Out of the past: March 21

1997

Dr. Dan B. Cotner of Cape Girardeau has received the Service Above Self Award presented by Rotary International; the award is the highest honor given a Rotarian by the international service organization; Cotner, a dentist and a 30-year member of the Cape Girardeau Rotary Club, is one of 144 Rotarians worldwide to receive the award.

The Cape Girardeau County Commission wants to put an end to nuisances; in the first use of its newly acquired power to write ordinances, the commission is formulating a measure to allow the county to act on complaints of stray animals, littering, junk cars and other annoyances.

1972

The Cotton Belt Railroad announces changes to work rules that allow it to use one train crew between locations in Southeast Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, where it formerly had to use two; a crew that works a train from Illmo will no longer be replaced at Jonesboro, Arkansas; it will continue on to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, be supplied with overnight accommodations, and return to Illmo.

Four Cape Girardeau business men clear the first hurdles in the two races for City Council seats by being among the top four vote-getters at the city primary election; in the contest for the one-year seat, Jerry L. Reynolds, with 1,113 votes, finishes first; F.E. "Gene" Rhodes, with 981 ballots, comes in second; finishing the race for the three-year seat are Paul W. Stehr with 1,137 votes and Hilary F. Schmittzehe, 881.

1947

CINCINNATI, Ohio -- The biggest, most luxurious packet steamer on the Mississippi River system is coming to Cincinnati via the Panama Canal; the Delta Queen, a million-dollar floating hotel, has been purchased by the Greene Line; it is at San Francisco being reconditioned for its 5,000-mile ocean voyage through the canal to New Orleans; Capt. Tom Greene, head of the line, says he bought the Delta Queen because of the tremendous upsurge in river traffic in the last 10 years.

Kenneth Vangilder, a member of the 1946 pitching staff of the Trenton, New Jersey, club of the Inter-State Baseball League, a farm club of the New York Giants, has been notified to report to the club's spring training camp at Lakewood, New Jersey, March 30; he'll leave one day next week; he has been spending the winter with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Elam Vangilder in Cape Girardeau.

1922

The Southern Missouri Handle Co. of Cape Girardeau has been reorganized; the company is incorporated for $30,000, and the papers have been filed at Jefferson City; K.A. Brumback is the president and general manager of the company, and T.J. Brumback is vice president; a new name among the company's officers is T.J. Sutton, secretary-treasurer; Sutton formerly was manager of the Fulkerson Bros. Handle Co. of Puxico, Missouri; he will be in charge of the office here.

The primary election thins the ranks of candidates for Cape Girardeau mayor and commissioners; James A. Barks, lawyer and present mayor, and Walter D. Black, hotel man, survive the primary and will face off in the mayor's race April 4; winners in the commissioner race are Louis Wittmor, Roy Brissenden, Martin Krueger and G.W. Schack.

-- Sharon K. Sanders