Out of the past: Oct. 11

1993

John Bry, a senior in the historic preservation program at Southeast Missouri State University, is starting a new preservation-minded group to serve Jackson and rural Cape Girardeau County; the new group, Historic Landmarks Foundation of Jackson and Rural Cape Girardeau County, will seek grants and funding to education people about historic preservation as an economic tool and provide a resource for those seeking to restore old buildings.

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education approves the $20.1 million budget for 1993-94; the budget will be under constant review to make sure it is compliant with Missouri's new school funding formula.

1968

A salary, benefit and vacation increase offered to employees of Superior Electric Co. by officials of the company is rejected by a vote of 124 to 76; no further action is planned at this time, and the strike which is in its second month will continue.

Postmaster Ted R. Regenhardt announces that air taxi mail service from Cape Girardeau will begin Monday; the postmaster says one plane will leave here at 9 p.m.; that plane, which will originate in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, will carry north-bound mail from Cape Girardeau, Poplar Bluff and Sikeston, Missouri, to St. Louis; a second plane will carry south-bound mail from Cape Girardeau to Memphis, Tennessee.

1943

As a wartime emergency measure, the Public Service Commission has granted to four Cape Girardeau taxicab companies a permit to operate on a "call and demand" basis to points within 10 miles of the city, notably Harris Field, Illmo and Jackson.

E.G. Gramling sells the business building at 15 N. Main St., housing the J.J. Newberry store, to a group of out-of-town business men for approximately $55,000; Newberry's will continue to operate at that location, having a lease which has 17 years yet to run.

1918

Three new cases of Spanish influenza are reported in Cape Girardeau, bringing the total number of afflicted to 22; it is reported that William A. O'Brien is critically ill, as is Dr. G.B. Schulz; Cape Girardeau physicians are being kept busy from morning until night answering calls not only here, but in Illmo and Fornfelt, where there is said to be about 500 cases of influenza.

By order of Mayor H.H. Haas, the Cape Girardeau Public Library is closed because of the Spanish influenza epidemic; it will remain that way until the schools reopen.

-- Sharon K. Sanders