Out of the past: May 9

1994

The Cape Girardeau League of Women Voters is teaming up with the Cape Girardeau Civic Center to launch a recycling education project in step with the national trend; the local League received a $2,500 grant from the League of Women Voters Education Fund in Washington D.C., as part of a cooperative agreement with WMX Technologies and Services.

Mary Ellen Klein, environmental services coordinator for Cape Girardeau, tells members of the Cape Girardeau Sierra Club she's not certain the city will remain in the solid waste business much longer; she speaks to the club about the city's recycling efforts and the murky future of local solid waste efforts.

1969

The "bite" is literally being put on Cape Girardeans as the city suffers through the peak of the mosquito season; City Health Officer Russell C. Matzen says the city's one truck-mounted sprayer is in use, as are two portable sprayers, with the equipment spraying the most powerful chemical yet used in the city to combat the insects.

Brenda Sue Siebert of Cape Girardeau has received a Missouri State Library internship for the summer of 1969; she will work at the Cape Girardeau Public Library for approximately 13 weeks beginning the first week of June; Siebert is a student at State College.

1944

Dropping to a stage of 39.28 feet at 8 a.m., the flooding Mississippi River shows a 24-hour fall of 62-100ths of a foot; the remainder of the Illinois Reserve Militia and federal troops here to guard levees are recalled from flood duty; the troops had been quartered at Harris Field since the break in the Aldridge levee a week ago.

Capt. Edward M. Bender, 25, son of Mr. and Mrs. M.G. Bender of Cape Girardeau, is missing in action over France; Bender, a bomber pilot, had been on combat duty from the time he arrived in England in January 1944.

1919

In spite of continuous rain swelling streams and making many roads impassable and in spite of disappointments and misunderstandings as to the time of the arrival of the regiment, the 140th arrives on time and parades the streets of Cape Girardeau, led by the city's own Company L and cheered on by throngs along the entire line of march; after the parade, the soldiers go to Courthouse Park, where they are greeted by friends and relatives; all too soon, the companies form up once more and march to the trains for their 11:30 a.m. departure for St. Louis and, eventually, Camp Funston, Kansas.

Carried with the colors of the regiment in the homecoming parade of the 140th Regiment is a beautiful service flag of white silk with a large gold star in the center, presented to the regiment by Cape Girardeau; Cpl. Frank Hager of the 110th Engineers, who came home a few days ago, has the honor of carrying the beautiful banner in the parade.

-- Sharon K. Sanders