Out of the past: June 10

1994

Cape Girardeau County Sheriff Norman Copeland, credited for transforming a department in shambles into a first-rate law enforcement agency, announced yesterday he will retire Aug. 1; Copeland was appointed sheriff in March 1986, following the resignation of Dwight Thomas, and was elected to the remainder of that term in November 1988; he won re-election in 1992.

The Missouri Highway and Transportation Department plans to widen the Route K bridge over Interstate 55 next year to accommodate growing traffic; the bridge will be widened from four to seven lanes with shoulders; when finished, the bridge will have four through-lanes -- two each way -- and three left-turn lanes.

1969

The First Baptist Church has issued a formal protest against the opening of all retail grocery businesses on Sunday in Cape Girardeau, running an ad in today's Southeast Missourian stating its stand; the new Kroger Center has announced the retail grocery business section of its department store will remain open Sundays.

A special plaque in recognition of service to education in Cape Girardeau was presented by the board of education last night to Joseph J. Russell, who left the board this spring after 12 years; Russell had been president of the board the past several years.

1944

County Clerk L.H. Schrader and his workers have just completed the 1944 tax books for Cape Girardeau County; according to their calculations, there are 355,558 acres of farmland assessed at $7,510,200, and the city and town lots at $10,327,400, making a total of $17,837,600 on county real estate; personal property in the county was assessed at $4,381,740.

Pvt. Paul E. Walker, formerly of 226 Merriwether St., was wounded in action during the fighting on the Anzio beachhead in Italy; he is the son of Mr. and Mrs. William Walker of Cape Girardeau; his wife lives in St. Louis.

1919

Emily Wilburn, director of the art department of the Teachers College, leaves for Nashville, Tennessee, where she has been called by the art department of the Peabody Teachers College; she will remain there during the summer session.

The Southeast Missourian newspaper has arranged with the Frisco roundhouse and several mills in the south part of town to sound the alarm tomorrow morning, when the war ships flotilla is seen on the Mississippi River; the flotilla, composed of the destroyer Isabel, two submarine chasers and a submarine, will sail past Cape Girardeau without stopping, but will dock here several days on its trip downstream from St. Louis.

-- Sharon K. Sanders