Out of the past: May 15

1999

Southeast Missouri State University’s Board of Regents isn’t ready to decide the future of Wildwood; the regents met behind closed doors yesterday to discuss a proposal from the university’s fund-raising foundation and alumni association to buy an off-campus house for the school’s president and turn Wildwood, the current campus home, into an alumni center.

Personnel at Schnucks grocery store in Cape Girardeau find pennies are in short supply; the Federal Reserve in St. Louis won’t be distributing any more pennies to banks in eastern Missouri until June, but that’s little consolation to those who need cents now; signs are up in Schnucks asking shoppers to pay in exact change.

1974

The strike by independent and owner-operator truck drivers in Southeast Missouri moves into high gear in the morning when about 40 drivers and their wives begin picketing the Federal Building at Broadway and Fountain Street in Cape Girardeau; the picketing drivers are members of the Midwest Independent Truckers, who approved the shutdown by an almost unanimous vote Saturday night in Poplar Bluff.

By a three-to-one majority, voters in the Illmo-Scott City School District Tuesday approved a $285,000 bond issue to construct an addition to the high school, furnish it and repair health and physical education rooms in the existing high school.

1949

Ten-Mile Garden along Highway 61, between Cape Girardeau and Jackson, is near its peak of beauty, and hundreds of persons pause at various places along the road to look at roses and other blossoms; roses are blooming profusely, including the Paul Scarletts, and these are making a special showing.

Frank H. Caldwell, president of Louisville Presbyterian Seminary at Louisville, Kentucky, is the guest speaker at the baccalaureate service at State College in the evening; he addresses 206 graduating seniors, the faculty and others who fill the auditorium for the 75th annual baccalaureate service.

1924

“Sunset Terrace” is the new name for the hospital suburb in West Cape Girardeau, the executive board of the organization promoting the new facility has decided; the name is a combination of suggestions submitted by a number of persons; it’s the second name to be picked for the suburb; the first, “Highland Place”, was rejected when it became known, after the selection was announced, there is already a subdivision here by that name.

Martha Abernathy, aged widow of a Civil War veteran, for whom a special bill has been introduced in Congress to secure her a pension, has been found residing with relatives in Gipsy in Bollinger County; earlier this week, news of her pension made the front page of The Southeast Missourian, when it was learned Abernathy, formerly a resident of the Cape Girardeau County Poor Farm, had left the home and her location was unknown; under terms of the bill, she will receive $30 a month.

Southeast Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders compiles the information for the daily Out of the Past column. She also writes a blog called “From the Morgue” that showcases interesting historical stories from the newspaper. Check out her blog at semissourian.com/history.