Out of the past: June 8

1998

"Some people call our singing a hobby," said Irene Stevens, "but it's really more of an avocation"; Stevens, the director of the Cape Girardeau chapter of the Sweet Adelines, known as the Girardot Rose Chorus, was speaking of the barbershop music the all-female choir sings; the Girardot Rose Chorus celebrated its 15th anniversary in the Southeast Missouri-Southern Illinois region Sunday with an ice cream social and a concert at St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau.

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- A 54-year-old brick building once part of a Baptist college could be reopened as a higher education center under a plan being pitched to Southeast Missouri State University; a handful of Bollinger County business and civic leaders are exploring the idea; Southeast President Dr. Dale Nitzschke toured the vacant building last month with Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president, and university lobbyist Marvin Proffer; the brick structure was part of Will Mayfield College, a Baptist high school and two-year college that closed in 1934.

1973

Workers for sandbagging operations in the East Cape Girardeau, Illinois, area failed to show up in sufficient numbers yesterday making it a slow and arduous task for 25 women and children who did volunteer; meanwhile, officials at Illmo and Scott City released estimates as to the amount of damage done to public and private property during the Memorial Day weekend flash flood; totals show almost $700,000 in damages to city streets and sewers, businesses and private residences.

Charles G. Wilson, 84, former Cape Girardeau mayor and a community leader here for more than 50 years, died last night at a local hospital; Wilson was a lifelong resident of the city, having been born here April 17, 1889; he was mayor of the city from 1936 to 1938, and was also a past judge of the County Court.

1948

On the heels of a state report showing the remarkable improvement in the milk situation in Cape Girardeau since inauguration of an inspection program less than a year ago, the statement is made that the county has made an outstanding record that few cities in the state can equal; the statement comes from A.R. Boren, district public health engineer; he declares that milk being sold here ranks with that sold anywhere in Missouri.

Seized with cramps when he starts to swim in Castor River at Zalma, Missouri, Burl C. Bollinger, 32, of Illmo, drowns in the morning; Bollinger was a brakeman for the Cotton Belt Railroad; he had gone to Zalma with R.E. Dover, also a Cotton Belt brakeman, who formerly lived in the community, for a fishing trip; Dover tells the Bollinger County coroner Bollinger had hardly entered the water when he went down without a struggle.

1923

Mrs. John Thomas, 411 S. Sprigg St., with a general collection of different varieties of plants and flowers, carried away most of the prizes in Cape Girardeau's first annual flower show, according to the judge's announcement; she won 10 firsts and three seconds; a total of 34 exhibitors won 73 prizes given for the best flowers of each variety shown.

Holding that a verdict of $26,000 was excessive, Judge John A. Snider in Common Pleas Court sustains a motion for a new trial in the suit brought by the Blue Ribbon Ice and Fuel Company against the Cape Brewery and Ice Company, the Morrison Ice and Fuel Company and the Energy Coal and Supply Company for an alleged "ice combine" in Cape Girardeau 1921; immediately after the motion for a new trial is sustained, attorneys representing Blue Ribbon file an appeal to the Supreme Court on the motion, which is granted by the court.

-- Sharon K. Sanders