Out of the past: March 6

1998

The Cape Girardeau County Commission is considering whether it should donate county-owned Klaus Park for a Missouri Veterans Cemetery; the Cape Girardeau Joint Veterans Council has been searching for a site of 50 to 80 acres that could be donated for a cemetery, but has been unable to find a donor; last week, the council asked the commission to donate Klaus Park; the commission tabled action to seek information on the legality of making the park a cemetery and to get public opinion of the idea.

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Civic leaders want voters to approve a quarter-cent sales tax to help finance construction of a Sikeston Area Higher Education Center; the center would offer college classes and industrial training through a partnership with Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau and Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, Missouri; the tax measure is on the April 7 ballot.

1973

Completion of the already delayed small-boat marina at Trail of Tears State Park north of Cape Girardeau has been dealt another setback in the Missouri Legislature; funds earmarked for Trail of Tears and another state park -- Big Lake near Bigelow in northwest Missouri -- have been removed from the proposed emergency budget by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

A preliminary plan for improvement and expansion of Jackson City Park was presented to the City Council on Monday night by Acting City Administrator Carl Talley; the plan, prepared by a Kansas City, Missouri, company, calls for expansion of park acreage to Route D, now the site of Jackson Drive-In; the 60-acre park would include a swimming pool and eventually many other recreational facilities.

1948

A fourth man jumps into the race for Cape Girardeau mayor, but the latest addition is of the "dark horse" variety; his name isn't revealed by the city clerk's office, where the petition was taken out in his behalf late yesterday; Henry Kirn, who took out the petition, says he has pledged not to reveal the would-be candidate's name until given permission.

The Buckner-Ragsdale store was at the southeast corner of Broadway and Main Street.Southeast Missourian archive

The Buckner-Ragsdale store was at the southeast corner of Broadway and Main Street.Southeast Missourian archive

An X-ray shoe-fitting machine has been added to the equipment of the Buckner-Ragsdale basement shoe department; with the new machine it is possible to look through the shoes and see the position of the foot and the bones.

1923

Mrs. J.J. Harris of Chaffee, Missouri, is in Saint Francis Hospital being treated for a broken rib and other internal injuries she sustained in a traffic accident yesterday; she and five others were injured when a Red Ball Taxi, operating between Cape Girardeau and Chaffee, plunged into a ditch 20 feet deep on South Kingshighway, one half mile from the Cape Girardeau city limits at 6:30 p.m. Monday; the bus, driven by Dan Leasure, struck an automobile parked at the side of the road and plunged into the ditch at the first culvert outside the city limits, going over the embankment into the creek; the top of the bus hit the opposite bank and bounded back to an upright position; the passengers were hurt when they were thrown against the side of the bus and by the breaking of the glass in the windows.

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Water damage from a fire originating in a dentist's office in the Sikeston Trust Co. building here at 4 a.m. is placed at $60,000; furnishings in all the offices in the second floor of the building, dry goods, shoes and furnishings in the Buckner-Ragsdale store, and furnishings and stock in the Eagle drug store are ruined by the water; office of the Western Union is also damaged and wires crossed.

-- Sharon K. Sanders