Out of the past: May 29

1998

Cape Girardeau city voters could be asked to approve a bond issue and raise the motel tax to help finance Southeast Missouri State University's development of a River Campus; another possibility is to ask city voters to extend the existing motel and restaurant taxes, which are set to expire in 2004; university officials also have talked to the Cape Girardeau County commissioners about the possibility of putting a county-wide sales tax issue on the ballot; the university wants to spend $35 million to renovate the old brick buildings of St. Vincent's College and add 90,000 square feet of new space; Southeast hopes to ask the Legislature next year for at least half of the estimated cost of the project or about $17.5 million.

A former Cape Girardeau police detective will assume the duties of the investigator for the prosecuting attorney's office as the current investigator leaves the position at the end of the day; John Volkerding, a 25-year veteran with the Cape Girardeau Police Department, will become the new investigator when Karen Sullinger Buchheit steps down after 10 years in the prosecutor's office.

1973

The film receiving station on the west side of the Town Plaza Shopping Center is inundated. Water poured over a wide stretch either side of Kingshighway south from near the Broadway intersection, doing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage. (Southeast Missourian archive)

The film receiving station on the west side of the Town Plaza Shopping Center is inundated. Water poured over a wide stretch either side of Kingshighway south from near the Broadway intersection, doing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage. (Southeast Missourian archive)

Efforts continue to salvage what can be salvaged at more than 150 Cape Girardeau businesses and homes located in the major path of a flash flood which struck the city and general Southeast Missouri-Southern Illinois area early Sunday; three persons drowned near Scott City in the flooding and four drowned near Leopold; three also drowned near Eddyville, Illinois; in addition to Cape Girardeau, Scott City and Leopold, major flooding conditions were reported at Chaffee, Advance, Marquand, Delta and elsewhere; the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport recorded 9.47 inches of rain from 10 Saturday night to 4 Sunday morning.

"Which Way America," a song used by the Up With People group which performed here recently, is the theme of the baccalaureate sermon of the Rev. Howard Hardeman for Cape Girardeau Central High School seniors at the school gymnasium; the pastor of Grace United Methodist Church here tells the class of 370 seniors that although Communist nations would like to overtake us, "the greatest threat to America is that we are losing our moral and spiritual tempers."

1948

A breakfast round-table discussion and guided tour in the morning end the 56th meeting of the Southeast Missouri Press Association, after the newsmen had elected officers and selected Poplar Bluff as the 1949 meeting place at a business session yesterday; the new roster of officers is headed by Leo F. Schade, editor and publisher of the Cape County Post; others are vice president, Vane Brannock, Dexter Messenger; corresponding secretary, Alan Wolpers, Poplar Bluff Daily American Republic; recording secretary-treasurer, Mrs. Charles Porter, Festus News-Democrat.

Jess Stacy leaves in the afternoon for Los Angeles, where he has a single engagement at the Haig, a local spot that features well-known artists; opening Wednesday night, Stacy will continue playing for a limited engagement, after which he plans to reorganize his band; Stacy, popular pianist, has been visiting his parents, Mr. and Mrs. F.L. Stacy, 139 Park Ave., since Tuesday.

1923

FAYVILLE, Ill. -- Two and half months after an explosion rocked Fayville and the surrounding area, another blast at the Hercules Powder Co. occurs with deadly results; five men are killed -- Harry Gammon, C.I. Gammon and Dave Hamilton, all of Thebes, Illinois, and Lawrence Ginter of Whitewater and Wade Griggs of Fayville -- and three others are seriously injured when a terrific explosion of nitroglycerine in the gelatin house demolishes that building at 7:30 a.m.; the blast occurs 30 minutes before the night shift is to be replaced by the day workers.

Nellie Kailey of Hong Kong, China, is among the new students entering for the summer term at Teachers College High School, being a junior in that department; she has been in the United States two years and expects to remain until she has finished high school and taken four years of college work; her father is an American, a representative of the Standard Oil Co. in China, while her mother is a native of China, but was educated in the United States.

-- Sharon K. Sanders