Out of the past: May 22

1993

Hoping to dispel rumors Cape Girardeau Central High School is a drug haven, school officials welcomed a trio of trained German shepherds to search for contraband on the campus yesterday; no drugs were found, and no arrests were made.

Thousands of senior citizens dance, play bingo and enjoy the Senior Fun Fest at the Show Me Center; more than 3,000 senior citizens from all over the region attend the event, offered free every other year.

1968

A Colorado man has been hired as assistant Boy Scout executive of the Southeast Missouri Council, it is announced; Carl E. Timmins will serve as director of Camp Lewallen this summer and then he and his family will move to Cape Girardeau in late August.

As the month of May draws to a close, 1,244 seniors of State College and Cape Girardeau high schools are preparing for graduation exercises to be held in early June; of this number, 745 will be candidates for degrees from State College; the remaining 499 will be graduating from the three high schools in the city.

1943

Rolling toward its crest, the Mississippi River reaches a stage of 39 feet at Cape Girardeau, but has considerably slackened its rate of rise; breaks in Illinois levees yesterday afternoon and overnight, flooding between 5,000 and 6,000 acres of farm land, are said to be responsible for the slowing down of the river's climb; in Cape Girardeau floodwaters have reached the intersection of Spanish and Independence streets and have entered all the buildings at the Independence-Main street intersection.

Mr. and Mrs. W.M. Ferguson of St. Louis have moved into the apartment at the Walther Funeral Home, and he will be embalmer and assistant funeral director.

1918

Dr. D.E. Crites, veterinary surgeon of Jackson, has received a report from Washington on the analysis of the stomachs of nine of the cows that died mysteriously within 24 hours on the farm of Monroe Brown near Pocahontas two weeks ago; it has been determined there were no indications of a contagious disease, but rather the livestock was killed by arsenate of lead poisoning, possibly from eating grass or vegetation sprayed with that insecticide.

William H. Stubblefield Jr. is hoping to make Cape Girardeau the home of a Methodist bishop; he has written a letter to the Rev. W.F. McMurry, who was elected a bishop at the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Atlanta last week, urging him to move here.

-- Sharon K. Sanders