cape Girardeau's Arena Park, featuring country music singers Holly Dunn, Aaron Tippin and Ricky Van Shelton; while small fairs around the country are struggling to make a go, the SEMO District Fair is expecting attendance to top 100,000 this year, making it the state's fourth largest outdoor event.

Cape Girardeau residents were more careful this year when they celebrated Independence Day; while Southeast Hospital's emergency room treated six patients burned by fireworks Tuesday, Saint Francis Medical Center treated no fireworks injuries.

1970

The Rev. Billy Richardson will start the second half of his walk on the Trail of Tears tomorrow night with a service at Old McKendree Chapel near Jackson; this begins the 600-mile walk from Jackson to Tahlequah, Oklahoma; last summer, Richardson walked the first 600 miles between Murphy, North Carolina, and Cape Girardeau in memory of the 17,000 Cherokee Indians who in 1838 were marched along the same trail by government troops.

Brenda Parsh, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Floyd E. Parsh of Cape Girardeau, leaves in the morning for Mexico, Missouri, where she will compete in the 1970 Miss Missouri Pageant; she qualified for the event when she was named Miss Southeast Missouri in a recent contest sponsored by the Malden Jaycees.

1945

First Lt. Richard F. Lacina, 24, the first flier trained at Harris Field here to return from foreign combat after completing his missions against the enemy, was killed Tuesday night in a crash in the Atlantic of an Army Transport Command C-54 airplane; his wife, the former Wilma French of Cape Girardeau, was advised of his death yesterday by the War Department.

Chicago & Southern Air Lines, with headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, notifies Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce manager Weir M. Barcus that the firm has applied to the Civil Aeronautics Board in Washington for authority to provide air service to Cape Girardeau, with the city to be located on the proposed "Route B," running from Chicago to New Orleans.

1920

H.A. Freeze, inventor of the New Model separator, which is manufactured in Cape Girardeau, plans to establish a new industry here; within 30 days he hopes to have a plant going for the manufacture of patented washboards; the washboard has a wooden frame, which holds a woven wire mesh made of No. 9 galvanized wire; this open work permits the soap and water to go through the articles that are being rubbed up and down on it, thereby removing the dirt more easily; Freeze has rented the old Harley shoe factory building on William Street for his new venture.

The Cape Girardeau Public Library Board has voted to close the facility at night, beginning Wednesday and continuing until Sept. 1; the board considered it unnecessary to keep evening hours during the hot season.

-- Sharon K. Sanders