Out of the Past: May 24

1999

Two Farmington teen-age boys were arrested for allegedly shooting into the home of Scott County Coroner Scott Amick in Scott City early Saturday morning; no one was injured in the shooting, which occurred just as a high school graduation party was winding down at Amick’s house on Marelm Street; the two arrested had been asked to leave the party earlier in the night.

Family and friends of the late Gene E. Huckstep, a presiding county commissioner, say naming the newest pavilion at Cape Girardeau County Park North is a fitting tribute, and some even suggest the entire park be named in his honor; about 100 persons attended a dedication service yesterday afternoon for shelter No. 4, now officially known as the Gene E. Huckstep Pavilion.

1974

The owner of Cape County Private Ambulance Service says he isn’t going to “continue to take the rap from the Cape Girardeau Police Department” over delays in ambulance response times and, unless someone issues Police Chief Irvin E. Beard a directive instructing his department to use the 911 emergency number in relaying requests for ambulances, he is getting off the system within 48 hours; in a brief, to-the-point appearance yesterday before the County Court, George F. Rouse charged, “Somebody in this county or in the city (Cape Girardeau) had better get Beard straightened out because he is fooling around with people’s lives.”

A six-county — Cape Girardeau, Perry, Scott, New Madrid, Mississippi and Pemiscot — regional port authority for Southeast Missouri began to take shape last night at a meeting in Sikeston of business and government leaders; the Bootheel Industrial Development Council sponsored the meeting, at which the port authority bill was explained by Sen. Albert M. Spradling Jr., D-Cape Girardeau, Caruthersville attorney Charles Southern and Woodrow C. Rushing, president of Missouri Barge Lines in Cape Girardeau.

1949

A steady, cold rain falls in the morning, hampering cleanup efforts and reconstruction work in the tornado-devastated sections of Cape Girardeau, but the rehabilitation program under the Red Cross moves ahead as the grim task of burying the dead continues; there were no deaths reported overnight, and the toll of the twister stands unchanged at 21; seven additional patients were admitted to hospitals yesterday, bringing to 79 the number of seriously injured.

Ruben Hawkins, business representative of Local 1770, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, has established headquarters at the Missouri Division of Employment Security office and will work to establish a pool of men who can be engaged in tornado repair and construction work; the local has agreed that only straight time rates will be charged for this work; there will be no time and a half for overtime and no double time for Saturday and Sunday work.

1924

Six persons are known to have been seriously hurt, four of them probably fatally, and scores of others were injured in a terrific windstorm that swept the entire section of Southeast Missouri last night, causing damage to property estimated at more than $250,000; hardest hit was the vicinity of Morehouse and Gray’s Ridge, where the wind tore down dwellings, wrecked business houses, uprooted trees and paralyzed telephone and telegraph service to points south of Sikeston.

Republican leaders throughout Southeast Missouri, who for the past 10 days have been casting about with no little anxiety to select a suitable candidate to run for Congress from the 14th District, are just about ready to give up in despair; unless the next two weeks brings out a promising individual, this east side of the district will be unrepresented in the primary.

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 www.semissourian.com/history.