Out of the past: May 31

1993

Memorial Day. Several hundred people brave the biting, blustery chill at Memorial Day ceremonies in Cape Girardeau and Jackson to honor the nation's more than 1.1 million war dead; about 200 people, including many veterans, attend the service at Cape Girardeau County Park North; earlier in the day, about 125 people took part in a ceremony at the entrance to Jackson's Russell Heights Cemetery.

Nash Road is closed to traffic for a short time in the morning, following a chemical spill at the Biokyowa manufacturing plant blamed on a faulty valve on a tanker truck; the incident occurred as the driver of the truck was attempting to attach a hose to begin the process of unloading hydrochloric acid.

1968

The era of Ozark Airline's DC-3 aircraft for regularly-scheduled passenger service passes away in the evening, when the last such plane departs for St. Louis from the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport; tomorrow morning, the DC-3 will be replaced on Cape Girardeau flights by an FH-227B.

The strike of outstate heavy equipment operators is delaying the start of work at the intersection of Highway 61 and Cape Rock Drive; L.V. Steinhoff of Steinhoff and Kirkwood Construction Co. of Cape Girardeau said work had originally been scheduled to begin about May 15, but the strike has tied up operators as well as some materials.

1943

The Mississippi River, continuing to recede from its all-time record crest of 42.4 feet, drops to 39.8 feet by 8 a.m.; water is leaving the higher portions of downtown streets, leaving behind a covering of sediment; cleanup was started yesterday by firefighters, who used a fire engine and hose to pressure wash Main Street north of Independence.

Some of the livestock which had to be removed from Alexander County, Illinois, when the flood came last week, will be auctioned at a sale at the Tillman W. Anderson barn on Highway 61, starting at noon Wednesday; between 300 and 500 head of cattle, hogs, horses, mules and goats will be sold; the farmers are unable to care for the stock until pasture and feed can be provided.

1918

Cape Girardeau will send a second minister into YMCA war work; the Rev. John Pendleton Scruggs, pastor of First Baptist Church, has tendered his resignation, effective June 23, at which time he will take up his new duties; the Rev. Elmer T. Clark of Centenary Methodist Church is in France engaged in the same work.

The noon train from St. Louis unloads a big Poland-China hog; it was billed from a breeder at Water Valley, Mississippi, and is consigned to Tillman Anderson at Commerce, Missouri; the fine specimen weighs about 400 pounds.

-- Sharon K. Sanders