Out of the past: June 16

1998

Residents who use Cape Girardeau's taxi coupon service will get one less round-trip a month under a cost-cutting measure; the City Council last night voted to cut the maximum number of coupons sold to each household from 16 coupons to 14 monthly; the council also agreed to use a pending report on mass transportation from the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission and other information to start looking for alternatives to the popular coupon program.

Two administrators and other personnel were hired during yesterday's meeting of the Cape Girardeau Board of Education; Julie Davenport was hired to be principal of Franklin Elementary School, and Pamela Barnes will work mornings as assistant principal at Alma Schrader Elementary School and afternoons as a remedial math teacher at Jefferson School; the board has yet to replace the retiring Barbara Blanchard, principal of Washington Elementary.

1973

Farmers & Merchants Bank, which recently placed its new main bank on William Street in service, announces it has exercised an option to purchase a tract at North Kingshighway and Cape Rock Drive from the Lewis family for construction of a banking facility; the site is now occupied by Wimpy's, a restaurant and grocery outlet, and two houses, both along Cape Rock; the buildings will be removed; a third house, on Kingshighway, is also included, but it will remain; it is under lease to McElreath Realty and Insurance.

Monday will mark the opening of another banking facility, this in Town Plaza for Cape State Bank and Trust Co., replacing the original smaller structure razed to make room for the new one; the new concrete and brick building incorporates drive-in and interior service spaces.

1948

In answer to a question raised by Cape Girardeau truckers and business men pertaining to the installation of parking meters in the city, Mayor Walter H. Ford says commercial truck drivers will be allowed to park their vehicles at the curbing to be unloaded without depositing money in meters; he stresses, however, that the privilege will be granted only so long as the driver is engaged in unloading; if the truck driver is unable to find a parking place at the curbing, he will be allowed to double park long enough to unload.

The State College Board of Regents hires Harland Bartholomew and Associates, noted landscape architects of St. Louis, to lay out a master campus plan, with the immediate aim of locating a site for the new health and physical education building; the matter of the site isn't discussed by the board, this to be left to consultations with the Bartholomew group after a physical study of the campus has been made.

1923

Painting of the interior of St. Mary's Catholic Church, the last step in the general improvement of the building, will be started Monday; scaffolding for the use of the painters is being erected for the use of the workers; William Kloer of St. Louis, who painted the church and made improvements to the interior 30 years ago, has the task again; it is estimated that it will take about eight weeks to complete.

William C. Cracraft, 70, former judge of the Cape Girardeau County Court and for years an influential citizen of Jackson, died unexpectedly last night while sitting in a chair on the porch of the home of Mayor J.W. Bowman, succumbing to a heart attack; during his lifetime, Cracraft held many important positions of public trust: county sheriff, judge of the County Court, member of the Jackson Board of Education, commissioner of Byrd Township Road District and a member of the Jackson City Council; most recently, he was president of the Cape County Savings Bank.

-- Sharon K. Sanders