Out of the past: July 8

1995

The guessing game is in full swing at Southeast Missouri State University, where the search for a new university president remains a big question and a hot topic of conversation; two of the school's top administrators -- Dr. Ken Dobbins, executive vice president, and Dr. Charles Kupchella, provost -- have been talked about among campus circles as possible candidates to succeed Dr. Kala Stroup.

Rush-hour Mississippi River bridge traffic was tied up for about an hour yesterday afternoon as police and firefighters dissuaded a man from jumping off the bridge; after about an hour of dialogue with a friend and police chaplain David Allen of St. James AME Church, the man surrendered to officers and was taken into protective custody.

1970

Automatic traffic signals and lighting will be installed at the hazardous Highway 61-74 intersection near the south city limits during the current fiscal year, if funds are available for a contract; the site has been the scene of several traffic accidents and near misses; it is particularly dangerous at night.

Intense thundershowers again hit the Cape Girardeau area early in the day, dumping more than an inch of rain on some parts of the city; the driving rain is accompanied by thunder and lighting, the second such storm in the area within a five-day period.

1945

The Rev. Holland B. London of St. Louis, recently appointed superintendent of the Missouri District of the Church of the Nazarene, is guest speaker at the local church in the evening; he formerly was superintendent of the Little Rock District in Arkansas.

Fred E. Kies, 78, for almost 60 years owner and publisher of the weekly Cape County Post newspaper in Jackson, dies at his home; Kies and his father, the Rev. Frederick Kies, established the newspaper with which he was long associated in 1886 as the Deutscher Volksfreund.

1920

William Oberheide, son of Mr. and Mrs. F.W. Oberheide, 815 Independence St., surprised his parents last night by slipping into town to pay them a two-week visit; young Oberheide is assistant cashier of a bank at Big Wells, Texas.

The Metropolitan Hotel, Broadway and Main Street, belonging to John Koffel, is sold to W.R. Thomas, a former resident and business man of Kennett, Missouri; Koffel, who came here from California, has conducted the hotel the past month.

-- Sharon K. Sanders