Out of the past: March 13

1997

Cape Girardeau's Osage Community Centre at Kingshighway and Mount Auburn Road is nearly finished; the walls are painted, rugs cover the meeting room floors, the ceilings are in and electrical outlets are wired and covered; all that remains is installation of tile on the main floor and a few exit signs; a ribbon cutting will open the $2.5 million facility April 15.

Boatmen's Bank will close its downtown Cape Girardeau branch effective at the close of business June 12; the facility at 100 Broadway has housed banks ever since it was built in 1956; Boatmen's acquired the building in 1989; the closing is part of a company restructuring by NationsBank Corp., which signed an agreement to purchase St. Louis-based Boatmen's Bankshares Inc. last August.

1972

Roger G. Yarbro, a candidate for the open one-year City Council seat, has been declared ineligible to run because he wasn't a registered voter when registration books closed Feb. 23 for the city primary election; Yarbro states, "I am not withdrawing as a candidate for the City Council, but being delayed for a year by the city attorney. I will be back as a candidate next year."

The Cape County Court gives its approval of a new roof on the county jail in Jackson and for closing in the front porch of the jail building; estimated cost of the work is $1,000 to $1,200.

1947

Stubborn winter, reluctant to take its leave, is due for a comeback in Cape Girardeau and district tonight and tomorrow; a day of balmy weather brought the first traces of spring, but are wiped out today by rain and dropping temperatures; the new cold wave is expected to split the temperature in half, taking it from a high of 67 degrees yesterday to around the freezing mark tomorrow.

After 39 years with Farmers & Merchants Bank, Al Kempe, now its chief teller, has resigned and will retire Saturday; starting with the bank June 1, 1908, when it was a fledgling institution only 2 years old, Kempe was one of two employees, the other being Robert Vogelsang, then cashier, now president.

1922

An association has been organized for law enforcement purposes in the counties of Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Stoddard, Scott and Mississippi; the officers of the Cape Girardeau County section are president, Rush Limbaugh of Cape Girardeau; vice president, Dr. W.H. Statler of Oak Ridge; secretary, I.A. Smith of Cape Girardeau, and treasurer, R.W. McCombs of Jackson.

Casey Ransom announces he has purchased the stock of goods of G.A. Leff, 319 Good Hope St., and will conduct the store in the future; Ransom will carry a stock of groceries and dressed poultry.

-- Sharon K. Sanders