Out of the past: June 26

1995

Worship services were somber yesterday at the Salvation Army, evoking more tears than a typical funeral; it was the going-away meeting for Majors Elmer and Sandra Trapp, who came to Cape Girardeau seven years ago; the pews were filled with their friends and converts, all sad to see the charismatic couple go.

The Mississippi River is finally below flood stage; it dropped to 32 feet at Cape Girardeau yesterday, ending the city's second-highest flood of the century; it began when waters rose above the 32-foot flood stage here May 3; it crested May 24 at 46.7 feet.

1970

More than $5.5 million in federal funds has been authorized by the House Committee on Appropriations for several flood-control projects of vital interest to portions of the 10th Congressional District, says U.S. Rep. Bill Burlison; included in the bill is a $30,000 appropriation for surveys and studies for flood control of Little River-Hubble Creek-Ramsey Branch in the Dutchtown area.

Setting out to prove drama isn't dead in Cape Girardeau during the summer months, a brand new theater company -- the Otahki Players -- has been organized at State College; the group will stage three plays this summer, beginning with Sumner Arthur Long's "Never Too Late."

1945

An inquiry from a large eastern manufacturing firm relative to a location in Cape Girardeau for a postwar factory building was reviewed last night at a meeting of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce board of directors; the firm, which asked not to be identified, needs a building with from 45,000 to 50,000 square feet of floor space; it would employ at the outset from 250 to 300 persons, 50% of whom would be women.

One year and four days as a prisoner of the Germans now only a memory, Capt. Edward Bender returned home last night to spend a 60-day leave with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Martin G. Bender of Cape Girardeau; he was liberated from a German prisoner of war camp at Moosburg, in the Munich area of Germany, on April 29 by spearheads of a tank division of the Third Army.

1920

After floating down Current River a distance of 20 miles, fishing and gazing at precipitous bluffs and beautiful scenery for two days, Henry and Al Brinkopf return home praising the Current River country as an ideal outing place; the pair used Van Buren, Missouri, as a starting point and floated down the river in a flatboat, guided by a native boatman of that vicinity.

Today is the anniversary of the death of Louis Lorimier, founder of Cape Girardeau during the Spanish regime and one of the judges of the first court established after the purchase of the Louisiana Territory by the United States; he died at his Cape Girardeau home June 26, 1812.

-- Sharon K. Sanders