Out of the past: March 25

1998

ST. LOUIS -- A former circuit judge in Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties has written the opinion for the Missouri Court of Appeals in a landmark decision with wide-reaching implications for lawsuits involving professional sports teams; Judge Stanley A. Grimm of the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District was the author of the 2-1 decision handed down last week in the case of "McKichan v. St. Louis Hockey Club"; the case involved a professional hockey goaltender, who was injured after being illegally body checked by an opposing player.

Construction of a warehouse ended abruptly Tuesday when workers stumbled across a casket containing remains of a person buried in St. Vincent's College cemetery perhaps as many as 150 years ago; in the course of an investigation, another casket and remains of a second person were found adjacent to the first casket; the workers at Standley Batch Systems in Cape Girardeau were preparing to pour cement for the concrete footings of the warehouse and machine shop when the discovery was made; the business is on land once owned by the college near where the new Mississippi River bridge is under construction.

1973

"Old Ymir's Clay Pot," a fable by Norman Dietz, is created in an evening performance at Emanuel United Church of Christ in Jackson; the event is sponsored by the United Christian Cooperative Parish; the Northminster Players of the United Presbyterian Church of St. Louis presents the story within the context of a worship service.

After spending almost 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, Lt. Cmdr. Earl G. Lewis Jr., son of Earl G. and Virginia Lewis of Cape Girardeau, is "very happy and thankful" to be back in the United States and may visit Cape Girardeau in a little over three weeks; after visiting her son in California, Virginia Lewis reports he appeared "real good physically after having been over there 5 1/2 years."

1948

A three-man board of trustees, charged with administration of the Community Industrial Development Fund, has accepted a trust agreement and taken over administration of the $76,158.96 fund contributed by Cape Girardeau business and professional men and organizations to bring industry to the community; named trustees were President W.W. Parker of State College, Robert Vogelsang, president of Farmers & Merchants Bank, and Clyde D. Harris, president of First National Bank.

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- The theft of the poll books of the 1946 primary and general elections from the county clerk's office in New Madrid County on March 16 has instigated an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of "border" voting along the New Madrid-Stoddard County line; theft of the books, in which are recorded the names of all voters who balloted in the two elections together with numbers corresponding to their ballot numbers, was disclosed yesterday; all 1946 election records in Stoddard County were received by the FBI March 11 under an order issued in Federal Court in St. Louis.

1923

Bishop E.D. Mouzon of Nashville, Tennessee, one of the recognized leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, preaches at both the morning and afternoon services at Centenary Methodist Church; he is here at the request of the Rev. J. Richard Spann, pastor of Centenary.

Improvements are being made to the building now occupied by the Johnston Hotel on Main Street; a new glass front for the main floor is being added, and this part of the building will be made into a store room; the entrance to the hotel has been cut down considerably.

-- Sharon K. Sanders