Out of the past: June 28

1996

U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson, 58, was remembered yesterday as a caring public servant; Lloyd Smith, Emerson's chief of staff, delivered the eulogy at the Thursday morning funeral service at First Presbyterian Church for his friend and boss; family members were the last to be seated on one side of the church; across the aisle were members of Congress, including House Speaker Newt Gingrich, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, Sens. Christopher Bond and John Ashcroft, and President Bill Clinton's chief of staff, Leon Panetta; state officials were there, too: Lt. Gov. Roger Wilson, Secretary of State Bekki Cook and Treasurer Bob Holden; after the funeral, Emerson's body was brought home to rest in hilly Jefferson County where he grew up.

BENTON, Mo. -- Andrew Lyons' legs were trembling yesterday at the Scott County Courthouse as Judge Anthony Heckemeyer sentenced him to die; in April, Lyons, 38, was found guilty of killing his girlfriend, their baby and his girlfriend's mother in Cape Girardeau.

1971

JEFFERSON CITY -- Judge James A. Finch Jr. of Jefferson City, a former Cape Girardeau attorney, has been named chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court, effective today; the seven judges chose Finch for the position after Judge Fred L. Henley, a native of Caruthersville, Missouri, resigned as chief justice.

New officers are installed, a challenge is extended from the retiring president and a talk on Missouri's Sesquicentennial is presented by Betty Hearnes, wife of Gov. Warren E. Hearnes, during the annual Jackson Chamber of Commerce installation banquet; officers installed are president Warren Wilson, vice president Maple T. Dalton, treasurer Jerry Sneed and secretary Dorothy Illers; retiring president Larry A. Nowak extends a challenge to Wilson to complete projects started by the chamber.

1946

Nineteen officers from Southeast Missouri serving in the citizens' army in World War II are included in the list of Missourians nominated by President Harry S. Truman for commissions in the Regular Army; included is Capt. E.E. Miller of Cape Girardeau, who was recommended for the permanent commission in the Adjutant General's Department.

ST. LOUIS -- Sites for two new Veterans Administration hospitals, one at Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and the other at Little Rock, Arkansas, have been approved by President Harry S. Truman and the Federal Board of Hospitalization; on the site at Poplar Bluff, a 200-bed general medical and surgical unit will be constructed at an estimated cost of $2,285,180.

1921

Between $300 and $400 in damages were done yesterday afternoon to N. Tepper's store at the corner of Main and Independence streets, when a strong wind tore loose the awning; it swung against the north plate glass window, demolishing it and ruining several pieces of merchandise on display in the window; in addition, the windstorm blew down several trees and large limbs; a tree of considerable proportions in the Lutheran school yard on Themis Street was broken off by the gale.

A.W. Woeltje of near Tilsit is nursing a badly mangled left hand; while operating a bander in the wheat harvest Friday, his hand was drawn into the machinery by a drive chain and crushed between the sprocket wheel and the chain; he was rushed to the hospital, but it wasn't thought necessary to amputate the hand.

-- Sharon K. Sanders