Out of the past: May 30

1991

Jerra May, general manager of Riverview Banquet Center in downtown Cape Girardeau, is taking on some additional duties; she has been named marketing director for the Downtown Merchants Association.

Southeast Missouri State University's capital campaign has raised more than $22 million of its $25 million goal, university officials announce; the running total is publicly disclosed at the annual Cooper Dome Society dinner, held at the Show Me Center.

1966

Memorial Day. Cape Girardeau's official observance of the day is carried out by the Joint Veterans Council, which holds a ceremony in the morning at Memorial Park; guest speaker is Earl S. Mackey, a Cape Girardeau lawyer; music is provided by the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band.

A "learn to swim" program will again be sponsored this summer by the Cape Girardeau Kiwanis Club; last summer, more than 1,200 children participated in the program; it's open to all children, between 7 and 16.

1941

Digging holes they later fill in, workers in the employ of a government engineer are sinking 15-foot shafts over a considerable area of Courthouse Park to determine the presence of stone and type of soil in the park, where the new federal building will be constructed.

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- A mysterious fire enveloped at the Elrod-Lankford Planing Mill here last night, just five minutes after a watchman had made a routine inspection tour; the mill was destroyed at an estimated loss of $15,000; the business was jointly owned by U.R. Elrod of Cape Girardeau and J.P. Lankford of Chaffee.

1916

Memorial Day. Patriotic exercises are held in the afternoon at courthouse square and at Old Lorimier Cemetery by a small but interested crowd; only 17 veterans gather at the square with members of the Sons of Veterans organization and the Women's Auxiliary and march to the cemetery behind 50 school children and Schuchert's Band; Judge Frank Kelly gives an interesting address at the cemetery.

Prof. O.O. Nance, principal of the Lincoln School, has received a letter from Gov. Elliott W. Major informing him that he has been named a delegate to represent Missouri in the Negro National Education Congress at Washington, D.C., in August; Nance doesn't know whether he will get to go, but will try to make arrangements to do so; delegates are expected to pay their own expenses.

-- Sharon K. Sanders