Out of the past: March 13

1998

An Indian mascot for Southeast Missouri State University could be appropriate if the costume is authentic looking and mirrors the type of clothing that would have been worn by Indians in the region, says school president Dr. Dale Nitzschke; Nitzschke says American Indians have told school officials they don't have a problem with an Indian mascot as long as the school is committed to understanding and respecting Native American culture; the school has been without a mascot for a number of years, even though its athletic teams continue to be called the Indians and Otahkians.

Construction of a $3 million apartment complex in South Cape Girardeau is scheduled to start next month; Cape Girardeau's Planning and Zoning Commission has recommended granting a special-use permit for the 48-unit complex in the 900 block of Hackberry Street, between Benton and South Pacific streets.

1973

The Frisco Railroad suspends through train service at Cape Girardeau in the afternoon as rising Mississippi River floodwaters force the closing of the floodgate across the main tracks between North Main Street and the river; this is the first time in four years that high water has forced the closing of the Frisco gate, one of two owned by the North Main Street Levee District; the other gate, at a bridge over Sloan's Creek on North Main, isn't expected to be closed; the river at Cape Girardeau at noon is 37.2 feet.

A young Cape Girardeau man is in serious condition in a local hospital after he plunged an estimated 120 feet down a rock cliff yesterday afternoon at Trail of Tears State Park north of here; the victim, Phillip Pavelka, 23, suffered four broken vertebrae, a compound fracture of the right leg, severely bruised left shoulder and multiple cuts and bruises; Pavelka fell when a rope he was using to repel down the 150-foot cliff near the site of the parking lot and Marquette historical marker snapped.

1948

BENTON, Mo. -- Cooperating to get a waterworks system for the community, Benton residents at a mass meeting at the courthouse last night pledged themselves to buy more than $10,000 in revenue bonds to help pay for the improvement; as explained by Mayor E. Tirmenstein at the meeting, the bonds offered to local people are part of the $30,000 issue voted at a special election when the waterworks proposal was approved.

John L. "Brownie" Brown, 56, for many years a barber in Cape Girardeau, died last night at the Veterans Hospital in Danville, Illinois, where he had been a patient since May 1946; Brown had the distinction of being the first man from Cape Girardeau County to be drafted into military service for World War I.

1923

Workers clean up the damage done by the 1923 tornado in Jackson.Southeast Missourian archive

Workers clean up the damage done by the 1923 tornado in Jackson.Southeast Missourian archive

Debris is being removed from the streets of Jackson following Sunday's tornado; telephone and telegraph wires are replaced, and buildings are being repaired, as residents struggle to get back to "normalcy"; persons who experienced the wrath of the storm, consider the biggest "miracle" of all was that no one was killed; talk centers around the miraculous escape of the families of Sikes F. Rodgers, F.S. Medley and George Hunter, whose homes were wrecked.

A bulletin from the State Highway Department shows that 16 road contracts will be awarded in Southeast Missouri in March; most of the work is bridging and grading, the first steps toward gravel or concrete highways.

-- Sharon K. Sanders