Out of the past: May 18

1997

A memorial plaque honoring Mary Pruente is dedicated at St. Mary's Cemetery in the afternoon with the Rev. Randy Tochtrop, associate pastor of St. Mary's Cathedral, presiding; St. Mary's Council of Catholic Women, at the suggestion of the former associate pastor of St. Mary's, the Rev. Glenn Eftink, purchased the plaque honoring Pruente, whose grave had been unmarked since her death in 1941; the bronze marker was installed by Lorberg Memorial Funeral Chapel.

Boom boxes blared with contemporary Christian calypso music and floats, trucks, cars, vans and people on foot stretched for three city blocks yesterday morning in the 1997 March for Jesus; participants from 25 denominations in Cape Girardeau began the march at May Greene School and from Sprigg Street to Good Hope and on to the Common Pleas Courthouse on Lorimier Street; rally organizer Fred Poston, pastor of the New Plymouth Community Church, said the March for Jesus is an international event with more than 10 million people in 2,000 cites participating.

1972

In actions that varied with the six proposals, the Cape Girardeau City Council last night took steps to bring it closer to its goal for construction of sidewalks in areas surrounding State College; City Engineer Robert J. Hahn is to be instructed to revise plans and specifications for the proposed sidewalks along portions of three streets -- Normal, North Sprigg and Rockwood Drive.

Construction workers remove the last piece of equipment from The Southeast Missourian's old photo engraving laboratory on the second floor of the newspaper's building; photo engraving is now done on the first floor in a new room adjacent to the press room; the engraving department had been on the upper floor since 1946.

1947

Steamer Golden Eagle passing Cape Girardeau. Undated.Southeast Missourian archive

The Golden Eagle, last of the old time packet boats, comes to an apparent ignominious end in the early morning when, out of control, the boat plows bow-on into a Mississippi River island south of Grand Tower, Illinois; but don't sell the old timer short; lacking a month of six years ago, a similar fate overtook the Golden Eagle when it impaled itself on a dike at Chester, Illinois.

The Rev. P.A. Kasey, pastor of Grace Methodist Church, in a baccalaureate sermon in the evening in State College auditorium, tells the 73 members of the Cape Girardeau Central High School graduating class that upon receipt of their diploma, they will also be receiving a commission in life; he tells the graduates, "the commission will reveal itself through your trade or vocation in later years, and ... it is up to you what you do with the commission."

1922

Extolling former President Woodrow Wilson and condemning the Republican administration, both state and national, Breckenridge Long of St. Louis entertained a crowd estimated at 1,000 in Courthouse Park last evening; Long is seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator.

Willie Willeford, 26, and Curtis Skelton, both sentenced to two years in state penitentiary, escaped from Cape Girardeau County Sheriff William Browning while the train on which he was taking them to Jefferson City stopped at Washington, Missouri, at midnight Sunday, it is learned upon the officer's return here; Willeford and Skelton, who were handcuffed together, escaped through a window in the washroom of the passenger coach while the train was slowing down for the station; they are still at large.

-- Sharon K. Sanders