Out of the past: July 8

1993

The Missouri National Guard's 1140th Engineer Battalion in Cape Girardeau has been placed on alert and its Company D at Farmington activated to assist flood-fighting along the Mississippi River; an updated National Weather Service forecast yesterday warned that the Mississippi River will exceed record levels of flood of 1973 in many areas.

The Cape Girardeau City Council last night gave first reading approval of an ordinance that will place on the Nov. 2 ballot the question of whether to legalize riverboat gambling in the city; the ordinance is the result of a successful petition initiative by gambling proponents following riverboat gambling's defeat here in the June 8 election.

1968

Workers begin tearing down walls that once enclosed the main section of the Idan-Ha Hotel building in the morning; the demolition is being done by Gerhardt Contracting Corp.; the top of the northeast section is being taken down by hand; when it becomes safe to passing traffic and pedestrians, the remainder of the burned out shell will be knocked down with a ball.

Walter H. Oberheide, who has been the chief executive officer of Farmers & Merchants Bank for nearly 30 years and has been associated with it since 1912, will retire as bank president Friday; his successor as president will be Narvol A. Randol.

1943

A strip of ground amounting to more than three acres and fronting 400 feet on West Broadway has been purchased by the Cape Special Road District from Dr. Sylvester Doggett; the plot, on the south side of Broadway, is a short distance east of Highway 61; the road district beautified the park north of Broadway several years ago and plans to make a similar park on the south side of the street.

Still inside when the doors were locked at closing time last night, Walter Graham, 10, one of the seven children of Mrs. Agnes Graham of Cape Girardeau, spent the night in the Broadway Theater; he says that he was a bit scared and "didn't sleep a wink."

1918

A city commissioner is said to have informed the Main Street business men that Dr. W.S. Dearmont, chairman of the county council of defense, has taken over the ice problem in Cape Girardeau and will have it straightened out in short order.

Cape Girardeau's undertakers are preparing to go to court and make a test case of the new city ordinance that recently placed a license of $25 per year on that particular business; every undertaker in the city has a line of furniture in conjunction with the undertaking stock and takes the stand the merchant license covers the entire business; the new ordinance, however, lists the furniture and undertaking lines separately, requiring licenses to be paid for both.

-- Sharon K. Sanders