Out of the past: March 31

1996

Palm Sunday.

Children holding palms lead the Palm Sunday procession during the opening hymn of the morning worship service at First Presbyterian Church, Broadway and Lorimier Street; there is a congregational reading of the passion of Jesus; Bill York reads the part of Jesus and Allen Bryan portrays Pilate.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Atlantis almost had to make an emergency landing Saturday when its huge cargo-bay doors would not open in orbit and allow heat to radiate from the shuttle; flight director Jeff Bantle said 10 more minutes and he would have ordered Atlantis and its five-person crew, including Oak Ridge native Linda Godwin, to return to Earth -- fast; however, the two doors finally swung open, and the shuttle was able to remain safely in orbit for another day.

1971

Cape Girardeau officials are checking into a report made Tuesday by the U.S. Interior Department in Washington that listed the Mississippi River here among public water sources with unacceptable levels of poisonous metals; the Interior Department's Geological Survey conducted its study last fall in a nationwide spot check, taking 714 samples of raw water from rivers below municipal-industrial complexes and in some areas far from human activity.

Expanding use of Nash Road past the community industrial tract north of the municipal airport brings a renewed plea to State Highway Department officials for assistance in upgrading the road to modern standards to handle the flow of traffic; the request is made by A.C. Brase, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce highway committee and a commissioner of the Cape Special Road District, at the chamber's annual highway dinner.

1946

In commemoration of the completion of five years of ministry at the Presbyterian Church in Cape Girardeau, the Rev. Bernard A. McIlhany preaches in the morning on the theme "A Faith for the Future"; this was the subject of his first sermon after assuming the local pastorate.

Cape Girardeau voters will go to the polls Tuesday in the annual school election; they will be asked to approve a $60,000 bond issue and a 25-cent levy for operating expenses, both without adding to the present tax rate, and also to elect two school board directors; the bond issue is for the purpose of completing the purchase of the Haas tract on West Broadway, site of the proposed new high school, and for improvements to it.

1921

P.H. Deimund, local sand dealer, has leased the section of ground between the main line of the Frisco Railroad and the east switch on the river bank, north of the old Frisco depot; the consideration was a rental fee of $1 a year with provisions Deimund furnish Cape Girardeau citizens sand at a rate of $1 a cubic yard; sand now sells for $1.50 a cubic yard.

With the beginning of the paving work on West Broadway, between Pacific Street and Henderson Avenue, it is announced by Eugene A. Hart, manager of Public Utilities Co., the street cars will cease operating there; Hart repeats his statement the Interurban Company wasn't trying to keep the city from paving the street, but the company doesn't have the necessary funds to move the track and do the grading called for in the city ordinance governing the work.

-- Sharon K. Sanders