Out of the past: May 7

1995

Joe Jackson, former defensive end with the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings, is the guest speaker at Abundant Life Church in Gordonville; Jackson now ministers in evangelism, music, high school assemblies and prison outreach.

A V-E commemorative ceremony is held in the afternoon at the Missouri Veterans Home; the event marks the 50-year anniversary of the Allied victory in Europe May 8, 1945; Maj. Raymond L. Pendergrass, state adjutant general, is among the dignitaries participating at the ceremony; the 135th Army Band of Springfield, Missouri, a 50-piece unit, opens the event.

1970

William H. Shaw of the Missouri Highway Department District 10 office in Sikeston tells The Missourian all highway construction work in the Southeast Missouri district, as well as throughout most of the state, has been stopped by a labor strike; the strike includes construction work on Interstate 55 in the northern portion of Cape Girardeau County.

Cape Girardeau County Court meets in the afternoon at the County Farm, between Cape Girardeau and Jackson, to view possible sites for a new Juvenile Detention Home; the proposed home is to be financed by a 10 cents per $100 special levy to be voted upon in August.

1945

REIMS, France -- Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Western Allies and Russia at 2:41 a.m. French time (7:41 p.m. Cape Girardeau time Sunday); the surrender takes place at a little red school house which serves as General Dwight Eisenhower's headquarters.

Sgt. Guy B. Comer of Cape Girardeau, reported last week as missing in action in Germany since April 9, has been liberated from a prisoner of war camp, his father, A.B. Comer of Sikeston, Missouri, is advised in a letter from his son.

1920

The annual May high school meet opens in the afternoon under the auspices of the Teachers College athletic committee; hotels and rooming houses are crowded with high school pupils from all over Southeast Missouri coming here for the literary, music and track competition.

Ernest Koeppel, 20, an employee of the Missouri Public Utilities Co., dies at 7:50 a.m. from injuries received yesterday evening, when he was knocked from the elevated platform of the trolley wire repair vehicle by a tree limb; Koeppel and Otis Pruitt had just finished hanging flags to the trolley line guy wires for the high school meet and were returning to headquarters, when the accident happened near the corner of Good Hope and Spanish streets.

-- Sharon K. Sanders