Out of the past: June 28

1998

A public reception is held in the afternoon at Chateau Girardeau honoring Leta Bahn, who is retiring after a 25-year association with the retirement community; since 1973, Bahn has held many positions at Chateau; she has been the retirement community's administrator since 1984.

To the uninitiated observer, there is nothing unusual about the flat and sometimes pointed pieces of rock secured in the glass display cases; but to the exhibitors and collectors who travel several hundred miles to be a part of the American Indian artifacts exhibition at Cape Girardeau's Drury Lodge, the pieces are a glimpse into the cultures that lived in this area about 12,000 years ago; the 11th annual exhibition, sponsored by the Bootheel Archaeological Society, was moved this year to Cape Girardeau after having been held in Sikeston, Missouri, for the last 10 years.

1973

After giving area Mississippi River flood victims extra time to apply for federal assistance, the Small Business Administration is closing three Southeast Missouri offices in a move seen as making it more difficult to seek help; Boyd Corder, the SBA's eastern Missouri district manager at St. Louis, says "circuit rider" offices at Charleston, Ste. Genevieve and Caruthersville will be closed effective July 2; the only offices remaining open will be in Cape Girardeau and Sikeston.

Nine-year-old Renee Sue Baker, daughter of Mrs. Jesse Smith, 2023 Brink Ave., is pronounced dead on arrival at Southeast Hospital minutes after being struck by a car in the 200 block of Brink; it is believe the driver may have suffered an epileptic seizure prior to the accident.

1948

The bodies of Pfc. Walter Burgfeld and Cpl. John Klobe, inseparable Army buddies from the moment of their induction Feb. 8, 1942, are being returned together from a U.S. military cemetery in Brookwood, England; Burgfeld and Klobe, both of whom resided in Jackson before the war, were killed in the same practice beachhead landing on the English coast April 28, 1944; their remains arrived in New York on Monday aboard the same ship.

Returning from a safari in the South American jungles, Denver M. Wright, St. Louis big game hunter and former Cape Girardeau resident, displayed souvenirs he acquired on the month-long trip and related some of his experiences during a stop at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport yesterday; he said that during his hunt, most of which was in Nicaragua, he bagged two lions, a tiger and a number of wild boars; he displayed numerous items of jewelry hammered out of metal by natives.

1923

A driving rain, preceded by an electrical storm that did little damage, broke the 11-day heat wave in Cape Girardeau late last night, sending the temperature tumbling 22 degrees; the thermometer reads 74 degrees this morning, a great relief from Tuesday's reading of 96; the steamer Bald Eagle experienced the electrical storm from all directions; with a very large crowd aboard, the pilot immediately steered to the shore when the storm broke as the boat neared the point where the diversion channel flows into the river; aboard the boat were between 200 and 300 persons, including members of the Cape Girardeau Lions Club and their ladies and members and friends of Grace Methodist Church.

The final arrangements are being made transferring ownership of Union Lumber and Manufacturing Co. to Forest Lumber Co. of Kansas City, Missouri, and to a local corporation headed by M.E. Leming; the reported price paid for the company holdings is more than $150,000; those holdings include a lumber yard and a sash and door factory, both located in Cape Girardeau.

-- Sharon K. Sanders