Out of the past: May 14

1998

Withdrawal of a request for a special use permit to operate a proposed halfway house leaves the program "kind of dead in the water," the director of the Gibson Center says; Dick Decker, whose agency wants to operate the halfway house for the Missouri Division of Probation and Parole, says his agency won't have time to find another site and get it operational by the state's June 30 deadline; George Bockhorst Sr., George Bockhorst Jr. and Loy W. Welker had applied for a special use permit to allow the halfway house to operate at 20 S. Sprigg/625 Independence, but it was withdrawn because the property owners didn't have enough information on how much it would cost to renovate the building into a facility suitable for housing the inmates.

Larry Kitchen is sure glad he finally opened a piece of mail that he very nearly threw away; if not, the local umpire would never have discovered that he has been named Missouri Baseball Official of the Year; Kitchen, who has spent virtually his entire life in Cape Girardeau, is in his 30th year as an umpire.

1973

Between 500 and 600 visitors toured the new $2.5 million west wing of Southeast Hospital Saturday and Sunday afternoons following a dedication program at which Charles A. Hood, the board of trustees president, described the building as belonging to the people; the west wing was opened when Robert D. Harrison, former board president, cut a string of Pampers, symbolizing the obstetrical-maternity service of the addition.

Speaking at Southeast Missouri State University's 99th commencement exercises yesterday at Houck Field House, Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton, D-Missouri, told graduates "democracy is a somewhat fragile principle which is being severely tested today"; but he asked graduates to have confidence in the system of government because exposure of Watergate has proved the system works.

1948

State Highway Department right-of-way agents are expected to begin shortly the task of securing land over which the new double-lane section of Highway 61 will pass; the new stretch will be located west of the present Highway 61 and will extend from near the Hamilton-Wilson Road intersection to Ancell; it will provide uninterrupted flow of traffic should floodwater cover the present route.

The bodies of Pvt. Alva T. Seabaugh, son of Benjamin F. Seabaugh of Sedgewickville, Missouri, and two other Southeast Missouri service men are due to arrive in New York aboard the U.S. Army Transport Barney Kirchbaum today; armed forces dead originally interred in temporary military cemeteries near the World War II battlefields of North Africa are among those being returned to their homes.

1923

Seven men were arrested, two stills destroyed and nearly 50 gallons of whiskey confiscated by Federal Revenue agents and Scott County, Missouri, officers in raids in that county and in Cape Girardeau County over the weekend; three were from Chaffee and two each from Blodgett and Dutchtown; in another raid 3,000 gallons of mash, 30 gallons of whiskey and a huge still were confiscated in a raid in the swamps of Stoddard County, east of Bell City, Missouri.

Three damage suits aggregating $16,000 were filed in Common Pleas Court Saturday against the Little River Drainage District by farmers living in the Dutchtown area; the suits are alleged to have grown out of a flood in 1918 which damaged crops in that section; plaintiffs are Rush H. Limbaugh, trustee of the bankrupt estate of Alvin E. Feuerhahn; Emilie Eggimann and John Job.

-- Sharon K. Sanders