Out of the past: Oct. 17

1997

The Acme Blues Band won group and individual honors last night during presentation of the first Music Awards by the Cape Musicians Guild; the Lifetime Achievement Award went to Vi Keys, a longtime Cape Girardeau keyboardist and music store owner whose grandson, Billy, also won an award; the 1997 Music Awards were presented at the Show Me Center after a banquet that kicked off this weekend's first City of Roses Festival;.

"A great day, a great event, a great project..."; that's the way speakers describe the completion, ribbon-cutting and dedication of new Highway 74 from Kingshighway to Interstate 55 in the afternoon; state and city officials, members of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce Transportation Committee, state Department of Transportation officials, representatives of U.S. Sens. John Ashcroft and Kit Bond and U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, and a number of others are on hand for the dedication ceremony at the I-55 overpass of the new highway.

1972

Preliminary work has begun on a quarter-million-dollar five-year street resurfacing project here; the Public Works Department is repairing curbs along Pacific Street just south of William and will continue the preliminary work through May, when 20 blocks will be paved under the first phase of the resurfacing project; the project is being financed through motor fuel tax and city sales tax revenue.

The paperwork has been completed, and a grant of $70,050 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development is official now for Jackson to purchase additional parkland; the city is purchasing about 60 acres from John C. Crites, the land adjoining the present City Park of the north.

1947

Putting him in direct line for the presidency in 1949, R.L. Sheets, supervisor of elementary education in Cape Girardeau schools, was elected first vice president of the Southeast Missouri Teachers Association by the Assembly of Delegates yesterday afternoon; presidency of the association for the next year goes to C.E. Pepmiller of Thayer, first vice president of he association.

A site in the new city park for a maintenance depot to serve the 140th Infantry, Missouri National Guard, has been give the nod of approval by Lt. Col. W. Eugene Smith, Army property officer in Missouri; specifications for the building will be drawn as soon as a formal deed to the site is received from the city.

1922

Cape Girardeau business men, at a supper last night, decided to employ every effort to help the Cape Girardeau County Fair to grow beyond its present exceptional scope and become the greatest of the kind in the country; a resolution was adopted unanimously by about 70 merchants and professional men, assembled at the Metropolitan Restaurant, asking the City Council to provide for an election at which $60,000 bonds may be voted for improvements at Fairground Park.

Restoration of train service between Cape Girardeau and Poplar Bluff, Missouri, over the Frisco Railroad, which was scheduled for this week, will be delayed a week or 10 days; the new motor car, which was to have been sent here to pull the trains, was sent back to Springfield, Missouri, after a defect was found in its construction.

-- Sharon K. Sanders